Kalanta was religious; in a school essay he indicated that he would like to become a Roman
Catholic priest, which caused him some troubles with the authorities. He attended an evening school while working at a factory. Kalanta played the guitar and made a few drawings; he had long hair and sympathised with the
hippies. These sympathies were later exploited by the Soviets to discredit Kalanta among the older population. At noon on 14 May 1972, Kalanta poured three litres of petroleum on himself and set himself on fire in the square adjoining the
Laisvės Alėja in front of the
Kaunas State Musical Theatre where, in 1940, the puppet legislature
People's Seimas had declared the establishment of the
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and petitioned the Soviet Union to admit Lithuania as one of the
soviet socialist republics. He died about 14 hours later in hospital. Before the suicide, Kalanta left his notebook with a brief note on a bench. Its content became known only after the
declaration of independence in 1990 and opening up of secret KGB archives. The note read "blame only the regime for my death" (Lithuanian:
Dėl mano mirties kaltinkite tik santvarką). No other notes were found to explain in more detail what had provoked the suicide. After his death, rumours spread that a few of his classmates had formed a patriot group, and that they had held a lottery to determine which of them would have to carry out the mission. Official
Soviet propaganda claimed that Kalanta was
mentally ill. == Riots and aftermath ==