Klaipėdos universitetas

With the creation of the Lithuanian armed forces in the early 20th century, the question of having officers loyal to the idea of the nation-state inevitably arose. It became especially relevant during the Wars of Independence that followed the First World War. Due to the need to create the armed forces urgently, individuals from different backgrounds and with different experiences joined the corps of officers in the emerging Lithuanian army. Therefore, a variety of tensions of a political and social nature arose between them, which in some cases grew into open conflict. The article examines the question of whether these conflicts were based on differences in officers’ education, social background, national engagement or experience. Can we explain the conflicts between the officers by the generation gap? And what role was played in these conflicts by the experience of military service acquired by some officers in the Imperial Russian army, including experience in the First World War?

The paper presents an analysis of the relationships between Colonel Vincas Grigaliūnas Glovackis, commander of the 2nd Infantry Regiment and one of the major participants in the coup in 1926, and the cabinets led by Mykolas Sleževičius in 1919 and 1926. The author of the research looks into Colonel Grigaliūnas Glovackis’ dissatisfaction with the policies of the second and fourth Sleževičius governments, the defiance of government orders by the 2nd Infantry Regiment, and the involvement of Colonel Grigaliūnas Glovackis in the conflict between the Cabinet of Ministers and the State Council in 1919. The paper reveals the colonel’s political pro-activeness and his links with politicians representing the Christian Democrats and the Nationalists. The research concludes that the 1926 coup could have been caused not only by the officers’ dissatisfaction with the reforms by the coalition government of Popular Peasants and Social Democrats, but also by the conflicts between politically engaged officers and politicians that started as early as the wars of independence.