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THE LITHUANIAN CONSPIRACY
AND THE SOVIET COLLAPSE
Investigation into a
Political Demolition

Galina Sapozhnikova

ISBN: 978-0-9986947-1-9            $29.95  2018
















EBOOK:
ISBN:  978-0-9986947-2-6     $21.00
SYNOPSIS

Through interviews with leading participants on both sides,
prominent Russian journalist Galina Sapozhnikova captures the
political and human dimensions of betrayal and disillusionment
that led to the collapse of the 20th century's greatest experiment
in social engineering, and what happened to the men and
women who struggled to destroy or save it.

Termed "color" revolutions by the worldwide media as most
were designated colors, these various  movements developed
in several societies in the former Soviet Union and the Baltic
states during the early 2000s.  In reality, they were US
intelligence operations which covertly instigated, supported and
infiltrated protest movements with a view to triggering “regime
change” under the banner of a pro-democracy uprising . The
objective was to manipulate elections,  initiate violence, foment
social unrest and use the resulting protest movement to topple
an existing government in order to install a compliant pro-US
government.

What were the many tactics deployed in Lithuania, only now
recognized as one of the first, to galvanize the popular
uprising?    Was Gorbachev's role duplicitous and anti-USSR?
What was the role of Eugene Sharp in this grand show of historic
transformation?  Is nationalism a force to be welcomed or
feared?  How did the political shape-shifters act – the former
Komsomol and Communist Party executives, who took high
posts in the new “democratic” governments? What happened to
the pro-democracy forces and to those they defeated in the
aftermath? How has all this worked out for Lithuania?

This book not only exposes the process, but sheds light on how
these events play out, post regime-change.  It is key to grasping
the template that today underlies similar events in Syria,
Ukraine, Venezuela and likely elsewhere, going forward. The
Lithuanian revolution may be key among them, a trial run for the
August coup against Gorbachev in Moscow and the Soviet
collapse that changed the course of world history.

To date,
The Lithuanian Conspiracy has been published under
other titles in Lithuanian, Russian and Italian.



Born in Izhevsk (Russian Federation), Galina Sapozhnikova graduated from the journalism
faculty of the Saint Petersburg University in 1988. She worked as a correspondent for
Komsomolskaya Pravda  covering Estonia, Finland and Sweden. She became known as a
master of journalistic investigation, having worked on the mystery of the  Estonia ferry
sinking, studied xenophobia in Russia, and helped people who lost their memories "find
themselves." Galina Sapozhinkova is the recipient of multiple professional awards - the
Artyom Borovik award for journalist investigations, Andrey Sakharov's award "For Journalism
as a Deed," the Iskra  Media Group award, the Julian Semenov award in extreme geopolitical
journalism, the Oles Buzina literature and media award. She has been awarded the "Golden
Quill" of the Russian Journalist Union and the distinguished decoration "For Merits in the
Professional community." Her 2009 book
Arnold Meri: Estonia's Last Hero was the winner of
the Russian Print competition for best journalistic book. She is currently a political analyst
with
Komsomolskaya Pravda, living in Moscow and Tallinn.
Dissecting the tactics behind a "pro-democracy" regime change, its wider agenda and the fallout

"The documentary investigation of the famous Russian journalist
Galina Sapozhnikova came out during the 25th anniversary of
the tragic events of 1991. That which we considered true
revolutionary changes, according to the author, in reality was a
well-rehearsed script that was being tried on various scenes.
And we realize this more and more... There is a strong, but
unseen connection between the events a quarter century ago
and today."
Eurasia.doc

"The book consists of “explosive” interviews of former
Lithuanian politicians and brilliant notes by the author herself,
one can read through it in just one evening, despite the 350
pages. Somewhere in the middle of the book, you realize that
USA had tested the Color Revolution technology in Lithuania in
January 1991... [This book] came out last summer and was
instantly a hot item in Lithuania...Today this book is officially
recognized [in Lithuania] as criminal."
Andrey Vypolzov, Vesti-Kaliningrad

"The people’s movement in January 1991 and the blood-soaked
myth – this is what the new Lithuania is built upon. To
Sapozhnikova the official version based on these facts is fake...
The Orange Revolution, then the Ukrainian Maidan, the Rose
Revolution in Georgia, the Tulip Revolution in Kyrgyzstan. All of
these events, as I see it, have one logic, which shows the same
business methods."
Ivan Brentari, AffariItaliani.it
EXCERPT

