LITHUANIA'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM by E. J. HARRISON Fonnerly British V ice-Consu l in Kaunas and Vilnius Author 0/ " Li thuania Past and Present", " Lithuania 1928," etc. Or igin ally pub lished by THE FEDERATION OF LITHUANIAN SOCIETIES IN GREAT BRITAIN November 1944 Reprinted with Au thor's Permission by Till'; LITHUANIAN AMERICAN I N FOI~oM A TI ON CENTEH New York, Februa ry 194:> Reprodu ced, by permi s­ sion of the Columbia Uni­ versity Press, from Th e Economic Reconstruction oi Lithuania alter 1918, by Anicetas Simutis, New York, 1942. The total area of Lithu­ ania, including the Klai­ peda-Memel Distri ct, and the Vilnius region as spec­ ified in th e P eace Tr eaty with Russia of July 12, 1920, accounts for approx. 34.000 square miles with a popu lation a little over 4,000,000. The Klaipeda district it­ self comprises 1,100 sq. miles with 154,000 inhabit­ ant s. Th e Vilnius region embrace"s 12,448 sq. miles with a population of 1.600,000. Due to th e Po­ lish aggression of 1920, Lithu ania was left with ap prox. 21,500 sq. miles of territory and 2,500,000 in­ habitants,- an area larger _lW,WAT$ than Belgium, Holland, AlOTT 0 TIMI'OlAI'YCAl'lTM Den mark or Estonia. • DII'WCT YOWMI • emu TOWHS teAU' 1. 1000.000 INTRODUCTORY REM ARK S To THE A M ERI CAN EDITIO N Lithuania is the largest and most populated of the three Baltic States, the other two bein g Latvia an d Estonia. It is situated on the eastern sho re of the Baltic Sea and, roughl y, comprises the basin of the Nemunas (N iemen, Memel ) River and its tributari es. Recorded history of an independent Lithuanian State dates back to the El eventh Century A.D. Foll owing a period of expansion and grad­ ual decline, Lithuania was deprived of its independence in 1795 through partitions between Muscovite Russia and Prussia . After a struggle of 120 'years, marked by armed insurrections of eac h succeeding generation (1794-5, 1812 , 1831, 1863-4, 1905 and the inde­ pendence wars of 1918-1920), Lithuania was reborn in 1918 as a d emo crati ~ and independent Republic. In 1920 the young republic fell victim to Polish aggression, which resulted in the loss of its capital city, Vilnius, and of Southern and Eastern provinces. Even in this mutilated shape and despite economic hardships follow­ ing World Wa r I, Lithuania showed remarkable vita lity, great ability in self-govern ment and economic development. In 1939 Lithuania again became a victim of renewed Russo-German aggression. In March, 1939, Nazi Germany seized the port and district of Klaipeda-Memel, and in the fall of th e same year, by a Russo­ German arrangement, Lithuani a was assigned to a Ru ssian "sphere of influence" which for the secon d tim e in history, tr ansformed Lithuania into a Russo-German battleground. Lithuania again revolted in Ju ne 194 1 and restored its in dependence for a few days. However, as soo n as the country was overrun and held firmly by the German armies, Lithu ania's provisional government was suppressed and the country's political leadership went into the under­ gro und. In the summer offensive of 1944 Soviet Ru ssian troops ha ve again overrun the country . Lithuanian hopes, as well as those of all small nations, are based on the application of the principles of the Atl antic Charter and restor a­ tion of law and morality in international relations, rather than a con­ tinuation of resurgent pow er politics and " spheres of influence." LITHUANIAN AMERICAN INFORMATION C ENTER -~- "For though usurper s sway the rul e awhile, Yet heavens ar e just, and tim e sup ­ pr esseth wrongs." SHAKESPEARE, King Henry VI. "How many little States that serve th e god s ar e subject to th e godless but more stro ng, made slaves by might of superi or army." E URIPIDES. "The y desire to see no territorial changes that do not accord with th e freely expressed wishes of th e people conce rned.. .. "They wish to see sovere ign rights and self-gover nme nt restored to tho se who ha ve been forcibly deprived of th em. ATLANTICC H AIITE II. · 1. BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETC H LITHUANiA is not a " new state" of Europe eithe r po litica lly or cultur­ ally. She is as old as most of the other Europe an nati ons, and possesses a striking histor y repl ete with dr amatic viciss itudes. Race, Religion and Language .