Lithuania awakening

Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of perestroika released new forces throughout Soviet society. In Lithuania this process resulted in a psychological-cultural revolution. Deep-rooted feelings, long suppressed, exploded, demonstrations and mass meetings ensued, and the face of the society changed. Although at the beginning of 1988 Lithuania appeared to be one of the relatively conservative republics in the Soviet Union, by the end of the year it stood among the leaders in pushing change. By 1990, Lithuania was even forcing Moscow to respond to its initiatives for independence and economic reform.Is Lithuania the prototype of a nation emerging from the collectivity of the Soviet Union? Alfred Erich Senn, who was present during most of this piece of history in the making, believes that it may be. He documents the dramatic events and changes in Lithuania during 1988 with the perspective of a historian and the immediacy of a participant.The reader will easily grasp the whole spectrum of political activity in Lithuania, and the range from right to left among Lithuanian activists. And, because the Lithuanians have emerged among the leaders of change in the Soviet Union, Senn's account provides a key to later developments, in terms of both political movements and political personalities

Nacionalinis veiksnys pirmojo pasaulinio karo žvalgybų veikloje Šveicarijoje

In the course of the First World War, ‘the nationalities question’ exploded in Eastern Europe. By the fall of 1918, the Eastern Europe of the three empires had collapsed, and national states were rising. During the war, the nationalities question as perceived in Switzerland, a neutral country, had developed from an initial concern about the loyalty of the minorities in the borderlands of the three East European empires into a battle royal for recognition as individual states. The article focuses on the activities of the German ambassador in Bern who was the most active force in the development, and he gave special support for the nationalities on Russia’s western border. Poland’s future quickly became the major issue but this threatened Germany’s own ambitions in Eastern Europe. The Lithuanians and the Ukrainians particularly opposed Polish dreams of establishing a large state. The Germans, however, considered the future of Ukraine to lie mostly in the hands of the Austrian Empire, and therefore Lithuania appeared to be the more promising force to limit any new Polish state

What happened in Lithuania in 1940?

On 9 June 2000, in response to discussions in the Seimas (parliament) of the Republic of Lithuania, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs declared that the Soviet Union did not occupy Lithuania by force in 1940. The Ministry claimed that Soviet military forces entered Lithuanian territory in June 1940 with the consent of the authorities of this state, and this consent was reacted to in accordance with international legal regulations of that time. Moreover, the Ministry alleged that the decision of the leaders of the Soviet Union to "accept" Lithuania into the Soviet Union was merely a response to the request of Lithuania’s supreme power to do so. The majority of Lithuanians do not agree with such an interpretation of events. Leaving aside discussions related to debates of the Seimas regarding claims against the former Soviet Union (and therefore Russia as well), Russia’s reaction and interpretation of the events of 1940 are worthy of examination as a separate topic. History is always at risk of becoming a tool for politicians and diplomats, as they try to find things in the past that might substantiate the decisions and actions they are taking today. The abovementioned topic can be analysed from different angles: the motives behind the actions of the Soviet Union in 1940, the circumstances and details of entry of Soviet armed forces into the territory of Lithuania, or the reaction of the Lithuanian authorities to foreign military invasion and their subsequent actions. In looking for an answer in this article to the question of what happened in Lithuania in June 1940, it is the arguments set forth in the statement issued by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs that are examined and evaluated first of all