Search

In the first half of 1924, the Commissioner of the City of Vilnius, Kazimierz Wimbor, sent a secret report to the Polish government’s delegate in the city of Vilnius. The report discussed the activities of various community associations in the city, their leadership, and did not hesitate to provide political assessments of the organizations and recommendations for future activities. In terms of organizational activity, the Jews of Vilnius stood out from other communities, having established and maintained dozens of associations of various kinds. The published document is relevant and valuable for conducting research on the history of Vilnius in the 20th century. It the paper is almost unknown in Lithuanian historiography and has not been published yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on soldiers enrolled in permanent compulsory initial military service in Lithuania and analyses their service motivation and attitudes to threats to national security. The article identifies the motives for joining permanent compulsory initial military service and highlights the fact that young people’s choice of permanent compulsory initial military service is most often driven by individual motives. In order to compare the results, representative surveys were conducted in 2018 and 2023. The empirical data suggest that the perception of the main threat to national security identified by troops as an economic threat remained unchanged between 2018 and 2023. However, in 2023, soldiers grew somewhat more aware of the threat of military aggression. In 2018, volunteers differed significantly from conscript forces in their determination to engage in national defense. The expected determination to engage in national defense at a time of an increased military threat did not significantly increase in 2023 compared to 2018; moreover, the attitudes of volunteers and conscripts failed to converge. However, 2023 saw a significant increase in conscripts’ service motivation and an improvement in their assessment of the National Defence Volunteer Forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyses the direct and indirect impact on Lithuanian society of the Soviet military garrisons established by the Mutual Assistance Treaty of 1939 with the USSR. It is written that the official (public) and unofficial (private) attitudes towards the presence of the Red Army bases in Lithuania were different. The deep perception of the garrisons’ potential threat to the sovereignty of the state was denied by official reports of the Lithuanian government. As a result of this and other circumstances mentioned in the article, the majority of the Lithuanian population accepted the fact of Soviet garrison deployment in Lithuania as an undesirable, but non-threatening circumstance resulting from the bilateral relations between Lithuania and the USSR. The article describes the practices of formal and informal communication and relations of the civilian population with the Soviet military garrisons, which had significant consequences for the public perception of the political processes of the summer of 1940 in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the organization and dispatch of the legation appointed by the General Confederation of Vilnius in 1716 to the Russian Tsar Peter I, which has hitherto received little attention from scholarship. The starosta of Merecz Antoni Kazimierz Sapieha was appointed as the envoy of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The mission demonstrated that the Lithuanian noble society despite the paralysis of the central government, could take the initiative, if necessary, not only in domestic politics, but also in international relations. However, the case analysis of the mission indicates that one-time diplomatic missions did not effectively represent the state’s interests compared to permanent diplomatic missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. In 1941, Lithuanian nationalists in the USA, having withdrawn from the common political organization of Lithuanian Americans, the American Lithuanian Council (ALC), began independent political activities in the struggle for Lithuania’s independence. They established their own organizations: in 1941, the Union for the Liberation of Lithuania, to which the American Friends of Lithuania was affiliated, in 1943, the American Lithuanian Nationalist Center, and in 1944, the American Lithuanian Mission. The nationalist movement weakened in 1946–1947, and the constant desire for unity in political activities among the Lithuanian diaspora in the USA and Europe compelled the nationalists to change their positions. In 1947, negotiations began between the leaders of the Lithuanian nationalists in the USA and the ALC leadership regarding the nationalists’ return to ALC, with conditions: a) the merging of nationalist organizations and b) the cessation of separate political activities. In 1948–1949, the reorganization of nationalist organizations took place over the course of almost a year, culminating in a joint Congress held on May 21–22, 1949, when a unified nationalist organization, the American Lithuanian National Union (ALNU), was established. Key contributions were made by nationalist leaders: Antanas Olis, Pijus J. Žiūris, Juozas Bačiūnas, Kazys Karpis, Vincas Rastenis, Albinas S. Trečiokas, Juozas Ginkus, and others. Nationalist representatives joined ALC as the fourth faction alongside Catholics, socialists, and moderates. The ALNU committed to broadly strengthening Lithuanian identity in the diaspora and, within ALC, participating in activities for the liberation of Lithuania. These issues have not yet been deeply studied in the history of Lithuanian Americans, despite there being ample sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]