You are an upcoming 3rd-year student at IIRPS VU; How did you find your way to the institute, and what subjects are you most interested in?

I chose the path to TSPMI when I was in 10th grade. As I still remember, I was sitting in the History class at school, and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t study history at all, I got a 9 on my test, and to my surprise and the teacher’s surprise, I wrote the best exam in the class. It was strange for me, for the teacher, and probably for my whole class because I was a “bad” student at school – I was not studying, I was skipping classes, and I was rebellious in every other way. It was this grade in the history test that brought me to the point where I realised that I was not such a hopeless fool. It is important to mention that at school, I always had the label of the ‘bad’ student, the child, which haunted me all my life. Coming back to the grade, I realised that it is very good to be praised in front of the whole class and to be seen as more than just the class clown. From that moment on, I started studying well, reading a lot of books, and doing civic activities, and then a few organisations came into my life – “I know what I’m doing,” “White Gloves,” and “Young Political Scientists’ School,” where I finally realised that this is where I belong. Actually, I remember the first day at the School of Young Political Scientists – when I arrived, I thought that everyone was smarter than me, no one would want to talk to me, and that I wouldn’t have anything to talk about with the other participants of the project, because I didn’t have a full understanding of how politics works at that time, but I was mistaken. I was welcomed as a best friend, where I found a bunch of like-minded people with whom I often crossed paths in the corridors of IIRPS VU. And so began my journey at the institute.

As far as the things that interest me at IIRPS VU, I can safely say that freedom of expression. Even before I joined IIRPS, I became interested in Iran, Iran’s nuclear weapons, and a little bit in Islam. At the university, I have every opportunity to broaden my knowledge, both through written work and discussions with lecturers and fellow students. Also, I am very impressed by the fact that we are not boxed in – my study programme is comprehensive, from philosophy to economics or statistics. I feel that when I graduate, I will have had a piece of each of the different policies from the big cake, and I really like cake. And actually, I enjoy writing essays, and there are a lot of them at IIRPS. In my opinion, when you write a piece of writing, you dig into a topic that is important to you, you look for answers to questions that interest you, and at the end, you have the fruit of your hard work, which in one way or another contributes to your knowledge and opens the door to future political research.

In your second year, you went to study in Hungary, how did you choose this country? How did you find studying in Budapest?

Yes, surprisingly for many people, I went to Budapest, Hungary, with the Erasmus+ programme. Without hiding the real reason why I went to Budapest, I can safely say that I didn’t make it to the first two study abroad options (Belgium, UK), so I had to choose from the remaining options in the second round – Poland, Latvia, Estonia and other countries, most of which required German and or Spanish, but Hungary caught my eye, especially as I remembered that I had been to Budapest a few times in the past, so without thinking twice I filled in the questionnaire and went. As soon as I arrived, a few weeks later, the war broke out, and Hungary’s position in this war was no secret. It was strange when in Lithuania, everyone was on the streets, protesting, making donations, and worried about the security of Ukraine and the European Union as a whole, but in Hungary, everyone was living the same life as they had before war.

As far as my studies are concerned, I can say that there were some good moments and some not-so-good moments. After my studies, I came to a conclusion that, at least at the university where I studied, we were seen as ‘Erasmus students’ and not as full-fledged students. Among those nice moments, there are a few of our lecturers who are really knowledgeable in their speciality, in their field, and who know how to engage students and communicate with them in a youthful way. There were also some lecturers whose lectures were full of students doing whatever they were doing – scrolling through social networks, playing games on their phones, sleeping. But on the whole, I liked it, I wouldn’t repeat it, but I liked it.

You were organising silent protests outside the Russian Embassy in Hungary; how did you come up with the idea to start that? What were the biggest difficulties and challenges? Do you think you managed to get your message across?

As I have mentioned in several interviews, when I got up on the morning of 24 February and heard the news that the Russian army had started to invade Ukraine, I did not understand what had happened at first. A little later, when everything was clear in my mind, I decided that I would join the protests in Budapest, which, to my surprise, either did not exist or did not reach me in any way, and so, within a few days, I decided that I wanted to express my civic stance, even if it was in a strange country, and I quietly sat down in front of the Russian embassy. Talking about difficulties, I was often mocked by civil servants (police officers, if you can call them that), I was also subjected to a lot of barbs, I was spat at a few times, I was literally attacked once – they tore up my poster, they spat at me, they called me a fascist, and so on, but in my opinion, if you have people who are angrily opposed to you, it means that you are doing everything right. Of course, it’s not much fun to be mocked by uniformed policemen who have worn badges with the number of the squad on them several times, and who also wear masks and sunglasses, and who start to make fun of you – it’s all just childish.

As for the challenges, the biggest challenge is to cope with the pressure of society and the knowledge that you are alone in a strange country, whose authorities often show by their communication which side of the “lake” they are on. This is also very evident in the divisions of opinion in the country – some people are very much in favour of Ukraine and the Ukrainians, while others are very much in favour of the Russian side. The strangest and most difficult thing to see was when whole busloads of children went to celebrate ‘Victory Day’ on 9 May wearing St George’s ribbons, military uniforms, and caps. Everyone looked so happy, despite the war atrocities and war crimes taking place in the neighbourhood. It is also worth mentioning that together with Helen, a Ukrainian, and Kamile, a student at TSPMI, we came up with the idea of organising English lessons for Ukrainians. It was very difficult to see the many broken hearts and shattered destinies. We always had a moment of silence before the lesson, which was the hardest part – to hear someone crying, to hear how the relatives of one of the “students” died. It is impossible to convey this in words, especially by writing down thoughts.

Why is civic activism important to you?

In my opinion, civic activism is one of the strongest features of democracy. Personally, I use the phrase “So that others may live” in my life. This phrase means a lot to me. To put it very simply, it just feels good to help someone else who needs help, I like to be rewarded by people’s smiles, it makes up for all the hard work you have done so far. I also really enjoy the opportunities that democracy gives me – to have a free voice, which I often use to defend my rights and the rights of others.

What would you like to wish the Institute community?

I would like to wish the University community strength in these difficult times. I would also like to encourage everyone to volunteer to take an active part in civic activities because that is how we build our country. Also, I would like to ask and remind everyone to donate to Ukraine! This is extremely important. Many people have ‘adapted’ to the current situation, but I am firmly convinced that one cannot forget and adapt. The help of all of us is extremely important at this time. And finally, unity.

You can donate:

www.blue-yellow.lt