Pikelis Ričardas

Pikelis Ričardas (born in 1957) was born in Raseiniai (father – Juozas Pikelis). In 1975, he graduated from Tryškiai Secondary School in Telšiai district. In the same year, he applied to study Lithuanian language and literature at the Faculty of Philology of Vilnius University. On 15 November 1976, A. Jovaišas, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Philology, submitted a letter to the Rector of the university, in which he stated that Ričardas Pikelis, together with Leonas Paulavičius (a third participant, Steponavičius, is also mentioned in Komsomol archival documents), had torn down and desecrated the national flag of the Lithuanian SSR outside the university’s 8th dormitory “while drunk” on 8 November. The Vice-Dean asked to remove the students from the university’s lists. Ričardas was not a member of Komsomol and became the main culprit. On 16 November of the same year, by an order of the Rector, he was expelled from the list of students “for behaviour incompatible with the name of a Soviet student”. In 1977, he was sentenced by the Supreme Court of the LSSR to two years’ probation. Later he held various jobs. While working as a non-regular correspondent for Jaunimo Gretos, he was told in an informal conversation that he would not be allowed to study. From 1980 to 1990, he lived and worked in the Altai Mountains, where he graduated in a part-time manner from an agricultural tekhnikum in 1988, qualifying as a beekeeping technician. After the declaration of independence, he returned to Lithuania with his family and is a bee farmer. In Lithuania, he studied part-time at a protestant theological institute and completed it.

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