Lithuanian President Nauseda hid the fact that he was a member of the CPSU in the 1980s

On Wednesday, the Lithuanian press came out with publications according to which the country’s president Gitanas Nauseda was a member of the CPSU in the late 1980s, but hid this fact when he ran for the post of head of state. The administration of the President of Lithuania confirmed that Nauseda joined the CPSU in 1988. The department emphasized that specifying such information in the questionnaire is not mandatory. Nauseda himself called his membership in the Communist Party “a mistake of youth.”

The information that Nauseda was a member of the CPSU was published on Facebook by Dovydas Pantserovas, a journalist of the Laisves TV channel. He brought archival documents, including a personal file and an account card of the future president. While running for the presidential elections in 2019, Nauseda did not answer questions in the questionnaire about whether he had previously been a member of any parties.

Pantserovas claims that Nauseda previously spoke of his support for the pro-perestroika Lithuanian movement Sayudis, which advocated Lithuanian independence and rejection of the hegemony of the CPSU in the late 1980s. At the same time, the journalist points out, at least formally Nauseda was then “on the other side of the barricades”.

The press service of the President of Lithuania confirmed that the information about Nauseda’s membership in the CPSU is true. However, the candidate is not obliged to report them in the pre-election questionnaire. The agency also stated that Nauseda did not take an active part in the activities of the Communist Party, and his membership in it was of a formal nature.

The Lithuanian news agency BNS quotes the president’s own comment. He called joining the CPSU a mistake of youth. According to Nauseda, in 1998 he took the first steps in the profession of an economist and thought that the status of a party member would help him in his scientific career. However, after the beginning of the national revival movement in Lithuania and the foundation of the “Sayudis” organization, he supported them “with all his heart”, but did not participate in the activities of the CPSU.

Sayudis was founded in 1988, the same year Nauseda joined the CPSU.

• Lithuania regained its independence after leaving the USSR in 1990. The successor of the CPSU in it was the Communist Party of Lithuania. The activity of the Communist Party of Lithuania has been prohibited on the territory of the country since 1992. Since 2008, there has been a ban on the public display of Soviet and Nazi symbols at mass events.