Lithuania past and present

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Lithuania past and present.

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MEMBEES OF THE BRITISH CONStlLATE AT KAUNAS.

Frontispiece.

LITHUANIA

PAST &• PRESENT

By E. J. HARRISON

Formerly British Vice-Consul at Kaunas and Vilnius

NEW YORK
ROBERT M. McBRIDE Gf COMPANY

Printed in Great Britain "UJUilil.f \' j I ' "; | I V

^^x^ox-x.

(All rights reserved)

PREFACE

In the following pages I have not attempted to do more
than scratch the surface of a subject which, for adequate
treatment, would require several large volumes. My
main purpose is to arouse interest among English readers
in a country and people whose glorious past and present
renascence, under peculiarly moving conditions, are
surely an earnest of great future achievement in all
constructive activities. To this end I have tried to
give a general outline of Lithuanian history, geography,
economic position and possibilities, present-day political
problems, cultural characteristics, etc., so that Britishers
may no longer be able to plead ignorance as an excuse
for their unfortunately apathetic attitude towards the
legitimate aspirations of the Lithuanian people. Should
the reception accorded this modest preliminary essay
warrant it, I shall gladly hereafter embark upon a more
exhaustive and ambitious handling of this fascinating
subject.

For much of the material embodied in this book I am
indebted principally to Stasys Salkauskis' masterly study
Sur les Confins de Deux Mondes, W. St. Vidunas' La
Lituanie dans le Passe et dans le Present, and Dr. Joseph
Ehret's Litauen, which have rendered readily accessible
many facts which otherwise might have eluded com-
pilation.

I make no apology for largely employing the Lithu-
anian spelling of place names. The sooner we adapt

6 PREFACE

ourselves to changed conditions the better. But for the
reader's convenience, I have appended a short glossary
giving the former Russian and present Lithuanian
renderings of these centres.

A hint on pronunciation. The Lithuanian c is pro-
nounced like our ch in church ; the s like sh in shall ;
and the z like z in azure.

Authors' Club,

Whitehail Court, London, S.W. 1.
March 30, 1922.

CONTENTS

FACm

PREFACE 5

GLOSSARY 13

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 15

English Ignorance of Lithuania — Lithuania's Former Great-
ness — Chaucer's Reference to the Country — Early Com-
mercial Treaty with England — Fatal Association with
Poland — The Great War and German Designs — Proclama-
tion of Independence — Polish Occupation of Vilnius —
Lithuanian Retreat to Kaunas — Refusal of de jure Recogni-
tion by the Allies.

II. A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE .... 20

Historic and Ethnographic Lithuania — ^Area and Population
— ^Vilnius, the National Capital — Testimony of Early
Chroniclers — Other Provinces and Cities — Palanga on the
Baltic Coast — Prussian Lithuania or Lithuania Minor —
The Port of Memel — Configuration of the Laud — Hills,
Lakes and Rivers — Nature of Soil.

III. THE RISE OF LITHUANIA . . . • . . 37

The Lithuanian People not of Slavonic Origin — Lithuanian
Language one of the Oldest in Europe Allied to Sanscrit —
Aestians or Baits — Claim to Grecian Ancestry — -The Early
Grand Dukes — Struggles with the Teutonic Order — Pros-
perity of the Country under Gediminaa, Keistutis and
Vytautas the Great — Extension of Frontiers from the
Baltic to the Black Sea — Beginnings of Polish Influence —
Personal Union with Poland under Jagellon — Wars with
the Tartars — Lublin Union with Poland in 1569 — Partition
of Lithuania and Poland at End of XVIIIth Century.

IV. PERIOD OF DECADENCE 49

The Reformation and Lithuania — Corruption of Catholic
Priesthood and Lithuanian Nobility — Oppression of the
Peasantry — Missionaries of New Doctrines — Nicolai Radvila,
the Black — Re-introduction of Catholicism — Polonization of
Upper Cltisaes — Internecine Strife — Extinction of Inde-
pendence.

V. UNDER THE RUSSIAN YOKE .... 55

Russiflcation of the Country— The Iron Hand of Muraviev —
Attacks on Lithuanian Culture — Closing and Dispersal of
Vilnius University — Substitution of Russian State Religion
for Catholicism — ^Manifesto of 1863 Prohibiting Lithuanian
Tongue — Ban on Latin Alphabet — Victims of Muraviev's
Rule — Abolition of Lithuanian Statute- — Confusion in Ad-
ministration of Justice — Russian Judges Ignorant of
Lithuanian — Russian Confiscations of Lithuanian Lands —
Wholesale Emigration.

7

8 CONTENTS

CEAFXBE FAQB

VI. THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE ... 62

Neo-Lithuanian Movement — Secret Associations — Literary,
Cultural and Political Activity — The Work of Basana-
vi6ius — Smuggling of Lithuanian Books and Magazines
into Country — Decline of Polish Influence and Rehabilitation
of Lithuanian Speech — Effect of Russo-Japanese War on
Liberation Movement — Russian Revolution of 1905 —
Labours of Lithuanian Patriots — The Vilnius Memorandum —
Congress of Vilnius — Historic Resolution — Rvissian Reaction
— Development of Lithuanian Schools and Societies — Rise
of National Press — Art and Literature — Economic Revival.

VII. LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR . . 75

Lithuania as Battleground — Her Contribution to Allied
Victory — Hostile Devastation of Country — Fall of Kaunas
and Vilnius — The Land a Desert in the Wake of the War —
Ravages of Disease — Deplorable Lot of Lithuanian Civil
and Military Prisoners — Dispersal of Entire Families —
Organization of Relief — German Military Occupation —
Efforts at Germanization — Ober-Ost Administration.

VIII. RISE OF THE NEW STATE 85

Share of American-Lithuanians in National Movement —
Congress of Chicago Declares for Self-Determination —
Bureau of Information EstabUshed in Paris — First Berne
Conference in 1915 — Demand for Independence Raised in
Russian Duma — Congress at Lausanne — Second Berne
Conference Declares for Independence — Other Notable
Gatherings — Conference of St. Petersburg — Diet of Vilnius
in 1917 — Election of National Council — Third Berne Con-
ference — Recognition of Taryba as Lithuanian Constitu-
tional Organ — Two Declarations of Independence — Stem
Resistance to German Intrigues — Effect of Allied Victory —
Appointment of Provisional Government — War against
Bolsheviks — Polish Occupation of Vilnius in April 1919 —
Intervention of Supreme Council and Establishment of
Demarcation Line — Election of Constituent Assembly —
Lithuanian Political Parties — Lithuanian People Essen-
tially Non-Bolshevik.

IX. THE POLISH BETRAYAL 97

Personal Observation of Polish Designs — British Commission
for the Baltic Provinces — Branch Established at Kaunas
under Colonel R. B. Ward — Author Appointed British
Vice-Consul — Views of Former British MUitary Attach^ on
Polish " Prussianism " — Russo-Lithuanian Peace Treaty of
July 12, 1920 — Russo-Polish War and Lithuanian Neutrality
— Polish Evacuation of Vilnius and Invitation to Lithuanians
to Occupy City — Polish Treachery — Reds take Vilnius —
Lithuanians Enter City — Transfer of Lithuanian Govern-
ment to Vilnius — Conclusion of Suvalki Agreement and its
Immediate Infringement — Colonel Ward's Aerial Visit to
Warsaw and Polish Assurances — Polish Offensive against

CONTENTS 9

OEAFTEB FAGB

Vilnius and Re-occupation of same, October 9, 1920 —
Flight to Kaunas — Author's Return to Vilnius and Observa-
tion of Polish Methods — Complicity of Warsaw Government
in the Zeligowski Coup — Depositions of Polish Officers —
Intervention of League of Nations in Polish-Lithuanian
Dispute — Causes of League's Failure to Achieve a Settle-
ment — Termination of League's Intervention — Polish Viola-
tion of Four Demarcation Lines — The Unlawful Vilnius
Elections — Polish Pogroms of Lithuanian Institutions in
Vilnius — Lithuania Penalized for Sins of Poland — Denial
of de jure Recognition — Allied Failure to Settle Polish
Frontiers Largely Responsible for Situation.

X. THE MEMEL QUESTION 116

Defeat of the Borussians and their Gradual Germanization —
Teutonic Knights oppose Lithuanian Advance to the Sea —
Memel District — Ratio of Germans and Lithuanians — ^Memel
economically dependent upon Lithuanian Hinterland —
Allied Declaration of Predominantly Lithuanian Character
of Memel Region — Memel Port Lithuania's Sole Sea Outlet
— Provisional French Administration of the District for
Supreme Council — Franco-Polish Designs to Prevent Memel's
Reversion to Lithuania.

XI. LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS . . . 122

Country's Favoured Position — Government's Abstention
from Issue of New Currency — Collapse of German Mark
Reacts to Country's Detriment — Lithuania Primarily an
Agricultural Land — Racial Percentages — Agricultural Yields
Before and After War — Capacity for Further Expansion —
Dairy-farming and Stock-raising — Current Prices often Lower
than Pre-War — Tendency towards Small and Medium
Farming — Lithuania's Timber Resources — Heavy Post-
helium Demands — Need for Remedial Measures — Agrarian
Reform — Grants to Soldiers — Comparatively Mild Incidence
of Law with Recognition of Principle of Compensation —
Lithuanian Industries — Trade Figures — National Finances —
Credit Associations, Banks and Cooperatives — Lithuanian
Railways and Waterways — Government's Economic Policy —
Legal Reform.

XII. LITHUANIAN TYPES AND CHARACTER . .145

Appreciations of Foreign Observers — Sexual Purity a,
Notable Trait — Meeting of East and West on Lithuanian
Soil — Latent Capacity for Tremendous Effort — Physical
Aspects — Lithuanian Love of Nature — Democratic Senti-
ment — Belief in Religion — Lithuanian Superstitions often
Pagan Survivals.

XIII. IN THE COUNTRY 153

Description of Lithuanian Farm — Ubiquity of the Cross in
Lithuanian Countryside — National Dress — The " Juosta "
Worn by Women — Lithuanian Love of Song — Some Marriage
Customs — Rue as the Emblem of Purity.

10 CONTENTS

CBAflEB PAGE

XIV. LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY 163

Its Indo-European Origin — Lithuanians the Last to abandon
Paganism — Ancient Sacerdotal Caste not UnUke that of
Brahmins or Druids — Its Influence in both Religious and
Social Life — The Vestal Virgins — Fire Worship Practised at
Vilnius — Perkunas or God of Thunder — Myths of Sun and
Moon — Natural Phenomena Objects of Adoration — " Sventa
Ugnis " or Sacred Fire — Lithuanian Love of Symbolism
survives Paganism — Belief in Metempsychosis — Legends of
Giants — Interpretation of Dreams.

XV. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE .... 173

Lithuanian Tongue part of Aestian or Baltic Linguistic
Branch — At One Time Identical with Lettish — The Two
Main Dialects — Resemblance to Greek and Latin — National
Existence Bound Up with Native Speech — Special Use of
Participle — The Genitive Attributive — Lithuanian uniquely
Rich in Diminutive and Caressive Forms — German Study
of Lithuanian Poetry in Eighteenth Century — Lessing and
Herder — ^The " Dainos " or Chansonettes — Belles Lettres
Proper — Duonelaitis, Mickiewicz and Vidunas — Drama
encouraged by the Jesuits — Modem Literary Revival.

XVI. ART AND MUSIC 185

The Work of Ciurliouis — Hig Fame in Russia and on the
Continent — Antanas Zmuidzinavifiius — The Sculptors Rim^a
and Zikaras — Modem Artists from the People — Peasant
Handicrafts — Lithuanian Ecclesiastical Architecture —
Churches of Vilnius — National Love of Music — Popular
Chants Reveal Greek Origin Homer's Hymn to Demetrius —
The Brothers Petrauskas — Simkus, Braiys and Naujalis —
Some Native Musical Instruments — ^Lithuanian National
Hymn.

XVII. THE PERSONAL EQUATION AND CONCLUSION . 196

Author's Early Association with Lithuanians — Journey
by Motor-Lorry from Riga to Kaunas in Summer of 1919 —
A Night at Radzivilishki — Author Arrested by German
Soldiery — Meeting with Colonel Robinson and the German
Airman Rother at Keidany — Story of Rother's Dramatic
Rescue of Enver Pasha — Author's Entry into Kaunas — City
under. Martial Law owing to Discovery of Polish Plot —
Life in Kaunas — Author's Visits to Vilnius — Impression of
the Poles — The Bolshevik Regime — Other Aeroplane Inci-
dents — Von Platen and his Russian Wife — Lithuanian
Leaders — Some Political Reflections in Conclusion.

APPENDIX 207

INDEX 225

ILLUSTEATIONS

MEMBERS OF THE BRITISH CONSULATE AT KAUNAS Frontispiece

TO PACE PAGE
TWO VIEWS OP VILNIUS . . . . .22

INHABITANTS OP PALANGA GREETING LITHUANIAN TROOPS . 28

LITHUANIAN CHILDREN PRAYING POR DEAD COMRADE . 28

RED CROSS TRAIN AT KAUNAS . . . . .76

PIELD DRESSING STATION . . . . .76

VIEW OP KAUNAS PROM VYTAUTAS HILL . . .92

KAUNAS UNIVERSITY . . . . . .92

LITHUANIAN BIVOUAC ....... 100

ON THE FRONT ....... 100

MONASTERY ON VILNIUS ROAD ..... 112

MEMBERS OP BRITISH MILITARY MISSION AT KAUNAS • 196

MAPS

MAP OP LITHUANIA ILLUSTRATING INFRINGEMENTS OP TEM-
PORARY DEMARCATION LINES . . To face page 14

ANCIENT MAP OP LITHUANIA

At end

11

Lithuania Past and Present

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

My own experience is that, if we except certain business
circles which before the war engaged in trade with the
Baltic and to-day are making somewhat halfhearted
attempts to resume these relations with the independent
States that have succeeded to the old Russian regime
in that part of the world, very few persons in England
know anything at all about Lithuania. Spelling the name
in syllables accomplishes little in the face of an abysmal
ignorance extending to the very geography of the country.
This unfortunate apathy goes to prove how very super-
ficially the average citizen reads his daily paper, because
for months past there have been repeated press references,
long and short, to the Polish-Lithuanian dispute and the
futile efforts of the League of Nations to settle it at
Brussels and Geneva.

And yet at the end of the XlVth and the beginning
of the XVth century Lithuania was the most formidable
Power in the North, and the boundaries of this compact
State extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea, On one
occasion Moscow was almost taken by Algird, who spared
it only in deference to the prayers of the Grand Duke
Demetrius, thus unconsciously and naively revealing the
boundless gulf which separates the simple barbarous
mentality of that age from our own vastly superior
conception of what is due to a military victor. The
devastated regions of Northern France and East Prussia
show conclusively how far we have advanced along the

15

16 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

road of civilization since those primitive days. Few
are probably aware that this period of Lithuanian power
has found a place in English literature. In the Canterbury
Tales Chaucer sends a brave English knight to that country,
and in this connexion it is interesting to note that Chaucer
calls Lithuania " Leetuwe " (Lietuva), which is the
Lithuanian word for Lithuania, the latter being used
only abroad. Historians also relate that in the XlVth
century Keistut, or Keistutis, the ruler of Lithuania,
signed a commercial treaty with England. In Rymer's
Foedera there is also a document of Queen Elizabeth,
written in 1560, giving a licence to a Lithuanian in the
following terms :

He by Himself, his Servants, or Factors, maye or shall brynge
in this our Realme of England within the space of one Monethe
next hereafter following Thyrtie Tymber of Sabels and a Carkamet
of Gold sett with Divers Pearl es and pretiouse Stones without
payings Custome or Subsidie for the same

Lithuania has passed through many vicissitudes since
that spacious epoch. Her disastrous association with
Poland, of which more will be said elsewhere, involved
her in the downfall of the latter in the XVIIIth century
when the whole of Lithuania was attached to Russia
by the sole right of conquest.

Although the Great War hit Lithuania hard and for
a season led to the substitution of Teutonic tyranny
for that of the Muscovite, its ultimate outcome proved
on the whole favourable to Lithuanian national aspirations,
which never ceased to be cherished in secret even during
the darkest days of Russian and Polish oppression.
During their period of military occupation, from 1915-18,
the Germans tried in every way to suppress the national
movement. They prohibited the publication of Lithuanian
newspapers and threw the national leaders into jail.
The object of the German Government was clearly to
make Lithuania an integral part of Germany, but these
efforts encountered a resistance which proved to be
insuperable. Finally Lithuania succeeded in obtaining
permission to call a convention at Vilnius in September

TERRITORY OF LITHUANIA 17

1917. This convention elected a State Council or Taryba,
which on February 16, 1918, solemnly proclaimed the
independence of the country. This day the young
Republic annually celebrates as Independence Day.

After this came with bewildering swiftness the Allied
victory, the German revolution, and the Bolshevik advance,
which latter compelled the Lithuanian Government to
withdraw from Vilnius to Kaunas, whence the defence
of the country was energetically directed. The Bolshevik
advance was checked at Koshedary, and the Lithuanians
would again have entered Vilnius if they had not been
deliberately forestalled by the Poles, who advanced from
the south-east and occupied the city. The Polish occupa-
tion of Vilnius on this occasion lasted till July 1920,
when the Polish defeat at the hands of the Soviet armies
necessitated its abandonment, and the Lithuanian Govern-
ment re-entered into possession.

Under the Suvalki Agreement, signed between the
two States on October 7, 1920, Poland recognized the
right of Lithuania to provisional administration of Vilnius
and its territory, but this trifling fact in no way prevented
her from flagrantly violating the agreement two days
later, when the notorious General Zeligowski recaptured
the Lithuanian capital. Thus the Lithuanian Government
was again obliged to remove to Kaunas, and pending a
settlement of the Vilnius question the affairs of the
country are still directed from this temporary capital.

According to the Russo-Lithuanian Peace Treaty,
concluded on July 12, 1920, Lithuania comprises an
area of approximately 82,000 square kilometres (approxi-
mately 32,000 square miles), and the three governments
of the former Russian Empire, Suvalki (Suvalkai), Kovno,
(Kaunas) and Vilna (Vilnius), which is the ethnographical
territory of the original Lithuanian Grand Duchy, and
in past centuries was always recognized by both Poles
and Russians as ethnographical Lithuania or Lithuania
Proper. The population of this area numbers over
4,200,000, of which about 75 per cent, are Lithuanians
by race and tongue, the rest being Jews, White Russians,
Poles and others. Owing, however, to the loss of the

2

18 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

Vilnius region through the force majeure of Polish filibuster-
ing, the population actually under the jurisdiction of
the Lithuanian Government at the time of writing is
not probably much in excess of two millions, of which
fewer than 3 per cent are Poles.

This, then, in brief, is the State which ever since the
election of a Constituent Assembly, or Seim, in April
1920, by universal, direct, and secret suffrage, according
to the system of proportional representation, has vainly
sought for de jure recognition from the Allies, though
this recognition has been granted by almost every other
neutral country and former enemy state, large and small.^

Into the motives which have hitherto dictated so
conservative a policy I propose to enquire later on in
these pages. Moreover, I make no sort of apology for
doing this frankly as a partizan. No man of spirit with
any firsthand knowledge of the facts, such as I possess,
could be otherwise. It was my inestimable privilege
to live through the makings of history in the Baltic from
the summer of 1919 to the winter of 1921, for the last
fourteen or fifteen months of that period as British Vice-
Consul at Kaunas, and for an all-too-brief interval at
Vilnius, in which capacity I enjoyed unique opportunities
of acquainting myself with the true inwardness of the
situation. What at the outset was an objective investi-
gation led me by inevitable stages to wholesale con-
demnation of the Poles and their post-bellum policy.
Only an invertebrate degenerate could remain on the
fence in such a quarrel. As a partizan, therefore, it
shall be my special aim in the proper place to make
as many other converts as possible by giving in some
detail the reasons which in my own case proved so
efficacious.

But before coming to that essentially controversial
phase of my subject, I wish to excite public interest in

* Since these linea were written, the United States Government haa
granted unconditional de jiire recognition to Lithuania. On July 13,
1922, the Ambassadors' Council in Paris offered de jure recognition on
condition that Lithuania should consent to internationalization of the
Niemen River. The Lithuanian Government accepted this condition
in due course, and is therefore presinnably recognized de jure.

FRANCO-POLISH INTRIGUES 19

other aspects of the Lithuanian problem, historic, geo-
graphical, sociological, aesthetic and cultural. Thus I
hope to be the medium of removing from many British
minds the reproach of ignorance of a country and a
people with quite exceptional claims to our sympathy
and support, not alone on grounds of international justice
but equally on those of national expediency and self-
interest. Indeed it is only to our proverbial middle-class
and proletarian provincialism and indifference to foreign
affairs, even when the latter have a vital bearing upon
our destinies, that I can ascribe a popular attitude which
has for so long tolerated Franco-Polish intrigues at our
expense, and equally the very questionable laissez-faire
policy of Great Britain herself in this regard.

If my own modest contribution to this branch of East
European history helps, in however limited a degree, to
disperse these clouds of ignorance and perhaps to galvanize
the deadened national conscience into tardy recognition
of its responsibilities, I shall not have laboured in vain.

CHAPTER II

A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

In any description of Lithuania we must distinguish
carefully between the historic and ethnographic Lithuanias.
What is called historic Lithuania or the Grand Duchy
of Lithuania, comprises the territories of the former Russian
governments of Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, Suvalki, Kurland,
Minsk, Mohilev, and Vitebsk. During several centuries
they formed, under the style of Lithuania, a political unit.
When, therefore, we speak of old Lithuania up to the end of
the XVIIIth century we mean this group of governments,
which were not inhabited exclusively by Lithuanians
but included various foreign ethnic elements which had
been wholly absorbed in the energetic expansion of the
Lithuanian State and passed under its dominion.

Ethnographic Lithuania, on the other hand, includes
the old Russian governments of Vilna, Kovno, Suvalki,
part of Grodno, and a small portion of the government of
Minsk (Novogrodek). It embraces also the northern
part of East Prussia with the districts of Memel, Tilsit,
Heydekrug, Niederung, Ragnit, Pillkallen, Labiau, certain
parts of Insterberg, Gumbinnen, Stalluponen, and
Goldapp. The former Lithuanian territory is called
Lithuania Major and the German territory Lithuania
Minor.

If we include the Vilnius territory as an integral por-
tion of ethnographic Lithuania and also the Memel district,
at present administered by the French for the Supreme
Council, we get an area of over 30,000 square miles, and
a population which, in 1914, was estimated at 4,345,000.
Thus in area and population Lithuania is larger than
Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark or Switzerland.

PROVINCE OF VILNIUS 21

A large majority are of Lithuanian blood and speech.
While much controversy has raged round this question,
a fair estimate of the relative percentages appears to be
Lithuanians about 75 per cent. ; Jews about 10 per cent. ;
Polish-speaking element about 8 per cent, (for the entire
district) ; Russians, White Russians and other nationalities
7 per cent. The population of the larger cities is approxi-
mately : Vilnius 214,600 ; Kaunas 90,300 ; Gardinas 61,600 ;
Memel 32,000 ; Suvalkai 31,600 ; Siauliai 31,800. These
figures have been subjected to considerable modifications
by the war. The present population of Kaunas, for
example, owing to the tremendous influx of refugees
from Vilnius and district in the wake of the Polish occupa-
tion is not far short of 120,000. The rural population
constitutes 86*2 per cent, of the whole, indicating that
Lithuania is essentially an agricultural country.

The Lithuanian province of Vilnius has a superficies
of 42,500 kilometres, i.e. approximately the size of Switzer-
land. On the north it touches the province of Kaunas
and the Vitebsk government ; on the east Vitebsk and
Minsk ; on the south Minsk and the province of Gardinas ;
on the west Suvalkai. It constitutes a plain traversed
by a chain of hills. In view of the dearth of other means
of communication the numerous rivers possess great
importance. More than four hundred lakes cover 10 per
cent, of the total surface, and lakes and rivers are sur-
rounded by swamps. In the Trakai (Troki) district
one marsh has a circumference of 85 kilometres. This
province is divided into seven departments named after
their respective capitals, viz. Vilnius, Trakai (Troki),
Lyda, Sventionis (Svenciany), Vileika, Asmena and
Dysna.

The capital of the province and of the entire country
is Vilnius, situated at the confluence of the Vilija and
Vileika, at the foot of Mt. Gediminas, the name of the
founder of the city. Before the war Vilna, as the Russians
called it, was the capital of the General Government
of the same name and was an important railway and
commerical centre with a big trade in timber and cattle.
Baedeker mentions that the history of the city stretches

22 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

back to the earliest times, when it was a great centre of
Pagan worship. A sacred fire was kept constantly burning
at the foot of the hill upon which Gediminas (Gedymin),
Grand Duke of Lithuania, built his castle when he founded
the city in the XlVth century. In 1323 Vilnius was raised
to the dignity of a town and was made the capital of
Lithuania. The Grand Duke Ladislas Jagellon, who
became King of Poland in 1386, introduced Christianity
in 1387 and erected the cathedral of St. Stanislaus on
the site of the heathen temple. Vilnius is afterwards
often mentioned in the history of the struggles of the
Lithuanians with the Teutonic Order, the Tartars, and
the Russian Grand Dukes. During the XVIIth and
XVIIIth centuries Vilnius was frequently pillaged by the
Swedes, Russians, and Cossacks, and lost much of its
former importance. In 1794 it offered a gallant resistance
to the Russian army, but was captured on August 12th
after a severe bombardment. At the opening of the
war of 1812 Napoleon fixed upon the line of the Niemen
as his base of operations and made Vilnius (at the point of
intersection of the roads from Konigsberg and Warsaw
to St. Petersburg and Moscow) the strategic centre of
the French line. On his retreat from Russia he again
visited Vilnius, which he finally left in disguise on the
night of November 24 (New Style December 6), 1812.

Vilnius's public edifices, her churches, and the memories
which they enshrine, the palaces of the Lithuanian
aristocracy, all have a great historical and national
signification for Lithuania, and are the fruit of the work
of many centuries, whose toil was accomplished under
the hard conditions of bondage. Vilnius's other buildings
are due to the work of the local labouring classes, composed
for the most part of Lithuanian Jews. During the period
of the Muscovite rule, the public edifices were constructed
at the expense of the Russian Empire ; but one seeks
in vain for any evidence of such work by the Polish
people.

During a period of over four and a half centuries
Vilnius was the capital of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania,
who were ber national rulers. The capital of a State

VIEW OF VILNIPS.

VIEW OF VILNIUS.

To face p 22.

VILNIUS, THE LITHUANIAN CAPITAL 23

which in addition to the Lithuanian land properly so-
called embraced vast Slavo-Russian territories, Vilnius,
thanks to the autonomous rule of government which
these latter enjoyed, served especially as the centre of
ethnographical Lithuania (Lithuania Proper), which was
composed of the principality of Samogitia and of the
two palatinates of Vilnius and Trakai. The Government,
the legislative and judicial administrations, constituted
in the domain of Vilnius an indivisible whole, which was
separated from the Slavonic regions of the Grand Duchy.
Even after the Russian annexation, Lithuania Proper
formed an administrative unit, composed of the three
governments of Vilnius, Kaunas, and Gardinas, and
designated under the general name of the " North-
western Country," with Vilnius as its capital, the seat
of the central institutions of the whole land and the
residence of the Governor-General.

