Historians: Banionis was an agent of KGB

The outstanding Lithuanian actor Donatas Banionis was an agent of the KGB. It is reported by DELFI.LT with reference to data published by the Center for the study of the genocide and the resistance of the inhabitants of Lithuania.

Banionis was recruited in 1970 before a trip to the United States, where he was invited by the Santaros Švies Federation. He was given an agent pseudonym armor. The task of the actor was to collect information about the Lithuanians of the United States. It was reported that he completed this task by establishing contacts with a number of Lithuanian emigrants who interested the KGB and presented their characteristics. As noted, when visiting Lithuania by these persons, the information received would make it easier for the KGB to monitor them.

It was also stated that a trip of an armored agent in the United States was useful for ideological work.

From the list of Banionis agents, it was excluded in 1974 - as historians suggest, due to the fact that he became a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (the Delfi.lt publication is mistakenly mentioned by the Lithuanian SSR).

Thus, Chris Kelvin in the "Solaris" Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) - Banionis played his most significant role in cinema - played just when the KGB agent was.

Since 1960, the actor has been in the CPSU. He was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Lithuanian SSR.

Banionis died in September 2014 at the age of 90.

It also became known that the KGB agent was an outstanding Lithuanian violinist and conductor Saulus Sondetkis (1928-2016). Received Sondetkis in 1962; He remained the agent until 1982. He had a pseudonym Salyutas.

In 1967, the KGB found out that the father of the musician - an economist and politician of interwar Lithuania Yatskus Sondetkis, who lived in exile in the United States - wants to establish contact with his son. The special service decided to take advantage of this. Sondetkis was given the task of influencing his father so that he would refuse "anti -Soviet activity" and return to his homeland, where he could be used. In 1968, the meeting of his father and son took place in Canada, where the musician was on tour. In the USSR, Sonadkis-Sr. did not go to live.