I'm a 57 year old pensioner, and I was a skiing and biathlon coach for „Dynamo" (athletic society) for 26 years. On January 11, they announced over the radio that paratroopers were storming the Press House, and at exactly 12 o'clock - that they had taken it over. After 10 or 15 minutes, I was already at the Press House. There were a lot of people gathered, maybe 1,000 or more. There were a few rows of men, hands clasped, on the stairs to the entrance on Cosmonaut Prospect. On the other side - Viršuliškės - there were less people. 4 or 5 light tanks with their machine guns pointed at the building were standing there. Paratroopers were standing by them. Some of us, mostly pensioners, went up to the soldiers and tried to explain what dirty work they were involved in. We talked for about 20 minutes. At one o'clock we saw 7 covered military vehicles and 5 or 6 tanks with long barrels approaching. We all ran to the central entrance. The men standing on the stairs braced themselves, and we, standing along the street, stared at the tanks. They maneuvered on the grass divider of the street. While turning around, one of them hit a trolleybus post. A paratrooper jumped onto the tank that was standing nearest to me and uncovered its barrel. The soldier sifting in the tower of the tank aimed the barrel right at our heads and the first shot rang out. A ball of fire hit me right on the head, I lost consciousness and fell down. When I came to, I saw men picking their hats up off the ground. I had a splitting headache, my tongue was swollen, and I couldn't utter a word. I immediately heard series of gun fire right by the entrance. Together with everyone else, I rushed over to the men who were guarding the entrance. Rushing up to them, a group of paratroopers, as far as I could see, were firing right at their heads. They were shooting real bullets, only not at the people's heads, but above them. There were bullets marks on the wall. The men still didn't move. A group of about 40 paratroopers moved away from the door and formed two lines, making a wedge from the stairs to the street. I saw 5 cameras filming these events. Near me, a cameraman (he was older and quite tall) turned with a splintered object-glass. It turned out that a paratrooper had hit him with the butt of a gun. We also formed a few rows from the stairs up to the street. The paratroopers stood 2 meters away, their tommy guns aimed at us. Their eyes were blank. We shouted “Lithuania!" Then we began to sing. In 15 minutes our police and all of our military officers arrived. They lined up between us and the paratroopers every 2 meters, and in the center they stood shoulder to shoulder. We stood like this for about an hour and a half. We sang some 5 or 6 songs. Around 2:40 a.m. their chief, who was standing in the center, received a command, and they lined up and went back to their trucks. Later the tanks crawled away. I was the first to rush to pick up the cartridge cases that the soldiers had left on the ground. I managed to collect 10. There were approximately 60 cartridges.
Lithuania, 1991.01.13 : documents, testimonies, comments. - Vilnius : State Publishing Center, 1992, p. 203-204.