Vilnius was the intellectual, artistic and religious
centre of Lithuania, whose influence on the scientific
and artistic development of Poland was considerable.
However, even at that epoch, when the Polish language
took the place of the Latin tongue, the University of
Vilnius never lost its character as the home of Lithuanian
culture.

During the whole of her existence as a sovereign State,
and later, at the time of her struggle for independence,
Lithuania, with Vilnius at her head, constantly asserted
and defended with an imtiring energy her real nationality
and her right to absolute independence. In the same
way, the unions with Poland were never an expression
of free-will on the part of Lithuania but of combinations
imposed on the country by Poland, who profited by the
difficult situation of the Grand Duchy. The Union of
Lublin, in 1569, was a striking example of this policy.

It was at Vilnius, at the time of the Russian dominion,
that Lithuania experienced the most cruel losses in her
struggle for liberty, and this city is the centre of the
political and intellectual revival of Lithuania at the present
day.

In view of the efforts made by the Polish delegation

24 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

at Brussels and Geneva before the Council of the League
of Nations, in 1921, to disprove the Lithuanian origin
of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, it is interesting to
recall that one of the oldest Polish chroniclers, i.e.
Mathew Miechovita, himself states that the Lithuanians
founded Vilnius (" hiprimum condiderunt oppidum Vilno ").
Miechovita even mentions a Duke Vilis (dux Vilis) who
transported Lithuanians into that region and founded
the city which from this Duke received the name of
Vilnius. The Grand Duke Gediminas having transferred
his capital thither assuredly maintained a Lithuanian
garrison, as in the case of all ducal courts. There is
no cause to doubt that at that time the inhabitants of
Vilnius were Lithuanians, although there is no direct
evidence available as to their precise nationality. The
names of the children of both the Dukes Gediminas and
Algirdas, as well as those of others, are Lithuanian of
those times. Under Algirdas the nobles of his court
Kiklis or Kuklejus, Miklis or Miklejus, and Niezila gained
fame through their acceptance of the Orthodox faith
about 1347 and their sufferings on that account at the
hands of the Pagan Lithuanians. Even to-day they are
revered as saints in the Orthodox Church under the style
of Joannas, Antonius and Eustachius.

We have clear information about the nationality of
the inhabitants of the town at the time of the introduction
of Christianity into Vilnius by Jagellon in 1 387. According
to the testimony of J. Dlugosius (1415-80) Vilnius was
then the capital of the Lithuanian nation {caput et
metropolis gentis) and here the Lithuanians were baptized.
Miechovita (1476-1523), M. Stryjkowskis and A. Guagnini,
writing about the introduction of Christianity into Vilnius,
say that the sacred eternal fires of the Pagan Lithuanians
were then extinguished, their idols destroyed, the sacred
mounds levelled, and 30,000 Lithuanians baptized. More-
over, as the Polish priests could not speak Lithuanian,
the Lithuanian Grand Duke Jagellon himself explained
their sermons to the baptized people. It appears from
this that then the inhabitants of Vilnius, who were baptized
en masse, were Lithuanians, , That in the XlVth century

USE OF LITHUANIAN SPEECH 25

the inhabitants of Vilnius were Lithuanians we know
from other evidence, i.e. Count Kyburg, who, during
the reign of Vytautas the Great, visited the latter in the
summer of 1397 on a political mission, and testifies that
the prevailing language in the palace and among the
people themselves was Lithuanian, though already there
were White Russians, Germans and Poles among the
inhabitants. At a later epoch also the Lithuanian speech
was used and esteemed in the Grand-Ducal palace at
Vilnius. For example, Stryjkowskis clearly testifies that
when on the death of the Grand Duke Zigmantas at
Trakai castle in 1440 the Lithuanian nobles nominated
Jagellon's son, Kazimieras, to be ruler of the country,
the latter, who was born at Cracow, did not know Lithuanian
and was therefore taught the language on his removal to
Vilnius.

From writers of the XVth and XVIth centuries who
travelled in Lithuania and visited Vilnius, such as Guille-
bert de Lannoy (1413-14) and Baron Herberstein
(1517-26), we have mention of Vilnius, but no information
about its inhabitants or their language, Guagnini
(1538-1614) in his work Sarmatice Europea descriptio,
briefly describes Vilnius, but is also silent about the
nationality of its inhabitants. The Italian writer Jonas
Boterius Benesius, whose work was translated into Polish
and published at Cracow in 1659, superficially describes
the Lithuanian people, and when mentioning Vilnius
does not differentiate its inhabitants from other residents
of the country who were Lithuanian.

It is a fact that as late as 1737 the Jesuits at St. John's
Cathedral maintained preachers in Lithuanian, and it
was only from that time that the Polonization of the
Lithuanian inhabitants of Vilnius proceeded more rapidly
till the majority lost their nationality. But even though
denationalized the popular masses long retained the con-
sciousness of their Lithuanian origin, as can be seen from
the evidence of Father Hilarionas Karpinskis and M.
Balinskis. The former of these writers, in his work
Lexykon geograficzny (Wilno 1766, p. 602), speaks of the
population, numbering 60,000, as Lithuanian and German,

26 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

and that besides Catholics there were Orthodox, Lutherans,
Calvinists and Jews, even Mohammedan Tartars, who
had a mosque there. BaHnskis in his work Pisanie
statystyczne miasto Wilna (Wilno 1835), when describing
the inhabitants of the city, makes no mention at all of
Poles among them. He says only, " The inhabitants of
the city of Vilnius are in their origin Lithuanians, Russians,
Germans and Jews. There are so few inhabitants of other
nationalities that in this respect they cannot make any
distinction."

The town of Lyda with its 20,000 inhabitants (seventy
kilometres south of the capital) still possesses some
importance. From a historic standpoint the town of
Trakai (Troki), twenty-five kilometres south of Vilnius,
on the shore of the lake of the same name, offers some
interest. Trakai Lake is dotted with several islets, on
one of which may be seen the ruins of the ship Konigsberg
built by Keistutis, in which Vytautas the Great saw
something of the world. Trakai, the capital of the
Palatinate, formerly enjoyed great importance. Later
its development was arrested and to-day it is only a small
district town. On the upper course of the Vilija may be
seen the chateau or castle of Verkai, where formerly the
bishops of Vilnius resided during the summer months.
To-day it is abandoned. At Birstonas are celebrated
sulphur springs. Rodune has won an unenviable reputa-
tion as the scene of many conflicts with the Russians.

Forty per cent, of the total surface of this province is
cultivated ; 19 per cent, consists of pasturage and meadow ;
28 per cent, of forests ; and nearly 11 per cent, of unculti-
vated lands. The peasants of this region experience no
little difficulty in drawing subsistence from the sandy soil,
being in this respect worse off than the peasants of
Suvalkai who, farther to the west, are better able to obtain
necessary auxiliaries to agriculture.

The province of Kaunas, covering an area of 40,640
square kilometres, is thus almost equal to Vilnius in size.
In the west it includes Samogitia ; to the north it is
bounded by Kurland ; to the east by Vitebsk ; to the
south by Vilnius and Suvalkai ; to the south-west by

PROVINCE OF KAUNAS 27

Lithuania Minor. It forms a slightly undulating plain
with an altitude a little over 150 metres. Only in the
west are there any elevations, viz. the so-called mountains
of Satrija, Girgzduta, Medvegalis, etc. Among the navig-
able rivers are the Nemunas (Niemen), Vilija and Venta.
Lakes are also very numerous, the district of Zarasai
alone possessing four hundred of them. As in the province
of Vilnius swamps hinder communication. The great
swamp of Remygala, near Panevezis (Ponievezh), covers
136 square kilometres.

This province, like Vilnius, has seven districts, viz.
Kaunas, Telsiai, Siauliai (Shavli), Raseiniai (Rossieny),
Panevezis (Ponievezh), Zarasai and Ukmerge (Vilkomir).
Kaunas, the capital, is situated at the confluence of the
Vilija and Nemunas, and before the war had between
ninety thousand and a hundred thousand inhabitants
but to-day is even more densely populated. In this
neighbourhood the banks of the Nemunas often rise to
a height of two hundred feet and are very picturesque.
Before the war Kaunas was regarded as a first-class
fortress, but this reputation was speedily exploded by
the German assailants who reduced it in a few days,
though treachery is supposed to have played an appreciable
role in this result. It is supposed that the town was
founded in the Xlllth century. In the XlVth century
it had already become a great bone of contention between
the Lithuanians and the Teutonic Knights. At the time
of the so-called " personal " union between Poland and
Lithuania, when Jagellon became king of the former
country, Kaunas began to serve as a centre for the export
trade from Poland and Lithuania to Russia. An English
trading factory was established here. In 1655 Kaunas
was plundered and burned down by a Russian army
under Tsar Alexis. At the Third Partition of Poland
in 1795 it was finally annexed to the Russian Empire.
On June 23, 1812, the French army reached the left
bank of the Nemunas, opposite Kaunas, and a hill near
the village of Ponyemon is still known as Napoleon's
Hill. Kaunas is the residence of the Bishop of Samogitia
and his chapter and also of the Lutheran Provost of

28 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

the Vilnius diocese. The Church of the Franciscans
dates from the epoch of Vytautas the Great. The most
remarkable of the Catholic churches is that of the Jesuits,
which was built by Italians. The Jews, who are also
numerous in Kaunas, possess four synagogues. The
library of the Catholic seminary contains many very
valuable manuscripts. Before the war Kaunas was well-
known for its industries, one of the biggest iron foundries
in Russia, that of Tillmann, doing a big business.

At Raseinial, a to>vn of ten thousand inhabitants, the
Diet of Samogitia formerly assembled. Kedainiai possesses
a large Protestant church constructed in 1629 by the
magnate Radvila, and it shelters the tomb of this princely
house. The mortal remains of the Lithuanian historian
Daukantas repose at Papile. The Radvila family at
one time had their residence at Kraziai, where there is
to-day a well-known monastery. The Lithuanian poet
Sarbiewski used to pursue his literary studies at the Jesuit
college of this town, while at one time the Jesuit church
possessed, according to report, Leonardo da Vinci's
" Ascension."

Plunge, the home of the Princes Oginski, is the Lithuanian
Jerusalem, the Jewish population being very large. On
the banks of the Nemunas is the ancient fortress of Veliona,
before which Gediminas died in 1341. Sidlava, in Samo-
gitia, is a place of frequent pilgrimage, as also Kalvarija,
which has a Calvary constructed on the model of the
original at Jerusalem. The Birzai locality is known in
history as the principal scene of Lithuanian opposition
to Roman Catholicism and the headquarters of the
Lithuanian Protestant Prince Nicolas Radvila the Black.

Under the Simpson boundary award between Latvia
and Lithuania, the latter has acquired the watering-
place Palanga on the Baltic, with valuable medicinal
springs, and is considering plans for its development,
together with Sventoji at the mouth of the river of that
name, into an ocean port. There is indeed quite a mass
of historical evidence available to show that there were
in former years deep-sea harbours at both these places.
During the Xlllth century, the Crusaders having taken

INHABITANTS OF TALANOA GREETING LITHUANIAN TROOPS.

I.ITHTTANIAN CHILDREN PRAYING FOE DEAD OOMBADE.

To face p. 28.

PALANGA AND SVENTOJI PORTS 29

Prussia and the Knights of the Sword Latvia, the towns
of Konigsberg, Rusnis, Klaipeda (Memel) and Riga,
which then belonged to the Germans, tried to seize the
entire trade of Lithuania together with that of other
regions. The Lithuanian Grand Dukes, on the other
hand, did their best to thwart these schemes and to
liberate Lithuanian trade from the German yoke. With
this object, for example, Keistutis in 1342 concluded a
commercial treaty with England. The trade of Lithuania
at that time, in all probability, was conducted via Palanga
or Sventoji. At any rate Vytautas the Great, wishing
to open " a window^ into Europe " which should not be
dependent upon Germany, restored those ports. It
must therefore be supposed that they were situated very
much where the present Palanga and Sventoji are to-day.
Later, apparently, they were abandoned. The trade of
Palanga-Sventoji even during the time of Vytautas had
begun to decline. Lithuania having strengthened and
improved her relations with Prussia and the Latvian
Germans had revived the trade via the Nemunas and
Dauguva (Dvina).

In the XVth century we find further information
about Palanga port. From the XVIth to the XVIIth
century the independent trade of Lithuania rose. Dutch
and British vessels lay in Lithuanian harbours. In
1603 Sventoji still appears on a map of Lithuania
published by command and at the expense of Radvila.
From the XVIth to the XVIIth century, however, war
and disorder detrimentally affected Lithuanian trade.
According to one account it was in 1625 that the Swedish
king Gustavus Adolphus, and according to another in
1701 that Charles XII, also of Sweden, at the instance
of the Riga merchants, filled up Sventoji harbour with
stones which were transported in nine vessels. There
is information extant that in 1685 an English merchant
named Horst opened his office at Sventoji. It is probable
that the Swedes twice destroyed Sventoji port and that
Lithuania restored it.

In the second half of the XVIIIth century the representa-
tive of Lithuania and Poland, Bukaty, in negotiation with

so A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

England on behalf of his Government, promised to restore
Sventoji harbour ; but as Lithuania dreaded foreign
domination this project came to nought. The father
of the present owner of Palanga, Tiskevicius, with the
object of restoring the trade of Palanga, built a long
pier alongside which his own and other vessels used to
moor, but trade did not develop.

Now that the Lithuanian State has been recreated
the importance of Palanga as a port will perhaps again
be revived.

From an economic standpoint Siauliai was formerly
of considerable importance and should again become
so, since it possesses some of the largest tanneries in
the world and several confectionery factories.

Of the total provincial area 38 per cent, is under cultiva-
tion, 27 per cent, consists of meadows and pasture,
24 per cent, of forests, and 11 per cent, of marshes and
uncultivated land. Lakes cover a surface of 400 square
kilometres.

Suvalkai province, with only 12,300 square kilometres,
is appreciably smaller than the other Lithuanian provinces.
It is bounded on the north by Kaunas province, on the
east by Vilnius, on the south by Gardinas, and on the
west by East Prussia. In a topographical sense the
country is divided into two distinct parts ; the northern
half is very fertile and possesses near Kazli^ Ruda ex-
tensive forests, whereas the south-west, traversed by a
chain of hills, is covered with innumerable lakes which
abound in fish. The largest of these, Lake Vigrai,
has an area of 10,000 hectares. Swamps are also
numerous.

There are about 700,000 inhabitants in the province.
There are seven district divisions known as Suvalkai,
Augustavas (Augustovo), Kalvarija, Marjampole, Seinai
(Seiny), Vilkaviskis, and Naumiestis. During the Russian
occupation of the province the capital, Suvalkai, had
25,000 inhabitants. The episcopal residence Seinai boasts
a Roman Catholic seminary and is generally regarded
with reverence by all Lithuanians as the home of
Lithuanian religious culture. Augustavas is best known

GARDINAS PROVINCE 81

for its canal of the same name, which figured largely in
the Great War.

Cultivated land constitutes 49 per cent, of the total,
meadows and pasture 19.5 per cent., and forests 23 per
cent. The rest is uncultivated.

The province of Gardinas has an area of more than
88,600 square kilometres and is divided into nine districts,
i.e. Gardinas, Sakale, Baltstoge, Brest-Lithuanien, Kobrin,
Pruzenai, Slanimas, Vilkaviskis and Bielsk. On the
north it touches Suvalkai and Vilnius, on the east the
Minsk government, on the south Volhynia, and on the
west Poiand. Its configuration is also that of an undulating
plain with a mean altitude of 160 metres. The highest
hill, in the Slanimas district, reaches 280 metres. In
the south-east are many swamps. The Lithuanian hills
divide the country into two basins, that of the Baltic
Sea and that of the Black Sea. This explains why some
of the rivers flow north and others south. The Nemunas
flows in the first-named direction and the Jasiolda and
Pina, affluents of the Pripet, in the second.

The capital, Gardinas, is situated on the right bank of
the Nemunas at the point where the river begins to
penetrate a barrier of hills and forms a valley enclosed by
sides one hundred feet in height. Gardinas is the point of
bifurcation of several railway lines and possesses a land
bank. Its efforts to improve agriculture are favourably
known. Its fortress and environs were the scene of
many sanguinary engagements during the war. Pruzenai
and Vilkaviskis possess well-known distilleries. Slanimas
has made a name for itself in apiculture. Balstoge
contains many breweries and one of the biggest weaving
mills in all Lithuania. Druskininkai is celebrated for
its salt baths, and is very rich in radium.

Seventy per cent of the territory is a light soil. Cultivated
land constitutes 39 per cent., meadows and pasture land
22 per cent., forests 25 per cent., and uncultivated land,
marshes and moving sand 14 per cent, of the total area.

In the Minsk government, the district of Naugardukas,
called also Naupilis, forms part of ethnographic Lithuania.
Before Vilnius, Naugardukas was the Lithuanian capital,

32 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

and ruins of the castle in ;which the Grand Duke Mindaugas
resided may still be seen there.

No review of Lithuania would be complete without
mention of Prussian Lithuania, which is generally now
referred to as Lithuania Minor. Since 1422 it has been
under Prussian domination. It was about that time,
in fact, that Vytautas the Great ceded this part of the
country to his enemies, the Knights of the Teutonic
Order, in order to promote his far-reaching political
ambitions elsewhere. Nevertheless, the greater part of
this territory has preserved its Lithuanian character
despite its secular dependence upon Prussia and the most
persistent efforts to Germanize it. One can find in
Prussian Lithuania Lithuanian customs, types, and,
above all, the Lithuanian language. In 1654 the Old
Prussians or Borussians renounced their Balto-Lithuanian
idiom in favour of German. The Prussian Lithuanian
does not differ essentially from his compatriot of Lithuania
Major save in his religion, which is Protestant. The
districts of Tilze (Tilsit), Klaipeda (Memel), Ragaine
(Ragnit), Pilkalne (Pilkallen), the eastern parts of the
districts of Labguva (Labiau), Isrute (Insterberg), Gumbine
(Gumbinnen), Stalupenai (Stalluponen), and Goldape
(Goldapp) are still in great measure Lithuanian.

The city of Klaipeda or Memel, situated at the entrance
to the Gulf of Kurland, is a very important port for
the future of Lithuania ; but although, under the Versailles
Peace Treaty, detached from Germany, together with the
rest of the Memel territory, and recognized as Lithuania's
sole sea outlet by the Powers in their reply to the German
delegation on June 16, 1919, as already mentioned, the city
continues to be administered by the French, very much to
their own special advantage. In the Middle Ages, Memel
was an object of fierce contention between the Lithuanians
and the Teutonic Knights. To-day, in its national com-
plexion, the place is largely Lithuanian. Tilze (Tilsit), on
the Nemunas, is the natural centre of Prussian Lithuania.
Here was organized the contraband trade in Lithuanian
books when the latter were prohibited in Russian
Lithuania. Tilsit is also known as the scene of the Peace

CLIMATE OF LITHUANIA 88

Treaty of that name which Napoleon signed there in 1807.
Gumbine (Gumbinnen) on the Pisa and Isrute (Insterberg)
on tlie Pi'cgel are two interesting localities.

The country is rich in meadow land, forests, and fertile
soil. Agriculture and cattle-breeding form here, as
they do in Lithuania Major, the principal occupation
of the people. In certain regions, along the coast more
espooially, are less fertile lands and peat moors. The
town of Trakenai is famous for horse-breeding. Several
small localities in the east, Palmininkai for example,
are also known for tlicir amber trade.

The climate of Lithuania varies according to the situation
of the provinces. On the littoral it is influenced by the
sea and becomes more and more continental as one
advances into the interior. The mean temperature is
6.6 dcgvoos centigrade. Li July the mean is 18 degrees.
In winter for four months the thermometer falls below
zero. The rainfall is 580 millimetres annually, July and
August being the wettest moiiths. Westerly winds pre-
dominate, but in summer they blow from the north-west
and in winter rather more from the south-west.

In the Vilnius province the climate is fairly continental.
The summer temperature is generally higher than in
Lithuania Minor (in July, lor example, 18*6, whereas
at Konigsberg it is only 17*5 degrees). In winter, on
the other hand, it is lower, tlve tlienuometer during five
months (from November to March) falling below zero.
The rainfall reaches 605 millimetres imnually. Cloudy
weatlier is frequent. At Vilnius, for example, there
are on an average during the year only 68 bright days,
183 cloudy and 167 days of rain.

Tlie climate of Kaunas province is strongly influenced
by the sea. In July the a\'orage temperature is 18 degrees,
while in winter it oseillates in the various districts between
8 degrees aaid 6 degrees. The atmospheric precipitation
varies fixim 550 to 600 milliiuetres.

Tlie piwince of Suvalkai has a meaji annual temperature
of 6* 2 degrees. In July tlio average is 17*7 degrees;
from December to Mai'cli it is below zero. Suvalkai is
not so rainy as the other provinces, the fall being from 500

8

34 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

to 550 millimetres. The weather is very variable, especially
in spring. There are some 70 wet days in the year.

The province of Gardinas has the most continental
climate. The average temperature is in January
6 degrees, in July 20-9 degrees. The annual rainfall
does not exceed 335 millimetres, showing that Gardinas is
the driest of the Lithuanian provinces.

In its generality Lithuania is a plain lightly inclined
towards the sea and traversed by two chains of so-called
mountains, the Lithuanian Hills and the Telsiai Heights.
The Nemunas divides the Lithuanian Hills into two
groups — to the left the chain of the south-west, to the right
the chain of the south-east. The latter crosses the Vilnius
province and the north of Gardinas province. The western
chain, which is smaller, starts from the left bank of the
Nemunas, extends to the province of Suvalkai and as
far as Prussia. Strictly speaking, these hills are merely
light undulations with an average altitude not exceeding
200 metres. The highest point is Mount Ciupiskiai (55
kilometres south-east of Vilnius), which rises 313 metres.
In the valleys numerous lakes brighten the scenery.

The Telsiai Heights largely resemble the Lithuanian
Hills. They skirt the sea and traverse the districts of
Telsiai and Raseiniai in the province of Kaunas. Their
lesser spurs extend as far as Prussian Lithuania. The
average altitude of the chain is 150 metres, the most
notable peak being Mount Satrija. In Lithuania Minor
is Rambynas, the legendary mountain of the Lithuanians.
The region of Ober-Eysseln, owing to its charming scenery,
is sometimes called the Lithuanian Switzerland.

Lithuania owes much of her scenic distinction to her
rivers and lakes in which the country abounds. This
variety is caused by winds from the west which carry
rain-charged clouds from the sea and also by the clayey
soil which prevents the subsidence of the water.

The Nemunas is the great Lithuanian river. Its course
has the form of the latter Z. The lower horizontal stroke
corresponds to the line east-west which it describes from
its source to the town of Gardinas ; there the river turns
abruptly towards the north, but when several kilometres

NEMUNAS RIVER 35

from Kaunas it resumes its east-west direction, which it
keeps till it enters the Baltic a little below Tilze (Tilsit).
The Nemunas has cut for itself a deep bed and in places
its banks are very steep, of cliff-like formation, while
in others they are flat. In its upper reaches the Nemunas
has been compared to the Rhine, but is less attractive
in its lower reaches in Lithuania Minor, where it flows
idly through a plain. Then for the last time it returns
to the hills, piercing the Prussian spurs of the Telsiai
Heights and winds round Rambynas, the mythological
mountain of the Lithuanians.

The Lithuanian basin is formed principally by the
Nemunas and its numerous affluents. On the right bank
the Nemunas receives the Jura, Dubysa, Nevezes, Neris
or Vilija, which comes from Vilnius, the Merkis, etc. Its
affluents on the left bank are the Sesupe, Black Ancia,
Zelve, Mulcia, etc. These affluents are not uniform and
monotonous rivers : each has its distinctive aspect and
passes through delightful country. The gilded waters
of the Neris inspired the Lithuanian poet Mickiewicz. The
Dane, which joins the Nemunas near Memel, is renowned
for its beautiful shores. The Dubysa, which is certainly
one of the prettiest rivers in Lithuania, acquired a melan-
choly notoriety during the war, many desperate engage-
ments having been fought on its banks. The Venta,
which traverses Kurland and directly enters the sea,
often causes floods.

The lakes greatly contribute to the beauty of Lithuanian
scenery. They exceed 2,100 in number. Corresponding
to the two mountainous regions they may be divided
into two groups. The greater number are in the Lithuanian
Hills, i.e. about 1,500. The eastern chain, on the right
bank of the Nemunas, is abundantly provided with them,
notably Lakes Drukse and Narutis (Narocz). On the
left bank, in the region of the south-western chain, are
Lakes Augustavas, Vigriai, Duse and Trakai. One of
the eleven isles of the last-named contains the poetic
ruins of a castle belonging to the epoch of Keistutis.
The second group of lakes borders the littoral of the Baltic
Sea and numbers about 600. The more important are
Liepoja, Lukstas, Birsulas and Plateliai.

36 A TOPOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE

Geologically Lithuanian soil is in large measure the
work of the glacial period. Glaciers from Scandinavia
covered Lithuanian territory, and in their retreat left
numerous morains and blocks of stone which they had
brought in their course. Even to-day this plain traversed
by hills affords sufficient proof of the diluvial formation
of the country. The marshes, peat-bogs and valleys
have an alluvial origin. The deeper strata, chalk for
example, are products of the tertiary pei'iod.

The province of Vilnius is formed by tertiary strata
which were mostly covered by diluvial formations. The
quality of the soil is extremely variable. It is not rare
to find sand close to the best black earth. Nevertheless
sandy clay is most frequent in this province. Where
clay, which is an impermeable stratum, predominates
the waters remain stagnant and form swamps. Such is
the case, for example, in the districts of Vilnius and
Asmena. In the district of Trakai, on the contrary,
we find a very fertile black earth.

The province of Kaunas is of almost exclusively diluvial
origin, although in places Devonian formation may be
found (Siauliai), also Jurassic and tertiary. The soil
is in general clayey ; but black earth exists in some
districts of the north (Panevczys, Siauliai, etc.), moving
sand in the Zarasai district. In certain places the marshes
favoured by the clay soil have formed peat bogs.

The soil of the province of Suvalkai is in general a
product of the glacial period. The valleys and marshes
are of alluvial formation. By the side of these strata
one meets here and there with chalk. The soil of the
northern plains is of superior quality to that of the moun-
tains of the south ; it is formed of clay mixed with chalk.
The south has numerous swamps and, in places, a sandy soil.
In general the soil here is much less productive than in
the north.

The province of Gardinas is rich in clayey lands of a
general diluvial formation. One finds some black earth
in the south, but this is rather rare. It should be
mentioned that there are moving sands in the districts
of Pruzenai and Vilkaviskis and numerous peat bogs
in those of Kobrin and Slanimas.

CHAPTER III

THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

For many years it was generally believed in Western
Europe that the Lithuanians were Slavs. A similarly
erroneous belief was entertained as regards the Estonians
and Letts. The union of Lithuania with Slavonic
Poland, then her dependence upon Slavonic Russia, have
helped to create and foster this error.

Actually the Lithuanians together with the Letts and
Old Prussians form a fanaily of Aestians or Baits, who
for centuries have preserved their own language and
customs. They are part of the great family of Aryan
peoples to which the Grcrmans and Slavs also belong.

