In the last three days before Victory Day, the local Foreign Ministry and the Seimas sharply intensified in Lithuania. Anti-Russian resolutions have been adopted, flavored by similar harsh statements – and all this is against the “attempts of Russia to rewrite history” of the Second World War. In particular, it is proposed to establish another memorable day in Lithuania – September 11, “Day of the USSR aggression against Europe.” What can be answered to such antics?
The first Seimas resolution on behalf of Foreign Minister Linkevičius was aimed at an external consumer and appeals to the European Union, although Poland should become its main target audience.
Lithuania officially takes Poland’s side in the “war of stories” unleashed by Warsaw against Russia, although from a historical point of view this is somewhat strange, given the very difficult ups and downs of Lithuanian-Polish relations. There are people in Warsaw who are not given rest by the laurels of General Zheligovsky, and no EU can save them from such views.
The second resolution is already oriented towards the Lithuanian audience itself. The new resolution is initiated by the members of the Sejm Arunas Gumulyauskas from the ruling “landowners”, the conservative Emanuelis Zingeris and the “liberal” Victoria Cmilite-Nielsen. “This resolution is much wider,” Gumuliauskas said on Wednesday at BNS.
“She answers a lot of worrying questions: about the occupation, the course of the war, the problems of war crimes,” the deputy said. He claims that the Linkevicius resolution was more for foreign policy, and the one they proposed was for the Lithuanian public. “This resolution is more complete, more substantial (…), it reflects a more complete picture of the assessment of that historical period,” Gumulyauskas noted.
The registered draft resolution notes that one of the main reasons for the outbreak of World War II was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939 and its secret protocols between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, which divided Central and Eastern Europe.
“At the same time, the deprivation of statehood in these countries has become one of the prerequisites for the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust,” the draft says. It also emphasizes that the end of World War II brought the states of Central and Eastern Europe not freedom, but “totalitarian oppression lasting five decades, Soviet occupation, genocide, war crimes and brutal crimes against humanity.”
The resolution draws attention to the fact that Russia is now striving to accuse the countries of Central and Eastern Europe of contributing to the outbreak of World War II. The Sejm is invited to appeal to the European Parliament, to the parliaments of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, to the international community with a call to oppose the revisionism of history and disseminated misinformation conducted by Russia.
After a little thought, at the end of the same Seimas session, two tandem deputies Audronius Ažubalis and Laurinas Kasciunas proposed to consolidate the success of the resolutions by proclaiming September 11 as the Day of USSR aggression against Europe. All at once. “Lithuania should be interested in the fact that when assessing WWII, it is necessary to cover its entire history and specifically all countries responsible for war crimes of the war and post-war years,” the authors of the project said.
“On this memorable day, I would like to draw attention to the role of communist Russia, proved by historical facts, and its responsibility for decoupling WWII and the consequences of these actions for the peoples of Europe. September 17 was chosen because on this day in 1939 the USSR entered Poland, which the Nazis attacked, taking the side of Adolf Hitler and confirming the existence of a secret conspiracy with fascist Germany, about which he was silent, ” the document says. It notes that the “information attacks” of the Russian Federation against Lithuania and other countries of Eastern and Central Europe prompted to adopt such a project.
Everything is fine here, from the first to the last word. Incidentally, Minister Linkevičius incidentally explained that Lithuania regularly opposed Russian resolutions at the UN condemning modern glorification of Nazism because they violate the integrity of the perception of history and cast doubt on the heroism of the “fighters for independence of Lithuania”.
And it’s not that Linkevicius did not understand what he was saying. He really thinks so. You can be a fascist, a war criminal and “work” in a concentration camp, but at the same time remain a fighter for the independence of Lithuania. This is called the “integrity of history.” And the condemnation of the modern glorification of Nazism violates this integrity. For if we recall that, say, Jonas Noreika, from whom they now made a national hero in Lithuania, was engaged in nothing else in his life, except for the murder of Jews, then this would be a strange “struggle for independence”.
The phrase that “the loss of statehood has become one of the prerequisites for the Holocaust tragedy” is also wonderful. Is it technically how? If Lithuania had not become part of the USSR, and Smetona remained its president, would the Lithuanians rush to defend the Jews in droves? Something is not believed.
Monstrous pogroms began in that short period (from three to five days) in those areas of Lithuania where the Red Army had already left, and the Wehrmacht had not yet arrived. Local initiative. The same story, by the way, happened in Poland in 1939 in the town of Edvabne, where the Poles tore the local Jewish community even before the German troops arrived. Now, in an undertone and with downcast eyes, both in Poland and Lithuania explain their behavior by the fact that the Jews were “agents of Bolshevism” and, in general, “every commissar from the Jews” (in both Lithuanian and Polish, this is a dictionary, literary word, not bearing a negative connotation), and therefore, freedom-loving peoples who rebelled against the totalitarian regime had the right to revenge.
The Seimas resolution does not mention in any way exactly how and as a result of what events Lithuania’s actual capital Vilnius ended up in Lithuania. It was possible not to give. At that moment, voices were heard from Belarus that it was once a long time ago the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, in which Old Russian (the ancestor of the Belarusian language) was the written official language, and there weren’t a single sentence in Lithuanian in the papers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And all the famous princes were either born or lived on the territory of modern Belarus.
