Each politician serves as a very convenient target for the press, which is ready to delve into even the dark past, even in the dirty linen of a representative of the âpowerful people of this worldâ, hoping for a scandal or at least a modest informational occasion.
The beginning of the way
The current President of Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite, who has a fairly typical biography for all post-Soviet politicians, has recently become the subject of lively, and sometimes quite outrageous, journalistic investigations.
She was born on March 1, 1956 in an unremarkable Vilnius family. The future politician did not graduate from high school: the certificate was full of âtriplesâ. Perhaps this is why I had to wait and work as an ordinary employee in the personnel department of the local philharmonic society, but for a long time it was not enough: a year later a young ambitious girl left for the northern capital.
The biography of Dali Grybauskaite in the Leningrad period is considered very mysterious. The official version says that at first she was an ordinary worker (as Madame President herself recalls), and then she was transferred to the chemical laboratory of the famous Soviet company Rot Front.
It is not known exactly what the future politician was doing in the service, but working in the factory gave a number of undeniable advantages: firstly, the right to a temporary so-called a limited residence permit, which was not at all superfluous for a girl who came from a distant republic, and secondly, the necessary working experience, useful for entering a prestigious university, which was Leningrad State University named after Zhdanova.
Education
It should be noted that the biography of Dali Grybauskaite indisputably proves only one thing: she was not interested in determination and perseverance. In 1976 he entered the evening department of the Faculty of Economics of Leningrad State University. The future president did not leave work at the factory. Today classmates note a fanatical focus on learning, maximum concentration and a complete lack of personal life. Such specific behavior has led to many speculations.
After graduating from university, in 1983, yesterday's student returned to her homeland. Further ups and downs of events in her fate indirectly confirm that her labor activity did not consist in âpushing heavy cartsâ, as Grybauskaite herself assures, but in unbridled public zeal. In the memoirs of classmates, she looks purposeful, ideological, avid and indestructible Komsomol member.
Labor activity
Perhaps this version has the right to exist, because after returning to Lithuania, she went to work not just anywhere, but as a teacher at the Higher Party School. This educational institution has published many politicians of both the Soviet and the independent period of Lithuania. It is noteworthy that she was admitted to teaching without any degree, but as a member of the now painstakingly hated CPSU.
In 1988, an annoying misunderstanding with the lack of a dissertation was corrected: a successful defense resulted in the Academic Council of the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU unanimously voting for the candidate to be awarded the title of candidate of sciences.
At this time, the Soviet Union began to "crackle." The public life of the Baltic states sharply intensified, calls for independence were heard, but until 1991 there was no information about a fiery struggle with the Dali Grybauskaite regime. Her biography says that in the early 1990s she worked diligently at her former place of work, then got a job as a scientific secretary at the Institute of Economics and, it seems, nothing foreshadowed the rapid development of events.
The beginning of a political career
How she managed to disown her former associates is not known (but the direct head of the future president was forced to flee lustration abroad), but already in 1991 she turned out to be Dalia Grybauskaite in politics, in which she feels like a fish in the water to this day.
Studying in the USA served as a unique impetus: the future president graduated from the course at Georgetown University. From that moment, a truly dizzying career of Dali Grybauskaite begins: the biography was full of prestigious responsible posts - from the director of the department of the Ministry of International Economic Relations in 1991 to the Minister of Finance in 2001. She managed to work as an authorized minister at the embassy in the States, and ambassador to the EU.
After Lithuania joined the EU, Grybauskaite was delegated to the European Commission, where she did not deal with education and culture for a short time, but by November 2004 her position was again connected with the economy: she was the Commissioner for Financial Planning and Budget.
Madam President
During this period, its popularity is growing rapidly. The promising politician Dalia Grybauskaite, whose photo is increasingly appearing on the pages of various publications, receives a very good press: she is compared with Margaret Thatcher, and in 2005 she was even awarded the title âEuropean Commissioner of the Yearâ. Activities in the field of reforming the European budget receive good reviews.
Meanwhile, serious problems begin in the Lithuanian economy, and Dalia Grybauskaite, whose political career is in its prime, sharply criticizes the country's authorities, sometimes deserving very sharp accusations of politicking.
In 2008, she becomes the âWoman of the Yearâ in her homeland, which is very helpful: next year, Grybauskaite runs for president and triumphantly wins in the first round, receiving almost three quarters (69.2%) of the vote. While this is a record, no one has yet received such trust.
Relations with Russia
The political course of the current leader of the largest Baltic republic can be described as aggressive, anti-Soviet and anti-Russian. Given the information about the unprecedented ideology that Dalia Grybauskaite was famous for in her youth, as well as her membership in the Komsomol and the CPSU, this position sometimes causes grins.