The Lithuanian language, however, conclusively proves
the non-Slavonic origin of the Lithuanian people as a
whole, for although it has borrowed individual words from
the Slav vocabulary, as also from the German, in all
other respects it is an entirely distinct and separate
etymological unit. Slav and German borrowings no
more make it German or Slav than our own Greek and
Latin borrowings would make English Greek or Latin.
Lithuanian is, in fact, one of the oldest, if not the oldest,
language extant in Europe, and as such fully deserving
greater attention from philologists. It is indeed very
closely related to Sanscrit and possesses, according to the
celebrated Russian philologist Fortunatov, more than
75,000 words. Intrinsically it is unquestionably a highly
developed tongue which lends itself admirably to all
nuances of literary and colloquial expression. No less an
authority than Elis6e Reclus, in his Universal Geography,
says of it :

Of all languages of Europe, Lithuanian, which lacks augumen-
tatives, is the one -which possesses most affectionate and caressing

37

38 THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

diminutives. It has more of these than either Spanish or Italian ;
it has more of them than even Russian, and can multiply them
almost to infinity, applying them to verbs as well as to adjectives
and nouns. If the value of a nation in the ensemble of humanity
were to be measured by the beauty of its language, then the
Samogitians and Ijtvines would occupy the first rank among the
inhabitants of Europe.

A British authority, Benjamin D. Dwight, in his
Modern Philology also writes :

This (the Lithuanian tongue) is a language of great value to
the philologist. It is the most antique in its forms of all living
languages of the world, and most akin in its substance and spirit
to the primeval Sanscrit. It is also at the same time so much
like the Latin and Greek as to occupy the ear of the etymologist,
and in the multitude of words not otherwise understood, in the
place of the interpreter, with its face fixed on Latin and its hand
pointing backwards to the Sanscrit. It is like a universal inter-
preter, seeming to have the gift of tongues, since its tongue is so
greatly like the rest in preserving the purse of prime model, from
which they are all corrupt derivatives, as to seem, in whatever
language you hear, the chime of that language, ringing loud and
clear from ancient time.

The famous German philospher, Emanuel Kant, in
his preface to Mielke's Dictionary says : " She (Lithuania)
must be preserved, for her tongue possesses the key vi^hieh
solves the enigma not only of philology but also of history."

In the opinion of expert investigators this tongue
affords proof of a primitive connexion betvi'een the
Lithuanians and the Greeks. The cradle of the Indo-
European races is generally located on the shores of the
Caspian Sea ; and it is therefore not impossible that,
after the dispersion of the ancient Aryan family, these
two peoples for some time pursued a common route
towards the west. Subsequently their paths diverged.
The Eolians, Dorians, lonians and Thracians, tribes of
pure Hellenic race, drifted towards the south, whereas
Aestians or Baits travelled north and established them-
selves on the shores of the Baltic.

It is generally admitted that at the dawn of the Christian
era, or perhaps a little earlier, the primitive idiom of the
Aestians disappeared in giving birth to two new languages

LITHUANIANS AND LETTS 39

— Old Prussian (Borussian) and Letto-Lithuanian. The
definite separation of Lettish and Lithuanian was effected
only towards the end of the Xlth century. In course of
time the family of Aestian peoples was considerably
reduced. It lost the Old Prussians who fell under the
sway of the Teutonic Knights and were Germanized.
Already in the XVIIth century the Prussians had aban-
doned their ancient idiom and adopted German.

In matters of civilization the Lithuanians came under
the influence of the Finns, their eastern neighbours,
but after the latter had migrated to the lands which
they occupy to-day their influence ceased to make itself
felt, and the Lithuanians have conserved their national
character. Certain etymological analogies suggest a Gothic
admixture or contact, as for example the names of some
farming appurtenances, viz., " karvide," a cattle-shed,
" avide," a sheepfold, etc., but this influence was not
sufficiently strong to eliminate the ancestral customs of
the Lithuanians.

To-day the ancient Baits are represented only by the
Lithuanians and the Letts or Latvians. The two peoples,
however, have developed along different lines. The
Letts passed under the dominion of the Teutonic Order
and became Protestants, whereas the Lithuanians formed
an independent State and are Roman Catholics. Their
languages also have drifted farther and farther apart,
and to-day are two distinct idioms which, nevertheless,
reveal a common origin.

Elsewhere in these pages the fascinating subject of the
Lithuanian language is dealt with in more technical detail
{vide Chapter XV, on Language and Literature).

Although nothing in the nature of an exhaustive historic
survey of Lithuania's past is given here, since such an
undertaking would require a volume or volumes to itself,
even a superficial understanding of Lithuania's present
would be impossible without noting the more important
landmarks of her past.

The Lithuanian people, from almost time immemorial,
have inhabited the shores of the Baltic between the Dvina
and the Vistula. Their dwelling place was isolated from

40 THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

the main route of the nations from Asia into Europe by
the plains of Southern Russia, intercepted by impassable
swamps and forests. Thus the Lithuanian people in the
past lived their own life in tranquil fashion, innocent of
aggression against their neighbours. Until the Xlth
century very little reliable information about the origin
of the Lithuanians can be found in the writings of other
peoples.

Nevertheless the first actual reference to the Lithuanians
appears in Tacitus, who lived in the 1st century a.d.
Even at that remote epoch their territory was famous for
its wealth of amber, which was sought by merchants from
distant Rome. Tacitus speaks about the inhabitants of
the land of amber and calls them Esti or Aestians, men-
tioning, too, that they spoke a language distinct from
German. They used very little iron. They cultivated
grain more carefully than the Germans. Later writers
also refer to the Lithuanians as Aestians. In the Vlth
century Jordanes stated that the Aestians occupied an
extensive area of the seacoast beyond the Vistula ; that
they were people of peaceful habit, wherein they differed
from the Germans, who more frequently migrated from
place to place and came into collision with other races in
consequence. In the Xlth century Adam Bremeniskis
speaks of the Aestians as a separate race, Pruri or Sambi,
and styles them a humane people. He praises their cus-
toms and censures them only for one thing, i.e. that they
were not Christians, Bishop Albertas was slain by them.
Writers of various centuries give the dwellers of the Baltic
coast the same name and write similarly about their
manners and customs.

The Lithuanian language itself bears all the signs of
extreme antiquity and hardly any indications of foreign
admixture, thus showing that the Lithuanian race in
its earlier stages had but little communion with other
peoples but lived its own life in peace and contentment.

The name Lithuania (Lietuva) appeared for the first
time in the chronicles of the Xlth century on the occasion
of the armed expeditions against Russian tribes. The
Russian chronicler Nestor, a monk of Kiev, writes that

EARLY GRAND DUKES 41

the Russians, or rather the Ruthenes, victoriously fought
the Lithuanians in the Xlth century, but that subsequent
epochs showed the great mihtary superiority of the
Lithuanians over the Russians. The Grand Duke Rim-
gaud as welded a congeries of warring tribes into a single
more or less homogeneous principality, and battled success-
fully against the Russians to the east and the brethren
of the Order of Sword-Bearers to the north in many
decisive engagements. Ardvila succeeded Rimgaudas.
This Prince or Grand Duke fought against the Tartars
in 1242 to such good purpose that after a desperate struggle
he achieved the liberation of both the Ruthenes and
Ukrainians from the alien yoke. It is said that Ardvila
founded the town of Naupilis, now known as Novogrpdek,
where the ancient ruins still exist. A little later began
the Lithuanian wars against the Teutonic Knights.

Mindaugas, Ardvila's successor, reigned more than
twenty years over Lithuania. In 1252 this Grand Duke
was converted to Christianity with all the grandees of
his realm. This fact is often passed over in silence,
although it has an important bearing upon the conversion
of the entire Lithuanian people some hundred years later.
At the same period Mindaugas received from a Papal
envoy a royal crown in his castle at Naupilis and in
the presence of the Superior of the Order of the Teutonic
ICnights, proving that from that moment the Lithuanian
rulers were invested with the kingly status. Mindaugas
established a bishopric in the region of the present Vilnius
and one of his sons even became a monk. The country,
however, did not enjoy peace. The Lithuanians were
soon obliged to oppose anew the encroachments of the
Teutonic Benights, whom they severely defeated in 1261.
At the same time the Prussians rose against the Order.
Mindaugas fell a victim to assassination, and his death
was followed by terrible internecine strife which lasted
twenty years. At length Vitenis succeeded in winning
power and in inflicting a decisive defeat upon the Teutonic
Order near the river Treide.

The successor of Vitenis was Gediminas, perhaps the
most powerful of the Lithuanian sovereigns. He it was

42 THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

who established his residence at Vilnius. This enlightened
ruler pursued a different policy from his predecessors and
threw open the country to the influx of Occidental civiliza-
tion, inviting Western artists and artisans, the Franciscan
and Dominican friars to co-operate in the task of educating
the people. He favoured the extension of both the Roman
Catholic Church and the Orthodox Greek faith. Yet
he himself did not accept baptism, and under his tolerant
and eclectic sway Pagan temples and Christian churches
flourished side by side. In response to proposals that he
should adopt Christianity Gediminas is reported to
have made use of these words : " The Christians worship
God in their own fashion, the Russians according to their
usage, the Poles also, and we worship God in our own
fashion. We have all one God, so why speak to me of
the Christians ? Where can you find more crimes, more
injustice, more acts of violence, corruption and usury
than among Christians, and chiefly among those who are
ecclesiastics as bearers of the Cross ? " There are bigots
in the present year of grace who might profitably emulate
this enlightened Lithuanian monarch of the XlVth century.
Apparently the Lithuanians, always known for their
religious tolerance, regarded religion as much more the
private concern of individuals than did other neighbouring
peoples.

The Teutonic Order continued its forays against
Lithuania. Gediminas in 1323 complained to the Pope, but
without result. He then had recourse to the sword and
successfully repulsed the enemy. He further extended
his dominion as far as the Dnieper to the east, and south
almost as far as the Black Sea. He built a network of
strong castles to safeguard his conquests, but failed to
create a truly Lithuanian national culture. After his
death civil troubles broke out afresh till his two sons,
Algirdas and Keistutis, agreed to govern the country
jointly. Algirdas, the elder, took over the eastern section,
residing sometimes at Vilnius and sometimes at the
castle of Mednikai. His court came to a certain extent
under Russian influence, the wives of his second and third
marriage having been Russian princesses. Nevertheless

THE GRAND DUKE KEISTUTIS 43

in a political sense Algirdas was far from being dependent
upon Russia. On the contrary, he fought against the
Russians on several occasions, and thrice entered Moscow
as a conqueror.

Keistutis ruled Western Lithuania. His wife Birut^,
the daughter of a Lithuanian noble, figures prominently
in Lithuanian song and story. Tradition has it that
before her marriage she was a vestal virgin who guarded
the sacred fire on a hill near Palanga. When Keistutis
met her he was so overcome by her beauty that he made her
his consort. To this day this hill bears her name and
is the bourn of many a popular pilgrimage. But in
lieu of the ancient sacred fire there now stands a chapel
containing an image of the Virgin, while on the northern
slope of the hill is a grotto with a statue of Mary, made
to the order of the present proprietor Count Tyszkiewicz,
to resemble Notre Dame of Lourdes.

Keistutis resided at Kaunas and also at a castle on Lake
Trakai which was erected by Gediminas. In marked
contrast to his brother's court, here the Lithuanian
language was alone spoken. His wife bore him six sons.
Keistutis won the respect and affection of his people to
a far greater extent than his brother, and to-day holds
a place in the pantheon of national heroes. He was
obliged to defend the country to the north and west
against the Teutonic Order, though not always fortunate
in these encounters, his opponent being the redoubtable
W^inrich of Kniprode. Once he was taken prisoner but
escaped and sent his captor the following characteristic
message : " Thanks for your kind reception. But if
I should have the honour of welcoming you under similar
conditions, I should know how to guard you better."
His greatest misfortune was the loss of Kaunas. The
defence was conducted by his son Vaidotas who, when
he realized the hopelessness of his task, collected thirty-
six of his bravest knights and tried to cut his way through
the Teuton invaders, but was taken prisoner. The other
defenders of the castle set fire to the latter and perished
in the flames on Easter morning of 1352. Yet despite
this loss, it was during the rule of the two brothers

44 THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

Algirdas and Keistutis that Lithuania attained her greatest
development, extending for the first time from the Baltic
to the Black Sea.

After the death of Algirdas, in 1877, his son
Jagellon tried to make himself master of the country
with the help of the Teutonic Order. In 1882 he took
Keistutis captive, as also his eldest son Vytautas, both
of whom were incarcerated in Krevo castle. Several
days later Keistutis was found strangled in his cell, but
to allay the popular anger Jagellon conveyed the body
to Vilnius where it was burnt, according to the national
custom, seated upon an armoured horse,

Vytautas later escaped from captivity and proceeded,
also with the support of the Teutonic Order, to challenge
Jagellon's hegemony. When, however, Jagellon became
King of Poland through his marriage to Hedwig, the
Queen of that country, he effected a reconciliation with
Vytautas, to whom he ceded a portion of the principality
in the south. On ascending the Polish throne he left
Lithuania to his brother Skirgaila, but the latter proved
so incompetent that Vytautas had little difficulty in over-
throwing him and assuming undivided control in 1392.

It was at this epoch that Polish influence began to make
itself powerfully felt. The pious Queen Hedwig persuaded
Jagellon to order the destruction of all the old Pagan
sanctuaries and the extinction of all the sacred fires, while
Jagellon himself embraced Christianity. Yet when
Vytautas ascended the Lithuanian throne Polish influence
sustained a check. Vytautas was the pupil of Hanno of
Windenheim and was highly educated for those days,
speaking both German and Latin. He had travelled
widely in the west and south of Europe and had learned
to know Occidental civilization. He sought to raise the
standard of Lithuanian culture, but was greatly hindered
by political complications. Lithuania was alternately
exposed to Russian, German, and Polish influences, until
finally the latter took the ascendant. None the less the
rule of Vytautas synchronized with a notable extension of
the power and prosperity of Lithuania. It was he who
formed the project of expelling the Tartars from Europe,

VYTAUTAS THE GREAT 45

and although he did not entirely succeed in his self-
appointed task his victories and his great prestige for many-
years checked the Tartar incursions into Lithuania and
Poland. Tamerlane was then sovereign of the immense
Tartar Empire. He dwelt in Asia and confided the
government of his hordes in Europe to vassal khans.
One of these, Toktamich, rose against his suzerain, and
having been vanquished by another khan sought refuge
in Lithuania and demanded aid from Vytautas. The
Grand Duke first sent armed assistance and subsequently
took command in person and inflicted a severe defeat
upon the Tartars in the vast unexplored plains which
extended beyond the Don.

The influence which Lithuania exercised over the
Golden Horde and the Crimean Tartars dates from this
moment. It is true that in 1399 Vytautas was defeated
by Eudigne on the banks of the Vorskla, and had to beat
a precipitate retreat, but this reverse did not discourage
him and he continued the struggle with conspicuous
ability. He intervened in the internecine feuds of the
Tartars, played the r61e of arbiter, and was present at
the election of two khans. These savage people entertained
such respect for his justice that the entire Golden Horde
beyond the Volga obeyed him. Twenty years after the
battle of the Vorskla, the same Eudigne, who had previously
defeated Vytautas, sent to Vilnius an embassy bearing
rich gifts to solicit the friendship of the most powerful
of European princes.

Vytautas possessed in his immense territories two ports —
one, Palanga, on the Baltic, and the other, Odessa, on
the Black Sea. It is narrated that on the day he vanquished
the Tartar hordes established on the shores of the latter,
he rode his horse into the water and proclaimed himself
monarch of the ocean . The southern provinces of Volhynia,
Ukraine and Podolia enjoyed a useful breathing spell
under his regime. Fortresses established on the banks
of the Dnieper and the Bobr were guarded by Lithuanian
garrisons. Commercial caravans from the Orient could
penetrate with their merchandise, and in perfect safety,
into the heart of Lithuania. Vytautas built roads and

46 THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

bridges for the development of trade, and travelled the
land in person to see that justice was dispensed and order
maintained. No powerful subordinate ventured to oppress
the people, because the Grand Duke was ever ready to
listen to complaints and to punish the wrong-doers. His
was of course the paternal form of government best
suited to the times. Yet when circumstances seemed to
dictate such a course he did not hesitate to take up arms.
When, for example, the inhabitants of Novgorod, who
had recognized Lithuanian sovereignty since Gediminas,
refused obedience to Vytautas towards the end of his
reign, the Grand Duke, although then eighty years of age,
placed himself at the head of his army and reached the
province of Novgorod with a cannon of giant size for
that epoch, drawn by forty horses, the sight of which so
terrified the recalcitrant Novgorodians that they promptly
tendered their submission.

During the closing years of his prosperous reign, Vytautas
wished to convert Lithuania into a kingdom and receive
a royal crown. This idea wajs inspired by Sigismond,
Emperor of Germany and of the Holy Roman Empire,
who in his turn was actuated by the ulterior motive of
wishing to shatter the alliance between Lithuania and
Poland. There could have been none more worthy of
the crown than Vytautas, but inasmuch as the Polish
alliance united the two peoples under the same king,
Ladislas Jagellon, the proposed coronation encountered
insuperable opposition from the Poles and therefore came
to nought.

Vytautas invited to his splendid castle at Luck the
Emperor Sigismond, King Ladislas, and other monarchs.
At this meeting they discussed not only the question of
the coronation but also other important matters, such as
means of expelling the Turks from Europe, Among
other dignitaries present were the King of Denmark,
Vassili, the Grand Duke of Moscow, the Pontifical delegate,
the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, envoys of the
Greek Emperor, the Tartar Khan, several tributary
princes, etc. Never before had Lithuania seen so brilliant
an assembly. For the entertainment and feeding of his

BATTLE OF GRUNEWALD 47

guests Vytautas ordered the daily delivery of 300 cows
600 sheep, 100 lambs, and 300 casks of beer. The festivities
lasted fifty days, but no question of importance was
settled. The coronation of Vytautas did not take place
owing to the energetic opposition of the Poles, who feared
that its effect might be the secession of Lithuania. Vytau-
tas returned despondent to Vilnius, where he fell ill the
following year. He was taken thence to Trakai, and when
he felt his end approaching himself renounced his idea of
being crowned. Ladislas did not abandon his cousin's
bedside, and it was in the arms of Ladislas that Vytautas
breathed his last at the advanced age of eighty-six. He
was buried in Vilnius cathedral in 1430. The style of
" Great " has been attached to the name of this distin-
guished ruler.

One of his most notable achievements, in conjunction
with the Poles, was the crushing defeat he inflicted upon
the Teutonic Order at Grunewald in 1410.

Notwithstanding this notable record, one measure of
his, in the opinion of no less a critic than Vidunas, con-
tributed largely to the ultimate weakening of the Lithu-
anian nation. He sent the Lithuanian nobility to distant
territories not inhabited by Lithuanians, where these
emigres, isolated from their countrymen, were soon
absorbed by the foreign race and thus to a large extent
lost to their own people. Polish influence gained corres-
pondingly, and the Lithuanian nobility gradually adopted
the Polish speech, Polish manners and customs.

With Vytautas ended the series of great Lithuanian
rulers inaugurated by Gediminas. Among his successors
some were men of talent who tried to govern the country
in the spirit of their ancestors, while others endeavoured
to retain their power by clever compromises. But none
of them handled the marshal's baton more effectively
than Keistutis ; none bore the sceptre with greater dignity
than Vytautas.

Skipping, therefore, a succession of Grand Dukes whose
administration witnessed the steadily declining power of
the Lithuanian State, we reach the fateful year 1569,
in which Polish-Lithuanian relations were regulated by

48 THE RISE OF LITHUANIA

the famous and disastrous Lublin Union. Nevertheless,
under this treaty Lithuania retained her own treasury,
law courts, and army distinct from those of Poland. At
the end of the XVIIIth century Lithuania Major shared
the fate of Poland, when the latter was partitioned, and
thus fell under the Russian sway. Lithuania Minor had
been annexed to Prussia before this epoch.

CHAPTER IV

PERIOD OF DECADENCE

It is not strange that the great rehgious revolution of
the XVIth century should have roused echoes in Lithuania.
Documentary data dealing with the Reformation in
Lithuania are still rare, but they prove that the country
was powerfully moved by these new doctrines.

Contributory causes in Lithuania, as elsewhere, to this
revulsion of feeling may be found in the corruption of the
clergy. The bishops, more especially, abandoning the
traditions of the Church, set the worst example to the
nobility and people, which these were quick to imitate.
At that time there were four dioceses in Lithuania, i.e.
Vilnius, Samogitia, Kiev and Luck. The bishops were
influential members of the Senate, participated actively
in the political life of the country, and possessed consider-
able juridical competence. Every bishop received a
minimum of five thousand florins gold annually, which
in those days was a huge stipend. The Bishop of Vilnius
enjoyed an annual revenue of forty thousand florins.
The rents of the Bishop of Samogitia were not less than
this sum. Possessing as they did episcopal, temporal,
and senatorial power, these magnates of the Church
speedily deserted the apostolic path and became infamous
for thfiE, luxury, their ambition, their pride, and their
excesses of every description.

These vices were shared in corresponding degree by
the inferior clergy. Large numbers of priests were totally
devoid of intellectual qualifications, many receiving
Holy Orders without having passed through any school.
Poland sent the most lamentable specimens as pastors
to Lithuania. These worthies made not the slightest

4, «

50 PERIOD OF DECADENCE

effort to learn Lithuanian. Disorganization and anarchy
in ecclesiastical affairs reached such a pitch that according
to contemporary evidence even Jews were appointed to
hold office as parish priests !

Contaminated by this example the Lithuanian nobility
presented a melancholy spectacle of deterioration. Luxury,
effeminacy, and love of pleasure had become so deeply
ingrained in the aristocracy that venereal disease in the
Lithuanian tongue was styled " the court sickness."
Those who had not yielded to immorality in their own
country succumbed to the temptations offered by the no
less decadent courts of Western Europe, where the Lithu-
anian nobility made frequent sojourns. The members
of the smaller nobility copied the manners of the magnates
and, perhaps, were even less discriminating in their choice
of relaxation. One of their playful fancies was to under-
take raids on the country and to massacre all who ventured
to resist them.

In such circumstances the peasantry suffered unspeak-
ably. Treated as slaves they were steeped in ignorance.
The Church entirely neglected them. The Lithuanians
had embraced Christianity in 1886, on which occasion
the various princes had assembled their subjects to be
sprinkled with holy water by Christian missionaries. That
was the extent of their baptism, beyond which ghostly
teaching did not go, so that whilst the peasants had adopted
a few external signs of Christianity, inwardly for the
most part they remained Pagans.

Thus it was that the power of the Catholic Church in
Lithuania was largely illusory, and bound to collapse
at the first resolute attack.

Missionaries of the new doctrine began to preach in
Lithuania about 15.30. The two principal reformers were
Tortyllowicz, a parish priest of Samogitia, and Abraham
Culva, a member of the Lithuanian noblesse. They were
sent by Duke Albert of Prussia who, in his zeal for
Reform, supplied the movement with money, books, and
preachers. The new doctrine witnessed its full efflores-
cence during the reign of the Grand Duke Sigismond
Augustus.

RADVILA THE BLACK 51

Nieolai Radvila (Radziwill), known as the Black, was
the central figure of the Reform movement in Lithuania.
He belonged to a very wealthy and distinguished family
of the Vilnius palatinate. Although enjoying the favour
of the court, Radvila, in the midst of the prevailing
degradation of manners, had preserved his moral integrity.
Since Sigismond Augustus was without issue, Radvila
was everywhere regarded as his successor to the throne.
A Lithuanian of ancient stock, he was deeply indignant
at seeing the Poles behave in Lithuania as though the
country belonged to them and strongly opposed the
union with Poland. Believing that the religious decadence
of Lithuania was in great measure the work of unworthy
Polish priests, he determined in this respect to detach
his country from Poland by introducing the new faith.
Thus he began to spread the Calvinistie doctrine about
1550. He brought foreign preachers iiito the country and
sent Lithuanians to Switzerland in order to study the new
religion at its very centre. So successful were his efforts
that in 1555 almost all the nobles with their peasant
subjects had become Calvinists. Indeed, the Calvinistie
doctrines won a victory with almost unprecedented
ease. Lulled into carelessness by their success, the
Reformers took no steps to secure for their Church a
legal foundation.

As long as Radvila the Black was alive and protected
the Calvinistie Church nobody ventured to attack the
new doctrine, but no sooner was he dead (in 1565) than
the proiid edifice of Calvinism fell even more rapidly than
the previous Catholic Church.

The weakening of the Calvinistie Church was largely
due to the multiplication of sects. Almost every great
family had its own preacher and private chapel. As
many as seventy-two different sects and churches are
mentioned in statistics of the time. This Babylonic
confusion between the various doctrines, in which the
theories of present-day Bolshevism are said to have been
formulated, ruined Radvila's work beyond salvation.
The country people, who had never understood the Catholic
faith, had no more comprehension of the Reformed belief,

62 PERIOD OF DECADENCE

which they speedily abandoned to revert to the Pagan
cult of their ancestors.

The conversion of Nicolas-Christopher Radvila to
Catholicism was a severe blow for the New Believers.
The Papal Nuncio Commendone and Cardinal Hosius
greatly helped the Counter-Reformation in Lithuania, the
former through his remarkable eloquence and diplomatic
ability and the latter through his theological writings.

The new Church, already seriously undermined, miser-
ably collapsed in 1569 when the Jesuits arrived in Lithu-
ania to reconquer the country for the old faith. In this
manner the vital work of Nicolas Radvila the Black, the
great Lithuanian patriot, was destroyed in a few years,
and one of the last efforts of Lithuania to escape from
Polish influence was frustrated.

Ever-increasing checks and failures at this epoch bear
witness to the baneful effects of the Lublin Union. Far-
reaching projects of foreign policy were abandoned. The
provinces of Poldachia, Podolia and Volhynia had been
annexed by Poland and removed from the protection of
Lithuania, who forfeited her rank among great Powers.
The strength which had formerly been expended in expedi-
tions and conquests was not employed to increase the
internal prosperity of the country. Lithuania, accus-
tomed to see her affairs directed by the Poles, became
steadily more and more feeble in national will. And
still another enemy had arisen. The Swedes invaded
the country, which was now without a military organiza-
tion, and the situation seemed desperate indeed.

The Polish union, which lasted two centuries, exercised
a debilitating influence on the Lithuanian people. To
speak Polish and to dress in the Polish fashion were con-
sidered the correct thing. Towards the end of the XVIIth
century nearly all the Lithuanian nobility had ceased to
speak Lithuanian. The clergy were rarely recruited in
the country, but were imported from Poland and assisted
the rapid Polonization of Lithuania. The upper classes
of Lithuanian society, who went abroad for their educa-
tion, became gradually strangers to the people who alone
remained faithful to their native tongue and traditions.

INTERNAL ANARCHY 53

In this manner the Unk between the head and members
of the Lithuanian body was sundered. The nobihty no
longer took an interest in anything that was not foreign,
whilst the people, doomed to live in wretchedness and
poverty, were insensible to political affairs and the public
weal.