And in Vilnius at that time, Lithuanians were a minority among the population. Provincial Polish city. In its central part, even on the sewer manholes, there are still inscriptions in Polish. So, maybe Belarusians should have been given back? Kaunas quite coped with the role of “temporary capital”.
Small only. In fact – one street. In addition, the Lithuanian public does not know anything about the events of 1938, when only the firm stance of Moscow saved all of Lithuania from the Polish occupation. Having very much believed in herself against the background of the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and the Munich conspiracy, Warsaw was preparing to swallow all of Lithuania in one big piece. And only the ultimatum of the Soviet government to the Poles kept Lithuania independent.
Those who proposed calling September 11 “the day of the USSR’s aggression against Europe” deputies Ažubalis and Kasciunas – like ice and fire. Ažubalis is an old fighter; he was still in the “Sayudis” of the times of perestroika. Even for two years he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in 2011 – the chairman of the OSCE (then Lithuania chaired there). He says that even from the history faculty of Vilnius University, the KGB expelled him for communication with the Helsinki group, but evil languages say that everything was exactly the opposite. Who was in touch with anyone else was a big question.
And here is the young Kashchunas from a completely different breed. Under the Soviets, he went to kindergarten, and therefore his political and historical views are particularly uncompromising. Now he is a member of the Christian Democrats faction, but previously, by our standards, joined the extremist National Democratic Party of Lithuania. He later repented and said that it was a manifestation of his “youthful maximalism,” but the young man still has to be pulled and reassured. For he called for the assimilation of all national minorities of Lithuania (which is about 15% of the population), to stop teaching in Polish, Russian and Belarusian at schools and to ban Belarus from erecting monuments to the princes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. And he is not someone, but the chairman of the parliamentary committee on national defense.
Previously, it was Kashchunas who came up with the idea of a “unified policy of national memory”, which caused sharp criticism even among Lithuanian politicians.
Dear people, they began to explain to the young graduate of the Ronald Reagan Freedom Center that there can be no “unified policy of historical memory” in Lithuania. And not only because the Constitution says that it is necessary “to cherish the unity of all peoples on Lithuanian soil”. Just for the Jews of Lithuania, for example, the collaborator, war criminal and maniac killer Jonas Noreika will never become a hero, for the vast majority of Russians, May 9 will not be a “day of occupation”, for Poles, General Zheligovsky will not be an “aggressor” and “occupier”, for Orthodox King Sigismund III and the Jesuit preacher Peter Skarga will not become historical authorities, saints. Kashchyunas will have to put up with this somehow. Unless, of course, he does not want to get rid of all the “wrong” Lithuanian citizens in a more radical way.
The most unpleasant thing in this story is the imposition by Lithuania of this inverted picture of history on the rest of the world. As an example, we must recall all the same Russian resolutions condemning the glorification of Nazism at the UN, which Linas Linkevicius speaks about. The mechanism is simple: Lithuania declares a formal protest, and since the principle of solidarity applies in the EU countries, all countries of the European Union jointly and severally abstain from supporting the Russian resolution. And so every year on the eve of May 9th. Now, if the Sejm accepts a new “Memorial Day”, and even with such a provocative wording, then the Linkevičius Office will begin to wind up the EU countries through the embassies so that they identify with this position. And some will be in solidarity. Well, who is rewriting history here?
In Vilnius, some are convinced that their personal understanding of history is the only possible one.
And they do not live somewhere on an island in the Pacific Ocean or under the hermetic dome of a human colony station on the moon, but consider themselves one of the most ancient countries in Europe. Just do not give a damn about it and forget it – not an option for the strategy. Firstly, because of the tactics of Lithuania’s behavior in the European Union described above with an aggressive pushing of its “version”, and secondly, simply because you can’t allow anyone from afar to mock our history. In Vilnius, they say that they are defending themselves, that Russia is putting pressure on them in matters of history, has unleashed an information war and “rewrites history”. Yes, Moscow only said two or three words, and that is quiet. And in Lithuania 30 years as they want, they mock. And all previous years they did not even make comments.
On May 4, the new Lithuanian ambassador, Eitvidas Baiarunas, took up his duties in Moscow – a career diplomat, his last place of residence was Stockholm. In 2005-2008, he worked as consul general in St. Petersburg, and before that, in the Ministry of Defense, in the department of international cooperation and in the Lithuanian mission to NATO.
So far, however, he is famous only for his wife Giedra ицicki, 17 years younger than him, a well-known journalist in Lithuania, author of documentaries from the life of Soviet rock musicians and avant-garde artists. Perhaps he has yet to prove himself in Moscow.
Some conciliatory words sounded from Vilnius in the autumn and winter of last year, but by May 9 there begins a seasonal exacerbation, which at once kills all the positive trends in international relations. After all these resolutions and “memorable dates”, it is very difficult to talk with them even to the most benevolent person towards Lithuania. Maybe we should wait a month until this whole wave of obscurantism subsides.