Lithuanian Free-Market Institute

Lithuania:

If my dates are correct, on April 20, 1990, a delegation of Lithuanians visited the Institute for Humane Studies (I.H.S.), in Fairfax, Virginia. As most senior staff of I.H.S. were out, they asked me to host them. Atlas was located at I.H.S. and we shared our president (John Blundell). Helping me was Eduardo Marty, who later founded Junior Achievement in Argentina. I believe that Jeffrey Tucker, now at the Mises Institute, and Saul Anuzis, a leader in the Republican Party of Michigan, were the ones who made the initial contact.

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After twenty eight years, I saw Saul Anuzis at an important meeting near Washington DC, he is now President of the 60 Plus Association (working to repeal the death tax)

The delegation was going to be composed by Filomena Jaseviciene, Kestutis Glaveckas, Kestutis Baltramitis, Algis Dobrovolskis, Vytenis Aleskaitis, Romaldus Visokavicius, Visvaldas Lacis (Latvia, tentative, ...).

Algirdas Degutis, who became a key player in Lithaunian free-market circles, arrived late. He recently reminded me that I picked him up at a Metro station, and gave him one of the T-Shirts with the logo "The Party is Over" produced by our good friend Borut Prah. Degutis had a long affiliation with the Lithuanian Culture Research Institute, and also with the Lithuanian Free Market Institute.

Kestutis Glaveckas, was professor of Elena Leontjeva, who grew the Lithuanian Free Market Institute to prominence. He was a co-founder of the institute. I had the privilege of meeting some of them again 20 years later in Vilnius. I will write more about both experiences, but I hope that some of the actors send me some memories as well. Kestutis Glaveckas heads the budget committee in today's congress (2011).

Eduardo Marty, remembers the meeting:

"Impossible to forget! Beautiful people starving for freedom, desperate to make connections and support for their freedom cause. People irradiating energy and the joy of life living, but surviving in a difficult environment where not only freedom but food were absent. I still remember an incident during our meeting:

We met in a fancy restaurant where we had invited our guests to talk to us about their experiences and their plans for the future .

When food came , instead of eating the fancy food that was

offered to them, they chose to eat the fresh legumes and fruits decorating it. We asked them why and the answer was :

"the last time we had access to this fresh food was 10 years ago during a Russian celebration..... "

That was indeed memorable. But the other memorable incident was that despite we kept the location of our dinner "secret," and 45 minutes out of town, during the middle of the dinner, the Russian, Soviet, consul arrived just to show that they knew we were there. He said hello (I imagine in Russian) and left . . . Eduardo then asked our Lithuanian heroes if they were not afraid. Their answer still rings fresh in my mind.

There was a moment of silence, then, one of our Lithuanian guests said: "Look around us. All of us around the table have been detained or have relatives who have been detained or sent to prison. We regard this stance against the Soviets not only as our best chance, our only chance, but also as our last chance."