A century after the alliance of Lublin had been con-
cluded national sentiment awoke once more in Lithuania.
On the occasion of a Swedish invasion of Poland the
Lithuanian magnates Janus and Boguslav, scions of the
virile Radvila race, proclaimed at Kedainiai, in 1655, the
independence of their country and attached themselves
to the Swedes. This bold stroke, however, won but
few adherents and was the last evidence of Lithuanian
life.

Thereafter the country fell a prey to the anarchy that
had overtaken Poland. The right of brutal might
everywhere prevailed, A vicious and dissolute nobility
despoiled the people with impunity. The magnates, who
jealously defended their privileges, maintained regular
armies and fought among themselves. Under the govern-
ment of the King of Saxony, Augustus (between 1733
and 1763), internal chaos reached its apogee.

The various national parties appealed for aid alternately
to Prussia and Russia. Frederick II of Prussia, in con-
junction with the two Empresses Marie Theresa of Austria
and Catherine II of Russia, proceeded to partition the
defenceless country. In 1793 there was a second and in
1795 a third and final partition of both Poland and
Lithuania. The present provinces of Kaunas, Vilnius
and Gardinas, i.e. the largest part of the country, were
attributed to Russia ; the government of Suvalkai was
attached to Prussia, who in 1815 ceded it to Russia.

Such was then the end of Lithuania, which failed to
evoke a single effective protest. This ancient land, which
in the past had subdued the power of the Teutonic Knights
and repulsed the Tartar invasion, was sold into bondage
like so much vile merchandise. At the debut of her
history Lithuania had produced a Gediminas, a Keistutis,
and a Vytautas ; at the time of the partitions nought

54 PERIOD OF DECADENCE

remained save an enfeebled and a depraved nobility and
a people who vegetated in misery and ignorance. The
" Lietuvos Vytis " (Lithuanian Knight), symbol of a
glorious past, was relegated together with the Polish
Eagle to the dustheap. From that moment the Black
Eagle of Russia spread its sombre wings over Lithuania,
who was destined to retrieve her national dignity under
the Muscovite claws.

CHAPTER V

UNDER THE RUSSIAN YOKE

Only sympathy and knowledge can help us to picture
the sufferings of an entire people subjected to an alien
yoke. For the Britisher the thing is but a dim historical
tradition. But for thousands, nay millions, of members
of the smaller peoples, not yet much beyond middle age,
it is a dire personal reminiscence. And few among the
resurrected nationalities of post-bellum Europe can enter-
tain bitterer memories of such a past than Lithuania.

In 1795 the greater part of the country was attributed
to Russia. It may be cited as one of history's little
ironies that this subjugation of the Lithuanian people
should have synchronized with the French Revolution
and the fall of the Bastile, which put an end to the pleasing
political maxim " UEtat, c'est moi." In 1793 Louis XVI.
expiated the sins of his forefathers upon the scaffold.

But this national emancipation did not extend to St.
Petersburg. True, the rights of Lithuania were confirmed
on paper, but this was the last respite, and by 1793 the
Russification of the country was begun with the govern-
ments of Vilnius and Gardinas. The Lithuanians were
expelled from ofl&ce and replaced by a horde of Russian
functionaries. The government of Suvalkai alone enjoyed
ostensible automony.

In 1831 the spirit of rebellion awoke in Lithuania,
but it was suppressed with ruthless brutality. Suvalkai
shared the fate of the other governments. The Russian
Government decoyed the Lithuanian peasantry by the
abolition of serfdom, so that they took but little part in
the second insurrection of 1863. General Muraviev
devastated the land. He asked only forty years to

56 UNDER THE Kus»iAi\ xuts^r^

obliterate the Lithuanian national character. The Russian
sword bit deeply into the Lithuanian flesh, and the Ukase
of May 22, 1864, effaced the name of Lithuania from the
map of the world, from which date all Lithuanians became
subjects of the Russian North-West Provinces. Kalmucks
and Tartars were let loose on the land to put down all
manifestations of national sentiment. Only Russians
took part in the administration of both governments
and towns. In 1894 a secret edict bereft Lithuania of
all remaining hope. To be eligible for employment on
the railways, in the post offices, even to repair the roads,
one had to be Russian.

Worse still, Russian tyranny extended to the intellectual
and spiritual life of the people, for it was hoped the more
easily to wean the Lithuanians, ever eager for education,
from their national allegiance by compelling them to go
to Russian sources for their mental pabulum.

After the first rebellion the university of Vilnius was
closed down and its precious possessions were scattered
among Kiev, St. Petersburg and Moscow. With the
university fell also the higher schools. Eighteen institu-
tions directed by the Jesuits, the Basilians and others
were suppressed. There were left in Lithuania only
three large seminaries, at Vilnius, Varniai, and Seinai,
two normal schools, a few incomplete gymnasia at Vilnius,
Katmas and Suvalkai, while in these schools the Orthodox
Russian reigned as master. Every high ofHcial received
from the Government an allowance for the education of
each of his children.

The suppression of the monasteries and the substitution
of the Russian State religion for Roman Catholicism
menaced the existence of the popular schools, which were
directed by the monasteries and Catholic parishes. Private
schools were strictly prohibited. On the other hand, a
school was founded for every district with a population* of
from fifteen to twenty thousand inhabitants. Happy the
district which possessed two or three of these schools.
The well-to-do peasants and the landed proprietors some-
times engaged instructors who went from place to place to
teach the children, but the school organization was notori-

SUPPRESSION OF THE LANGUAGE 57

ously inadequate. In bad weather many children could
not travel the distance separating their homes from the
schools, and the task of educating the children fell, as
before, upon the family.

The Russian schools, moreover, could not entirely
replace national instruction, since the families and the
clergy secretly opposed their influence. For that matter
the Russian teacher was not an educator, but simply the
representative of a foreign bureaucracy, speaking a
tongue scarcely comprehensible to the children and
evoking no echo in their hearts. In order to prevent the
diffusion of intellectual culture, in 1824 the peasant children
were forbidden to attend the gymnasia. This prohibition
was renewed in 1882 with a view to suppressing the
Socialist danger. The only schools worthy of the name
were the parochial schools in which the Lithuanian clergy
taught the children their mother-tongue in a manner
suited to the national sentiment. But these were closed
in 1832, and thereafter the people had to make shift as
best they could with books smuggled in from Lithuania
Minor. The family, the hearth of Lithuanian life, had to
replace the schools. In many cases the clergy took
advantage of religious instruction to cultivate patriotic
feeling among the children. As soon as the Russians got
wind of this propaganda they subjected the clergy to a
pitiless persecution, which reaped a lavish crop of martyrs.
But the most ruthless blow to Lithuanian intellectual
life was dealt by the infamous Manifesto of 1863 which
banished the native language from the schools altogether.
The speech which every Lithuanian had learnt at his
mother's knee was branded as a crime and the Lithuanian
child was forced to learn an aUen tongue. From that
moment the popular schools were deserted. Only those
seeking to curry favour and advancement attended them.
The'Btthuanian might not even pray in his native language.
SuvaUsai government, which had hitherto been allowed
to teach the Bible in Lithuanian, now lost this privilege,
and religious instruction had to be imparted in the privacy
of the home. The well-known Lithuanian sculptor
Petras Rimsa, in a group entitled " Lietuvos Mokykla "

58 UNDER THE RUSSIAN YUKJi:

(the Lithuanian School), has left a touching symbol of
this sad period in Lithuanian history. It represents a
mother turning a spinning wheel and at the same time
teaching her child.

In 1865 Muraviev prohibited the use of the Latin
alphabet and circulated a Lithuanian grammar in Russian
characters. Nothing more could be printed in Lithuanian
letters, since an exception made in favour of a restricted
scientific circle could not extend to the masses. On the
other hand, the country was inundated with Russian
writings to replace the forbidden Lithuanian books.
Thus the world was confronted with an almost unprece-
dented spectacle, that of a nation of three million souls
dwelling on the soil of their ancestors, yet deprived of
the right to use their mother tongue. The soft musical
sounds of the native idiom might not be pronounced save
behind carefully closed doors with the bolts drawn.
Lithuanian books crossed the frontier as contraband
during dark nights. Russian police spies were posted at
the church portals to seize the prayer-books of the worship-
pers. In return Lithuanian books printed in Russian
characters were gratuitously offered but scornfully rejected
by the people.

Muraviev ruled with an iron hand. In less than two
years he sent 128 persons to the gallows ; 972 Lithu-
anians were condemned to penal servitude and 1,427
exiled to Siberia. In all some 9,361 persons fell victims
to the fury of Russification. To this number must also
be added the thousands who in some form or other
suffered from Russian persecution. Muraviev, the hang-
man of Lithuania, was favoured by fortune, for although
his life was repeatedly threatened he managed to escape,
and on retiring from his congenial post, after two
years' tenure, received from the Tsar as a reward for
his services the title of count. Later a monument in
his honour was erected at Vilnius, but all Lithuanians
carefully avoided its site, and to-day His Excellency
Michael Nikolaevitch Muraviev has disappeared from
the Lithuanian capital. On the approach of the German
armies the retreating Russians appropriately passed a

ADMINISTRATION^ OF JUSTICE 59

cord round the neck of the notorious hangman and in this
manner lifted him from his pedestal. Nor is it recorded
that anybody wore crepe to commemorate his withdrawal.

Confusion in the administration of justice favoured
the Russian domination. Before the introduction of
any Russian legislation the country possessed a well-
arranged body of law, which had been drafted in 1529
and bore the title of the Lithuanian Statute. This code
contained laws and decrees promulgated by various
Lithuanian sovereigns, and in course of time had been
supplemented and revised. So practical of application
was it that it even survived the partition and remained
in force during part of the Russian regime. In 1848,
however, the Tsar Nicholas I abolished it and introduced
Russian law, which was not adapted to Lithuanian manners
and customs. Nevertheless, notwithstanding this measure,
the Lithuanian Statute persisted as common law and was
accepted even beyond the Lithuanian frontiers, in White
Russia and Little Russia — a striking proof of its suitability
to the times. The Russian savant Speranski, a recognized
authority in this domain, declared that it would be quite
possible to modernize the Lithuanian Statute, but such a
course, needless to say, did not commend itself to the
Russian occupants, who preferred simply to rescind it.

The administration of justice became very complicated.
In the Suvalkai government, which Napoleon had united
to the Duchy of Warsaw, the Code Napoleon was in force.
In the other governments, Vilnius, Kaunas, and Gardinas,
Russian law prevailed, to which the landed proprietors
and bourgeois alone were subject. Nobody bothered about
the peasant. When serfdom was abolished in 1861
legislation should have been passed for the new free men,
but nothing of the kind was done, and the Russian Govern-
ment confided to each commune the duty of administering
justice as it saw fit, so that each commune went to work
in a different way. In the majority of cases recourse was
had to common law. The judges were Russians, who
understood hardly anything of the language of the country
and were accessible to every, kind of corruption. The
Suvalkai government, which for a time had been attached

60 UNDER THE RUSSIAN YOKE

to Poland, was deprived of jury trial. The inhabitants
of the country were not equal in the eyes of the law, which
constituted a grave defect, whilst the use of Russian,
which many Lithuanian litigants did not understand,
frequently operated to the detriment of the accused.

In this manner the Russians provoked hopeless confusion
in the sphere of justice. It would have been infinitely
simpler to adapt the Lithuanian Statute to the needs of
the new regime and thereby avert the disorder which
resulted from this triple melange — Russian law, the Code
Napoleon and common law. But the Russian Govern-
ment wished to have all Lithuanian law abolished. It
was indifferent to the question of what sort of legislation
took its place provided that it was not Lithuanian.

But this does not exhaust the list of measures adopted
by the Russian tyrants for the exploitation of the country
at the expense of the native inhabitants. In the wake
of the loss of liberty and the mother tongue came the turn
of agrarian wealth. Measures to this end were taken
from 1795, when Russia seized the property of the Crown
and the State domains. The insurrections of 1831 and
1863 provided the Russians with a convenient pretext for
expelling many Lithuanians from their small patch of
ground. If a single peasant revolted the entire village
was punished, and the inhabitants in serried ranks set out
on their long and weary march to Siberia.

After the suppression of the monasteries the wealth of
the congregations reverted to the State. It amounted to
millions. To the parish priests, professors, and teachers,
who had received their salaries from the monasteries,
ridiculous compensation was assigned. A parish priest
might esteem himself fortunate if he could lay hold of
450 roubles annually, and a teacher getting 250 roubles
was regarded as well paid. In order to gloss over this
piece of barefaced robbery the Russian Government
founded twelve scholarships of 300 roubles each for
Lithuanians who should go to Moscow to study.

An Ukase of 1865 forbade the Lithuanian aristocracy
to acquire landed property. In order to weaken the
Catholic nobility they were allowed only to rent land.

LAND RESTRICTIONS 61

and a lease might not be concluded for longer than twelve
years. The same measure was applied in 1894 to the
Protestants and to Russians who had contracted marriage
with Catholic women.

The peasant who wished to acquire land was obliged,
in conformity with a decree of July 1868, to present a
" certificate of patriotism," which the Government-
General granted to those with whose political attitude the
central authorities were satisfied.

In 1870 it was decided that no Lithuanian peasant
might receive more than 60 hectares (about 150 acres)
of land. A decree of 1889 prohibited the cession of landed
property to political and religious chiefs of Lithuania.
In 1892 a new law interdicted the acquisition of land by
all peasants who had opposed the closing of the churches
and the destruction of the latter by dynamite. All these
decrees reacted disastrously on the country. The peasant
would no longer attach himself to his strip of ground,
since he knew not at what moment his produce might be
confiscated by the Russian chinovniks. In these circum-
stances immense territories fell out of cultivation and the
peasants migrated in thousands. Lithuania became a
land accursed, and accursed was he whose misfortune
it was to dwell therein, since the Russian overlords regarded
him as little better than a criminal and an outcast.

CHAPTER VI

THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE

Fortunately for posterity the iron hand of Russia
could bend but could not break the national spirit of the
people. An interval of seeming despair gave way to the
outbreak of a neo-Lithuanian movement largely directed
by young Lithuanian students. Secret associations were
formed. In 1875 a hectograph review entitled Kalvis
Melagis (The Liar Blacksmith) made its appearance in
St. Petersburg. At Moscow, through the same medium,
was published AuSra (Dawn). Both these were written
by students for students. All along the frontiers Lithu-
anian magazines cropped up. After Petersburg and
Moscow came the turn of Tilsit, where in 1883 the indefatig-
able Dr. Basanavicius founded a monthly review styled
also AuSra. Since 1887 have appeared successively, in
1889, Varpas (The Bell) ; in 1890, Apivalga (The Review) ;
in 1896, Tevynes Sargas (Guardian of , the Fatherland),
in 1901, Naujienos (News), and Vkininkas (Peasant).
These periodicals represented various parties, but all
pursued the same ultimate end — ^the creation of an autono-
mous Lithuania. Little by little these printed invocations
penetrated into the soul of the people and set up vibrations
by no means welcome to the Russians. Obsessed by
the fear of losing the country the Russians began to
organize their offensive. The Russian police agent insinu-
ated himself everywhere, even into stables and cattle-
sheds, in the hope of there discovering the forbidden
writings. Against smuggling Russia opposed a vigilant
watch at the frontiers. Although thousands of these
prints fell into the hands of the Customs guards, a highly-
organized contraband system was able to diffuse a large

62

REMOVAL OF PRINTING PROHIBITION 63

number of the same among the people who read and
re-read them surreptitiously. Thousands of journals,
calendars, prayer-books and other pamphlets sent by
secret press associations crossed the frontier, in spite of
all the law could do to prevent it. Many of these publica-
tions were not printed but written by hand, and they
circulated until they became illegible.

A keen sense of humour was not lacking among the
authors of these broadsides. To mock the Russian
Government, notoriously stupid as well as brutal, the
larger part of them, actually printed at Tilsit, bore the
name of Vilnius on their title-pages, together with the
date 1863, the last year of freedom for the Lithuanian
press.

These published incitements made the people bolder
and bolder. Appeals were pasted on walls during the
night, and in 1896 many were distributed in broad day-
light. The struggle on both sides grew more and more
embittered. From 1900 to 1902 the customs confiscated
about 56,000 Lithuanian writings. Victory was scarcely
in doubt from the start. On April 27, 1904, Russia capitu-
lated : the interdict against Lithuanian printing was
removed. Shortly afterwards the Russian Revolution
extended to Lithuania, but the struggle was not violent,
thanks to the concessions made by the Government on
the question of the national language.

This impetus of Lithuanian culture led to an immediate
development of national sentiment. Even before 1863
a literary renascence had begun. Prompted by belief
in the greatness of his country Daukantas wrote a history
of Lithuania in the Lithuanian language. The Bishop
Valancius also wrote a history of the dioceses of Samogitia
in the same tongue. His episcopal colleague Baronas
composed Lithuanian poetry. All these men believed
in the restoration of Lithuanian greatness. But in
1863 an icy blast passed over the land and withered these
literary flowers. As the nobility inclined towards Poland
the agricultural classes assumed the reins of government,
and despite numerous obstacles the sons of the peasantry
devoted themselves to study with fiery ardour. Even

64 THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE

before 1875 they had formed secret associations and
turned out some of the earliest national journals.

Cultivated Lithuanians no longer, as formerly, went
to Russia in quest of positions, but remained in their
own country and helped to sustain the national movement.
A secret warfare against the brutish system applied by
the Russians was conducted during many long years.
At last in 1892 and 1896 revolt broke out openly. The
people refused to recite Russian prayers in the churches,
and on fete days absented themselves from the Orthodox
Russian churches. Although Polish influence made itself
very strongly felt in the country, Lithuanians step by
step won a foothold in the normal schools and in the
ecclesiastical seminaries. In 1870 the pupils of the seminary
of Kaunas recalled their Lithuanian origin. Even at
Vilnius, where Polish influence was very great, the Lithua-
nian students formed associations. Abroad they organized
themselves even more rapidly. Lithuanian student
societies were formed at Petersburg, Moscow, Riga,
Odessa, and at Fribourg in Switzerland. In Russia these
associations were secret.

They did not concern themselves solely with univer-
sity questions. At the end of last century they launched
appeals to the people. During vacations the students
journeyed to distant villages in quest of fresh recruits.
They established secret schools. The Lithuanian section
of the Universal Exposition at Paris in 1900 clearly
showed the activity of the Lithuanians. It contained
nineteen journals and thousands of books, despite the
printing prohibition.

The furious efforts of the Russian police to suppress
these manifestations led to frequent collisions and many
fatal casualties. The Russo-Japanese war afforded
Lithuanian patriots an excellent opportunity for redoubled
attacks upon the Muscovite knout policy. As we have
seen, the first great victory was scored when Petersburg
at last rescinded the insensate and dastardly prohibition
of Lithuanian printing. This hardly-won concession
opened the path to fresh objectives, and the newly-awakened
native intelligentsia rallied to their large-scale offensive
with increased ardour.

THE WORK OF DR. BASANAVlClUS 65

The stirring story of the Lithuanian Renascence must
ever be associated with the name of Dr. Basanavicius,
who devoted his whole life to the Lithuanian cause.

He was born in 1851 at Bartnikai, Suvalkai government,
the son of well-to-do parents. He studied at the Mariampol
gymnasium or high school, where he graduated with the
silver medal award. Thence he proceeded to the Moscow
university, where he studied philosophy and medicine.
In 1879 he secured his medical diploma, and subsequently
practised his profession off and on some twenty-five years
in Bulgaria. After the Russian Revolution of 1905 he
returned to Lithuania, where he still resides.

The value of his work for his country cannot be over-
estimated. While the embargo on Lithuanian printing
lasted he devoted himself to study of Lithuanian origins,
collected the ancient Dainos or popular songs, historical
reminiscences, etc., and immersed himself deeply in
the national soul. In 1883 he went to Lithuania Minor,
where at Ragaine and later at Tilze (Tilsit) he published
Auhra (Dawn) which did much to promote the Renascence
movement. By devious and manifold contraband routes
this paper found its way into Lithuania Major, where
it met with a ready sale. The besotted Russian Govern-
ment detected in this phenomenon a Bismarckian intrigue
and tried to entrap the publisher. In 1885 Basanavicius
was obliged to leave Germany, but he confided his work
to his comrade Slitipas. Basanavicius returned to Bulgaria,
where he resumed his task of compilation, till he had
prepared six large volumes on the Lithuanian people^
which appeared in Lithuania Minor and America.

After the Russian Revolution of 1905 he renewed his
activities in Lithuania Major. When the Diet of Vilnius
assembled he was elected President in recognition of his
tireless energy. He took advantage of the interval of
calm succeeding 1905 to try to improve the moral and
intellectual life of his countrymen. To this end he founded
the Lithuanian Scientific Society, which published an
organ called Tauta (Nation). He also opened a museum
and library in Vilnius. In 1913 he visited the flourishing
Lithuanian colony in the United States, which contributed

5

66 THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE

large sums to help in the realization of his special objects,
including the establishment of a theatre and a national
museum.

Basanavicius has continued to live in Vilnius ever
since, through all the upheaval of the Great War and
subsequent unrest, never losing an opportunity of advanc-
ing the national cause. He attended the opening of the
Lithuanian Constituent Assembly or Seim at Kaunas
on May 15, 1920, when he was accorded a wonderful
reception. It was my privilege also to be present on
that occasion, and the scene made a deep and lasting im-
pression upon my mind. Even Polish persecution of every-
thing Lithuanian has hesitated to touch this noble veteran,
and he lives among the books of his beloved Lithuanian
library, occupying his leisure with his favourite studies.

Another notable name closely connected with Basanavi-
cius is that of Vincas Kudirka, the Lithuanian national
poet. For many years he remained under Polish influence
till through AuSra he found the way back to his own-
people. After this paper had ceased to appear he secretly
founded a students' society, which brought out a new
paper, the Varpas (Bell). This organ was printed at
Tilze, but edited by Kudirka from Lithuania Major,
where the Russian police frantically sought to discover
his identity. Besides the Varpas he also issued the
Vkininkas (Peasant), addressed more especially to the
rural masses. He was responsible likewise for the clever
satirical tales Tiltas (Bridge) and Viesininkai (The
Officials ) . But the best of which he was capable is embodied
in his many folk songs which brought consolation and
hope to his countrymen in their darkest hours. His
activity naturally aroused official hostility. On several
occasions he had to don the garb of a convict, which by
that time had grown to be regarded as an honourable
distinction among Lithuanians. "He was unhappily not
destined to assist at the emancipation of the Lithuanian
language in whose cause he had ruined his health in
prison, for he passed away four years before the year
of liberation deeply mourned by a grateful people.

The defeat of Russia by Japan evoked widespread

CONGRESS OF VILNIUS 67

disorders, assuming the form of peasant risings in the
country and strikes in the towns. The spirit of revolt
speedily spread to Lithuania, where the panic-stricken
Russian officials soon abandoned the field to Lithuanians,
who lost no time in taking control of the local administra-
tion and the schools. In the autumn of 1905 the Tsar
proclaimed freedom of person, press and assembly.
Already in October of that year a number of Lithuanians
had gathered at Vilnius and drafted a Memorandum
addressed to the then Russian Minister, President Count
Witte, demanding far-reaching autonomy, equal rights
for all aliens in Russia, the recognition of Lithuanian
as the official language in Lithuania, construction of
Lithuanian schools, attachment of Suvalkai government,
hitherto included in the Polish administrative system,
to Lithuania, freedom for the Catholic Church, etc. This
Memorandum was actually published in the Russian
Government organ, Pravitelstvennyi Vyestnik. It natur-
ally evoked a lively protest from the Poles, who feared
lest the grant of autonomy should alienate their former
allied State from Poland.

The initiative of the Vilnius Memorandum was the signal
for a startling outburst of patriotic fervour and enthusiasm,
all the stronger doubtless for its long suppression. In
order to show that the foregoing Memorandum was not
merely the handiwork of an isolated group of fanatics,
the Lithuanian leaders decided to convoke a great National
Lithuanian Diet or Congress at Vilnius.

The indefatigable fighter for Lithuanian freedom,
Basanavicius, signed an appeal to all parties of the country
to unite in Vilnius for the expression of the national
demands. The land became a veritable beehive of political
activity. Meetings were everywhere convened to choose
delegates to the Vilnius Congress.

This Congress met in Vilnius on December 4th, admission
being granted only by ticket. The congestion was tre-
mendous, since more than two thousand delegates took
part. All classes and callings were represented ; all
governments, districts and communes had sent their
nominees. With them sat numerous representatives of

68 THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE

societies and clubs, officials of the various parties, and
many delegates of Lithuanians abroad, notably from Peters-
burg, Moscow, Odessa, etc. It was an All-Lithuanian
gathering in the fullest sense of the word.

This Congress was followed by sittings of various
organizations which adopted supplementary resolutions
moved, for example, by the clergy of the three dioceses, the
officials of the Peasants' Union, and the representatives
of the Lithuanian Teachers' Body.

The decisions of this imposing national demonstration
bore testimony to the readiness of the people for the
coming test. The event served as a warning, not only
to the Russians but also to the Poles, to keep their hands
off Lithuania in future. How swiftly the Russian adminis-
trative apparatus could operate when it listed will appear
from the example of the Governor-General of Vilnius,
Froese, who on the day following the Congress issued
a manifesto to the Lithuanian people in which he recognized
the justice of their demands and promised to submit them
to the Duma. As a first step towards the fulfilment of
the Tsar's Ukase of October 17, 1905, he permitted the
employment of the Lithuanian tongue in the communal
boards and schools. The sequel, however, showed how
insincere the Russian Government really was in its lavish
pledges.

The following historic resolution was adopted by the
Vilnius Congress :

1. Russia and Lithuania.
That Russia is the opponent of the rightful demands of the
nationaUties existing under her rule. Since all Russia has now
risen against this tyranny the Lithuanians also join the move-
ment and decide to make common cause with the other nation-
alities. To this end it is essential that every Lithuanian should
be instructed in the importance of this step.

2. The Autonomy of Lithuania.
Only self-government will satisfy the aspirations of the Lithu-
anian people. Lithuania nmst therefore be resuscitated within
her ethnographic boundaries as an autonomous State in the
Russian Empire. Her relations with other Russian States must
be established upon a federative basis. Vilnius will be the capital
of the country and the seat of parliament. The latter will be

RUSSIAN OPPRESSION 69

elected by general, secret and direct ballot, in which women will
also participate.

No means must be neglected to attain these ends. In the first
place, all parties must be reconstituted and directed in a common
action. The following are decided : Refusal of military service,
and taxe.?, the closing of Russian schools and Russian bureaux,
the boycott of all liquor shops, the threat of strike, etc.

3. Lithuanian Language and Schools.
The Lithuanian language is the ofRcial language. The schools
must be the nurseries- of the Lithuanian spirit and must be directed
by teachers freely chosen. Good wishes for further success shall
be expressed to all Lithuanians who, in the Vilnius government,
are fighting against Polonization.

Unfortunately the fervent hopes aroused by the con-
cessions won through the Russo-Japanese war were
destined to sustain a serious setback. The reaUzation
of Governor-General Froese's programme speedily en-
countered exasperating checks. Another Russian official
reaction led to renewed assaults on the Lithuanian
language, which was again proscribed. The old horde
of Russian chinovniks, but recently expelled, reappeared
upon the scene to occupy their former posts. The right
of land-ownership, ostensibly conceded to the Lithuanians,
was so freely interpreted by Russian casuistry that in
actual fact the Lithuanians received more paper than
land. The fight against the Catholic Church was also
resumed, and the anomaly was offered of Catholic priests
and teachers obliged to go abroad to gain a livelihood.
The former Russian muzzling order came into operation,
and more inveterately than before the Russian police
suppressed all public meetings of Lithuanians. Neverthe-
less this policy of pinpricks was now powerless to put back
the hand of time ; its most obvious effect was to strengthen
popular opposition and the resolve to win national inde-
pendence sooner or later.

