Klaipėdos universitetas

The paper discusses the territorial-geopolitical aspect of the Lithuanian policy during the First World War, which is still not sufficiently studied or properly understood. It concerns the strategic line proposed by members of Lithuania’s conservative elite. The visible side of the line was a game of orientations: first pro-Russian, then pro-German. However, these orientations were based on an ethnographic principle, which created preconditions for the practical development of the Lithuanian nation. On the other hand, the ethnographic principle was related to the idea of national self-determination, raised by the democratic thought, which paved the way for Lithuanian national statehood. Therefore, the strategic line offered by some of the Lithuanian elite went beyond party ideology and became national.

The article deals with the historical circumstances and reasons which predetermined the possession of Klaipeda by Lithuania, with the idea and the practice of the Versailles system mainly taken into consideration. As argued by the author, Klaipėda’s jurisdiction to the Lithuanian Code is linked to the balance of power which predetermined the existence of national states in the Eastern and Central Europe, especially in the East Baltic region.