Mykolas Burokevičius (7 October 1927 – 20 January 2016) was a communist political leader in
Lithuania
Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...
. After the
Communist Party of Lithuania separated from the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...
(CPSU), he established alternative pro-CPSU Communist Party of Lithuania in early 1990, and led it as the First Secretary of Central Committee until its ban in 1991. He was the only Lithuanian to serve in the
Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, and did so from 1990 until its ban in 1991.
Biography
He was born in
Alytus
Alytus () is a city with Town privileges, municipal rights in southern Lithuania. It is the List of cities in Lithuania, sixth-largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, 14th-largest city in the Baltic ...
, Lithuania in 1927. In 1942, a young Burokevičius was employed as a carpenter and a machinist at a plant in
Udmurtia
Udmurtia, officially the Udmurt Republic, is a republics of Russia, republic of Russia located in Eastern Europe. It is administratively part of the Volga Federal District. Its capital city, capital is the types of inhabited localities in Russi ...
. In 1944 he became a member of the Lithuanian Communist Party where he worked as a chief of department and instructor. He graduated from the Vilnius Pedagogical Institute (now the
Vytautas Magnus University Education Academy) in 1955 and the
Lithuanian Academy of Sciences
The Lithuanian Academy of Sciences or LMA (, ) is a state-funded independent organization in Lithuania dedicated for science and research. Its mission is to mobilize prominent scientists and initiate activities that would strengthen the welfare ...
in 1963.
In 1963 he became a research fellow at the Institute of the History of the Party of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party.
Political activities
After the Communist Party of Lithuania voted to separate from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in December 1989, he became the Secretary of the latter and on 3 March 1990 he gained the title of the First Secretary of the former.
His party's political programme stated that one of its goals was to maintain Lithuania as part of the USSR. Seven members of Burokevičius' party were elected during the
Supreme Council of Lithuania elections on 24 February 1990. The Supreme Council declared
re-establishment of Lithuania's independence during its first session in March.
On 11 January 1991 the pro-CPSU CPL sent an ultimatum to the Government of Lithuania, ordering it to comply with USSR President
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet and Russian politician who served as the last leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
's public requirement that the Supreme Council would immediately reinstate the legal force of the USSR and
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; ; ), also known as Soviet Lithuania or simply Lithuania, was '' de facto'' one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union between 1940–1941 and 1944–1990. After 1946, its terr ...
Constitutions. The requirement was voiced one day earlier. The party added that failing that it might create the "Lithuanian National Salvation Committee" (), "which would take care of the matters of the future of the LSSR" - and eventually did so. During its lifetime, the party established several organizations meant to be alternative ministries.
The
Soviet Army assault on the Vilnius TV tower and station on 13 January 1991 followed, during which 14 people were killed. During the period of 11 to 19 January 1991, the pro-CPSU party also made five more public declarations urging the forceful overthrow of the Government and other authorities of independent Lithuania. Burokevičius took part preparing those declarations.
Prosecution
Burokevičius was indicted by Lithuanian prosecutors as a suspect in a criminal with regard to the
January Events
The January Events () were a series of violent confrontations between the civilian population of Lithuania, supporting independence, and the Soviet Armed Forces. The events took place between 11 and 13 January 1991, after the Act of the Re-Esta ...
case on 22 August 1991. He was eventually arrested on 15 January 1994 in
Belarus
Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
(on Lithuanian orders). From October 1996 to August 1999, Burokevičius and five other members of the Lithuanian Communist Party were tried for their involvement in the January Events. In August 1999, he was sentenced in Vilnius to 12 years' imprisonment for organizing murders and grievous bodily harm and also for establishing organizations which intended to overthrow the state. In early 2000, President
Valdas Adamkus
Valdas Adamkus (; born Voldemaras Adamkavičius; November 3, 1926) is a Lithuanian politician, diplomat and civil engineer who served as the fifth and seventh president of Lithuania from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2004 to 2009.
Adamku ...
proposed the chief of colony to prepare documents that granted Burokevičius eligibility for pardon. Burokevičius refused this request, pleading innocent and stating that he was not guilty in his actions.
[Быть достойным своих убеждений (Беседа Александра Казинцева с доктором исторических наук профессором Миколасом Бурокявичюсом)]
/ref> He finished the sentence and was released on 13 January 2006.
On 5 January 2006 the European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), also known as the Strasbourg Court, is an international court of the Council of Europe which interprets the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The court hears applications alleging that a co ...
declared admissible Burokevičius' case against Lithuania on three counts of possible Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms violations and joined it with two other cases against Lithuania for its January Events lawsuits ( Juozas Kuolelis and Leonas Bartoševičius). Burokevičius also sought compensation.
Specifically, the court examined whether Lithuania violated these articles of the convention:
* Article 6 (right to fair trial) – that he spent more than a "reasonable time" awaiting court proceedings
* Article 7 (no punishment without law) – that he was convicted for actions which were not crimes at the time under Lithuanian law (Burokevičius claimed that as the Lithuanian state came into existence only after the Soviet coup attempt of 1991, it cannot apply its criminal law to earlier events)
* Articles 9 (freedom of conscience), 10 (freedom of expression), 11 (freedom of association) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) – Burokevičius and others claimed that they had been unjustly punished in the exercise of their beliefs as communists, their legitimate work as journalists, their right of association with other individuals, and their support for the idea of Lithuania's continuing membership of the USSR during the politically turbulent times of 1990–1991
In 2008, the Court delivered judgment deciding that no violations took place.
Later life
He died in Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ) is the capital of and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city in Lithuania and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, most-populous city in the Baltic states. The city's estimated January 2025 population w ...
, Lithuania in 2016, aged 88.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burokevicius, Mykolas
1927 births
2016 deaths
Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Article 7 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights
Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights cases involving Lithuania
Lithuanian communists
People from Alytus
Members of the Politburo of the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Members of the Central Committee of the 28th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences alumni