When tanks started coming, we decided to work without breaks. I took responsibility for that. I didn't leave the tower for five days.
Before midnight, Rita Dapkutė announced from the Supreme Council Information Center that tanks were moving in our direction. I informed the workers, the security guards, and the people who were defending the tower. The people immediately surrounded the tower.
The approaching tanks opened fire. You could hear screaming. Over the loudspeaker they began to shout: „Liudi, raschodites, pravitelstvo panov i gospod nizloženo. Vsia vlastj perešla v ruki rabočich i krestjan." („People, disperse, the government of... All power has gone into the hands of the workers and the peasants.")
Nobody expected that they would break in through the secret entrance.
Soon they started to break down the door of the department. We were barricaded in. They broke in, but it took them about 15 minutes to find us because we had turned off the lights so it was dark. When they couldn't find us, they began to shoot outside through the windows. The technical director (Rapkevičius) called us. We said good-bye to each other, as we thought that they were going to shoot us. Then Supreme Council deputy Benas Rupeika called and said: „I'm recording. Tell me everything." I talked for some five minutes until paratroopers heard my voice and broke in.
„Vot gdie oni!" („Here they are!") He immediately broke the telephone. They ordered us to leave the booth and lined all six of us up with our faces to the wall. They were standing with guns on both sides. Valentina Dubina was among us and was shouting the entire time. Later she whispered quietly: „Zveri, zveri..." („Beasts, beasts...") She kept repeating this every five minutes. I thought that she'd gone mad. Everybody thought that they would shoot us.
The shooting quieted down, and an armored paratrooper with a steal headpiece came over, and an older one brought over a radio and said „Vyška vziata! Zadanije wypolneno!" („The tower has been taken! Mission accomplished!")
They ordered us to go home. Two paratroopers were told to lead us through the soldiers. We were led through the emergency stairs. On the second floor I glanced to the side and saw a lot of blood on the doors and walls, and on the floor there was pool of blood, but I didn't see any corpses.
Returning home, I rushed out again to the Supreme Council. I went to the Information Center where our signalers were working. At the Center I got a connection with Warsaw. I spoke with the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Algirdas Saudargas) and told him about the events. Then they connected me with Moscow and I told everything to E. Bičkauskas. Then I made a recording in English on Lithuanian Radio for foreign journalist. Basically, I was informing the world about the events in Lithuania until dawn.
On Monday all of us gathered by the tower. A. Subotin asked us to work, but we refused. At that time paratroopers found 3 security service guards hiding in the building. One of them had served in the army. They took him.
Now there's a lot of work. We didn't have anything - no transmitters, no aerials, no spare parts. Nevertheless, we managed to broadcast channels 6 and 11. The entire republic helped, especially Kaunas.
Lithuania, 1991.01.13 : documents, testimonies, comments. - Vilnius : State Publishing Center, 1992, p. 201-202.