Lithuania's Current President Was A Communist!?
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- Опубликовано: 8 апр 2023
- If you’re following Lithuanian news, then by now you should have heard about the big and shocking revelation that dropped on Wednesday, April 5th. Apparently, a local journalist published documents that showed that Lithuania’s current president, Gitanas Nausėda had applied to join the Communist Party in May 1988. About a month later, he received his party membership card. Notably, this took place as the Lithuanian struggle for independence was building and gaining momentum.
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In USSR was only ONE party - communist. Anyone who wanted to take higher positions had to be member of that party.
In my eyes it is better when people reveal their past "memberships".
You are right. That party wasn't really optional - my grandfather was head of village and for some time he managed to avoid it. Only for some time though as he was forced to leave in the end.
My grandpa never became member of the party and was really proud of it.
His present views and policies are much more important than his history.
Informative video! 😊
Me:every human has made mistake🙁
Our other president Algirdas Brazauskas was the last leader of the Lithuanian Communist party GItanas Nausėda joined in 1988. In Soviet times there was just one party and everybody who wanted to excel in that society had to join it. It also meant collaboration with occupants so no surprise Nausėda was willing to forget it... My mother worked as head of department of a hospital and it was the highest limit of her career, a head of whole hospital only a party member could be. Nauseda intended to do study abroad, in Western countries, party membership was extremely useful, practically necessary, to get permission.
he should have been more upfront about it.
Nauseda is careerist. And he doesn't have very strong personality, so in domestic politics he often takes somewhat populist stances. That being said - this "scandal" is a nothing-burger. Unfortunately many popular journalists are unappologeticaly symphatetic to current government. And Nauseda is an outsider, who won presidential elections against current prime minister. So you know... Funnily enough - some of journalists and influencers, despite absolutely loving to pile on Nauseda - had to keep silent this time. E.g. Andrius Tapinas. His father (also journalist) was a member of communist party for a decade and enjoyed some of privileges. E.g. visiting western Europe. Which was almost impossible for an average folks, not belonging to the party.
In any case - your videos are quite balanced. Keep going with good job! And always take domestic politics and it's scandals with a big grain of salt. Unless it's something criminal and obviously wrong.
It is ridiculous to compare Tapinas father and Nausėda. Tapinas father wasn't a politician in current Lithuanian state who hidden his party membership. It is pretty appalling how Nausėda lied to his electorate emphasizing his "apolitical" history and activity in Sąjūdis while being a party member. That is to say a lot of people were party members (that isn't that much of a problem), but at least they were/are honest about it.
The only issuevis - how much we can trust person, who have something untold. Particulary this fact saus much about persons oportunistic nature and having no principles
It's really rather about the fact that Gitanas Nausėda hid from the public during his electoral campaign that he once belonged to the communist party, not that he was a devoted communist. Back at that time, people had no other choice if they wanted to seek higher career prospects and so they were often forced to join the Komsomol or CPSU for the sake of their future. Some would even go further and decide to rise in the ranks of the communist nomenclature, which i personally consider to be the most evil thing a Lithuanian could do... (Brazauskas example, we elected a former 1st secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania as president in 1993)
the fact that he and other party members were not devoted communists IS THE PROBLEM. more people should be devoted communists. like, how is not having any real political position better to you?
@@jeanivanjohnson 😂 Communism is a dead project that doesn't work. Keep dreaming.
Anyone in the Soviet Lithuania or any other USSR "republic" was a member of the Communist party if they wanted to achieve anything at all in their career. Many of the members of Lithuanian independence movement Sąjūdis were members of the LKP (local Lithuanian SSR communist party), too. It was a formality that no-one ever cared about. Until now, that is. While I am by no means a fan of Nausėda (I think he's a spineless and characterless jellyfish of a president), I find it unjustified to attack him for this. The most vocal bunch about this storm in a teacup type of scandal is the Conservative party which is not doing great in opinion polls and see this as an opportunity to attack their political opponents one of whom they see Nausėda.
