1922 Encyclopædia Britannica/Lithuania, Republic of

LITHUANIA, REPUBLIC OF. &mdash; Lithuania is on the whole a low-lying country watered by the Niemen (&ldquo;Niemunas&rdquo; &mdash; name of a heathen deity) and its tributaries. The highest part is in the south and east, where the Baltic hills extend in crescent formation from Gumbinnen in East Prussia through Suvalki (Suwalki) and Vilna to Dvinsk. This chain of hills is broken by two valleys, that of the Niemen flowing through Grodno and Olita to Kovno, that of the Vilya, flowing from Vilna to Janov to its junction with the Niemen below Kovno. In the north-west is situated another triangle of hills, the Telshi-Shavli-Rossieni. Between these two hilly regions lies the plain of the Niemen with its two principal tributaries, the Niaviaza and the Dubissa flowing in from the north. The only other river of importance is the Svienta, flowing south-west to join the Vilya near Janov, and in the north the Muscha, which joins the Aa at Bausk in Latvia.

Period of Popular Representation, 1905-14. &mdash; Russia's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War and the revolution which followed in its wake led, in Sept. 1905, to a measure of reform in the Russian system of government in Lithuania. The first National Lithuanian Assembly, which, however, in the eyes of the Tsar's Government was merely a revolutionary body tolerated for the time being, met at Vilnius (Vilna). It consisted of two thousand delegates who demanded autonomy for the four governments of Vilna, Kovno, Grodno and Suvalki under a Diet at Vilna to be elected by universal, direct, equal and secret franchise. It was the first modern attempt to define Lithuania ethnographically, to respect national minorities and continue the connexion with Russia upon the federative principle.

The Tsar's Government under the electoral statute of 1905 granted the four-class franchise (landowners, peasants, townsmen and workmen) in such wise as to favour the rural population. Only Poles were elected to the first Duma in 1906.

As the imperial ukase which followed the dissolution of the second Duma in 1907 conferred more power upon the great landowners, it was modified as regards Lithuania by a nationality clause which provided that the total of electors of each class should be in proportion to the amount of land possessed by

the respective nationalities in the district. This measure, applied by Russian officials, was designed against the Poles and the Lithuanian Nationalists alike, for not even the Progressives who favoured autonomy for Poland contemplated its grant to Lithuania. In the third Duma the five delegates allotted to the non-Russian population of Vilna government were all Poles who joined the Polish party; in Kovno government three delegates were Lithuanians, one was a Pole and one a Jew.

War Period, 1914-20. &mdash; The outbreak of the World War in 1914 led to a German invasion which, from midsummer 1915 until Aug. 1919, lay heavily upon the land, which was ruthlessly exploited. To further their own purpose, which was the lasting hold over Lithuania, the Germans after the military collapse of Russia allowed the phantom existence of a State. While a Lithuanian conference met at Vilna (Sept. 18-23 1917), and, in negotiations which dragged until March 1918, petitioned the then German Chancellor, Count Hertling, for the restoration of the country's independence under condition of a perpetual alliance between it and the German Empire (&ldquo;Bundesverhältnis&rdquo;), the German clerical party caused the &ldquo;Taryba,&rdquo; or Council of State, which was then unavoidably still largely under the control of their army of occupation authorities, to offer the Lithuanian crown to Prince William of Urach, a younger member of the Württemberg reigning family. On July 11 1918 he accepted under the title of &ldquo;Mindove II., King of Lithuania,&rdquo; thus strangely choosing the style of a heathen prince of the 13th century who fiercely resisted the Teutonic order.

While the opposition of the German annexationists thwarted this candidature which the Council of State eventually cancelled (Nov. 2 1918), their delegates at the peace negotiations of Brest Litovsk, in March 1918, on the contrary upheld against Trotsky the authority of the Lithuanian Council of State despite the fact that they had previously refused to regard it as the &ldquo;legal representative of Lithuania.&rdquo; Their last argument rested upon this, that &ldquo;Germany had recognized Lithuania's independence only on the condition that the conventions to be concluded, among them, of course, the form of constitution and the choice of a ruler, shall correspond to German interests&rdquo; (Nordd. Allgem. Zeitung, Aug. 1918).