A very characteristic phenomenon of the epoch was
the rapid development of the schools. Russian statistics,
which cannot be accused of partiality to the Lithuanians,
indicate that the percentage of illiteracy in Lithuania
in 1897 did not exceed 45, whereas in Poland it was as
high as 60, and in Russia 75 or 80. In 1905 a commission

70 THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE

for popular education convened at Kaunas succeeded
in establishing, partly at least, the Lithuanian language
in the schools. Some Lithuanians were admitted into
purely Russian institutions, the normal school of Panevezis
for example. In localities where the State made no
provision Lithuanian committees came into being. Thus
the educational society " Saule " (Sun) obtained permission
to open a normal school at Kaunas, and so successful were
its efforts that it established forty-five popular schools
attended by more than a thousand pupils. This society
shortly before the war comprised sixty-eight branches
with 3,400 members, and in addition to schools had
founded numerous communal libraries and reading-rooms
which proved a veritable boon to the people. Three
secondary schools were also created, together with a com-
mercial school designed to train Lithuanians and thus
better enable them to compete with the Jews, who had
hitherto possessed a virtual monopoly of trade. Shortly
before the War the society put up its own building at
Kaunas at a cost of 200,000 roubles.

In the Suvalkai government the educational society
" 2iburys " (Light) discharged similar functions. Its fifty-
seven branches number 4,200 members, and it succeeded
in opening seven popular schools, a school of agriculture,
and a high school for girls at Mariampol. Further it
established several asylums for the poor, and folk-halls,
while libraries were opened in almost every parish.

Vilnius government also possessed its society of educa-
tion styled " Rytas " (Morning). Its position, however,
confronted by an active pan-Polish propaganda was very
difficult and delicate. Yet it was able to form thirty-seven
groups with a membership of 2,000, and thanks to its
efforts reading-rooms were opened in several localities.

These three societies, " Saule," " Ziburys," and " Rytas,"
will not soon be forgotten in Lithuania, where their splendid
efforts in the cause of education and modern enlighten-
ment have borne such rich fruit.

Analogous work on behalf of temperance was done
by the society " Blaivybe " which was founded at Kaunas,
and in 1914 had 40,000 members and 171 branches.

RISE OF NATIONAL PRESS 71

More than 25,000 pamphlets have been sent out by this
association, and its labours have led to the closing of
numerous pot-houses.

Equally symptomatic of the thirst for progress has
been the wonderful expansion of the Lithuanian press
of recent years. The Society of St. Casimir has done
much in this direction. Its membership before the War
rose to 10,000 and it established its own printing-office
at Kaunas, whence issued a flood of educational and
religious literature, together with reviews and magazines
of all kinds. At Vilnius two daily papers, Viltis (Hope)
and the Lietuvos Zinios (Lithuanian News), appeared,
also many weekly and monthly publications. The same
objects were pursued by the Society " Sietynas " which
was established at Siauliai and developed great activity.

Among student organizations a specially important
r61e has been played by the Lithuanian Society for the
assistance of Lithuanian students in the higher educational
institutions of the city of Moscow, under the superinten-
dence of Mr. T. Narusevicius (Naroushevitch). This
society attained a membership of nearly five hundred and
during recent years has expended a very large sum of
money for the above-mentioned objects. Many members
of this society now occupy very high official posts in Lithu-
ania and elsewhere.

A comparison of the output of Lithuanian books during
the three and a half centuries between 1500 and 1864
with the brief period from 1904 to 1914 will afford some
idea of the national determination to make up for lost
time. The figures are respectively 786 and 2,550. Not
a village could be found without its subscribers to Lithu-
anian reviews ; not a district without its association for
the development of the Press ; not a house without its
calendar and religious books. It may be said without
exaggeration that the entire people were obsessed with
the desire for modern progress — the same people whom
Muraviev the Hangman had undertaken to wipe off
the map of the world in the space of forty years. There
is nothing remarkable in the fact that science, art, and
literature, in the real sense of those terms, came some-

72 THE LITHUANIAN RENASCENCE

what later in the day. Pohtical strife is not a favourable
medium for the cultivation of these refinements of life
which prefer to wait till the social structure is more or
less prepared. In 1907 the Scientific Society of Lithuana
and the Society of Fine Arts were born in Vilnius. The
former was founded by Dr. Basanavicius, and possessed
250 members. It issued a yearly publication to which
all classes contributed. Some time before the movement
began in Western Europe this Society proposed to investi-
gate Lithuanian folklore. All the old songs, legends and
popular traditions were carefully collected and the Society
Annual began to publish them. The yearly gatherings
of this society were formerly attended by more than five
hundred Lithuanians, and these occasions bore the character
of national ffetes.

During this comparatively placid period of Lithuanian
history poetry also was sedulously nurtured. It was
customary for the villagers to assemble at the house of
a well-to-do peasant or landlord and there sing the old
popular ditties, the Dainos, which celebrate the glories
of the past, the joys of love and the plaintive nostalgia
of the Lithuanian people.

In the villages also popular plays were resuscitated.
The dedication of a church or the holding of a fair furnished
a convenient pretext for these popular representations
which, if they lacked somewhat in artistry, were replete
with rustic vigour. In the towns theatrical unions were
formed which promoted the staging of Lithuanian and
also foreign pieces. The Lithuanians have always enjoyed
a high reputation for their love of music. In the village
choirs, conducted by the village organists, several artists
of note gained their first experience. The names of
Simkus, Sosnauskis and Brazys may be mentioned. It
is to their credit that after perfecting their talent abroad
they returned to their native land to co-operate in the
further musical development of the country.

The Society of Fine Arts, with 2muidzinavicius at
its head, has busied itself on the one hand with the pre-
servation of valuable national monuments of the past,
and, on the other, with the encouragement of modern

ECONOMIC ACTIVITY 73

artists and the creation of new works. Tliis Society holds
an annual exhibition at Kaunas which always contains
numerous canvases of a high standard of merit, and
never fails to attract a big attendance. It has even begun
to excite attention abroad. One of the Society's cherished
objects is to erect a national building to be designed by
Lithuanian artists. The scheme meets with the lively
encouragement of the general public who have liberally
contributed to its realization.

The economic development of Lithuania in the past
has encomitered enormous difficulties. Enfeebled by
mass emigration, the Lithuanians have had to fight against
both the Russians and the Jews, although as regards the
latter, my o^vn personal opinion is that they are really
a source of strength to the country at the present day.
Economic debasement was a cardinal tenet of Russian
policy as a means of maintaining their grip on the land.
Even after 1905, when lithuania had already begun to
develop in all other branches of human acti^•ity, its
economic life left a good deal to be desired. In the
economic conflicts between Russia and Germany, Lithuania
fomid herself, so to speak, between the hammer aixd the
anvil. The Germans wished to take advantage of the
weakening of Russia through her war with Japan to
dump their products into the country. The Russians,
powerless to compete against the Germaiis, avenged them-
selves by imposing heavy import duties upon German goods.

In many places, however, the primitive so-called
'' tryohkpohiyi " or three-crop tillage system of cultiva-
tion had given way to a more rational one which created
a demand for new agricultural machinery. A more inten-
sive culture was an immediate consequence of the political
successes gauied. The peasant attached hin^elf anew
to his plot of ground, and many Lithuanians who had
emigrated returned to their native land. The passion
for landownership is tj'pical of the Lithuanian as of the
Russian peasant. In spite of everj-thing the Russian
occupants could do, the native Lithuanian would resort to
a thousand subterfuges to gain possession of imcultivated
ground. The peasantry also acquired the land of im-

74 THE LITHUANIAN KENASUJiP^UJii

poverished proprietors. The Russian Government fought
against this movement, by itself selling the land of ruined
gentry and distributing it among Russian colonists who
settled in the country en masse. These colonists were
to be the Russian leaven designed to transform Lithuania
into an Orthodox pasture, and needless to say they were
liberally subsidized. Fortunately, these Russian plans
miserably miscarried. The newly-created settlements dis-
appeared as rapidly as they had sprung up, as soon as
they had exhausted the official appropriations, and their
holdings passed into Lithuanian hands. The latter, on
their part, began to found societies for the purchase and
sale of fields. In the Vilnius government the agricultural
society " Vilija " thus functioned ; in Kaunas " Progress " ;
in Suvalkai the societies " Ukininku Draugove " and
" 2agre." The business turnover of these societies before the
war had reached a total of a quarter of a million of roubles.

Concurrently with practical work theoretical instruc-
tion was not neglected. Agricultural courses were inaugu-
rated and attended by the peasants, whilst the Government
itself founded an agricultural school.

The situation became more tolerable, but was not yet
such as to tempt the return of all the Lithuanian emigrants
from overseas. Working hands were insufficient, and
high rates of pay ruled for harvesters. But complete
reorganization cannot be effected until the majority of
Lithuanians abroad have returned to participate in this
task. In this connexion it must be said that already the
Lithuanians in the United States, who number not far
short of a million, and are nearly all well to do, have
generously co-operated to help their less fortunate com-
patriots in the homeland. More than one Lithuanian
peasant owes the extinction of his mortgage to this source.

The women have taken an active part in the national
development. Notwithstanding numerous difficulties,
many of them have studied medicine and dentistry and
are nowadays successfully practising their profession.
Their services have been recognized from the first, and
it was regarded as a matter of course that with Lithuania's
acquisition of independence women should enjoy the
franchise together with men.

CHAPTER VII

LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

On the Eastern front Lithuanian territory was destined
to bear the brunt of hostile attack, and in proportion to
area and population no country has suffered more severely
or made greater sacrifices ; and that, too, I regret to say,
with less Allied recognition than Lithuania.

Places like Kaunas, Gardinas, and Daugpilis were
fortresses of the first rank, and as such naturally served
as targets for the enemy's sledgehammer blows and as
centres for the concentration of the Russian defence.
Large bodies of troops were assembled in Lithuania and
the country soon became one of the most important bases
of operations. Owing to the slowness and insufficiency of
means of transport, the Russian General Staff was obliged to
requisition supplies on the spot for the needs of the Russian
armies. More frequently than otherwise all these things,
grain, horses, cattle, groceries, and raw materials of
all kinds were confiscated without payment, so that
early in the war the inhabitants were, denuded of almost
everything they possessed, not by the Germans but by
their so-called protectors. As a typical example, in the
village of Leipalingis the Russians seized 2,000 horses
without any payment and left only two.

During the Russian offensive in East Prussia the Lithu-
anian provinces suffered terribly. Flourishing towns
and villages were completely destroyed by artillery fire.
Fifteen thousand persons, the majority Lithuanians, were
deported by the Russians into the interior of the country,
the brilliant idea underlying this policy being to leave
the advancing Germans nothing but a desert. The first
German advance into Lithuania took place in the autumn

T5

76 LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

of 1914, when for the first time the Russians were driven
out of East Prussia. At this time the districts of Suvalkai
were mainly affected. Towards the end of 1914 some
districts of the government of Kaunas, Taurage, Naumiestis,
Palanga, and others shared the same fate. At the end
of the winter of 1914-15 the Russian advance was again
halted and the Russians after the battles of the Mazurian
Lakes with heavy losses were compelled to fall back
behind the Lithuanian boundaries. Later the German
advance continued in the Suvalkai government, where,
for six months, desperate fighting took place. In May
the Germans succeeded in penetrating into Samogitia
and Kurland. The banks of the Venta and Dubysa,
behind which the enemy forces had entrenched themselves,
were the scene of violent engagements, since the Russians
did not yield ground without offering desperate resistance.
At the beginning of July considerable German forces
opened the attack on Kaunas, which was taken on August
18th. The Russians, entrenched in the region of the
lakes, on the Kaunas-Vilnius road, made resolute efforts
to protect the Lithuanian capital from capitulation ;
but Vilnius fell on September 8th. The Russians were
pursued as far as Smurgainiai (Smorgon), where a fierce
artillery duel caused the destruction of the town.

In the autumn of 1915 mobile operations gave place
to positional warfare, and up to the peace of Brest-
Litovsk the situation of the two armies changed very
little.

Lithuania was speedily devastated. At the outset, as
we have shown, she had to satisfy the requirements of
the Russians for, as ill luck would have it, the German
offensive coincided with the harvest season. During
their retreat the Russians destroyed everything which
they were unable to remove, with the result that the
output of an entire year's hard work was lost to the
inhabitants. Fighting raged all over Lithuania for
several months, and artillery fire above all caused whole-
sale devastation. The western districts of Kaunas and
Suvalkai in many places resembled a desert. The towns
of Kalvarija, Kibartai, Sirvintai, Naumiestis, Sudarga,

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DEVASTATION OF THE COUNTRY 77

Sakiai, Siauliai, Jurbarkas, Taurage, Kretinga, Gagzdai,
and others were burnt or otherwise reduced to ruins.

The region of the Nemunas (Niemen), where the fortresses
of Kaunas, Alytus, and Gardinas were situated, offered
a frightful spectacle of destruction. In the parish of
Kalvarija alone fourteen large villages with their estates
were entirely obliterated. In the Liubavas parish only
two or three houses were left. Many market towns were
also destroyed, including Prienai, Simnas, Serijai, Drus-
kininkai, and Liskeve. At Trakiskiai, of 56 estates one only
was left intact ; at Dievogalas one out of 52 ; at Silaliai
and Pariecius one out of 40 ; while at Padainupis all
were wiped out. Three-quarters of the town of Siauliai
were destroyed by fire, and this flourishing industrial
centre of 30,000 inhabitants counts now only a few
thousands. In the same neighbourhood, where there
was much fighting, the majority of the villages, market
towns, and farms were laid waste.

The western part of the Vilnius government and the
district of Ezerenai (Zarasai) in the Kamnas government
fared no better. These regions suffered severely under
the tactics of the retreating Russians. Villages and farms
were given to the flames, machinery and implements
were carried oft, and unspeakable miseries began for the
inhabitants of these desolated areas.

This mania for destruction did not spare the churches,
twenty-five of which were badly damaged. In many
places these edifices were bombarded during divine service,
and old men, women and children who had sought refuge
therein were buried beneath the ruins Even at Kaunas,
the celebrated church constructed by Vytautas the Great,
which had been converted into an Orthodox temple by
the Russians, was badly shattered, and the Church of the
Dominicans partially wi-ecked. Since the war, therefore,
very heavy fuaancial burdens have devolved upon the
faithful in making good all this damage.

What Avith the inevitable devastation wrought by
gunfire, and the deliberate plundering of so-called friends
and open foes, Lithuania in the wake of the war was
reduced to little better than a desert. The countryside.

78 LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

through lack of working hands, wore a wild and savage
aspect. According to the testimony of Dr. Bartuska,
who visited the country as an American delegate, Lithuania
at that time seemed entirely ruined. He stated that
he had called upon many ecclesiastics whose houses
had been rifled literally of everything portable by the
various passing troops. In the Suvalkai government,
owing to the destruction of houses, the inhabitants were
forced to dwell in the abandoned trenches.

In Kaunas province 144 mills were razed to the ground ;
in Vilnius 235 ; in Suvalkai 87. The lot of the urban
workers was no more enviable than that of the peasant.
Hungry and poorly clad, they eked out a miserable sub-
sistence, a constant prey to typhus, dysentery, influenza,
and other maladies. Doctors and medicine were totally
inadequate to meet the needs of the country. Unlike
Belgium, Lithuania did not benefit from the liberal aid
extended by the United States and Spain.

When, in accordance with the inhuman Russian policy,
thousands of Lithuanian adults had to leave the country,
entire families were broken up. The peasants first sought
refuge in the towns, but were moved on farther by the
Russian soldiery. Parents had thus to abandon their
children, and were themselves transported into Russia
in cattle trucks. At Vilnius, for example, thousands
qf children ran about the streets vainly seeking their
parents. The Central Lithuanian Committee subsequently
placed them in orphanages. But these institutions were
without funds necessary to provide proper nourishment
for the children, meat and milk being particularly scarce.

Meet objects of pity also were the Lithuanian civil
and military prisoners. More than 30,000 Lithuanian
soldiers were made prisoners in Germany and Austria,
besides which the Germans seized 5,000 civilians as
hostages as a reprisal for the behaviour of the Russians
who, when evacuating East Prussia, had driven out
15,000 of the inhabitants, of whom quite half were also
Lithuanians. The majority of these prisoners consisted
of old men, women and children.

Very often civihans were thus carried off without cause

HELPING WAR SUFFERERS 79

and merely on suspicion. The Lithuanian Aid Committee
of Lausanne is in possession of authentic documents
which show that sometimes enceinte women were torn
from the bosom of their famihes, whilst women and
children perished from hunger through the loss of the
male bread-winners.

Thanks to the initiative of a priest named Strikas and
a teacher named Velykas, who were among the prisoners
at the Holzminden camp, a school for I>ithuanian children
was opened in the camp under their direction.

The majority of the military and civil prisoners received
nothing from their families, as the latter were utterly
unable to send them help. Even to-day many Lithuanians
are in ignorance of what has become of their relatives.
Besides the moral suffering inseparable from prolonged
captivity, far from home and without news of their families,
these unfortunates had also to endure terrible physical
privations. The situation of the children was particularly
lamentable ; many of them died through lack of proper
care and food suitable to their years.

Praiseworthy efforts were made to lighten the sufferings
of these unfortunates. The Lithuanians who remained
in the occupied territories organized the Lithuanian
Committee for the succour of war refugees, which is still
functioning ; but its usefulness has been restricted by
insufficient funds.

A similar committee in Russia Proper has had very
extended activity. It established 175 branches, 293
schools, 84 workshops, and a large number of asylums
and pensions capable of receiving 1,500 pupils. During
three years it spent thirty-four million roubles. Through
the efforts of this committee similar organizations were
created at Stockholm and Copenhagen, the latter of
which has been successful in ameliorating the lot of many
Lithuanian prisoners of war Further help has been
given by the Hispano-Lithuanian committee founded
in 1916 at Barcelona.

Work undertaken in the United States has also been of
considerable service to Lithuania. Congress decided to
organize for November 1, 1916, a " Lithuanian Day,"

80 LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

which was supported by a sympathetic appeal from
President Wilson. A public collection on All Saints'
Day produced more than a million francs, and this generous
subscription proved of great value in extending the sphere
of aid.

The Pope further co-operated in this commendable
work. As far back as 1915 he personally contributed
20,000 lire to the Lithuanians, and he ordered for May 20,
1917 a collection in the churches for the same purpose.
Although collections had previously been made on behalf
of Poland and Belgium, a sum of 1,200,000 francs was
raised. Switzerland served as intermediary between the
various committees of Lithuanian aid, for it was at
Lausanne that the Executive Committee for the organiza-
tion of the world collection and the Central Committee
of Lithuanian succour for the victims of the war had their
headquarters. The former busied itself with the organiza-
tion of the world collection ordered by the Pope, and
the distribution of the amounts so raised.

The Central Committee of succour styled " Lithuania "
was established at Fribourg on November 7, 1915. Its
statutes were drafted in conformity with the Swiss Civil
Code and were approved by the Government. The
Committee operated in conjunction with the committees
of Barcelona and Copenhagen. The first annual report
showed 17,000 francs receipts and 13,000 francs ex-
penditures, and the second 200,000 francs receipts and
50,000 francs expenditures. Up to November 1917
Switzerland, herself badly in need of food, could not
permit the export of the latter in large quantities ; later,
10,000 and 15,000 francs monthly were disbursed for
the despatch of foodstuffs. An American named Wood
presented 25,000 dollars worth of clothing, but this gift
could not be imported into Europe owing to the war.

With the German military occupation of Lithuania it
became necessary to give the country a new organization,
the old one having disappeared with the retreating Russian
armies. The new administration was formed by Marshal
Hindenburg in August 1915 ; its headquarters were
at Tilze (Tilsit), and it embraced a portion of the Kaunas

OBER-OST ADMINISTRATION 81

and Suvalkai governments. At the head of this adminis-
tration was placed Prince Isenburg. After the conquest
of new parts of Lithuania by the Germans, the miUtary
government transferred its scat to Kaunas in April 1916,
and there assumed the name of the Vilnius-Suvalkai
Military Administration. The limits of this administration
were again extended by a decree of Marshal Prince Leopold
ol" Bavaria, who, as Governor-General of the East, in
April 1917 removed his headquarters to Vilnius. This
enlarged jurisdiction was styled the Military Administra-
tion of Lithuania. It formed merely part of an administra-
tion which extended from the Gulf of Riga to the line
Brcst-Litovsk — Warsaw comprising a territory of 212,000
square kilometres known as Ober-Ost. The authorities
assigned to Lithuania constituted a central and district
administration.

The central administration was divided into a central
department, a department of justice, an economic depart-
ment, a forestry department, and a department of commerce
and raw-materials. Each of these departments dealt
with matters that could not be entrusted to the district
administrations. The central administration had at its
disposal the military gendarmerie, which had groups
at Vilnius, Kaunas, PaneveJys and Siauliai. In addition,
under the central administration, functioned an Imperial
Commissary of the Committee of War Indemnities. In
all, the personnel of this administration numbered 4,000
soldiers, without counting some twenty commissariat
companies and several engineering units.

To the central administration were subordinated two
urban districts and 82 rural districts, with an area varying
from 1,500 to 4,000 square kilometres. These districts
were administered by captains, with the assistance of
other officials, i.e. a steward, justice of the peace, a district
doctor, commissariat officers, a military detachment
and a company of military gendarmerie.

The districts were divided into sub-districts administered
by prefects, who were usually officers of commissariat.
They were helped by a staff and a detachment of covering
troops.

6

82 LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

The Central Forestry Department had divided the
country into seventeen mihtary inspectorates, the super-
intendence of each of which was assumed by a Chief
Inspector of Forests. For inspection of schools the
country was divided into eight districts, at the head of
each of which was an inspector.

The Department of Justice of Vilnius had three district
tribunals in the country (Vilnius, Kaunas and Suvalkai).
To the Kaunas tribunal were subordinated 21 peace
circuits ; the Vilnius and Suvalkai tribunals each had
seven of these.

Upon the military authorities of Vilnius devolved the
administration of the country. While the Eastern front
existed, a purely military administration was necessary
for the security of military transport and the rear of
the army fighting against Russia. Much also was done
to ensure the proper sanitation and health of the troops ;
very little similar solicitude was exhibited on behalf
of the civilian population.

Lithuania suffered greatly from the German occupation.
Enormous quantities of timber were removed from the
country. The forests bordering the lakes, roads, and
rivers were almost completely razed to the ground. Many
long years and vast sums of money will be necessary
to restore these devastated regions. In the same manner
the land was denuded of horses and cattle through constant
requisitioning not only for the needs of the army of occupa-
tion but for purposes of export to Germany. The value
of this form of loot, reckoned at the present exchange,
would run into billions of marks. True the authorities
of occupation nominally paid for these requisitions, not
in money, however, but in exchequer bills with which
the peasants' coffers were congested, but which were
devoid of all practical utility. Many of these bills bore
inscriptions injurious to the bearer, of whose ignorance
of German the donors took advantage. A favourite
sentiment was : " The bearer of this bill is condemned
to a hundred blows " ; another ran : " The bearer is a
fool and, should he complain, should be put in prison."
Nor were these merely idle pleasantries ; on the contrary.

GERMAN NEWSPAPERS 83

they were often carried mUj execution, and many peasants
were forcibly incorporated into the labour battalions.

Much could be written about the efforts of the mihtary
adminiiftration to Germanize the country. A beginning
was made with the names of places and families. SuTalkai
became Suwalkeri ; Kaunas, Kaunen ; Sirvintas, Schir-
windt ; Klikeli Klickeln, etc. The theatres played only
German pieces, and the cinematograplis showed only
German hlms.

German papers made their appearance in great number,
among them being the Zeitung der 10 Armee, the Liebesgabe,
Kownoer Zeitung, Wilnaer Zeitung, Libauerzeiiung, Zeitung
von G-rodno, NachriclUen von Suwalki, Bialislxtclcer Zeitung.
In Lithuanian Dabartig was printed at the rate of 20,000
copies daily. Lithuanian papers proper were not viewed
with any favour by the authorities, and ViUis and lAetuvos
ZinioH were suppressed. A complaint submitted to
Berlin by a delegation of the Lithuanian National Council
in the United States brought no amelioration. To appease
the literary hunger of the Lithuanians sheets like Laigve
(Freedom), and Laisva lAetuva TFree Lithuania) were
hectographed and spread broadcast. The Kvailag Prusas
(Stupid Prussian) was issued as a satirical jomrial, the
editor and readers of which the German authorities vainly
tried to discover. The barristers Jonas Vileisis and Janu-
laitis, suspected of collalx>ration in this paper, were arrested
and interned in Germany. Many other Lithuanians on
similar suspticion were also detained for a long time in
captivity.

In the newly-organized schools the German language
was introduced as a compulsory subject from the first
year. When, too, in June 1918 the Vilnius teachers
opposed an increase in the hours for German their schools
were closed.

These efforts at Gerrnanization were the natural outcome
of the German policy as a whole, which insisted upon the
necessity, from military, political and economic considera-
tions, of annexing Lithuania to Germany. In the light
of these aims one can understand why the German Govern-
ment did not abolish the Ober-Ost administration even

84 LITHUANIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

after the peace of Brest -Litovsk, when a state of war
with Russia ceased to exist. On this subject responsible
Lithuanians addressed petitions and energetic protests
to the German Government. The Eastern front fell
in February 1918, but the military command continued,
and the free and independent Lithuanian State was still
subjected to military control. In January 1918 Prince
Isenburg retired from his post as Administrator of
Lithuania. The pan-German papers congratulated him on
the successful discharge of his mission, and the university
of Fribourg-en-Brisgau conferred upon him the title of
doctor honoris causa for services rendered to the German
cause.

CHAPTER VIII

RISE OF THE NEW STATE

The great Vilnius Diet of 1905 marked an epoch in the
reawakened national consciousness of the Lithuanian
people. It exacted at least a verbal recognition of
autonomy from Russia, though, as we have seen, the
concessions ostensibly granted were realized only in part.
During the years that followed, however, the great progress
of Lithuanian culture served still more to strengthen
the national sentiment. The Lithuanian people more
imperatively than ever demanded freedom, and a repetition
of the events of 1905 could not have been far off when
the war broke out in 1914. The Lithuanians were not
slow to understand that the moment had come to present
their claims anew.

The Lithuanians in the United States have always
displayed considerable activity in everything concerning
their native land. So in this case they were the first
to make themselves heard when from October 21 to 23,
1914, in Chicago, they convened a national congress which
was attended by three hundred delegates. The gathering
declared itself in favour of the reorganization of the
Lithuanian State ia conformity with the principle of
self-determination. Further, this State was to be in-
dependent of Poland, and besides the Lithuanian territory
of Russia was to embrace the Lithuanian region of East
Prussia and the Suvalkai government. The Lithuanian
Bureau of Information in Paris was entrusted with the
task of diffusing knowledge of Lithuania among the general
public. Moreover, J. Gabrys was commissioned to treat
with the belligerents on behalf of Lithuania. A national
fund was created to cover all expenses in this connexion.