... greatest episode of Seinfeld, ever! :) lol - it's the episode that got me interested in the former USSR, which ultimately (after a few tangents in eastern europe) got me to meet my wife from Lithuania. That Seinfeld epeisode single handedly got me interested in the cold war and how life was behind the iron curtain. I know it's a pretty random comment by me, great epsiode as always, just cool to see Seinfeld (greatest show in the history of TV, lol) referenced, and specifically, the one with "the communist" #NedIsakoff
You named name! 😆
@@LithuaniaExplained HA! :) Blacklisted at Hop Sings! :)
Well, the controversy wasn't about Nausėda being a commie, it was about his statements, he said that he got engaged at Baltic way and things like "when I was attending Sąjūdis rallies, I couldn't even imagine, that I will be witnessing scandal of pedophilia at the parliament". So yeah, basically, he wants people to think that he's patriotic because he attended various rallies and events against soviets, but actually was a commie and was studying in Germany.
never voted for him and never will, but should admit he is good enough in position. myself joined communist youth org on my own and next year led a school Sąjūdis group... I was young, active and patriotic so every way to make changes was acceptable. As history shows, Lt communists mainly supported independence movement... but still... "better dead than red", and lucky us most Lt communist weren't red
"us must LT communists weren't red"
what the hell does that even mean? the word "red" in this context is a synonyme for communist
a young man in the 80's who seeked to become a politician could of only chosen the communist party, the media as always blows this out of proportion
I think the controversy isn't that he was member of the party, it is controversial that he didn't reveal it like previous president.
a politician within the occupation regime = a collaborator?
@@jygeb
by this logic nearly every person in Lithuania was collaborator including first elected president of re-established Lithuania, previous president Grybauskaitė and numerous other politicians, bureaucrats and academics. People often forget that Sąjūdis had substantial number of communist party members as well ever since it was founded.
@@eruno_ people who were members of CPSU were collaborators
@@jygeb
First Sąjūdis initiative group was composed of 35 people, 17 of them were members of communist party. Later many more communist party members joined. I wouldn't call them collaborators as they worked for independence. Everyone well educated except the most hardcore dissidents were members of the party for job opportunities.
Based
Oh no, it's not like the previous president also was a communist... Why not share all the documents from all the families who had anything to do with communism :)
👀
Give me a bit of a break here everybody, I am from the US genuinely trying to educate myself about the Baltic nations generally and Lithuania in particular. While looking from the outside in, would it be surprising that Nauseda would maybe have sided with the oppressive party in power at the time and after independence could have not changed? I'm just asking. I don't know what you know. And I ask this question very respectfully. I'm stuck here with Biden. What the hell could be worse? We can send him there if you would like and you can keep him. You can also keep Air Force One. It's just a disaster.......
Nobody likes Nauseda that much and for as long as he keeps saying the correct things nobody cares too much about what party he was with, President just isn't very important in Lithuania, I worry for US, because you have it so bad that people view Trump as a good option, but you have many more issues besides who is called president
@@IgnorantC Thanks so much for your response. Just trying to learn the "tenor" of politics in your country so your comment is helpful. As far as Trump, he is definitely divisive, no question about that, but Biden seems perfectly willing to let the war in Ukraine continue. There is a lot of money to be made in war. No mention by him of talking to Putin and Zelenskyy trying to reach any sort of agreement, just keep fighting, killing completely innocent people and decimating an entire country and its historical and architectural treasures. I am not a huge supporter of the Donald, bit I am a big believer of "I don't care what you say, I care what you do." While in office, he did meet with the leaders of China, Russia and South Korea, and things were pretty calm for a while. Under Biden we have let millions of people through our southern border without any idea of who they are - for future votes. Truth to be known, the media is running the show here. I just want the damn war to stop. Too many friends on both sides being killed needlessly. The people that start the wars never fight them.
Correction, North Korea.
Gitanas Nausėda wanted to join the communist party because he wanted to go to college. College in Lithuania used to be only for communist party members. I might be wrong, but that's what's stated on TV3 news.
The whole thing is not that he joined communists, but the fact that he kept it silent. Also the timing (era of resurrection of independence) of joining the party doesn't help as well. Anyways, not the strongest character for being a leader of a country, but what can we do when babushkas and milfs like him. You can't defeat the wave of stubborn mature femininity during elections.
You ment to say that people like him more than they like TS-LKD? I myself voted for Ingrida Šimontytė in 2019 elections and looking retrospectively that was very poor desicion. Although Gitanas Nausėda is not the best politician he is deffinitely not the worst for position of Presidency.
He is just too old... 😅
Glad i didn't vote for him 😂
Gribauskaite tried to hide komunist part
literally the opposite, she was open about it.
no she never did hide it
@@eruno_ first election hided 1988-1990 participation of moscow party, still can check on vrk if not brainwashed
@@plovyklatyra first election hided 1988-1990 participation of moscow party, still can check on vrk if not brainwashed
It's embarrassing he kept quiet about it. Especially, joining communist party DURING SĄJŪDIS??? Fucking c'mon 🤢🤢🤮.. Gotta be upfront with these things.