Saulius Marcinkevičius

Saulius Marcinkevičius (1958–1979) was born in Vilnius into a family of civil servants. In 1976, he graduated from Vilnius 39th (Salomėja Nėris) Secondary School and was a member of the Komsomol (Communist Youth League). That same year, he applied for admission to the Faculty of Finance and Accounting at Vilnius Vincas Kapsukas State University, specialising in Economic Cybernetics. He participated in the incident when Rimantas Grigas took down a Lenin bas-relief in the Vilnius Central Post Office and threw it into the Neris River. The management of the Faculty of Finance and Accounting considered the behaviour of Marcinkevičius to be “political hooliganism”, thus justifying his expulsion from the university. In January 1977, by the Order of the Rector, he was removed from the student list “for behaviour incompatible with the status of a Soviet student.” According to historical research, Marcinkevičius grew up in an “untrustworthy” family (his father spent ten years in the Inta labour camps, leading to his mother’s expulsion from the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the university). After this, he was recruited to the army and interrogated by the KGB; towards the end of his military service, Marcinkevičius died under unclear circumstances.

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