“Nothing will happen to me..." - with these words, Virginijus Druskis calmed down his anxious wife on the night of January 12th as he ran out of his house towards the TV tower. He added: „lf we're all afraid, Lithuania will never be free." Asta didn't see her husband either that night, or in the morning. She searched
for him first in the hospitals - perhaps he was wounded? She found him in the evening - shot dead. He was hit in the chest and lungs. Witnesses said that Virginijus had been the first victim. Yet, it is almost impossible to follow all the details of that nightmare.
Virgis rushed to live, he wanted everything. Everything was interesting for him, tells his wife a week after the fatal night. Not even a year has passed since their wedding...
-I can't believe he is dead, that he isn't around anymore. He was all I had, sighs his astounded mother Milda Druskienė.
Pictures of his wedding. Everything happened so recently. In front of us there is a young, handsome guy. His quick eyes glance through his glasses.
-He was constantly reading, so he ruined his eyes, says Asta.
-On Saturday a lot of friends came over. Like never before. They came and came as if they were anticipating something, tells Asta sadly. - Late in the evening we watched television and listened to the news. Virgis never missed “Vakaro žinios" (“Evening news") or the Central television program TSN. He said that he wasn't going to go out that night - the night before we kept vigil in Independence Square. But when we heard the call to rush to the tower - tanks were approaching - he jumped up to get dressed. I tried to stop him. It was really unsettling... I didn't sleep the whole night - I was waiting. Whenever I heard a door slam I jumped to see if it was him...
Virginijus' biography is not a complicated one, it's like most people's of his age. He was born on February 1, 1969 in Ukmergė. He was still a small boy when his parents moved to Vilnius. He studied at secondary school Nr.40, and after 8th grade he entered an electro-engineering technical school. He was a good pupil. He loved to play with computers. He made a computer himself. He had just entered Kaunas Technological University when he was drafted for the army. He returned the day that all of Lithuania was standing on the Baltic Way... He was waiting for Lithuania to make its own independent army: he intended to volunteer.
--He was never afraid of anything, so he used to get himself into danger. Before going into the army, he exercised a lot and got familiar with martial arts. He could protect himself. He said that he would never be humiliated, - his mother tells, her voice trembling. - But how can you defend yourself if you're unarmed and sub-machine gun barrels are aimed at you?
A neighbor said that he had seen Virgis running towards the tanks. As always -the first everywhere...
--His friends also loved him, - adds Asta. - Virgis was happy with life. He always ran out of his house if something important was going on.
All words of consolation seem empty when you see the grief of those women in their funeral dresses. It's difficult to speak and deep sighs interrupt every other word. Fragments of recollections... And his mother's eyes ask: „What for? How can you shoot unarmed people without any warning?"
Lithuania, 1991.01.13 : documents, testimonies, comments. - Vilnius : State Publishing Center, 1992, p. 41.