Nobody criticizes the Kremlin and the President of the Russian Federation personally like the Lithuanian first lady. Grybauskaiteâs statements about the Putin regime, open speeches at the expense of the âterrorist stateâ, and genuine support for Ukraine in the conflict make her a character very unpleasant for the Russian authorities. Perhaps this is what she owes to participating in several scandals, because the biography of Dali Grybauskaite really gives considerable scope for imagination.
Dirty politics
After a series of interviews with international media, the President of Lithuania received a sharp rebuke from the Russian Federation: the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman advised her to "moderate the Komsomol fuse and leave the complexes of the Soviet past."
The problems at customs organized by the Russian side should also have hinted to the president that it would be better, but this didnât work at Grybauskaite: in an interview given this time to the Air Force, she said that she would not speak with the President of Russia until he give up his aggressive policy.
Immediately after that, a uniform scandal erupted. On December 9, 2014, members of the European Parliament found in their mailboxes a book by the Lithuanian journalist Ruta Janutene, in which the biography of Dali Grybauskaite was presented from a very unpleasant side. An excellent English translation, an ominous black and red cover, no doubt, considerable money was invested in provocation.
To say that the book is scandalous is not to say anything: Dalia Grybauskaite, whose photos immediately streaked with the Internet, is accused of collaborating with the KGB, heartlessness, careerism. The current patriotism has been declared simply âthe next layer of paintâ on the illegible in the means of âRed Daleâ.
It will be difficult for the president to wash off these charges. Europe often lives by the principle of a well-known anecdote about a tarnished reputation: âEither he stole something, or he was stolen from something ... there was some kind of dark story.â
Personal life of the head of state
The accusations of callousness and heartlessness also achieved a goal in a certain way: the presidentâs personal life is a mystery with seven seals: she is not married and has never even been in a civil marriage. This 59-year-old woman has no children. The yellow press even tried to âsewâ on to it a non-traditional sexual orientation, from which the politician zealously denies itself, causing a storm of unfriendly jokes.
In the Russian segment of the Internet, Dalia Grybauskaite (personal life, photo politician) also becomes an object of investigation and trivial speculation over and over again. Here, accusations of lesbian inclinations are of no interest to anyone: on the contrary, they say that she had an affair with a senior Soviet official who broke her heart.
The memoirs of former employees attribute Gribauskaite to an affair with a member of the Komsomol district committee: she seemed to âkiss on the benchesâ with him under cover of darkness. This mysterious character is associated with the work of a teacher in the Vilnius Higher School of Economics, which it was hard to get to without a degree, the âsuddenâ defense of the dissertation in 1988, and the âstrangeâ behavior in 1990, when the Baltic states achieved independence.
Inconvenient questions
The media is not in vain called the âfourth powerâ: Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, whose biography really has several dark spots, is forced to regularly answer very uncomfortable questions: for example, was her father, Polykarpas Grybauskas, an employee of the NKVD. The politician claims that he didnât work as a firefighter (the prudent daughter even took a certificate from the Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Center).
They also ask whether the biography of Dali Grybauskaite contains shameful information about her collaboration with the KGB. Attacked by the press, Madame President claims no - during her studies and work in Leningrad she was an ordinary student and factory worker.
Post-Soviet politicum
Strictly speaking, the current ruling elite of the former LSSR has a dubious reputation in terms of resistance to the criminal regime. Former president Brazauskas is a communist. The current Foreign Minister, Linas Linkevicius, is a Komsomol activist. Zenonas Vaigauskas, the head of the election commission, who has held his post for 20 long years, is generally the author of a laudatory dissertation on the âfather of all nationsâ Joseph Vissarionovich.
In principle, ideology is hardly of great importance in the life of a politician: they seek power not âin orderâ, but âbecauseâ. And if for this it is necessary to become a Komsomol member at the age of 14, or a communist at 27, the game is worth the candle. And so did Dalia Grybauskaite in her youth, it was precisely such accusations that have been voiced against her in recent years.
Many rightly connect this with her anti-Russian position, but this fact does not mean at all that the former adherence to communist ideas is a lie. However, such accusations are characteristic of any post-Soviet politician, which is Dalia Grybauskaite. Biography, family â whether the President herself was such a zealous Komsomol, whether her father collaborated with the NKVD â all this from the point of view of the obscurity of the dark communist past is very doubtful, but unprovable. The archives of the all-powerful KGB carefully keep their secrets, and the monstrous amount of lies that the free press produces can drown any truth.