George Matulaitis Journal

Monday, through the good offices of Canon Kukta, I persuaded Mrs. Vilei is, 1 the doctor’s wife, to go see Mickevi ius-Kapsukas 2 and Liutkevi ius 3 about this problem, since she had been a close associate of Kapsukas and had once saved him from prison and death. However, she was not able to do anything. On Tuesday, I sent the priests Lubianiec and Maciejewicz to the Jewish Rabbi asking him to restrain his group so as not to provoke and antagonize our people. Otherwise, the Jews might be attacked. I said that I would pacify my own people as well. Then I sent Father Tumas with a letter to Kapsukas. I wrote that Father Muckermann had stayed behind at my request; that he was not engaged in any kind of spying; that he had organized the Workers’ Association at the request of many working people. He was not involved in any political activities whatever and acted with my authorization and knowledge. I requested that Kapsukas free the priest and thus reassure the people. I also asked Father Tumas to explain in person that the Catholics were incensed about the deportation of Father Muckermann and now are angry at the Jews. Kapsukas answered that he could not leave Father Muckermann here and that they would continue to keep the church surrounded until the people and Father Muckermann surrendered, but they would not harm either him or the people in any way and so on. Some women broke through the Red Army ranks and brought food to the people held inside the church. The Bolsheviks cut the power lines so the church would not have any light. The people remained in the church day and night; they kept a vigil and prayed with Father Muckermann. At 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the Red Army soldiers broke into the church, started shooting at the ceiling, scattered the people, and arrested Father Muckermann by force. The people, especially the women, tried to defend the priest and refused to give him up. The soldiers behaved brutally. They pushed and shoved Father Muckermann around and some of the women were also roughly 189 1 Emilija Ja mantas (1861-1935): wife of physician Antanas Vile i>i s; both were well known in Vilnius as Lithuanian patriots and were active in promoting the Lithuanian press and the Lithuanian language, espe- cially in the churches of Vilnius. 2 Vincas Mickevi ius used the pen name Kapsukas since he began writing for the underground Lithuanian press in 1898. From 1905, he was involved in various underground activities in Vilnius, editing Lithuanian newspapers and organizing workers’ strikes for which he was sentenced and imprisoned several times. At that time, he was a Social Democrat, not yet a Communist; he became a Communist in 1917, while working in St. Petersburg. 3 Gabrys Liutkevi ius (1880-1926): an attorney by profession, he had left the Social Democrats to join the Bolsheviks. In Mickevi ius’s administration, he was the executive director of the Bolshevik Revolutionary Council.