19.08.2022. Lithuania again between a rock and a hard place?, Lithuanian Echo
Česlovas Iskauskas
Approaching the culmination of August 23, when 83 years ago the fate of many nations was determined by the criminal Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and even later by the additional secret protocols of this agreement, it is necessary to remember what a rock and a hard place Lithuania was then and how difficult it was for her. that choice. It seems to be easier today because we are part of the West. but is it worth understanding?
August and September of 1939 were decisive months not only for Lithuania, but also for the entire narrowing, then expanding stretch between the small area of Sala in Finnish Lapland and Bessarabia, then belonging to Romania. The fate of these countries was basically decided first by good friends, and then by mortal enemies, the Soviet Union and Germany. Therefore, the oft-repeated question of what we could have chosen in that scramble is more hypothetical than real. We did not decide our own destiny.
Photomontage of Joachim von Ribbentrop (right) shaking hands with Stalin (left) after the signing of the German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact
East Prussiashown in pink, with connected Klaipėda region, shown in blue. Other colors: Yellow – Gdańsk territory; green – Poland; purple – Lithuania; Light green – Latvia. wikimedia.org photo.
In fact, August 23, when the Germany-USSR non-aggression pact and secret protocols were signed, is only a formal starting point for Lithuania’s future. Historians claim that already in 1938 In the Soviet Union, secret maps were published in which Lithuania was called “Lithuanian SSR”.
On August 28, 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy signed an agreement on Czechoslovakia at a conference in Munich. After taking over the Sudetenland for half a year, on 15 March 1939, Hitler seized all of Czechoslovakia. When signing the agreement, the leaders of Britain and France thought that by giving part of Czechoslovakia to Germany, they would avoid war, but they were wrong.
Moscow watched as its friend began to dominate Europe. This prompted Stalin to look at the map of Europe with the eyes of a predator as well. As Bronius Nemick, a lawyer and historian who lived in the USA, wrote in “Echoes”, on August 21, 1939, a new trade agreement between Germany and the USSR was signed in Berlin, which was more for Moscow, who believed that Hitler was expanding ties of sincere friendship and cooperation. This helped persuade Stalin to receive the German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, who after a few days, on August 23 (more precisely, at 1:00 a.m. on the 24th) with the representative of the USSR government, the Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov (real name – Scriabin) signed the non-aggression pact, the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols. According to them, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall into the German sphere.
In the additional protocol, there is a sentence that “both countries recognize the interests of Lithuania in the Vilnius region”. According to historian Algimantas Kasperavičius, the return of Vilnius and Vilnius region to Lithuania, which had been seized by the Poles for 19 years, was not Stalin’s benevolence at all, but Hitler’s plan. It was the Führer, according to the historian, who instructed J. von Ribbentrop to include the Vilnius issue in the text of the treaty. If it wasn’t for this whim of Hitler, Vilnius would have gone to Soviet Belarus, as, by the way, many former lands of the LDK.
The return of Vilnius to Lithuania was of the least concern to the Soviets. It was another concession to Hitler, who, just a week after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, invaded Poland. Soon, on September 17, the Red Army won its part – it occupied the entire eastern territory of Poland up to the Vistula. According to the secrets of the pact, Lithuania and the other Baltic countries, wedged into the so-called zone of interests of the USSR by the sick protocol, still belong to Germany, so Moscow was interested in “formalizing” this matter as soon as possible.
And here is September 28. another exchange took place: the border and friendship treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union and additional secret protocols were signed in Moscow. In exchange for the Polish lands east of the Vistula, the Nazis gave Lithuania to Moscow, keeping only the southwestern part of Užnemunė to the south of the present-day Kutuzov – Pilviškių – Marijampolė – Simno, etc. About 184,000 people lived here. people.
The Soviets did not wait for anything: on September 19 they had already occupied Vilnius, so all that remained for Moscow was to perform a noble formality. October 10 according to the imposed mutual aid agreement between the USSR and Lithuania, Vilnius and Vilnius region were returned to Lithuania, and the first 20,000 people were brought into the country. Red Army contingent (it increased to 130 thousand at the beginning of the next year). That Nazi-Soviet conspiracy also had a monetary expression: the Soviet Union, establishing military bases in Lithuania, in one fell swoop also crossed the Užnemunė district reserved for Germany. According to the Second Secret Protocol, it was left to Germany, “which has the right to predict when an agreement will be concluded concerning the annexation of this territory to Germany.”
