How Jadvyga Bieliauskienė made Soviet authorities look ridiculous

Jadvyga Bieliauskienė began opposing Soviet rule as a schoolgirl, was imprisoned twice and used youth theatre to share ideas the authorities wanted suppressed, her niece Rūta Tumėnaitė told LRT.lt.

Tumėnaitė said she spent much of her childhood at her aunt’s home, went with her to church and helped type material that the Soviet regime would rather have kept from the public. Bieliauskienė was strict but knew how to inspire others, her niece recalled.

“She was very dignified, but at the same time lived a deep spiritual life,” Tumėnaitė said. She remembered her aunt as determined, creative and poetic, and said Bieliauskienė could paint not only with her hands but also with words.

Bieliauskienė first went to a prison camp in 1948, when she was 18. The Soviet regime sentenced her to 25 years in a camp and five years in exile. While still at school, she had joined the resistance. On February 16, 1948, she took an oath to a partisan group. She did not take part in armed resistance; her role was to distribute partisan publications and leaflets.

After her first imprisonment, Bieliauskienė considered herself an atheist for a long time, Tumėnaitė said. She later returned to her faith after seeing the Soviet indoctrination her son would face at school. “She felt responsible for her child,” her niece said.

As a child, Tumėnaitė also took part in youth performances organised by Bieliauskienė. The plays were among the activities that led to her aunt’s second imprisonment. The performances were not held in secret rooms, Tumėnaitė said, but everyone understood they were not public events. She recalled young people wearing national costumes.

Bieliauskienė’s first imprisonment was in a camp in Inta, in the Komi ASSR. Author Ramunė Sakalauskaitė recounts her life in the book “A vow: to fight, to love, to have compassion. The life of Jadvyga Bieliauskienė.”