8S

86 RISE OF THE NEW STATE

In America a national council was established for the
protection of Lithuanian interests. This council repre-
sented all Lithuanian organizations, those of the latter
numbering more than a thousand members nominating
one delegate and those with over five thousand members
two delegates each. The American Lithuanians followed
events in Europe with keen attention, more particularly
in the Motherland, and held themselves in readiness to
intervene should a favourable opportunity offer itself.

In the wake of America the Lithuanian colony in the
neutral countries of Europe laboured ceaselessly for the
promotion of national aspirations. Thus on August 3
and 4, 1915, the first Berne conference was held. This
assembly was of exceptional importance as affording
occasion for the formulation of Lithuanian demands for
a free and independent State, in the folowing terms :

1. The Lithuanians and the Letts form, in the great family of
Indo-European peoples, a parallel branch not subordinate to that
of the Germans and the Slavs. To the number of seven millions
they occupy a territory of 250,000 square kilometres situated
between Russia and Germany, on the shores of the Baltic Sea,
in the basins of the Nemunas and Dauguva (Dvina).

2. The Lithuanian people occupy, by reason of their intellectual
culture, the first rank among the peoples subject to Russia.

3. The Lithuanian State extended, from the Xlllth to the
XVIth century, from the Baltic to the Black Sea and rendered
great service to the rest of Europe in its struggle against the Tartars.

A few days later, August 30, 1915, the Lithuanians
demanded their independence from the Russian Duma.
The Lithuanian deputy, Januskevicius, in a memorable
speech traced the material and moral sufferings endured
by the Lithuanian people. He closed his remarks with
this appeal : " Come to the aid of our unhappy country,
and give us the assurance that our just demand for
national autonomy will be fulfilled."

This was the second time that the Lithuanian question
had come before the Russian Duma. Previously, in
August 1914, a Lithuanian deputy, Mr. Yeas, from Kaunas,
had spoken in favour of autonomy and the annexation of
Prussian Lithuania to Russian Lithuania.

LAUSANNE CONGRESS 87

Lithuania was represented at the congress of oppressed
nationalities held at Lausanne in February 1916. Here
the Lithuanian delegates made the following declaration :

The issue of the war is uncertain. Whatever it may be, Lithu-
ania does not wish to return to poUtical servitude or to revert to
a situation which would permit Russia or Germany to impose
their yoke upon the country. A free Lithuanian people occupying
the entire national territory, and having free poUtical, intellectual,
and economic development — such are the demands of the Lithu-
anians of all parties.

This declaration clearly expressed the end proposed
by the Lithuanians ; it was articulated still more clearly
at an exclusively Lithuanian assembly which took place
at The Hague ; here the Lithuanians, conscious of their
rights, acted on their own initiative.

Shortly afterwards, from JIarch 1-5, 1916, Lithuanian
delegates from Lithuania, the United States and Switzer-
land, assembled for the second time at Berne to discuss
the situation in Lithuania which was then under German
military occupation. This conference pronounced in
favour of the organization of a free and independent
Lithuanian State, and justified its demand as follows :

1. Lithuania was for many centuries an independent
State.

2. The Lithuanian people have never ceased to demand
their lost hberty.

3. Lithuania possesses a very clear ethnographic
character, and a national culture, and she forms a distinct
political organism.

4. Only an independent Lithuanian Government will
be able to repair the immense damage which the War has
caused to Lithuania.

5. The creation of a free and independent Lithuania
will favour the estabhshment of a durable peace.

6. At the outbreak of the War the Allies proclaimed the
liberation of oppressed nationalities as the object of the War.

7. The German Government also, through the Imperial
Chancellor, has declared that the German troops have
" deUvered " Lithuania.

The delegates further declared that the alliance between

88 RISE OF THE JNEW STATE

Lithuania and Poland had been ipso facto and juridically
abolished through the partitions of the two countries
among Prussia, Austria and Russia in 1772 and 1795,
and that the Lithuanian people desired to be masters
within their ethnographic boundaries and protested against
any encroachment on their rights by Poland.

The lattei" portion of this declai-ation was inspired by the
consideration that the Poles were representing Lithuania
as a Polish province ; that the Poles wished to usurp
the legitimate rights of the Lithuanians ; and that tlvey
were everywhere posing as the representatives of Lithu-
anian rights.

Moreover, it was declared that the university of Vilnius,
which the Poles pretended to regard as a Polish institution,
was actually Lithuanian. Founded in the capital of
the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the uniA'ersily of Vilnius
wished to become again Lithuanian, while respecting
the rights of national minorities.

Lithuanian conferences succeeded each other almost
uninterruptedly. That held at The Hague from April
25th to 80th had considerable importance ; the resolutions
there adopted have the value of a programme of action.
The representatives of the Lithuanian people declared
that Lithuania, after having escaped from Russian domina-
tion, did not wish to exchange its reconquered independ-
ence for a fresh yoke. This resolution was based upon the
following considerations :

1. Russia oppressed Lithuania during one hundred nnd
twenty years (since 1795) ; had despoiled her of her name
and in lieu thereof had given her the style of " North-
West Russia."

2. The national administration and the liithuanian
Statute have been set aside and in their stead foreign
institutions have been imposed upon the country.

8. The Russian Government has suppressed the uni-
versity of Vilnius (1881), closed the schools, and persecuted
the Lithuanian language and literature.

4. The Russian Government has done great damage
also to the Catholic Church ; in persecuting Catholics
it has not recoiled before the spilling of blood.

CLAIM FOR COMPLETE INDEPENDENCE 89

5. Under barbarous governors (Muraviev the Hang-
man, for example) the country has suffered a setback
of half a century at least in the development of its
civilization.

6. The forty years' prohibition of printing (1864-1904)
grievously injured the country, notwithstanding which
the intellectual level is higher than in Russia (52 per cent,
of the population can read and write, whereas the propor-
tion in Russia is only 29 per cent.).

7. Besides the robbery of her culture Lithuania has
also had to endure that of her soil which the Lithuanians
by their labours of several centuries have rendered fertile.

8. Since the beginning of the War some hundreds of
thousands of Lithuanians have fought in the Russian
army ; despite this, Russia has not promised to the Lithu-
anians the political autonomy which she has accorded
to the Poles.

9. During their retreat the Russian troops massacred
young and old in the country and carried off thousands
of Lithuanians.

At this time two different opinions were entertained
by Lithuanians regarding the future of their country.
One party desired an autonomous Lithuania under a
Russian protectorate, whereas the other, and the more
numerous, demanded complete independence. In the
long run the latter won the day. To promote their
object all the political parties of Lithuania and of the
Lithuanian colonics abroad created a High National
Council upon which devolved the duty of representing
the Lithuanian people in all matters concerning the
country. This Council chose Switzerland as its domicile
so as to enjoy the necessary freedom for the exercise of
its activities, which soon became greatly extended. For
some time previously there had existed at Paris a
Lithuanian Bureau of Information which was now trans-
ferred to Lausanne, where it entered upon a new sphere
of usefulness.

The Lithuanian deputies had formerly demanded auto-
nomy from the Duma. With the fall of the Tsarist
Government the situation changed ; the many Lithuanians

90 RISE OF THE NEW STATE

who had been deported from their own country into
Russia by the Russian troops began to concern them-
selves vigorously with the future of their native land.
In June 1917 they convoked a special conference at
St. Petersburg. This was attended by three hundred
authorized delegates, besides some two thousand other
Lithuanians who were present by invitation as an auditory.
The congress adopted a resolution which, in its general
outline, coincided with that passed some weeks later by
the Lithuanian Diet at Vilnius. But a minority of the
Left, composed for the most part of Socialists, quitted
the conference to hold a meeting of their own which
assumed the style of " democratic," and passed a resolution
differing somewhat from that of the general congress.
This schism somewhat hampered the political action of
the Lithuanians in Russia, and in the party of the Left
hostile groups were speedily formed which fought among
themselves. Unity of aim was thus impaired. In this
emergency the Lithuanians of Russia decided to convoke
an assembly of their compatriots from both Lithuania
and the colonies at Stockholm.

The next really epochal event in the history of the
struggle for independence was the Diet of Vilnius which
sat from September 18 to 22, 1917, attended by two
hundred and twenty delegates. Owing to the German
occupation of the country it proved impossible to choose
the delegates through a general vote, but they were all
prominent and well-known men, representatives of the
various parties, classes and professions. This Diet was
therefore a faithful organ of the Lithuanian people. The
most important work of this Diet was the election of a
National Council (Taryba) and the adoption of an historic
resolution. The latter reads as follows :

1. In order that Lithuania may be able freely to develop it is
necessary to make the country an independent State, based upon
democratic principles and having ethnographical frpntiers which
shall take into consideration the interests of economic life.

The national minorities of Lithuania shall be given every
guarantee for their cultural needs.

In order to fix definitively the bases of independent Lithuania

NSnUNAL COUNCIL ELECTED 91

and lier rdivtions willi neiglibouring countries, there shall be
convoked nt Vilnius n t'oiistilucnt .Vssciubly elected in conformity
witli dcniocnvlic principles by all the inhabilanis of Litliuanin.

2. If, bcforo ncjjoliations for a jjencral peace arc entered into,
(Jormany should declare herself ready to rocoKni/.c the Lithuanian
State and to defend Litituanian interests in the peace negotiations,
the Lithuanian eoiiference would then a<lniit tlic possibility for
tlie future Lithuanian State of entertaining with Germany relations
whieli remain to be determined, but which shall not ])re.iudice the
free development of Lithuania. 'J'he conference makes this
declaration in consideration of the fact that the interests of
Lithuania, in normal limes, are ratlicr in tl\c direction of the West
than the Kast or South.

Ill the election of a National Council the conference
gave evidence of considerable political ability. Although,
for example, the Catholic Nationalist Party possessed a
large majority in the Diet, it welcomed representatives
from the Left, two Catholic Democrats already elected
actually retiring to make room for two Socialists. The
special aim of the Diet was to form a Council which should
be truly representative of the entire country. Four
ecclesiastics, several landed proprietors, lawyers, professors,
peasants and workers were elected. The total member-
ship of this Taryba was twenty, consisting of the following
prominent Lithuanitms : Dr. J. Basanavicius, M. Bir-
iiska, S. Banaitis, H. Bizauskas, Pr. Dovydaitis, St.
Kairys, P. Klimas, D. Malinauskas, Doyen Mironas,
S. Narutowicz, Petrulis, Dr. A. Smetona, J. Smilgevicius,
J. Staugaitis, A. Stulginskas, Dr. J. Saulys, K. Saulys,
J. Vailokaitis, J. Sernas, Dr. Jonas Vileisis. The
A'ilnius Diet of 1917 recalled the tradition of the great
Diet of 1905, and all subsequent conferences have worked
on the lines foreshadowed by this historic gathering.

On the initiative of many Lithuanians from Russia,
the Stockholm conference assembled from October 18
to '20, 1918, the Lithuanians from Russia being the most
numerous. The Centre was strongly represented at this
conference, - whilst the extreme Right and Left were
compa^■ati^•ely weak. The Lithuanians of Switzerland
juid America also sent delegations. The conference
received a report on events in Lithuania and on the

92 RISE OF THE NEW STATE

Vilnius Diet of whose resolution it took cognizance and to
which it declared its adhesion.

About this time a third conference was held at Berne
to elaborate, with the cooperation of the Taryba, a detailed
programme of foreign and domestic policy. A delegation
from the Taryba therefore attended, with President
Smetona at its head. This assembly adopted a large
number of decisions, of which the most important was
one which declared adherence to the resolution of the
Vilnius Diet recognizing the Taryba as a properly con-
stituted organ of the Lithuanian people. The conference
further adopted the national boundaries as fixed by the
Vilnius Diet, embracing the former Russian governments
of Vilnius, Kaunas, Suvalkai and Gardinas, and the
district of Naugardukas (Novogrodek) in the government
of Minsk. Vilnius, the ancient capital of the Lithuanian
kingdom, was to be the federal capital. The conference
also declared that a port on the Baltic was absolutely
necessary to Lithuania for her economic development.
On this occasion the Berne assembly discussed the opening
of a national university at Vilnius and the suppression
of the German language as a compulsory branch of study
in the primary schools.

The Lithuanian Taryba on December 11, 1917, first
proclaimed the liberty and independence of Lithuania,
but a more authoritative proclamation was that of
February 16, 1918, which is now regarded as the official
date. Inspired by very obvious ulterior motives Germany
was the first foreign State to recognize Lithuanian in-
dependence de jure on March 24, 1918. In spite of this
recognition, signed by the then Kaiser himself, the power-
ful pan-Germanic Party subsequently made desperate
efforts to effect the annexation of Lithuania to Germany,
and failing that some sort of " personal " union first
between Lithuania and Prussia and then between Lithu-
ania and Saxony. All these efforts, however, were sternly
resisted by the Lithuanians themselves who, with dearly
bought knowledge of the disastrous consequences of the
union with Poland, were in no hurry to repeat the ex-
perience with Germany. In the course of this remarkable

VIEW OF KAUNAS FEOM VYTAUTAS HILL.

KAUNAS TJNIVEBSITY.

To face p.

ELECTION OF CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY 93

struggle the Taryba, which meanwhile had assumed the
title of State Council on July 11, 1918, with a view
to checkmating German intrigues, actually proclaimed
Lithuania a democratic monarchy and offered the crown
to the Duke of Urach, a descendant of the ancient
Lithuanian dynasty of Mindaugas. Fortunately for the
future of the country this verbal pronouncement was
never implemented in fact, and Lithuania has remained
a republic.

The Allied victory favoured the rapid development of
events in favour of Lithuania. The Taryba adopted a
provisional constitution ; a Directory of three members
for the exercise of executive functions was appointed ;
and Dr. A. Smetona served as the first President of the
State Council, in this capacity officially representing the
Lithuanian State until the supercession of the Taryba
by a Constituent Assembly (Steigiamasis Seimas) on May
15, 1920. But before that date Lithuania was doomed
to undergo many vicissitudes. The Provisional Govern-
ment had been established at Vilnius, but when the
German front collapsed the Bolsheviks began to advance
early in January 1919, and the Lithuanian administration
had perforce to be removed to Kaunas, which, with a
brief interlude in 1920, has since been the temporary
capital of the State.

Driven out of Vilnius, the representatives of the young
Lithuanian State did not despair, but embarked vigorously
upon the task of organizing an army, with such success
that the further advance of the Soviet forces was checked,
a severe defeat being inflicted upon them at Koshedari.
In April 1919 the Lithuanian troops were closing in on
Vilnius when the Polish army advancing from the direction
of Lyda deliberately forestalled them and entered the
town on April 20th of that year. To prevent an armed
conflict between Lithuania and Poland the Supreme
Command of the Allied and Associated Powers established
a line of demarcation on April 26, 1919, which was promptly
violated by the Poles, as also the second line laid down
by Marshal Foch on July 27, 1919.

As stated briefly above, the old Taryba or State Council,

94

RISE OF THE NEW STATE

which had done such yeoman service, was superseded in
May 1920 by the Constituent Assembly (Steigiamasis
Seimas) elected on April 14th and 15th of the same year,
by universal, equal, direct and secret suffrage, according
to the system of proportional representation. Of the
inhabitants who had attained their majority (twenty-one
years) 85 per cent, took part in these elections ; in certain
of the electoral districts the number of votes was as high
as 92 per cent., thus plainly evidencing the high degree
of political consciousness prevailing among all classes.
Owing to the Polish occupation of Eastern Lithuania,
the elections could be held only in twenty non-occupied
districts. The electoral unit was one representative to
about 15,000 inhabitants. There were elected in this
way 112 representatives who, according to parties, are
thus classified :

Christian Democrats

.. 59

Social Populists

.. 29

Social Democrats . .

.. 13

Jews . .

6

Poles

.. 8

German

1

Non-partizan

1

As regards education, 58 of the foregoing (52 per cent.)
have had a university education ; 25 (22 per cent.) secondary
education; and 29 (25*5 per cent.) a primary education.

The Constituent Assembly was convened at Kaunas
on May 15, 1920. Its first act was to ratify the proclama-
tion of the independence of the Repviblic of Lithuania.
The Assembly recognized and approved all the acts of
the Provisional Government, and having announced the
republican form of government, elaborated the fundamental
principles of the State Constitution. The Assembly also
formed a fully authorized executive Government which
took the place of the former provisional administration.

As will be seen from the above list of parties the strongest
numerically is the Christian Democratic Party, which has
an absolute majority. It is recruited largely from the

POLITICAL PARTIES 95

rural districts where religious influence is powerful, but
also numbers adherents among the working classes of
the towns. In the domain of domestic politics and social
questions its tendencies are moderate. On the agrarian
reform question, however, it supports the policy of dividing
up the big estates to provide for the landless and the
insufficiently landed, soldiers more particularly, but
recognizes the principle of compensation and private
property.

The Social Populists represent more or less the same
elements of the nation as the Christian Democrats, but
differ on religious questions. They favour nationalization
through gradual evolution rather than through revolution.
They are a thoroughly patriotic group.

The Social Democrats are largely compounded of urban
dwellers and industrial workers, and are advocates of
socialization. In the assembly they form the opposition ;
nevertheless in moments of crisis they cooperate with
the other parties in work of positive organization. Be-
tween them the Christian Democrats and Social Populists
constitute a bloc disposing of 88 votes out of a total of
112. It is understood that as soon as a definitive State
Constitution can be drafted and agrarian reform corhpleted
(this has only just been announced — ^February 1922),
the present Constituent Assembly will deem its task
accomplished and give place to an ordinary assembly
or parliament, which will then be elected.

Lithuania being essentially an agricultural country, as
has been shown elsewhere, possessing a peasantry passion-
ately attached to the land, Bolshevik propaganda has
never stood the slightest chance of gaining a real hold
upon the popular imagination. This fact was most
strikingly shown during the contact between Lithuanian
and Russian troops in Vilnius at the time of the joint
occupation following the withdrawal of the Poles. The
Soviet " Revkoms " (Revolutionary Committees) made
desperate efforts to undermine the strong national feeling
of the Lithuanian common soldier and by meetings and
pamphlets appealed fervently to his " class consciousness,"
but in vain. The native wit of the simple ranker was

96 RISE OF THE NEW STATE

proof against these blandishments. Kipras, Juozas, Stasys
and the rest had an inconvenient habit of contrasting their
own well-clad and well-fed condition with the often
dilapidated state of the Red Guardsman, with the result
that the Lithuanian troops emerged from the ordeal
rather more " boorzhui " than when they went into it.
Superficial observers, profoundly ignorant of the real
principles of Communism, have made the mistake of con-
fusing popular insistence upon division and distribution of
the big estates in the Baltic countries with "Bolshevism."
Of course it is nothing of the kind, but actually a move-
ment in absolutely the reverse direction. True Communism
denies the right of land-ownership, whereas no government
in Lithuania which sought to abolish this right could hope
to survive twenty-four hours. There could, in fact, be
no better earnest of national stability and prosperous
development than the manifestation of this very land
hunger which guarantees to the country permanent
sources of wealth. Elsewhere in these pages the latest
available data on the attempt so far made to deal with
agrarian problems are given, and the foregoing remarks
are merely prompted by what has gone before.

CHAPTER IX

THE POLISH BETRAYAL

As largely an eye-witness of later events in Lithuania I
feel entitled to speak with some authority about the
unprecedented international scandal which, for the time
being at least, has terminated in the triumph of Polish
military might over Lithuanian right, without eliciting
anything more effective than feeble verbal protests from
the League of Nations to which the dispute was relegated
for settlement.

Li May 1919 I was fortunate enough to be appointed
secretary to the British Commission for the Baltic Provinces
(sic) under its distinguished Commissioner, Colonel S. G.
Tallents, C.B., C.B.E., with whom I travelled via Switzer-
land, Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, Poland and Germany
to Libau, Riga and Reval in the early summer of that
year. During this period I participated in stirring incidents
which do not properly form part of the present recital.
It should be said, however, that on the occasion of a
conference between Colonel Tallents and a Lithuanian
delegation at Libau in June 1919, I for the first time
began regretfully to realize that the Poles, with whom
hitherto I had ever sympathized in their picturesque
struggle for freedom, were proving false to all their loudly
vaunted principles, and were indeed doing their best
to extend to their weaker neighbours the self-same treat-
ment from which they had only just succeeded in emanci-
pating themselves with the indispensable aid of the Allies.
This discovery was a bitter disillusionment, but I would
not permit sentiment to weaken an objective judgment,
and inasmuch as all subsequent first-hand knowledge
has but served to increase the counts of my indictment

7 97

98 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

against Poland, which dates from this moment, I have not
the slightest hesitation in putting my name to this open
confession of political faith.

At the end of August 1919 1 was sent from Riga to Kaunas
under Colonel R. B. Ward, A.F.C, RA.F., to establish
a branch of the British Commission at the temporary-
Lithuanian capital. Later, however, this branch was
converted into a consulate, and Colonel Ward's appoint-
ment as Acting British Consul for Lithuania by the
Foreign Office synchronized with my own as Acting
British Vice-Consul, a post which I held up to the early
part of 1921. From this it will be clear that I enjoyed
exceptional opportunities for gaining " inside " information
of what was going on both openly and behind the scenes.
Possessing a very sound knowledge of Russian, both
written and spoken, to which I have since added a growing
acquaintance with the fascinating Lithuanian tongue,
it was easy for me to communicate direct with all the
principal Lithuanian actors on the political stage during
this period, totally dispensing with intermediaries.

My own personal views of the merits of the Lithuanian-
Polish controversy are fully shared by my former chief,
Colonel Ward, as also by the various members of the
British Military Mission then in Lithuania, who never
overlooked an opportunity of investigating every
" incident " between Poles and Lithuanians of which
we had an over-supply during those strenuous times.
In this context a remark once made to me by a former
British Military Attache in Kaunas so aptly sums up the
case against Poland that I cannot refrain from quoting
it here. He said : " I am out to oppose Poland in Eastern
Europe for much the same reasons that I opposed the
Boche in Western Europe during the war, because the
Poles as they now behave are the Prussians of Eastern
Europe minus the Boche efficiency." I do not think it
would be possible to express the sane, considered judg-
ment of a typical British military man in fewer or
more effective words.

On July 12, 1920, the Lithuanian Government, with the
entire approval of our own Foreign Office, concluded a

LITHUANIANS OCCUPY VILNIUS 99

Peace Treaty with Soviet Russia which gave Lithuania
her ethnographic frontiers, with Vilnius as her capital.
The Poles were then at war with Russia and in very bad
case, for the Reds were rapidly advancing on Vilnius,
It should be added that throughout this conflict Lithuania
preserved the strictest neutrality, the mendacious charges
of the Polish Government to the contrary having been
entirely disproved by our own military investigators, and
the Military Control Commission of the League of Nations.

Conscious of the necessity for evacuating Vilnius under
Bolshevik pressure the Polish High Command hurriedly
resolved to invite the Lithuanian army to occupy the city
in preference to the Reds. For this purpose one Colonel
Rylski was sent to Kaunas early in July, and I had the
good fortune to be present with Colonel R. B. Ward
at the conference between him and the members of the
Lithuanian General Staff, headed by Colonel Klescinskas,
the Chief of Staff, and Colonel 2ukas, the Lithuanian
Minister of Defence, when the terms of this transfer were
discussed. In accordance with the understanding thus
arrived at, the Lithuanian forces moved forward with a
view to forestalling the Red Army and entering Vilnius
before them. Almost incredible as the sequel may seem
to those even yet unfamiliar with the incorrigible treachery
of the Polish official temperament, despite the express
invitation and promise given, the Lithuanian echelons
were suddenly attacked by the Poles near Vievis on
July 14th, and although they succeeded in repulsing this
totally unexpected onslaught, their advance was inevitably
delayed some twenty-four hours, with the result that the
Russians occupied Vilnius before them.

The Lithuanians, however, entered the capital on the
following day, July 15th, and for some days held the city
in conjunction with the Russians, who eventually, in
accordance with an agreement concluded between the
two High Commands, withdrew and left Vilnius in sole
possession of the Lithuanian authorities towards the end
of August,

The Bolsheviks had not been in the town twenty-four
hours before, with their usual energy, they had started

100 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

a daily paper for the spread of Communistic principles,
and eloquent comrades from Moscow and Petersburg were
promptly imported to give frequent lectures to the troops
and citizens. Many of these lecture notices still adorned
the walls of the city when we first entered it on the with-
drawal of the Bolsheviks. The so-called " revkoms "
or revolutionary committees also sprang up like mush-
rooms overnight wherever the Soviet troops were quartered.
I was subsequently told by Colonel 2ukas, the Lithuanian
Minister for Defence, that so far from discouraging contact
between Lithuanian and Russian troops during the period
of joint occupation, he was entirely in favour of it as
the simplest and cheapest form of anti-Bolshevik pro-
paganda, because on comparing his own well-fed, well-clad
and well-shod condition with the decidedly nondescript
wardrobe and lean, hungry look of the average Red
Guardsman, the Lithuanian Tommy felt less inclined than
ever to interfere with the established order in his own
little peasant republic. Apropos of this brief period
of Russo-Lithuanian military intercourse. Colonel Zukas
reported to me an actual conversation that once took
place between a Lithuanian and a Russian soldier. Asked
what he was fighting for the Lithuanian replied, " For
my country." " For your country ? " the Russian
echoed ; " I'm fighting for something far better than
that. I'm fighting for a programme ! "

In due course the Lithuanian Government transferred
its seat to Vilnius, all the foreign diplomatic missions
and consulates removing at the same time. The British
Consulate secured excellent quarters in one of the main
thoroughfares, the well-known St. George's Boulevard, and
the individual members of the Staff were just settling down
to useful work and a reasonably comfortable existence in
this ancient and picturesque city, when a further manifes-
tation of Polish faithlessness upset all their well-laid plans.

It is or should be a matter of history that, according
to the terms of the famous Suvalkai agreement, signed
by the Lithuanian and Polish representatives on
October 7, 1920, in the presence of the Military Control
Commission of the League of Nations, Poland formally

IJTUUANliN BIVOUAC.

ON THE FKONT.

To (aoo p. 100.

THE ZELIGOWSKI COUP-DE-FORCE 101

recognized the validity of the Lithuanian occupation and
provisional administration of the Vilna (Vihaius) region,
including the cit}'^ of that name. Yet not even this solemn
written pledge could bind the Poles once they saw an
opportunity of retrieving their position with the relaxation
of the Bolshevik peril. They were perfectly willing to
make use of the Lithuanians to serve their own ends, but
equally ready to sacrifice them for the same motives.
Hardly had the ink had time to dry on the Suvalkai agree-
ment than Polish troops imder the notorious General
Zeligowski attacked Vilnius and occupied it on October 9th,
just two days after the signature of the said agreement.

SeveraJ days before this development signs were not
wanting that something of the sort was in the wind, and
great uneasiness prevailed among the inhabitants in con-
sequence. It was in this emergency that Colonel R. B.
Ward, the British Consul, anxious to allay the popular
anxiety, undertook an aeroplane flight to Warsaw for the
purpose of obtaining formal official assurances that the
rumoured intentions of the Poles were unfounded. He
had an interview with Prince Sapieha, the then Polish
Minister for Foreign Affairs, and also with the Polish
military authorities, who solemnly declared that the
Polish Government had absolutely no intention of re-
occupying Vilnius. Colonel Ward returned to the
Lithuanian capital bearing these glad tidings which were
joyfully received, but tlieir tranquillizing influence was
not permitted to last long.

