In 1970, Simas Kudirka became famous for his defection from a Soviet ship, and for his later activism against the Soviet regime in Lithuania. This simple sailor, who earned the Order of the Cross of Vytis for defending Lithuania’s freedom and became a symbol of resistance and independence, the subject of books and films, passed away on February 10 in Lithuania, at the age of 92.
In November, 1970, he jumped from the fishing vessel “Sovetskaja Litva” to the deck of the US Coast Guard cutter “Vigilant”, and asked for asylum. The Soviet officials who were on the “Vigilant” negotiating fishing rights arrested him and forcibly returned him to the Soviet ship. He was sentenced by the Soviets to 10 years in prison. This provoked outrage in the press and in every Lithuanian community in the diaspora, expressed in letter campaigns, petitions and demonstrations. However, the US Administration managed to obtain his release in 1974, when he moved to the US with his family. He was active in the Lithuanian community there until 2007 when he returned to independent Lithuania.
American-Lithuanian author and journalist Algis Rukšėnas wrote Day of Shame (The truth about the murderous happenings aboard the Cutter Vigilant during the Russian-American confrontation off Martha’s Vineyard), published in 1973. Photographer Algimantas Kezys created a documentary about him in 1974 called Simas Kudirka In Chicago, and director D.L. Rich made a film for TV about him in 1978 called The Defection of Simas Kudirka. Author Jurgis Gliauda wrote the novel Simas (in Lithuanian and English). In 1978 Kudirka himself co-wrote the book For Those Still at Sea: The Defection of a Lithuanian Sailor, with Larry Eichel. Several decades later, Lithuanian director Giedrė Žickytė created a new documentary about him, released in 2020, called “The Jump”.
President Gitanas Nausėda expressed his condolences upon Kudirka’s death, remembering that he symbolized a generation that refused to adapt to the rules of the Soviet regime. He would not be a cog in its machine, and turned his back on the system, encouraging others to do the same.
Lithuanian Seimas speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen wrote that Kudirka was proof that oppression cannot destroy the thirst for freedom. With his leap to freedom, he became one of the first heralds of independence and of the fall of the empire of evil.