After the Soviets occupied the section, V. Molotov offered to pay 3.86 million for it in a note dated August 12, 1940. gold middle, that is, half the amount that the United States once paid to the Russian Tsar for Alaska. As written by Br. Nemick, the third secret protocol signed on January 10, 1941, that the USSR would pay twice as much for this territory – 7.5 million. of the golden month, ie 31.5 million reichsmarks – even more expensive than in 1867. Alaska was sold ($7.2 million; of course, the dollar exchange rate was completely different then).
Historians do not agree on why the position of Hitler’s Lithuania was so good in two weeks, because there are no reliable documents or testimonies that influenced Moscow and Berlin to change the annexes to the pact. Historian A. Kasperavičius claims that the southern flank of the divided territories, i.e. Bessarabia, was more important for both. Then it belongs to Romania, the USSR did not recognize it from the beginning of its existence, ie in 1922, but after all, Romania fed the huge army of the Reich with oil. in 1940 part of it was occupied by the USSR, until finally the dictatorship of the officer Ion Antoneskaus and King Mihaj I became a satellite of the Nazis. Thus, on the southern flank, the interests of the Nazis and Bolsheviks are more acutely complicated, and the fate of the Baltic countries was no longer of great concern to Moscow.
Even when he handed Lithuania over to Stalin, and agreed to take Vilnius from the Poles and give it to the Lithuanians, Hitler knew that, less than two years later, the whole region would still attack him on its knees. this twisted bow to the Bolsheviks to the German National Socialists was confirmed by J. von Ribbentrop’s totally secret telegram no. 497, which he sent to Moscow on 10.05.1939 to German Count Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg.
How the Lithuanian government behaved at that time is another question. The fact that after the exchange on September 28, as “Ūkininka patarejas” wrote, “Lithuania went to meet the red dawn”, does not describe the political complexity of that time. The Interwar Minister of Foreign Affairs, Juozas Urbšys, as if repenting many years later, remembered that Lithuanian sympathies for Hitler had significantly decreased in 1939. In March, the Klaipėda region was seized by Germany, and the favor of the Soviets was increased by the supposedly benevolent restoration and transfer of Vilnius to Lithuania.
Then and for many decades after the war, no one knew about the criminal deal between Moscow and Berlin. That is why recklessly condemning the Lithuanian government of that time that it did not obey the German calls to march and retake Vilnius itself, then to oppose the Red Army, and finally to form a government-in-exile under the conditions of the Soviet occupation, following the example of the Poles, means a lack of understanding of the circumstances of the time.
On the eve of the war, Lithuania honestly adhered to neutrality, looked at the passivity of Great Britain and France (although they had already declared war on Nazi Germany on September 3), believed that the latter would not be able to win the war, was heavily influenced by Bolshevik propaganda, etc. In the end, the mood of resistance was suppressed A. Smetona’s position on the eve of the Soviet occupation: although after the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, in 1940 June 15 at the government meeting, A. Smetona advocated the rejection of the ultimatum and armed resistance to the aggressor, but he did not receive the support of the government members and the commander of the army, he dropped everything and left Lithuania.
Only about half a year later, the initiative of organized resistance to the Soviets appeared, the idea of the LAF and the Provisional Government was born, nurturing a beautiful dream of restoring an independent state under the Nazi umbrella. the occupants look both good, however. The documents of this period were presented in one place by prof. V. Landsbergis was also drawn up in 2012. the booklet “The beginning of resistance. June 1941: Documents on the six-year Provisional Government’.
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The projection of the historical vicissitudes of that time onto today seems pointless and naive. But let’s consider: although we are sure that Lithuania will not repeat the tragic experience of Ukraine, we are not guaranteed that the Western “protective umbrella” will be completely reliable, that we ourselves will find the strength to ensure the security of the state or at least initial resistance to a possible aggressor. The position of neutrality is not the dimension of these times, but any kind of hammer and anvil a small nation can be for a short time.
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