We had just returned from the tower, and were drinking coffee and listening to Beethoven's 9th Symphony on Lithuanian television. I even made a stupid joke about „funeral music"... We didn't hear the end because we heard a siren sound from the tower. We rushed through the door. On the way we saw a lot of people "who were also rushing to the tower. When we arrived, the tanks were already on the territory of the TV tower. Suddenly puffs of smoke came from the tanks. It was impossible to say if it was just smoke, or if it was gas. So I screamed for everyone to wet their scarves and protect their noses. Some people did this. It was really difficult to breath, and it made our throats itch.
Someone said in Russian that we should climb up the slope from the left side, because there weren't many people by the fence. When my friend and I ran there, we found an athletic-looking young man. From there you could see that the tower was surrounded by a human chain. I had already begun to romantically imagine how we would encounter the paratroopers in the dark, and they would beat us, but not too terribly - just a bit. It was still an adventure for me. However, we realistically assessed the situation and decided that there was nothing we could do here, so we climbed through the fence and ran to the tower...
Soon the tanks sped by the fence. In the darkness they seemed black and only their green signal lamps gave them life. They stopped by the fence. The people, feeling the indecisiveness of the paratroopers (they still hadn't received their orders), began to sing and chant words like: “Freedom!", “Lithuania!", and so on. In a moment, a red flare was fired into the air. Paratroopers started approaching. Tanks and strangely-shaped armored vehicles were coming. A middle aged paratrooper was sitting by one and our eyes accidentally met. I only saw two black cavities, but I felt his impulse with my body. I was horrified...
A tank opened fire. Plaster started falling from the tower, and you could hear windows breaking. Someone screamed in Russian that the windows had been broken from the inside so that water hoses could be used against the paratroopers. The crowd dispersed, and paratroopers and tanks replaced the human chain. This happened in 5 minutes. The soldiers stood with their tommy guns ready to attack (from the way they were standing you could tell that they weren't ordinary soldiers). They didn't shoot yet. Again, they were waiting for the command. It seemed like they were shocked that they were facing unarmed people and that there wasn't any physical resistance whatsoever. Then another flare was shot in the sky, and they began to shoot. It seemed like they were shooting into the air, but around us people were falling down. The searchlights were blinding. I tried to move, but then a tank fired. A piece of concrete fell from the tower, hit me on the shoulder and then hit a man who was standing nearby in the eye. Luckily, I had opened my mouth, because a girl who was standing near me put both her hands on her ears and started to scream. Her boyfriend was holding her, and it seemed like she was going mad. A person's body was thrown from the tower. I'm not sure from which floor. I watched as a blow from a tank threw a man into the air, and then he fell to the ground as if he were an empty sack. I was overtaken by fear at that moment. I realized how insignificant and powerless my body was, and I felt like I was separated from it. But I really wanted to see everything that was happening, because I understood that the essence of the Communist Empire was right in front of me - that I was seeing its true face...
Then the paratroopers became completely inhuman. They fired not into the air, but near people's legs and even directly at their legs. A soldier hit a person with the butt of his gun and then hit him in the head with a stick. The tanks were coming closer and even though people were seized by panic, they didn't run. Bullets were flying all around and you could hear shouting. I saw a Japanese journalist on the other side of the fence, so I went closer to him and tried to explain what was going on. Below there were ambulances, and the first person to be shot was lying on a stretcher. Photographers were crowding around him like flies.
Up above tanks were chasing people as if they were mad, and the people could either jump through the fence or under the tanks. The soldiers beat them even more, and shot at their legs. The paratroopers had apparently been ordered to drive them out of the area. A half-drunken voice shouted over the loudspeaker: „Go home, your grandmothers and grandfathers are waiting for you". Then a more decent voice began to talk, first in Russian, and then in Lithuanian: „Your resistance is senseless. The National Salvation Committee has taken all power into their own hands. This is the power of workers and peasants. Our objective is humanism..." and at the same time paratroopers were shooting at the legs of those who hadn't managed to go down the hill. I watched as an elderly person fell down...
I'll never forget what I saw and experienced by the tower. Maybe I'll make a film about it someday.
Lithuania, 1991.01.13 : documents, testimonies, comments. - Vilnius : State Publishing Center, 1992, p. 126-128.