Author's mission to tell of heroes

IN THE study of his home, John Millar holds a prayer book, an old leather-cloth volume that was once considered so controversial that his father would have been shot dead or burned alive merely for handling it.

It is known in the Lithuanian language as a Szatinis - "the spring of faith".

Books like it were banned by a Russian regime that wanted to eradicate a language and culture that was kept alive only by a heroic band of freedom fighters, many of whom could not even read or write .

Mr Millar’s Lithuanian-born father, Vincentas Stepšes, later to be known as "Willie Millar" was one of the group regarded as national heroes in their homeland.

More than a century on, Mr Millar, 79, from Fairlie, Ayrshire, is about to embark on a journey into his past to record their exploits.

Mr Millar, whose father and uncle were among 8,000 Lithuanians who fled to Scotland before 1914, has become the oldest recipient of a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust travelling fellowship grant.

It will pay for a six-week trip to Lithuania, in search of the "book carriers" who safeguarded the identity of a nation surrounded by Belarus, Poland, and the Russian region of Kaliningrad, formerly East Prussia.

Mr Millar, the author of The Lithuanians in Scotland will travel to the border region, where his father and uncle were born, to seek out descendants of the heroes, many of whom ended up working in Scottish steel mills.

From the 18th century, Lithuania was subjugated by Russia.

After an insurrection in 1863, the Tsar appointed a governor general with orders to "maintain Lithuania without Lithuanians".

The official attempted to kill the language by banning the printed word, newspapers, magazines and books, and proscribing the Latin alphabet, in favour of Cyrillic.

An underground movement of the religious and educated classes used presses in East Prussia to produce printed material. "But they had to get into Lithuania," said Mr Millar.

He added: "That was where my father, my uncle and men like them came in.

"My father never learned to read or write, but he became part of the resistance movement whose reward was death."

The "carriers" wrapped books in waterproof material, tied them to their backs and swam across the Sešup river, the border with East Prussia which was heavily patrolled by Russian soldiers.

When smugglers were caught the "fortunate" ones were shot. The others were burned on a pyre of the smuggled books.

A favourite Tsarist saying was "Why waste kindling."

Mr Millar’s father was born in 1870 and his brother, Juozas, in 1872. At the height of the proscription they were young and fired with zeal to be guardians of their language.

But the smugglers quickly became known.

Mr Millar said: "My father and uncle were returning one night to their homes near the border when they met a local ‘bobby’. He whispered: ‘I wouldn’t go home!’

"Willie" and "Joe" knew the Russians were waiting.

"They swam back into East Prussia, but even after a month’s exile they learned they were still being hunted."

The brothers heard that they could sail to the US from Hamburg in Germany, so they trekked across Europe working as they went to raise money.

When they arrived, they discovered it cost 5 for the US, but 1 for the passage to Leith.

"Leith, it was," said Mr Millar. He added: "When they arrived they were told ‘your lot’ are all heading for Lanarkshire steel mills.

"They travelled to Carnbroe works at Bellshill, which was owned by a company with other mills in Glengarnock and Stevenson, Ayrshire."

When the brothers gave their names, the foreman said: "I can’t spell that! You’re Willie and Joe Millar!’"

Eventually "Joe" did go to the US, but "Willie" went as far as an Ayrshire mill, where he was promised a better weekly wage of 12/6d (about 62p)

Mr Millar said: "My father was a man you would call uneducated, but he could speak Lithuanian, English, Polish and German.

"He died in 1954 aged 84, but never lost a sense of homeland. He said: ‘I am Willie Millar now, but when I am buried it will be as Vincentas Stepšes." Mr Millar added: "I’m looking forward to going back. I am certain of a welcome. When I first went to Lithuania I was treated like the prodigal son.

"The carriers are heroes, commemorated everywhere.

"A retired 85-year-old teacher hugged me, spat on the ground and said: ‘Without men like your father, we would speak Russian.’"