So marked had become Polish military activity south
of Vilnius that a mixed military delegation, consisting
of the British Military Attach6, Major Pargiter, the
French Captain Pujol, and the Latvian Consul Ozol,
proceeded to Yachuny on October 6th in order to obtain
from the Polish Command nearest to Vilnius an explanation
of these movements. The members of this delegation,
particularly Major Pargiter, were treated with scant
courtesy by the Poles, and were forced to return to Vilnius
with the report that the Poles denied all knowledge of
the orders for a suspension of hostilities under the Suvalkai
agreement and were awaiting instructions. The delegation

102 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

itself had no further doubt it was only a question of hours
before the Poles would again be in Vilnius. I well remember
a conversation which I had with Major Pargiter at the
time, and he was very emphatic on the subject.

Sure enough on October 8th, the day after the signature
of the Suvalkai agreement, superior Polish forces launched
an offensive from south to north against Vilnius, which
at the time was defended by three Lithuanian battalions
and one battery, which were quite inadequate to repel
the Polish advance . The order for evacuation was therefore
given and carried out on the night of the 8th. During
the entire day and night a violent engagement developed
south of the city.

In this emergency, upon me devolved the disagreeable
duty of leaving Vilnius by one of the last outgoing trains
on the evening of the 8th, bearing with me, in addition
to my own personal hand baggage, a bulky, sealed sack
containing the British official ciphers. The train was
packed and we had to travel in total darkness. The
exodus from ■ the doomed city was tremendous. The
thousands of persons who could not possibly be carried
by rail, sought safety in flight on foot, or in horse-drawn
vehicles, for the most part in the direction of Kaunas.
A very large proportion of these refugees were of course
Jews, who knew full well the fate likely to overtake
them if they were caught by the Polish soldiery.

We ourselves arrived at Kaunas, after a long and tiring
journey, in the small hours of the morning, and experienced
great difficulty in obtaining any sort of accommodation
for the night. I myself had paired off with an acquaintance
who held a responsible official post and whose bona fides
there seemed no reason to doubt. In fact, without his
assistance, it would have been physically impossible to
convey my belongings from the train to the congested
horse tramcar which carried us from the station to the
hotel, for needless to say no porters were available at
such a time. I am happy now to bear unsolicited testimony
to the great kindness and perfect loyalty of this particular
individual, for the simple reason that he was subsequently
found to be a Bolshevik agent who, in the ordinary way,

A VISIT TO VILNIUS 103

would have been only too ready to filch the official secrets
of a foreign State hostile to his employers. It is true
that I took every possible precaution against this sort
of interference, but amidst the confusion and Cimmerian
darkness of this sudden departure from Vilnius it would
have been the simplest thing imaginable, had he been
so minded, to relieve me of both my personal and official
possessions without exposing himself to any danger of
detection. I must perforce conclude, therefore, that a
certain measure of personal regard for me was responsible
for his welcome restraint.

Some days after these events, the various foreign
missions, including the remainder of the British consular
staff, were evacuated from Vilnius by a special train for
the despatch of which, under the protection of the Control
Commission of the League of Nations, I was fortunately
able to arrange with the Lithuanian General Staff.

On October 19th I myself returned to Vilnius in the
capacity of special correspondent for a certain London
paper, to ascertain the exact position of affairs. Owing
to the fighting then in progress between the forces of
the legitimate Lithuanian Government again established
at Kaunas, and those of the so-called Central Lithuanian
Government, controlled by General Zeligowski, it was
impossible to travel by the more direct route via Vilkomir,
and I therefore drove through Preny, Olita and Orany
in the neighbourhood of which I passed the last Lithuanian
outposts. I made the trip under abnormally difficult
conditions. Direct communication had of course ceased,
and had it not been for the lucky chance that Mr. S. B,
Kaufman of the American Joint Distribution Commission
wished to return to Vilnius on business connected with
his committee and kindly placed his Ford car at my
disposal, there would have been scant likelihood of my
securing transport.

I found Vilnius little changed outwardly since I left
it in such a hurry. There were comparatively few troops
to be seen in the city itself, the majority being at the
front. Superficially life seemed to be running in normal
channels, but further investigation led to considerable

104 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

modification of this impression. From non-Polish in-
habitants I ascertained that since the Pohsh occupation
there had been 9 murders and 104! armed robberies.
Seven of these murdered victims were Jews, but two
were sons of a Russian priest and had been shot in cold
blood by armed robbers. I found all the Jewish residences
strongly barricaded, so that one had to effect an entry
by the back staircases ; and regular watches had been
established, the male inmates keeping guard duty through-
out the night. Nobody ventured out after sundown.
One evening, I was told, a band of thirty or forty armed
men surrounded a huge block of buildings in the Uglovaya
Street and called upon the inmates to open the courtyard
door, announcing that they were soldiers come to make
a revision. They were told to return in the morning.
To this they replied by trying to batter the door down,
and opened rifle fire. Immediately by preconcerted
arrangement the inmates of the building, men, women and
children, rushed out into the courtyard and in chorus
raised a sustained cry for help which could be heard all
over the city. Finally the assailants withdrew. The
following morning thirty-five genuine Polish troops headed
by an officer appeared and declared that they had been
fired on from this building the previous evening, and
therefore proposed to search the premises. In the course
of the search the officer found in an attic a quantity of
cocaine valued at a million marks, which he promptly con-
fiscated and retired with his men, declaring himself satisfied
that the inmates were innocent ! Nearly every Jew with
whom I talked stated that, not to speak of the short-lived
Lithuanian regime, which had seemed almost too good to
be true, even under the Bolsheviks, life and property had
been infinitely safer than under the Polish flag.

During the brief interval that had elapsed since the
withdrawal of the Lithuanians and the entry of the Poles,
prices of various food products had doubled, trebled,
and quadrupled. This unhappy city had already changed
hands seven times, and the inhabitants pined for peace,
order, and cheap food.

From a military standpoint Central Lithuania was then

"CENTRAL LITHUANIA" 105

stronger than when Zeligowski entered the town on
October 9th, and from a quaUfied British expert, and
ex-officer estabUshed in business, I obtained very satis-
factory evidence of the close connexion between General
ZeUgowski and the Warsaw government. For that
matter, the Pohsh flag flew over official buildings, and
the militia wore Polish brassards. Only Polish money
circulated. The first decree of General Zeligowski defined
the territory of Central Lithuania as embracing all districts
of the Vilnius government, save Vileika and part of Disna
district, also almost all Gardinas (Grodno) district.
The national emblem was the eagle and epaulettes,
taken from a historic tablet on the walls of the famous
belfry of St. Casimir attached to the cathedral. This
emblem decorated the red flag of the " Republic." The
provisional governing commission comprised departments
of Foreign Affairs, Regional Defence, Interior Trade
and Industry, Ways of Communications and Public Works,
Labour, Finance, Provisioning and Agriculture, State
Properties, and Justice. This administration was to con-
tinue only till the convocation of a Constituent Assembly
which would have to determine the ultimate form of
government. I obtained several interviews with leading
officials, including Mr. Jerzy Iwanowski, Director of
Foreign Affairs, and Engel, the Director of Department
of Justice, who naturally insisted that the coup de force
was inspired by local patriotism.

One significant little incident which helped to satisfy
me personally of the close connexion between the Zeli-
gowski adventure and Warsaw was my chance street
encounter on this occasion with none other than Lieutenant
Wonsowicz, whom I had known previously in Kaunas
as Polish liaison officer. Wonsowicz, himself a naturalized
American citizen of considerable private means, was
one of Pilsudski's most trusted secret agents, and his
presence therefore in Vilnius at such a time could hardly
be misconstrued. He had suddenly left Kaunas some few
weeks before to escape arrest by the Lithuanian police
for ceaseless plotting against the existing administration.

On the return journey to Kaunas our car broke down

106 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

ten versts from Preny, and we had to accomplish the
rest of the route on foot and-in a prehistoric stage-coach
packed with good-natured Jews.

Unfortunately for the pleasing fiction of a mutinous
General (Zeligowski to wit), and Polish innocence of
complicity in his coup, we have the signed depositions
of Polish officers, including Lieutenant Grodski, Captain
Buczynski, Captain Javorski, and Lieutenant Slovikovski,
to prove that the entire plot was engineered by Marshal
Pilsudski himself, in conjunction with other highly placed
military officers, who held a conference in the Marshal's
train at Gardinas (Grodno) on October 1st and 2nd to
concert plans for the reoccupation of Vilnius. General
Zeligowski was selected to command the enterprise because
he was a native of Central Lithuania, and could therefore
rather more gracefully father the theory of a purely local
movement than some outsider. The Polish officers whose
names are given above further testified that money and
munitions for the Zeligowski troops came solely from
Warsaw, all settlements of accounts being effected direct
with the Ministry of Military Affairs at the Polish capital.
Incidentally Lieutenant Grodski deposed that the
centre of the Polish secret military organization in Western
Lithuania, known as the P.O.W. (Polska Organizacija
Woiskowa), was at Warsaw, its head being Section No. 2
of Information of the Polish General Headquarters, the
Chief of which was Lieut. -Colonel Matczynski. The
latter's substitute. Major Kieszkowski, was Commander-
in-Chief of the entire P.O.W. organization. This organiza-
tion was directly connected with the 2nd Information
Section, which in turn was subordinated to the Chief of
the General Staff. The P.O.W. organization possessed
at Vilnius its sections P.P.S. and P.O.W., equally directed
by the 2nd Section of Warsaw. The Chief of the 2nd
Section at Vilnius was Major Koscialkowski, ex-Commander
of the Sharpshooters of the Niemen. At Kaunas the
Chief was an old Starosta of the Troki district. Lieutenant
Staniewicz, who had charge of the Sharpshooters of the
Niemen and of the " Bojowki " (a preparatory fighting
organization) in Lithuania. At the head of each bojowka

LEAGUE OF NATIONS INTERVENES 107

was a Polish officer, the chief of these bojowki at Kaunas
being an ex-officer of the Russian Army, Antzierovitch.
The same witness testified that the PoUsh Government
had fully decided to overthrow the Kaunas Govern-
ment at all costs, and it was to this end that it was deemed
necessary to give a solid organization to the P.O.W.
Important funds were actually devoted to this purpose ;
unlimited credit exempt from all control was guaranteed.
Lieut.-Colonel Matczynski had charge of these credits,
which he transferred to Major Kieszkowski, who in turn
sent money by courier to the various chiefs of the bojowki.
One project on foot at the time was to unite all these
subversive groups into a single organization of the Niemen,
but I am not aware whether this project has been realized.
Those curious to learn further details of these Polish
intrigues I would refer to The Lithuanian-Polish Dispute,
published at the instance of the Lithuanian Legation in
London by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1921.

The intervention of the League of Nations in the
Lithuanian-Polish dispute dates from September 1920,
and formally terminated in January 1922, after a series
of futile conferences at Brussels and Geneva under the
auspices of M. Paul Hymans, the President of the
Council. To my mind, this intervention was from the
first foredoomed to failure by the obstinate and myster-
ious obsession, whereof M. Hymans was a victim, that
some sort of " special tie " must be effected between
Lithuania and Poland. This obsession, coupled with the
wholly unwarrantable transformation of the Vilnius
territory from an object of litigation into an object
of exchange, helps to explain the failure of M. Hymans
to bring the two parties to an understanding. It seems
incredible that any British representative on the League
Council should have been able to share the conviction
of M. Hymans that his final project of agreement
offered a fair solution of the dispute. Quite irrespective
of numerous minor objectionable features, it contained
several clauses so dangerous to Lithuanian integrity
that no Lithuanian Government dare accept them.

For example. Article 11 of the proposed agreement

108 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

requires Lithuania to grant Poland at all time the free
use of Memel as well as the Niemen for the transport of
all classes of goods, including munitions and implements
of war. This clause blissfully loses sight of the fact that
Lithuania is already bound under her treaty with Russia
to observe strict neutrality in the event of war involving
that country. Acceptance of the clause would thus
invalidate that neutrality from the start, and would
be doubly dangerous seeing that the entire trend of Poland's
foreign policy renders another conflict between Russia
and herself inevitable sooner or later.

Article 9, concerning conditions for a defensive military
agreement between Lithuania and Poland, besides being of
a far-reaching character wholly unjustified by Lithuania's
international position, actually contains a proviso that
in case of disagreement on the obligation on either side
to come to the assistance of the other, the question shall
be submitted to an arbitrator, appointed in advance by
the Council of the League of Nations with their consent !
The suggestion that a sovereign State should blandly
surrender one of the most important attributes of state-
hood in the shape of the right of determining for itself an
issue involving the lives and liberties of its own citizens
is really so monstrous that I do not like to express my
true opinion of the class of mind capable of fathering it.
Whilst no doubt the possible surrender of this attribute
is on paper reciprocal, in practice it would obviously
be unilateral, for the simple reason that Lithuania, unlike
Poland, harbours no aggressive designs against her
neighbours, and with a guarantee of her neutrality by
the Great Powers and an honestly defensive union with
the other Baltic States, can very well dispense with so
potentially perilous a pact with so very questionable
a friend as Poland has hitherto shown herself to be.

Article 6 declares that both the Lithuanian and Polish
languages shall be official languages throughout the
whole Lithuanian State. Now, whilst the Lithuanian
Government was fully prepared to make Polish a con-
current official language with Lithuanian in the Vilnius
territory, at the request of the Vilnius Diet, it could

AN UNSATISFACTORY PROJECT 109

not properly permit it to be thus extended to Western
Lithuania, where the Polish element hardly exceeds
2| per cent, of the total population, and, moreover,
speaks Lithuanian.

Again, in Article 8 the provision made for coordination
of the foreign policies of the two States would in practice
inevitably have led to a complete subordination of
Lithuanian to Polish interests.

It is noteworthy that although Lithuania went so
far as to accept even this ill-contrived project as a basis
for discussion, Poland declined to make a similar con-
cession, thus revealing an inordinate political appetite
incapable apparently of being satisfied with anything
less than the entire absorption of Lithuanian into the
new Polish State.

In an address before the League of Nations Union
on January 27, 1922, Mr. Naroushevitch, the Lithuanian
Chargd d'Affaires in London, made the following reference
to the Zeligowski coup de force and the League of Nation's
failure to find a satisfactory solution of the Polish-
Lithuanian dispute :

Taking advantage of their military superiority, the Poles dictated
conditions to Lithuania, and when subsequently convinced that
their forcible occupation of Vilna would enjoy the support of
certain Powers, calmly infringed the Suvalki Treaty. It is indeed
a matter of history that only two days after the signature of this
agreement the Poles, acting through the " rebel " General Zeli-
gowski, seized the Lithuanian capital of Vilna and subsequently
occupied the Vilna territory.

The League of Nations has not failed to inflict upon General
Zeligowski's adventure well-merited blame. M. Leon Bourgeois,
then President of the Cotmcil of the League, in a letter addressed
to M. Paderewski on October 4, 1920, specially declared : " The
Polish Government, after having appealed to the League of Nations
on the subject of its difference with Lithuania, accepted the
decisions of the Coiuicil — ^immediate cessation of hostilities ;
neutrality of the territory occupied by Lithuania to the east
of the line of December 8th, with reservation of respect for this
neutrality by the Soviet authorities ; formation of a Control Com-
mission which is now on the spot and charged with taking the
necessary steps to stop or avert any conflict, without prejudging
in any way tlirough its action a definite territorial settlement.
The occupation of Vilna is thus a violation of tlie engagements

110 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

accepted vis-A-vis the Council of the League of Nations, and the latter
is compelled to demand of the Polish Government what immediate
steps it proposes to take to ensure respect for engagements."

In these circumstances, M. Leon Bourgeois, realizing the danger
which General Zeligowski's act constituted for the prestige of the
League of Nations, deemed a fresh hearing of the parties by the
Council necessary. " The question at issue to-day," he wrote
to the latter, " is really not only the determination of the rights
and obligations of each of the two Governments concerned, but
above all of the right that belongs to the Council of the League
of Nations not to allow that decisions which it has taken and the
effect of proceedings which it has advised, after a solemn agree-
ment concluded before it between the interested parties, to be
checkmated. It is for the future of the work of the League a question
of essential importance which necessitates deep deliberation."

The foregoing citation will make it clear that Poland has been
guilty of violations of her engagements not only towards Lithuania
but also towards the League of Nations itself. Four separate
occasions may be recalled in this context. On September 20, 1920,
she infringed the so-called Curzon line, and twice before violated
the Foch line. Finally she committed a flagrant breach of the
Suvalki agreement by occupying Vilna and the Vilna territory.
Her offence against the League will be made clearer to the lay
mind by reference to Article 12 of the Covenant of the League,
which reads : " The Members of the League agree that if there
should arise between them any dispute likely to lead to a rupture
they will submit the matter either to arbitration or to enquiry
by the Council, and they agree in no case to resort to war until
three months after the award by the arbitrators on the report by
the Council."

Unfortunately, in spite of so palpable an infringement of the
Covenant on the part of Poland, it must be stated that the League
so far has not seen fit to apply to the latter the measures specially
provided under Article 16 of the Covenant, with a view to enforcing
obedience to the obligations undertaken by all members of the
League. Article 16 reads :

" Should any member of the League resort to war in disregard
of its covenants under Articles 12, 13, or 15, it shall ipso facto be
deemed to have committed an act of war against all other members
of the League, which hereby undertake immediately to subject it
to the severance of all trade or financial relations, the prohibition
of all intercourse between their nationals and the nationals of the
covenant-breaking State, and the prevention of all financial, com-
mercial, or personal intercourse between the nationals of the
covenant-breaking State and the nationals of any other State,
whether a member of the League or not. It shall be the duty
of the Council in such cases to recommend to the several Govern-
ments concerned what effective military, naval or air force the

LEAGUE TERMINATES INTERVENTION 111

members of the League shall severally contribute to the armed
forces to be used to protect the covenants of the League."

It is not too much to say that the failure of the League of Nations
to exact respect for its authority from a recalcitrant member,
Poland, lies at the root of all subsequent inability of the Council
of the League to solve the dispute between Lithuania and Poland.
We have had frequent occasion to point out to the Council of the
League that withdrawal of Zeligowski's troops from the contested
territory is an indispensable preliminary condition to any peaceful
settlement of the dispute, for while Poland continues to ignore
the engagements which she deliberately assumed under the Suvalki
agreement, profound distrust of her good faith in all future negotia-
tions must remain deep-rooted in the mind of the Lithuanian people,
and thus constitute an insuperable obstacle to a satisfactory modus
Vivendi.

Early in January 1922 the Council of the League of
Nations, in view of the rejection of its recommendations
by both parties, formally terminated its intervention,
and gave notice of the withdrawal of the Military Control
Commission, while at the same time it proposed the accept-
ance of a fifth demarcation line to take the place of
the present neutral zone between the contending
parties. Hitherto the Poles have violated four lines, viz.
that established by the Supreme Command of the Allied
and Associated Powers in April 1919, the second line
laid down by Marshal Foch on July 27th of the same year,
the line established under the Suvalki agreement of
October 7, 1920, and the so-called " Curzon " line fixed
by the Supreme Council as frontier between Poland and
the provinces of the old Russian Empire. In these
circumstances, the Lithuanian Government not unnaturally
failed to see what good purpose could be served by the
merely nominal provision of yet another demarcation
line which the Poles would overstep with the same gay
insouciance as heretofore the moment this should suit
their purpose.

The Poles have given additional proof of their keen
regard for their international engagements and their
respect for the League of Nations, of which they are a
member, by holding elections early in January 1922 for the
so-called Vilnius Seim, in open defiance of the warning
of the League of Nations Council that no such elections
could be recognized under existing conditions of Polish

112 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

military occupation of the region, and while the entire
question of the attribution of the district remained sub
judice. These elections followed an ostensible with-
drawal of General Zeligowski from Vilnius, but not of
the Polish bayonets, which continue to control the
situation, and under whose stimulating protection the
elections were held.

It is symptomatic of the fimdamental falsity of the
Polish position that the Lithuanian, White Russian,
and Jewish inhabitants, who, according to pre-war Russian
statistics, constitute some 90 per cent, of the population,
refused to take any part in these farcical proceedings.
The result is that of the 106 members composing the Diet
or Seim, only four are non-Poles, and virtually all the
members are pledged to vote the Vilnius territory into
Poland. Such is self-determination as she is determined
in these spacious post-bellum days.

In October 1921 the Polish authorities of Vilnius
organized a systematic pogrom of Lithuanian cultural
institutions, including the well-known Lithuanian gym-
nasium or high school, orphanages, banks, etc. The
school children were brutally beaten by the Polish police
and soldiery and compelled to seek refuge in the neighbour-
ing woods, where classes were subsequently held. In the
wake of the refusal of the Lithuanians and White Russians
to participate in the January elections, the Polish
authorities gave further evidence of their deliberate
resolve to exterminate everything Lithuanian in the
occupied territory. With this object in view, on January
20th and succeeding days, they raided a large number of
Lithuanian and White Russian institutions, including the
offices of the Lithuanian National Committee, White
Russian National Committee, the Lithuanian and White
Russian newspaper offices, as also many private residences
of Lithuanian and White Russian leaders. The pre-
tended reason was that these leaders were implicated
in espionage and Conmiunist activities for the overthrow
of the existing administration. It goes without saying
that not a tittle of incriminating evidence could be found
to support this charge, but failing such evidence the police

MONASTEBY OX VILNIUS ROAD,

To face p. 112,

FUTILE PROTESTS 113

did not scruple to confiscate the private property of the
victims, such as money, gold and silver articles, linen
and clothing. Moreover, twenty Lithuanian and thirteen
White Russian leaders were summarily arrested, and
after being kept in solitary confinement for several days,
were expelled from the region on February 5th of the same
year. All these exiles are residents of Vilnius, many of
life-long standing, and own property and businesses in
that city. The majority, too, left behind them wives and
families destitute of the means of support.

The Lithuanian Government lost no time in lodging
emphatic protests with both the Military Control Com-
mission and the Council of the League of Nations against
these acts of Polish tyranny, but at the time of writing
there seemed scant likelihood of anything being done
to secure redress for the unfortunate victims beyond the
customary verbal expressions of avuncular disapproval
from the League, which have about as much practical
effect on the pachydermatous hide of Polish officialdom as
the time-honoured water on the time-honoured duck's back.

Meanwhile poor Lithuania continues to be penalized
for the sins of her more powerful neighbour by being
denied de jure recognition pending a settlement of the
Vilnius question between them. England was the first
of the Allies to grant de facto recognition to Lithuania,
and this step aroused hopes which have not since been
fulfilled. On the contrary, the world is regaled with
the anomalous spectacle of the very Powers which fought
the Great War, avowedly to win liberty for the smaller
peoples, declining to grant de jure recognition to one of
those very peoples, whilst the particular State hitherto
regarded as the embodiment of the opposite principle, i.e.
Germany, long ago accorded such recognition, and has
since been followed by virtually all the neutral Govern-
ments of Europe, including Russia, Estonia, Finland,
Latvia, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, Czecho-
slovakia, Brazil, Argentine, and other South American
Republics. And yet de jure recognition has already
been extended to Estonia and Latvia, the two other
Baltic States, whose claims to same are not one whit

8

114 THE POLISH BETRAYAL

superior to those of Lithuania. 'To those " in the know,"
it is clear that Franco-PoHsh intrigue is at the bottom of
our failure to do belated justice to Lithuania. France
is committed to the policy of a Greater Poland to serve
as a Buffer State between Germany and Russia. To this
insensate object Lithuania would cheerfully be sacrificed.
Why Great Britain should tamely permit herself to be
dragged at the heels of this reactionary movement is
more than I care to say at the moment, but it is quite
certain that our policy in this respect in no wise reflects
the true wishes of the English people, but is merely an
expression of the arbitrary opinion of permanent officials.
Of such stuff are our modern democracies made.

With reference to the question of the dejure recognition
of Lithuania, I should like to point out that this issue,
remote as it may seem to many unfamiliar with the facts,
has none the less a very important bearing upon the welfare
of this country. It is therefore on grounds not only of inter-
national justice but also of national expediency that I
appeal for fulfilment of an obligation already long overdue.

That the Allied and League policy hitherto pursued of
penalizing the weaker party to the dispute, liithuania,
for the sins of the stronger, Poland, has directly contributed
to the prolongation of disorder and unrest in Eastern
Europe, and therefore to the increase of unemployment
here at home, can easily be demonstrated.

Article 87 of the Versailles Treaty requires the Allied
Powers to determine the Polish frontiers. This so far
they have not done, and Poland, as w^e see, takes advantage
of the conveniently fluid condition of her boundaries to
extend these in many directions at the expense of her
weaker neighbours, of whom Lithuania unfortunately
happens to be one. Had the Allies been fully alive to
their responsibilities as sponsors for the new Poland which
their victory brought into being, they would never have
tolerated such a state of affairs, but would have invoked
the powers which the Covenant of the League of Nations
confers upon its signatories to compel their unruly ward
to observe those international engagements which she
has deliberately assumed. Yet in face of Poland's repeated

BIASED TREATMENT 113

violations of these engagements, including infringement
of four demarcation lines, a flagrant breach of the Suvalkai
agreement, and later still the holding of elections in the
Vilnius region, not only have the Allies taken no action,
but they have even perpetrated the grave inequity of
making the innocent party a scapegoat for the trans-
gressions of the guilty.

To such a pitch has this biased treatment of the two
countries been carried, that whilst the Allies helped to
create the Polish army and have supplied it abundantly
with munitions, since largely employed for purposes of
aggression, they have refused to sell and to allow others
to sell to Lithuania arms required solely for purposes of
self-defence. Comment on this discrimination is needless.

But the vital consideration for ourselves is that, so
long as such a situation of unrest and uncertainty, due
to Polish Chauvinism and our own direct encouragement
of the same, is permitted to continue, just so long must
the reconstruction of Eastern Europe be delayed, and
just so long must the repercussions of this situation
express themselves in terms of economic stagnation
among ourselves. Poland's aggressive attitude constitutes
a constant menace to peace. And once peace is seriously
disturbed in that part of the world, it will not be easy
to set bounds to the spread of the succeeding conflagration ;
whilst the ever-present possibility of a disaster of this
nature is bound to act as a baneful deterrent to all con-
structive effort and thus indefinitely retard the complete
economic recovery of Europe, in which England is more
deeply interested than any other first-class Power.

Our de jure recognition of Lithuania would be one of
the most effective methods of letting Poland know that
her policy of Imperialism towards that young State no
longer enjoys the tacit approval of the Allies, and that
she must in future content herself with what rightfully
belongs to her. That, coupled with the prompt carrying
out of Article 87 of the Versailles Treaty, would go a
long way towards restoring those conditions of political
stability in Eastern Europe without which it is vain to
look for any permanent amelioration of our own economic
miseries here at home.

CHAPTER X

THE MEMEL QUESTION

As stated in an earlier part of this book, the ancient
Litho-Baltic races from time immemorial have dwelt on
the shores of the Baltic Sea, between the River Vistula
in the south-west and the stream of the Salis in the
north, near the Frisches Haff, the Kurisches Haff and the
Gulf of Riga. The Borussians or Old Prussians occupied
the region between the Vistula and Pregel in the south.
The Letts lived in the north and occupied the lower
basin of the Dvina. The Lithuanians lived along the
Nemunas between the Borussians and Letts.