By Nov. 1918, the magnitude of Germany's defeat being no longer in doubt, the Taryba, or Council of State, promulgated a provisional constitution under which it became the Lithuanian Parliament. The supreme power was vested in three persons, A. Smetona, J. Staugaitis, and St. Silingas, who on Nov. 5 1918 invited Prof. Voldemar to form the first independent administration on non-party lines and reach an understanding with the national minorities resident within the still indeterminate frontiers, viz. White Russians, Poles, Jews and Great Russians. Alone the Pan-Polish party reverted irreconcilably to the historic solution of union or federation with Poland. The initial difficulties of setting up an administrative machine on national lines were the greater as the troops of the occupying Power, affected by the revolution which had broken out in Germany, engaged in pillage and highway robbery, which a national militia as yet barely armed had to suppress. The German troops were to a large extent composed of men who had been on the eastern front for some time, who had never themselves suffered defeat by the Allies, and were therefore indisposed to admit themselves beaten. They behaved in the most high-handed, brutal and truculent manner. Although Kovno itself was evacuated in June 1919, and shortly afterwards southern and eastern Lithuania, the area Mitau-Shavli-Taurogen remained in their hands until Dec. 13 of that year. In their withdrawal, by a historic disregard of fair play, the Germans not merely refused to put at the disposal of the Lithuanian authorities the necessary means of defence, but under a military convention allowed the Bolshevist troops to march into evacuated zones at a mean distance of 10 kilometres. They were by this procedure, moreover, directly violating the terms of the Armistice concluded with the Entente Powers on Nov. 11 1918. Thus in lieu of the German appeared the Bolshevist menace.

The Voldemar administration resigned on Dec. 26 1918, the

new premier, M. Slezevicius, widening the Cabinet on coalition lines. Prof. Voldemar, whom the precarious situation of the country and the approaching Peace Conference called to Paris, served as Foreign. Minister, M. Yeas as Finance Minister, M. Velykis as Minister of War. In Jan. 1919 the near approach of the Bolsheviks to Vilna caused the removal of the Government to Kovno. Owing to this menace of the enemy and disputes over very urgent questions the Provisional National Assembly was elected with difficulty, but in session at Kaunas (Kovno) from Jan. 16-23 1919 it recognized the Council of State (&ldquo;Taryba&rdquo;) and the Slezevicius Cabinet as the regular Government of Lithuania, which had the confidence of the country. Thereupon, although large stretches of territory were still in enemy occupation; the Taryba voted the provisional constitution, elected A. Smetona President of the State, and composed the statute for the election of the Constituent Assembly by universal, equal, direct and secret franchise according to a proportional system based on d'Hondt's distributive principle which contains elaborate safeguards against the tyranny of the majority. Despite the most painful conditions, national defence began to be organized at first in the form of volunteers and afterwards by regular troops. Under these circumstances the Bolshevist advance reached its culminating point in May 1919, when the Soviet armies occupied Telshi and Shavli in the north and Olita in the south, thus threatening Kovno itself. Until Sept. 1919 fighting took place against the Bolshevist forces, which were successfully cleared out of the northern districts of the country, and until Dec. of that year against the so-called Bermondt troops, and sporadically all through 1920 against Polish units. The Constituent Assembly, or &ldquo;Seimas,&rdquo; composed of 112 members, met on May 15 1920. The President of the State, the National Council and the Cabinet resigned, and, all power passing to the assembly, the provisional Government give way to the permanent Government.

Meanwhile the Polish Government's proposal for joint action against the Bolsheviks was rejected pending Lithuania's recognition as an independent state with Vilna for its capital. The state of war with Soviet Russia, however, continued until the Peace Treaty of July 12 1920, whereunder the Lithuanian claim to Vilna and Grodno was recognized by the Bolsheviks and Lithuania received three million rubles in gold and 100,000 hectares of forest land for exploitation.

The Polish war against Soviet Russia continued. The initial victories of the Bolsheviks were followed by defeat and the victorious Poles, under the so-called &ldquo;rebel&rdquo; Gen. Zeligowski, on Oct. 9 1920 drove the Lithuanians out of Vilna, which they had temporarily occupied after the retreat of the Soviet armies.

This incident leading to an informal war between the Lithuanians and Gen. Zeligowski's so-called mutineers, the matter was taken up by the League of Nations, which strove to establish the fate of Vilna and other disputed areas by means of a plebiscite. An armistice was concluded with effect from Nov. 30 1920.

In the beginning of March 1921, direct negotiation between Poland and Lithuania under the auspices of the League of Nations, to be followed by arbitration on unsettled points, was proposed in lieu of the plebiscite and agreed to by all parties.

The independence of Lithuania de facto was recognized by Sweden, Norway, England, Esthonia, Finland, France and Poland; de jure by Germany on March 23 1918, by Soviet Russia on July 12 1920, by Latvia and Esthonia in Feb. 1921 and by the Argentine Republic in March 1921.

Constitution. &mdash; The provisional constitution adopted by the Constituent Assembly on June 2 1920 describes the State of Lithuania as a democratic republic, over which, until the final constitution is established, the president of the Constituent Assembly (A. Stulginskis) rules as temporary President, whose acts need to be countersigned by the premier.

(W. L. B.)