The Gulag letter to Reagan and the girl with a dictaphone

As a child, writer Ruta Tumenaite thought she was just helping her aunt: going on mysterious trips to the countryside, typing strange manuscripts. What she didn't know was that her aunt Jadvyga Bieliauskiene was one of Lithuania's most fearless anti-Soviet dissidents. And Ruta had been part of the fight all along, even though at first she was too young to understand what was going on.

Much of Ruta’s life has been shaped by the example that her beloved aunt set: fiercely opposed to the communist regime, Jadvyga never gave in to KGB threats or inducements. During her second incarceration in a remote penal colony, Jadvyga organised the smuggling of a letter to the US president Ronald Reagan. The letter contained a plea for help, not just for Jadvyga but for all of the women political prisoners jailed with her. And when Lithuania embarked on a road to independence from the USSR, Ruta - encouraged by Jadvyga - helped spread the word to Lithuanians living abroad. Always in the front row of any political rally, Ruta soon became known as 'the girl with a dictaphone'.

Presenter: Asya Fouks
Producer: Radek Boschetty
Archive audio of Jadvyga Bieliauskiene courtesy of Catholic Radio Mazoji Studija Vilnius and Lithuanian National Radio and Television.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo description: Black and white photo of Ruta Tumenaite and Jadvyga Bieliauskiene at a Vilnius cemetery in 1988. Jadvyga in a long black dress and a scarf stands on the right, looking down. Ruta stands next to her in a lighter dress with her arms folded across her torso. Credit: courtesy of Ruta Tumenaite)