kalantas

This article uses records from the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia, with a particular focus on Lithuania in the years surrounding the Kalanta self-immolation, to argue that the KGB viewed antisocial behavior as a dangerous precursor to more serious anti-Soviet activity and sought to reinforce broader social norms that might forestall political unrest; in contrast to earlier policing efforts, KGB officers were less interested in what their victims thought than in how their actions created an atmosphere conducive to antiSoviet crimes.

Cases involving political complaining by Soviet citizens attracted the particular attention of the KGB in the aftermath of events that might inspire copycat crimes, like the death of Romas Kalanta (which will be covered in the next section), the October 1970 hijacking of Aeroflot Flight 244 by Algirdas Brazinskas and his son Pranas, and the attempted hijacking by Vytautas Simokaitis of a flight from Vilnius to Palanga the following month.

Days after Romas Kalanta's self-immolation, thousands of Lithuanians took to the streets, and the republic's Central Committee responded by criticizing the KGB's past prophylactic work as overly "formal" and instructing the KGB to increase its "explanatory-prophylactic activity." (79) The "Kaunas events," as the KGB referred to Kalanta's death and its aftermath, were followed by a rise in profilaktika cases--from 282 in 1971 to 359 in 1972, 440 in 1973, and 525 in 1974.

As other scholars have noted, the trouble began on the afternoon of Sunday, 14 May, when 19-year-old Romas Kalanta set himself on fire in the park near the Kaunas Musical Theater; he died several hours later, and rumors soon spread that he was a hippie who had been protesting Soviet rule.

Although the KGB always attempted to find and confront the authors of "anti-Soviet inscriptions," they were especially eager to do so after the Kalanta self-immolation, summoning perpetrators from Joniskis and Kursenai to prophylactic chats.

"Under the influence of the Kaunas events and various rumors associated with them, an array of hostile manifestations took place in the republic in the following days," a KGB report noted, adding, "In the cities of Vilnius, Klaipeda, Siauliai, Panevezys, Kibartas, Virbalis, Kapsukas, Kedainiai, and Ukmerge were distributed leaflets or perpetrated inscriptions of an anti-Soviet or nationalist character." (92) A majority of profilaktika cases inspired by the Kalanta self-immolation took place in Kaunas, but others emerged in Klaipeda, Taurage, and Siauliai, which were all at least 100 kilometers away.