[1] When in 1950 her father was arrested in the power struggle for party leadership of the Estonian SSR, Lukas left Estonia for fear of reprisals.

[1] Though her father died in 1953 at the Tayshet forced labor camp in Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, Lukas would not return to Estonia until 1955.

[1] In 1968, Lukas began working as a lawyer, holding positions on the Legal Commission of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and in the Estonian State Publishing House.

In 1989, she was elected as the first woman and first chair of the Tartu City Council, after Estonia declared its sovereignty from the USSR the previous year.

She was instrumental in establishing new foreign relationships during her tenure and re-establishing independent legislation, while maintaining legal continuity.

[4] After her term on the Council ended in 1993,[4] Lukas served as an appointed defense counsel for the Supreme Court of Estonia in criminal cases.