- Th e present-day Lithuanian s are a surviva l of a separa te and distinct bran ch of the Aryan fam ily and do not bel ong to the Slavo nic or Ger­ manic race. Their lan gu age differs as widely fr om those ne ighbo ur ing tong ues as, for instan ce, Englis h differs from the Greek. Lo ng before the Christian era , the Lithuanians already lived on the Baltic shores and in the dawn of history atta ined a level of civilization as hi gh as th at of many other Europ ean nati ons of those days. The Rom an hi stori an Tacitus, who lived in the first century A. D., mentions the Lithuanian s as good cult ivators of th e soil. Such eminent Germa n scientists as Profes­ sors Ti schler , Bezzenber g and others, admire the exce llent workman ship revealed in br on ze articles found in early tombs of various bran ches of the Lithuanian family of nati ons. Ano ther German archeeolog ist, Lis­ sa uer, affirms that already in the first three cen turies of th e Christia n era, Lithuani an s used domesti c implements of hi gh technical devel op­ ment and bea utifu l bron ze and si lver ornaments. The Lithuanian s of those days were paga ns. Th e chief characteristic of the ancient Lithuanian reli giou s belief was a spec ia l veneration for nature and all her manifestations. Judgin g from a p lentitude of histori­ ca l evidence and archreolog ica l legacies, to th e Lithuani ans of that age all nature seemed full of a mysteriou s power mightier th an man, whi ch expressed its relation s with human beings either benign antly or malig­ nantly. Christ ian chro niclers were amazed that the "supe rstitious Lith­ uanian s" sho uld, instead of a God, revere the sun, the moon; the stars, the earth itself, wind, thunder, fire, forests, ri vers, lakes, hills, plants, an imals, even insec ts. In their apo theosis of nat ural phenomena it may be supposed that the Lithuanians ins tinc tively conformed to the prin­ ciples of human devel op ment which have been operative in the case of virtually all primitive peoples, i.e., ani mism and anthropo morphis m. But in th e reli gion of the Lithuanian s we see a more immediate and di rect re lationship with nature devoid of an y clear anthropomorphic delin eation. Regarding all nature as sacred, the Lithuanian offere d up prayers to her as she appeared to him, without imagining an y other concurrent extern al creative forces. Most significa nt fact perhap s of all, the Lithuanian s were pagan s but not idolaters, for , unlike th e Gree ks and Romans, the Lithuanian s of that day possessed no graven images of gods: Th ei r cult may be descr ibed as the first distincti ve pantheism 5 o ~ people who, feelin g themselves to be weaklings in the power of the clements, sought their concrete indulgence, but made no attempt to em­ body those elements in a myth ological system. Belief in th e intimate parti cip ati on of nature in the fat e of mankind is found in the entire Welta nschau ung of the ancient Lithuani ans. Among few peopl es of the world, lar ge or small, has the link with the past been preserved to such an extent as am ong the Lithuanians. In . this respect they exemplify th e truth of Schopenhauer's aphorism. "A people which does not kn ow its past is livin g merely for th e tim e bein g in the present of the existing generation, and only through knowledge of its history does a nation become truly self-conscious." That is doubt­ less one reason why in Lithuania the acceptance of Christi anity ha s fail ed more th an elsewhere to oblitera te the s ~ r v i va ls of many a pic­ turesque pagan ritual. This intimate association with th e past is further demonstrated in the Lithuanian lan guage which, of all living European speec h to-day, is most closely akin to Sanskrit. As far back as the eighteenth century the att ention of German philologists such as P. Ruhig, J. Vat er , von Bohl en, W. Humboldt and others was drawn to the unusual an tiquity of Lithuanian. Th eodore Benfey says of it: "The Lithuanian lan guage, even in its present-d ay shape, has to a large extent preserved such an ancient character that for knowledge of the fundamental forms of the Indo-German ic tongues it possesses an importance which is scarcely less than that of, inter alia, -Sanskrit and B'actrian ." Again, 1. Ka rlowicz thu s characterizes the antiquity of Lithuanian: ' " Its resonance an d endings ever remind us of the ancient sounds of th e Indians, Persians, Gree ks, Romans, Goth s, Celts, and the ancient Sl avs.