Kaunas marks 54th anniversary of Romas Kalanta’s self-immolation

A memorial concert in Kaunas on Wednesday commemorated the 54th anniversary of Romas Kalanta’s death, a 19-year-old who set himself on fire in 1972 to protest Soviet rule, reports LRT.

The event at the Kaunas State Musical Theatre featured Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem and an excerpt from Kipras Mašanauskas’s rock opera 1972-ieji, honouring Kalanta’s act of defiance. On May 14, 1972, he doused himself in petrol outside the theatre, shouting “Freedom for Lithuania!” before succumbing to severe burns in hospital. A notebook found with him read, “Only the regime is to blame for my death.”

Historian Simonas Jazavita of the Kaunas City Museum described Kalanta’s protest as proof that resistance to occupation and totalitarianism endured. “He showed that the spirit of defiance was still alive in Kaunas, then the provisional capital, where thousands gathered without fear, carrying that message to their children, grandchildren, and colleagues—right up to today,” Jazavita said.