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- This three hundred page book is the Lithuanian sea captain’s Jonas Pleskys' story of life, love, search for freedom, breakthrough from the Soviet union’s iron curtain, prison, trial, death penalty, life in the USA, search for happiness and constant fear to be killed by KGB assistants, return to free Lithuania, and death in loneliness.
“The story of Jonas Pleskys is one of those that has to be told. At the time, when this Lithuanian, having the Soviet diploma of marine fleet submarine navigator, in 1961 moved a military barge to Gotland island and escaped to the West, the cold war had reached apogee. <……> The life of Jonas Pleskys is the reflection of such historical events as World War II, Nazi and Soviet occupation, Stalinist terrorism during the years of the cold war, and the country’s forced integration into the Soviet Union. Fortunately, after the restitution of Lithuanian independence at the beginning of 1990, the documents proving his escape and death penalty by military tribunal were publicized. People finally mustered up their courage to write and talk about the Soviet system's repressions and universal control”, says the author in the book’s preface.
The linguist and historian M.Venslauskaite-Boyle, who closely associated with Jonas Pleskys during the last years of his life, collected plenty of material, made a thorough research in KGB and other archives, interviewed a great number of people, and created a suggestive, intriguing image of a free-natured person, a resolute man, and a Lithuanian seaman - graduate of the Leningrad Naval Academy.
This documentary essay was printed by Egles publishing house settled in Klaipeda. The book was first published in English, later translated into Lithuanian.
- 287 pages
Format: 9x6 1/2 inches (23x16 cm), hardcover.
- Vilnius, Lithuania
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