454 THE END OF THE COLD WAR
Even his aides did not know how long he had dreamed of obtaining
wide autonomy for his native Georgia and the other Soviet republics.^5
In February 1988 he was shocked by the Azeri massacre of Armenians
in the coastal city of Sumgait in Azerbaijan.^6 Again he kept quiet. Gor-
bachëv’s dominance of internal policy prevailed and, as a result,
national resentments intensified.
The KGB sent him reports that supported the leadership’s com-
placency by omitting to mention that the anticommunists had national
opinion on their side.^7 The agency preferred to pinpoint specific diffi-
culties. Radio Free Europe, which was no longer subject to jamming,
called on Lithuanian adolescents to ignore their military call-up
papers.^8 The Vatican was a constant irritation. Although it did not
demand permission for a Papal visit to celebrate 600 years of Lithua-
nian Christianity in 1987, the Catholic clergy had not given up hope
that John Paul II would make the trip – and the government in
Moscow received petitions to this effect. Even bishoprics in West
Germany raised the matter. Lithuania’s parish priests encouraged
people to place wooden crosses in their vegetable gardens. Believers
no longer felt scared to object to the Soviet legal restrictions on the
catechism and biblical teachings to the young.^9 Foreign intelligence
services had opportunities for mischief after the opening of ‘closed’
cities made it possible for tourists – and secret agents – to penetrate
most parts of the republic. The KGB expected America’s special ser-
vices to organize ‘provocations’.^10
The Lithuanians set up a popular front, Sąjūdis, to represent the
nation’s interests, and the Estonians and Latvians soon followed their
example. Gorbachëv sent Yakovlev to Vilnius on an exploratory
mission in August 1988. Sąjūdis sent activists including Vytautas
Landsbergis to join in the public debate. Landsbergis told Yakovlev to
put no trust in Lithuania’s communist leaders, who really wanted a
return to the policies of the Brezhnev era. Yakovlev took this calmly as
even the nationalists applauded him, and Landsbergis expressed sup-
port for perestroika. The call went up to end the practice of appointing
a Russian as Second Secretary of the Communist Party of Lithuania.
Lithuanians disliked the current incumbent, Nikolai Mitkin. Yakovlev
replied: ‘Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the Lithuanians
are people of great culture. I ask whether it is fair of you to criticize
Mitkin just because he is a Russian? If I were appointed Second Secre-
tary for Lithuania, would you also want to get rid of me?’ Some in the
audience shouted that they would welcome Yakovlev’s appointment.