The center prepared a report on the writer's activities in Soviet-occupied Lithuania at the request of the Lithuanian Association of Political Prisoners and Exiles, after residents of the village of Gizai in Vilkaviskis region - where Kubilinskas was born - asked that a street be named after him.
There is already a statue of Kubilinskas in Gizai.
The report confirms that Kubilinskas, who died in 1962 at the age of 39, was drafted into the Soviet state security service the MGB - later known as the KGB - in 1948.
But, as Arvydas Anusauskas, a historian at the Genocide and Resistance Research Center, said, his reasons for joining up were related to his desire to be published.
"At that time, Kubilinskas' poetry had not been published because he was a member of a popular Catholic youth organization, Ateitininkai, during Lithuanian independence in the thirties. The Soviets thought his poetry ideologically incorrect.
"The MGB told Kubilinskas there would be conditions attached to having his poetry published. But he was forced to pay a terrible price."
In 1948-1949, Kubilinskas was sent by MGB to the town of Varena in southern Lithuania where he became a schoolteacher. There he established contacts with local partisans, who came to trust him.
Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisans were involved in a war against the occupation of their country between 1944 and 1953.
Along with another MGB agent he was ordered to infiltrate a local partisan group and kill its leader, Benediktas Labenas. Kubilinskas and his accomplice allegedly shot Labenas on March 7, 1949.
Kubilinskas then contacted Soviet intelligence and military units and indicated where the local Lithuanian guerrillas operated, including the exact location of two of their hidden bunkers.
"No poetry is worth the life of a human being," said Dalia Kuodyte, general director of the research center. "Besides the five who were killed, Kubilinskas also told the MGB about 10 people who were supplying partisans with food, medicine and intelligence. They were quickly arrested."
Kubilinskas went on to publish more than a dozen collections of poetry of various types but was best known for his folklore-style children's poetry. His poems are still required reading in Lithuanian schools.
His collaboration with the Soviet secret services had remained a secret until now.
Kuodyte said she was not questioning Kubilinskas' talent as a poet. "Nobody is about to take his books away from the libraries or scratch his name from encyclopedias. But it would be unacceptable to name a street after a murderer."Kubilinskas' story shows the tragic fate of a person living under Soviet occupation. He would certainly be put on trial if he were still alive."
Education Ministry officials said Kubilinskas' poetry would remain in the school curriculum but added that teachers would be encouraged to show their own initiative and tell the truth about the poet's life.
The Vilkaviskis authorities have now decided against naming the street after the poet.
"A traitor is a traitor. He has brought shame on our entire family," Kubilinskas' brother Albinas told LNK TV. He said he was discovering more about his brother's past by reading the partisans' memoirs kept at the Genocide and Resistance Research Center. "Kubilinskas' story shows the tragic fate of a person living under Soviet occupation. He would certainly be put on trial if he were still alive."
Education Ministry officials said Kubilinskas' poetry would remain in the school curriculum but added that teachers would be encouraged to show their own initiative and tell the truth about the poet's life.
The Vilkaviskis authorities have now decided against naming the street after the poet.
"A traitor is a traitor. He has brought shame on our entire family," Kubilinskas' brother Albinas told LNK TV. He said he was discovering more about his brother's past by reading the partisans' memoirs kept at the Genocide and Resistance Research Center.
Please enter your username and password.
2024 © The Baltic Times /Cookies Policy
