Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

Wilsonianism, the political philosophy of President Woodrow Wilson of the USA, was seen in Europe in 1919 as a way out of the chaotic and almost hopeless situation in international relations that had emerged in the autumn of 1918. The philosophy established a new ideology of international relations based on the equality of sovereign states, a doctrine of collective security, and the preservation of peace and stability. In European and world political history, this was the beginning of a geo-political experiment that, to a large extent, continues to this day. New entities in international politics, such as the Lithuanian state, proclaimed in 1918, had to adapt to the new ideology as well. The essay provides an outline of the stimuli and obstacles to Lithuanian foreign policy in that direction in the period between the two world wars. Based on sources from Lithuanian and Russian archives, published documents and historical research, the author discusses the links between Lithuanian foreign policy and its controversial historical heritage, complex domestic political processes, and attempts to solve the problems it faced in its cooperation with Bolshevik Russia (the USSR).

On 17 March 1938, Warsaw delivered an ultimatum to Kaunas. After the 18 years of non-existent official diplomatic relations with Poland due to the occupation of Vilnius in 1920, Lithuania was forced to renew them. The acceptance of the ultimatum in Lithuania heavily influenced the prestige of the authoritarian regime, but opened a new stage in relations between Lithuania and Poland on the eve of the Second World War. In addition to the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Lithuania Franciszek Charwat, Poland appointed Leon Mitkiewicz (1896–1972) as its military attaché to the diplomatic mission in Kaunas. Having scrupulously documented his life and service, Mitkiewicz observed Lithuania both before and after his appointment. He also conducted numerous political-military analyses, trying to assess the direction of international and geopolitical events. The article gives an overview of Mitkiewicz’s notes on Polish-Lithuanian relations, and Lithuania and its war potential both before and after the 1938 ultimatum.

Based on archival materials, the paper analyses individual cases of nationally motivated incidents in the autonomous Territory of Memel, or Klaipėda region, in the period 1923 to 1939. After Lithuania annexed the region in 1923, incidents between the pro-German local population and members of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union and soldiers in the Lithuanian army were inspired by the clash of interests between Lithuania and Germany. Lithuanisation and the strengthening of the pro-Lithuanian element in the Klaipėda region were manifested in different forms, including the establishment of different organisations and societies based on the example of Lithuania. The organisations did not always enjoy the support of local Lithuanians; moreover, they caused dissatisfaction among the Germans. One such organisation was the 20th Klaipėda territorial unit of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, established in the region in the first half of 1923. The paper focuses on incidents involving the riflemen Bišofas and Pėteraitis in 1924. It also analyses the increasing number of incidents from the beginning of the 1930s which involved soldiers in the Lithuanian army deployed in the Klaipėda region (the 7th Infantry Samogitian Duke Butigeidis Regiment, and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment). Incidents that involved riflemen in the last years of the region’s autonomy are examined, and the gravitation by local Lithuanians towards Germany, expressed by their withdrawal from Lithuanian organisations and joining German ones, is discussed.

After the Evangelical-dominated Territory of Memel (the Klaipėda Region) had been integrated into the Republic of Lithuania in 1923, the issue of the situation of the Catholics, non-dominant religious group in the region, accounting for 5 per cent of its population in 1925, had to be solved. In 1926, they were separated from the Diocese of Warmia, and joined the newly formed Klaipėda Prelature, part of the Diocese of Telšiai. Thus, the Catholics of the Klaipėda Region were integrated into Church structures controlled from Lithuania, unlike the Evangelicals, who remained part of the composition of the Prussian Evangelical Church. This paper, mainly on the basis of ecclesiastical documents, presents for the first time a broader analysis of the structure of the Catholic Church and its activities in the Klaipėda Region, as part of Lithuania, in the years 1923 to 1939.

The article is devoted to the new historical investigations on the problem of the Lithuanian National Movement (“Sąjūdis”) and the “Polish issue” in Lithuania: the intrinsic situation and the interventions of outside in the end of 1980-ies – beginning of the 1990-ies. The so called “Polish issue” in Lithuania – both in its full historical dimension and in the special acute meaning that appeared in the end of 1980-ies – since a long time finds itself in the field of the scientific and civil attention. Our paper is an attempt to lead this issue out of the borders of only Lithuanian-Polish controversial discourse and to consider it in the context of all the dramatic history of the national movements in the period of the Soviet Union’s disintegration, in the system of political provocations which the communist regime, doomed already to its downfall, tried to use for repression against its contestants.