Born for Freedom — Lina Zilionyte

Just six-year-old Lucy was aware already that she lived in two different worlds. One world was her home, village, and the people where old traditions and customs prevailed. Another world was where the soviet ruling claimed its dominance over every aspect of their daily life.

Lucy faced the first challenges of the new ruling at the elementary school, and in no time, she learned to cover up her true belief for her country and its people. She became silent but conscious worrier for her national identity and freedom of her country. She knew what it meant to be deprived of freedom as nation and as a Lithuanian. She graduated from the university as a non-party member; and it seemed, at least at that moment, that she had sealed her convictions and national identity for good.

When she got a job as a translator, there was a hope, although short lived, that she might be able to create a comfortable life even in the Soviet paradise. However, when she began to climb her career ladder, the inevitable happened. During the interview with the chief of the KGB, Lucy rejected the proposal to become a party member and join the ranks of the Soviet spies abroad. Instead, she quit her favorite job. It did not take long for her to realize that she was jobless in the country where unemployment was equal to crime, meaning that she could be persecuted as a criminal. So now she would have to choose one out of two: either to be persecuted as a political criminal or leave her beloved Lithuania for good. And she chose the latter.