“Stop it! Stop the murder!” weakly repeated Vytautas
Landsbergis, leader of the Lithuanian pro-democracy Sajudis
protest movement, his hands shaking.  But everything had
already happened: the TV anchor Tatiana Mitkova had refused to
read the official version of the events in the Lithuanian capital,
TVs were showing tanks and dead bodies, the world was shocked
when it heard of another Soviet aggression, and Boris Yeltsin
made an immediate visit to the Baltics in order to sign treaties on
behalf of Russia, distancing Russia from the USSR. Vytautas
Landsbergis phoned his signature in, but was in Tallinn, Estonia,
by morning.

I approached him for an interview.

I was ashamed to hear his words.  At the time it felt awkward to
even be on the Soviet side. Prepared by the exposures of the

Ogonek
magazine and taught to be repentant, Russians
automatically felt guilty of any death on the planet. (Twenty-five
years after that publication, it was clear that we had consciously
been led to that view.) So we, the Moscow journalists, almost
broke down in tears as we genuinely felt sorry for the
Lithuanians whom the Russian tanks had harmed. And in 1991, it
seemed clear who were the victims and who were the killers,
even without anyone saying a word.

The Soviet Union was on its deathbed. Mikhail Gorbachev, so it
seemed, made one last attempt to preserve it: the order to the
Pskov airborne troops and KGB taskforce Alpha Group on the
night of 13 January 1991 to take over Lithuanian
telecommunications and stop the broadcasts of the freedom-
loving “voices”. Once he found out about the casualties, the last
president of the USSR denounced all of his orders and said his
famous, “I have never sent Alpha to Lithuania!” And Alpha Group,
who had never had a failed mission until then, returned to
Moscow in deep confusion...

For twenty years, no one in Russia recalled this story, not until
2010 when the former commander of Alpha, Mikhail Golovatov,
was detained in a Viennese Airport on Lithuania’s request. That is
when it turned out that Lithuania had quietly made a whole list of
people responsible for the events of January 1991.

But why, though, some twenty years later? First, the Lithuanians
are not quite pleased with the new society they have built –
people are migrating from the country on a massive scale. Their
national spirit needed uplifting. Second, facts contradicting the
well-polished legend were poking out from all of the holes – now
there are books saying that it wasn’t the Soviet soldiers who
fired on the crowd, but unidentified snipers from a roof; another
book mentions their American instructors.

“Landsbergis and Audrius Butkevičius [at the time, the Director
of the Department of National Defense – G.S.] have the blood of
those thirteen on their hands. It was by their will that a few dozen
of dressed-up border guards were stationed in the Vilnius TV
tower. They shot live rounds at the crowd from above. I have
seen it with my own eyes, the bullets hitting the asphalt and
ricocheting near my feet. A few affected border guards have also
told me how it happened. They tried to get the truth out through
the press, but they couldn’t prove anything, because they were
erased from the defender lists,” wrote Vytautas Petkevičius in
his 2004 book
Ship of Fools. He had been one of the founders and
leaders of Sąjūdis, but was ultimately greatly disappointed with
the movement.

Curiously,  after Petkevičius died, Vytautas Landsbergis sued his
three children demanding that they publicly admit that their
father slandered him. Lithuania’s Supreme Court found  that the
children bore responsibility for their father’s words…
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter One
Operation Discreditation

Chapter Two
The Lithuanian Syndrome 25 Years Later

Chapter Three
And Then They Called for Ded Moroz...

Chapter Four
The Great Lithuanian Witch Hunt

Chapter Five
Romantics vs. Traitors

Chapter Six
The Lithuanian Underground

Chapter Seven
Homeland or Death?

Chapter Eight
And If You Run Out of Enemies

Chapter Nine
Without a Homeland

Chapter Ten
The Consequences of One Event

Glossary of Names

Index
EUGENE SHARP AND GALINA SAPOZHNIKOVA:  
How could I have fallen for the charm of his mind and not notice
the slogan on the Albert Einstein Institution booklet –
“Consulting
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