The Borussians, although supported by the Lithuanians,
were nevertheless unable to resist the attacks of those
sturdy professional scrappers, the Teutonic Knights,
and after three centuries of struggle were overcome.
But although the Teutons concentrated all possible means
to denationalize the Borussians, it took about four hundred
years to Germanize the latter. To-day, however, the
Borussians are German in speech and in spirit.

The campaigns of the Teutonic Knights against
Lithuania Proper began in 1274, their object being to keep
the Lithuanians away from the Baltic. The Teutons
succeeded in conquering the neighbouring Lithuanian
provinces of Sudavia, Nadrovia, and Salavia, including
the present Memel district. This territory is situated
north of the Rivers Laba, Pregel and Angerop. From the
year 1422 these Lithuanian provinces were under Prusso-
Brandenburgian rule. The greater part of the Prussian
Lithuanians in Sudavia, Nadrovia and Salavia, however,
still retained their old customs and language, and to-day
desire to be reunited with the rest of the Lithuanian people.

116

MEMEL HINTERLAND 117

The north-eastern portion of these provinces constitutes
the Memel district.

Memel district (Memel-Gebiet), situated between the
Nemunas River and the former Russo-German frontier,
was detached from Germany by the Treaty of Versailles, and
is more precisely defined in Part II, Article 20 of the Treaty.
The district has an area of 2,4-10 square kilometres of solid
land and 426 square kilometres of water. The population
is composed of Lithuanians and Germans, whose relative
proportions have never been established by reliable
statistics. According to descent, however, we may regard
80 to 90 per cent, as Lithuanians. If, on the other hand,
we base our definition of nationality upon the use of
language, a smaller percentage would probably result.
The German Peace Delegation, which was not over-
scrupulous in its compilation of statistics affecting the
Lithuanians, commented thus on the peace conditions for
the Memel territory :

The Memel territory is predominantly German as regards the
number of inhabitants. There are about 68,000 Germans against
only about 54,000 inhabitants speaking Lithuanian.

According to statistics contained in the German Clerical
Almanac (Pfarr-Almanach) of East Prussia, 1912, there
were among 138,524 evangelical inhabitants 71,810
Lithuanians. But these German statistics include many
elements not native to the country, such as officials, troops,
etc., who, with the fall of the German hegemony, must
naturally withdraw and give place to local inhabitants.
If we examine the position of Memel on the map we see
that its sole hinterland is Lithuania. The unnatural
separation of the district from this hinterland in the past
has therefore had the result that Memel port, notwith-
standing its freedom from ice, its greater depth than
Konigsberg and other favourable conditions, has not
developed, but has remained quite an insignificant town
on the Baltic coast, with a population of about 32,000.
Through the connexion of the Kurisches Haff with the sea
a natural harbour basin many kilometres in extent is
formed alongside the city. The city of Memel is crossed

118 THE MEMEL QUESTION

from east to west by the River Dauge, -which flows into the
Memel Tref, i.e. the confluence of the Haff and the Baltic.
Another natural advantage is proximity to the Nemunas,
which is navigable up to Grodno (Gardinas) through
Lithuanian territory rich in natural resources.

In view of the foregoing, the Allies, in their reply of
June 16, 1919, to the German Delegation, made the follow-
ing statement :

The Allied and Associated Powers reject the suggestion that
the cession of the district of Memel conflicts with the principle
of nationahty. The district in question has always been Lithu-
anian. The majority of the population is Lithuanian in origin
and speech, and the fact that the city of Memel itself is in large
part German is no justification for maintaining the district under
German sovereignty, particularly in view of the fact that the port
of Memel is the only sea outlet for Lithuania.

The soil of Memel territory is largely sandy. Although a
high standard of cultivation has been attained, the export
of foodstuffs is none the less entirely insuflBcient to cover
the total expenditure of the territory on administration,
and the upkeep of public and Government institutions.
The local industry, consisting chiefly of wood manufacture,
and based also upon other agricultural products imported
almost exclusively from Lithuania, is thus entirely de-
pendent upon the latter. The same must be said about
commerce. In that which concerns economic conditions,
it may be taken as proved during the year 1920 that
the Memel district cannot be self-supporting. The budget
of about 60,000,000 marks, as drafted by the loca,l
administration for that period, appears to be sufficiently
high for a region with a population of approximately only
140,000.

Considering, too, that according to the Versailles Treaty
a certain percentage of the German Imperial and State
debt will have to be assumed, and that German Imperial
and State property remaining in the district to the
estimated amount of 232,387,000 marks will have to be
made good, it is obvious that a financial burden will have
been heaped up under which the little country must
eventually break down.

MEMEL TERRITORY LITHUANIAN 119

The provisional administration of the Memel district,
in an effort to cover its deficit, has sought to increase its
revenue by imposing duties upon all goods entering the
country from Lithuania. But this measure is at variance,
firstly, with the accepted obligation to admit goods in
transit entirely free of duty, and, secondly, must have the
effect of diverting goods traffic to other rival ports such as
Libau and Konigsberg. Such a policy, therefore, cannot
improve the well-being of the district, but, on the contrary,
may conceivably lead to its utter impoverishment.

From what has been said it will be clear that the Memel
territory, owing to its restricted area and population,
as well as its geographical situation, cannot support an
independent economic existence, but must either revert
to Germany or be attached to Lithuania as a natural former
component part of the latter. There is no other alternative.
The Danzig analogy does not hold good here. Danzig
is already a well -developed port with an extensive trade
and a considerable indigenous population. Danzig, by
virtue of its geographical position, serves the needs of both
Polish and German territory by which it is encompassed,
whereas Memel, by virtue also of its geographical position,
is solely a Lithuanian port, the requirements of Prussia
being fully met by Konigsberg.

The Memel territory continues to this day to be pre-
eminently a Lithuanian country. To declare it either
independent or Memel a free port would evoke profound
dissatisfaction alike amongst the inhabitants of Prussian
and former Russian Lithuania, which in turn would
detrimentally affect the development of the port, because
in that case the Lithuanian people, in view of the political
instability and uncertainty of the position of this small
stretch of territory, would not expend any effort upon its
improvement, which they would surely do if, through
mutual consent, this territory were to receive the status
of an integral part of Lithuania. The independence or
freedom of Memel territory, on the Danzig model, would
foment ceaseless political intrigues among certain German
elements which pursue a policy of reversion to Prussia.
It is equally certain that Polish groups would also lose no

120 THE MEMEL QUESTION

opportunity of creating complications with a view to gaining
control over the region. Mindful, therefore, of the
economic, political, geographical and national factors
in the case, it will scarcely be possible to find any other
solution of the Memel problem than that proposed by the
Powers in their reply to the German delegation.

Pending a just settlement of this question in favour of
Lithuania, as foreshadowed by the Treaty, the region is
being administered by the French on behalf of the Supreme
Council. All familiar with the trend of French post-bellum
policy will understand quite well what that means, viz.
that they are administering it entirely in their own interests.
Incidentally, a somewhat remarkable anomaly may be
detected in the details of this French administration. For
the time being, incredible as such a statement must seem
as it stands, the policy of the French tends to strengthen
German influence. The explanation, however, is simple.
Confronted by a choice of what it must deem two evils,
i.e. the German and Lithuanian elements, French policy
is reduced, despite French hatred of all things (Jerman,
to favouring the old German officialdom and the German
party generally, because it is inflexibly hostile to the desire
of the Lithuanian majority for inclusion of the Memel
territory in the adjacent State of Lithuania. Undoubtedly,
too, this tendency is encouraged by the Poles, who, with no
economic justification for the outlay, have established a
consulate at Memel to promote purely political ends, and
are working tooth and nail to prevent the natural gravita-
tion of the region towards Lithuania. Thus, Franco-Polish
policy, frankly Germanophobe elsewhere, is ostensibly
Germanophil in the Memel region.

General Odry signalized his advent in the winter of
1920 by enlisting Germans only in the local administra-
tion, to the bitter disappointment of Lithuanian-speaking
citizens who had looked forward with hope to the arrival
of the French as heralding the dawn of a brighter era for
Lithuanian aspirations. At the present moment there is
only one Lithuanian — and a fully Germanized one at that
— in the Direktorium as against four Teuton Germans.
The clerical staff of the Direktorium is also rarely recruited

PKD-GERMAN ORIENTATION 121

from natives of Memel territory ; usually it is imported
from Germany, as in the case of the higher officials.

Notwithstanding repeated petitions from the Lithuanian
inhabitants, the Lithuanian language is not taught in the
higher schools. Both General Odry and M. Petisne, the
French Prefect, have rejected numerous requests that
Lithuanian should be recognized as an official tongue with
German.

In commercial matters the same orientation is
observable. The advice of German merchants, and more
especially of the former Memel Ober-Burgermeister,
Altenberg, preponderates. This policy reacts to the
detriment of Memel territory, because while it continues,
the neighbouring Lithuanian State naturally will not enter
into any commercial or customs treaty with the region.

The consensus of opinion amongst the Lithuanian popula-
tion of Memel territory appears to be that under the
existing form of administration Germanism bids fair to
become stronger than in the halcyon days of the Kaiser.

CHAPTER XI

LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

Of all the Baltic States Lithuania enjoys the most favoured
financial and economic position. This is very largely
owing to the caution and prudence of her fiscal policy,
which from the first led her to avoid recourse to the
printing press for the replenishment of her exchequer.

In common with Poland and part of Latvia she found
herself at the close of the German occupation in possession
of the so-called Ost currency issued by the German
Treasury for circulation exclusively in the occupied
territory. But whereas the other States and Poland,
in their natural eagerness to exercise all the attributes of
independent nationhood, lost no time in issuing their
own paper currencies, Lithuania, looking farther ahead,
wisely decided to retain the Ost money until such time as
she should be in a position to introduce her own coinage
with an adequate gold guarantee behind it. The result
of this far-sighted policy is that whereas Poland, Latvia
and Estonia to-day are saddled with vast depreciated
note issues, the unit of which in every case now stands at
four figures to the pound sterling, and continues to decline,
the Lithuanian " auksinas " or mark, until quite recently,
when the slump of the German mark set in, retained
comparative stability, its fluctuations being almost exactly
determined by those of the German mark proper. The
later collapse of the mark has naturally reacted unfavour-
ably upon the Lithuanian economic situation, and may
indeed be said to have imposed upon the Lithuanian people
a share of German reparations. The new Lithuanian
Government is alive to the situation thus created, and in
its latest declaration foreshadowed the liquidation of the

12S

AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY 123

Ost currency, and its replacement by a national money
backed by an adequate gold reserve or funds equivalent
to gold. The total volume of Ost paper money in
circulation to-day is estimated at about two milliard
marks.

Lithuania is, 'par excellence, an agricultural country.
Both pre-war and post-war figures establish this fact
conclusively. She thus produces within her own borders
everjrthing necessary to a self-contained independent
existence. True, she has no great mineral resources, but
not being a manufacturing country she is in no absolute
need of them. On the other hand, Russia is not vitally
concerned in anything that Lithuania produces. It is
not meant to suggest that Lithuania could lead a healthy
existence merely as a " peasant republic," such as the former
Boer republics of South Africa. On the contrary, her full
cultural development demands active intercourse with
other countries. But merely as a question of existence
Lithuania's position is as favourable as that of any country,
and more so than, say, that of a land like Switzerland,
which has, nevertheless, managed to maintain its
independence during a period when larger and more
powerful States have been broken up or absorbed by their
neighbours.

Lithuania, including the Memel and Vilnius districts,
has an area of about 34,000 square miles, more than
Belgium (11,373 square miles), the Netherlands (12,650
square miles), Denmark (13,580 square miles), or
Switzerland (15,976 square miles). Lithuania's area and
population are approximately the same as those of Bulgaria
before the war. The population of this territory in 1914
was 4,345,000, greater than that of Denmark (2,775,000),
Norway (2,393,000), or Switzerland (3,781,000). As we
have already seen, however, the Polish betrayal has tem-
porarily deprived Lithuania of a considerable area of
territory in the Vilnius region, so that the actual popula-
tion at present under the rule of the Lithuanian Govern-
ment is not much in excess of two million (actually
2,750,000), confined mainly to the Kaunas and a bit of the
Suvalkai Government.

124 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

A large majority of the population is of Lithuanian
blood and speech. For the entire area claimed the per-
centages are approximately : Lithuanians, 75 per cent. ;
Jews, 10 per cent. ; Polish-speaking element, about 8 per
cent. ; Russians, White Russians and other nationalities,
7 per cent. The pre-war population of the principal
cities was : Vilnius (Vilna), the capital, 214,000 ; Kaunas
(Kovno), 90,300 ; Gardinas (Grodno), 61,600 ; and SiauUai
(Shavli), 31,300. The rural population for the entire
area claimed is about 86*2 per cent., but in the area now
under Lithuanian jurisdiction it is even higher, falling
not far short of 90 per cent.

Agricultural Yield.

Of the twenty-three million odd acres claimed, the
actual area at present administered by the Lithuanian
Government is about thirteen millions. The country for
the most part is level and possesses a fertile soil. The
staple crops are rye, wheat, barley, oats, peas, potatoes
and flax. I give below for purposes of reference the average
annual production before the war for the whole of Lithuania
(excluding Memel, then part of Germany), and for 1920
for that part of Lithuania under the administration of
the Lithuanian Government. It will be noted that as to
wheat, peas and potatoes, there is a relative increase in
the 1920 crop over the pre-war figures. There is also a
great increase in flax production, the area planted in flax
in 1921 being 50 per cent, greater than the pre-war.

Pre-war Averages

1920 (say Five-eighths of

(for Entire Country).

Total Area).

Rye

40,000,000 bushels

20,000,000 bushels

Wheat

3,680,000

2,760,000 „

Barley

11,500,000

6,900,000 „

Oats

31,500,000

17,500,000 „

Peas

2,400,000

2,200,000 „

Potatoes

57,000,000

36,800,000 „

Flax

—

40,000 tons

Flaxseed

—

1,400,000 bushels

POST-BELLUM RECOVERY

125

The approximate quantities of these crops exported
during 1920-21 were : Rye, 600,000 bushels ; wheat,
736,000 bushels ; barley, 1,115,000 bushels ; oats, 2,450,000
bushels ; flax, 20,000 tons.

I give below the number of animals in 1913 for the whole
of Lithuania and for that portion which is now administered
by the Lithuanian Government, also the number in 1920
for the latter territory. The actual increase in the quicker
breeding animals, sheep and swine, and the relatively
small diminution in the number of horses and cattle, are
notable when one considers the destruction wrought by the
war and subsequent enemy occupation. It must be
remembered that the Germans during their nearly four
years military control of the country (the Ober-Ost regime)
fairly bled it white. Huge quantities of foodstuffs and
raw materials were exported to the Fatherland at purely
nominal prices. That the post-war figures should show so
comparatively small a falling-off as compared with the
pre-war figures says much for the national powers of
recuperation.

Horses . .
Cattle . .
Sheep and Goats
Swine . . . .

1913 (all
Lithuania),

762,000
1,481,000
1,055,000
2,000,000

1913(Five-eighth8
Lithuania).

495,000

998,000

720,000

1,350,000

1920(Five-eighths
Lithuania).

380,000

865,000

730,000

1,400,000

Calves and lambs are not included in the above figures.

Further notable progress in agricultural development
has been made since 1920, but complete statistics are
unfortunately not available at the moment. It can be
said, however, that the area now under grain cultivation
is nearly four million acres, and that the annual crop
reaches nearly two million tons. The annual milk supply
is reckoned at a hundred million pails. Large as are these
figures, they are capable of very considerable expansion.
It is estimated that with proper rotation of crops it would
be easy to increase the yield 15 to 20 per cent. Moreover,

126 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

much of the so-called unsuitable land could be made
productive, thus raising the output of the area under
cultivation by some 40 per cent. The introduction of
more modern fertilizers would still further enhance the
yield per acre. In the opinion of the Lithuanian Minister
of Agriculture, Dr. Alexa, the measures indicated would
bring the total crop to 150,000,000 poods (say 2,500,000
tons) instead of only some million odd tons, which would
mean a surplus for export of some hundreds of thousands
of tons.

There is still ample scope for the development of dairy-
farming and stock-raising in Lithuania. Even slight
improvement under the former head would provide
150 to 240 million eggs annually for export, and between
5 and 7 million poods of first-class butter (between
80 and a 100 thousand tons). Pig-breeding is another
very promising branch of stock-raising, and with a little
development Lithuania could easily export annually 10 to
15 million poods live weight (up to some 250 thousand
tons).

The position during 1921 with regard to livestock was
difficult, owing partly to bad management, but chiefly
to the unprecedented drought, which caused a shortage
of fodder everywhere. None the less, the quantity of stock
in Lithuania has appreciably increased. The Ministry
of Agriculture is devoting attention to the question of
importing agricultural machinery and implements duty
free, and to improved facilities for the extension of
agricultural credit.

With reference to current prices, it can be shown that
in many cases these are actually lower than before the
war. Rye, for example, can be bought for 90 marks the
pood (36 lbs.), or half a dollar, about the pre-war price,
whilst cattle are much cheaper. Before the war a cow
in Lithuania cost from 30 to 40 American dollars, and a
very good one 60 dollars, say from 5,500 to 11,000 marks,
whereas to-day it costs less than half that amount.
Similarly with horses and swine. The latter cost only a
third of the pre-war price.

An analysis of the principal categories of agricultural

TIMBER RESOURCES 127

activity to-day in Lithuania gives small farms of from
12 and 15 acres to 25 and 37 acres ; medium farms from the
last-named area to 75 and 100 acres ; and big communal
farms from the last-named area to 150 and 200 acres.
Then come the estate farms. Of these categories, the
smaller farms produce in the first place two lines, swine
and poultry, some cattle, but absolutely no grain for sale.
The medium-sized farms, as compared with the first,
provide fewer poultry products, some cattle products,
and are beginning to provide grain for sale. The big
communal farm, in proportion to its area, produces
much fewer eggs and swine, perhaps a little cattle, more
horses and more grain products. The estate farms furnish
no poultry or swine products, little cattle in comparison
with their area, and much grain.

In Lithuania to-day taxation tends to protect the
communal in preference to the estate farm. Speaking
generally, poultry and livestock are more profitable than
grain-growing. This means that the most intensive
farming in the country is devoted to cattle and poultry
products, i.e. small and medium farming, rather than to
large-scale or grain-growing agriculture. Prices also favour
this tendency. Under normal conditions, especially, the
highest prices comparatively are for cattle and poultry
products, whereas grain prices are lower. These conditions
are more favourable to small- than to large-scale farming.
Consequently, by introducing agrarian reform and creating
small and medium-sized farms, Lithuania should increase
the output of the more profitable branches of agricultural
activity.

Lithuanian Forests.

After agriculture, the most important source of national
wealth is timber. The area under forest for both Eastern
and Western Lithuania is some 19 per cent., but if we take
the region now actually under the administration of the
Lithuanian Government, the proportion is only 17 per
cent., or say roughly about two million odd acres. In
the same context it must be recalled that military operations
conducted on Lithuanian soil during the war, and the

128 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

subsequent enemy occupation of the entire country,
naturally tended to impoverish the originally abundant
timber resources of Lithuania.

The principal species are pine, oak, fir, birch, maple,
lime, etc., needed for the manufacture of wood-pulp,
paper, railway sleepers, furniture, etc. The normal annual
production is 8,475,840,000 feet board measure. At the
present time the export of both timber and flax from
Lithuania is greatly impeded by the unsettled question
of the port of Memel.

The Ministry of Agriculture has drawn attention to the
necessity for prompt remedial measures if the premature
depletion of the national timber supply is to be averted.
In the wake of the war the needs of reconstruction all along
the line have become so enormous that a quite dispro-
portionate demand for timber has arisen, and great
difficulty is experienced in coping with the irregular felling
of the forests. The Ministry of Agriculture is taking steps
to introduce a system of quinquennial periods for timber
felling. Should more than a fifth of the specified quantity
be cut in any one year proportionately less would be cut
in the following year. Taking the cutting of a normal
year State institutions require more than a third, or up
to 40 per cent., which is very high. The biggest consumers
are the railways for fuel purposes, and owing to conditions
of external unrest the Ministry of Defence has to make
very frequent use of the lines for the conveyance of troops.
Failing the possibility of using coal upon a large scale,
owing to its high price as compared with wood, it is hoped
that more extensive use can be made of peat in order to
relieve the present disproportionate consumption of wood.
Lithuania's peat supplies are virtually unlimited. Further-
more, the Ministry of Agriculture has urged the necessity
for employing brick and stone as universal building
materials, instead of wood, as at present, if the country's
timber resources are to be rationally conserved. The
value of Lithuania's timber exports for the first ten months
of 1921 was 165,413,566 marks.

PROBLEMS OF LAND REFORM 129

Agrarian Reform.

Agrarian reform in Lithuania has now been under
way since 1919, although the formal enactment dealing
with this subject was adopted by the Constituent Assembly
only in February 1922. The special objects of this law
are to provide land for the landless and to increase the
holdings of those who at present possess an insufficient
quantity ; to create conditions favourable to the develop-
ment of rural economy, more particularly small and
medium-sized farms ; and to place under State control
those national resources which in private possession tend
to be wasted.

To this end the State will appropriate the so-called
" majorats," or entailed estates, and lands granted by
the former Russian Government either in fee simple or
on privileged conditions ; certain lands belonging to the
former Peasants' Land Bank and Nobles' Bank ; lands of
private persons who own more than 375 acres in the first
place, and more than 200 in the second place, leaving
to such persons 200 acres, the site of which they are
free to choose. These lands will be alienated with
all immovables, with the exception of industrial and
commercial establishments.

Majorat estates and lands granted by the former Russian
Government as gifts or on privileged conditions, and the
lands of the former Peasants' and Nobles' Banks are taken
over by the State without indemnity ; the rest are bought
by the State at a pre-war price. The State assumes the
mortgage debts with which these latter are encumbered,
and deducts such sums from the price to be paid to the
former owners. The larger and more neglected estates
will first be dealt with, whilst properties not exceeding
375 acres will be appropriated at a later date. The law
allows foreign owners to liquidate their holdings during
three years.

Alienated lands will serve to create farms of from
about 20 to 50 acres, which will be given to the landless
and insufficiently landed citizens. Nevertheless, care will
be taken not to cut up lots, the preservation of which,

9

130 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

for local reasons, is deemed necessary. In addition to
the creation of farms, alienated lands will be utilized for
urban needs — ^the extension of towns, parks, kitchen
gardens, experimental farms, agricultural schools, charit-
able institutions, etc.

For the lots which they thus receive the new owners
are required to pay the State sixteen quintals of rye
per hectare (say two and a half acres), or the value of such
quantity. Should the owner be unable to do this at once,
he is granted a delay of thirty-six years in consideration of
an annual payment of from half to three poods (one pood
equals 36 lbs. avoirdupois) of rye per hectare, with interest
at the rate of 5 per cent, on the amount outstanding.
Families of men who have fallei^ in the defence of their
country, wounded soldiers, and certain volunteers receive
free grants. Moreover, all the military recipients of land
enjoy for ten years a free of interest grant of 80 poods of
grain and 100 trunks of timber for building purposes.

For the realization of agrarian reform there is created
a Central Office with special organs in the districts. It
is proposed to acquire the requisite funds to implement
the reform through the sale of lots not liable to division,
and the organization of an agrarian hypothec bank designed
to furnish loans to small and medium holders over and
above the general State resources.

Agrarian reform further contemplates the rational
control of the work of splitting up villages into separate
farms, already under way ; the suppression of survivals of
serfdom in the form of common pasturage, servitude, etc.
It is estimated that agrarian reform will affect some
2,300 to 3,000 landlords, and an area, for the part of
Lithuania free from Polish occupation, of about 2,500,000
acres, whereof a million acres consist of forests and 1,500,000
acres of fields.

On the basis of 200 acres per capita, 3,000 land-
lords will need 600,000 acres, leaving some 900,000 acres
available for appropriation, out of which it is estimated
between 25,000 and 30,000 farms can be created.
Considering that small proprietors will receive only
supplementary lots below the average in size, it is expected

PROBLEMS OF LAND REFORM 131

that with the disposable land fund it will be possible to
settle between 35,000 and 40,000 families.

The area accruing from distributed estates and cut-up
villages was about 38,000 acres in 1919, 92,000 acres in
1920, and more than 225,000 acres in 1921. Of the
last-named figure, about 75,000 acres were parcelled out
of estates, and the balance from cut-up villages. In 1921-22
4,362 lots were made out of cut-up villages, and from
divided estates 1,400 lots were bestowed upon soldiers,
900 lots upon the landless, and 1,800 lots upon those with
insufficient land. On the whole, during 1921-22 the work
of agrarian readjustment affected 8,000 families.

Thanks to the larger number of land-surveyors now at
work and steadily increasing, it is anticipated that the
area distributed will be proportionately augmented. The
Minister of Agriculture's estimate for 1922 was about
525,000 acres, and the work, if continued at this rate,
should be accomplished in seven or ten years.

The present number of farms is estimated at 200,000,
which, with the realization of agrarian reform, will probably
be increased to 240,000.

The Department of Agriculture now has under its
jurisdiction about 1,100 estates and subsidiary estates, with
a total area of about 325,000 acres, which are rented to
a considerable number of small holders, several thousands
in all, the balance having been already divided and allotted
to the soldier owners, to landless and insufficiently landed
persons. Besides these 325,000 acres, the Department
of Agriculture has under its jurisdiction land appropriated
for military needs, and not yet divided, also monastic
and former colonists' land. The total quantity of land
taken over by the Ministry of Agriculture is not less than
a third of the total land appropriated. But it has to be
borne in mind that this land constitutes the sole source
for the further work of achieving agrarian reform. During
1921-22 the military received 1,400 farms ; in 1922-23
they will probably receive some 3,000. This means
that for soldiers alone a very large quantity of grain must
be appropriated. If the Ministry of Agriculture did not
possess this source, it would be necessary to allot a consider-

132 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

able sum in the Budget for the purchase of grain, which
in turn would involve a very elaborate organization,
while, too, such wholesale purchases would greatly raise
the price of grain.

Of all the Baltic States it is safe to say that the Lithuanian
Agrarian Law is the mildest in its incidence. In the wake
of the Russian Revolution and the emancipation of these
Border States, no government refusing to satisfy the
peasant land hunger could have survived twenty-four
hours. As I have already shown elsewhere, the recognition
of the necessity for land reform is not even a party issue
in Lithuania ; on this all parties. Right, Left and Centre,
are entirely agreed. Even the Social Democrats, who in
principle do not recognize private land-ownership, have
bowed to expediency and reconciled themselves to the
realities of life. But the Agrarian Law applies the principle
of compensation for all land thus appropriated.

Lithuanian Industries.

Whilst in no sense an industrial country, Lithuania
before the war could. b(fast 5,140 industrial establishments
of various kinds, with a productive value of 62 million
Russian gold roubles. Of these 35 per cent, manufactured
food products and beverages, 12 per cent, were for the
working up of hides, bones and other animal by-products,
10 per cent, for wood-working, 25 per cent, for clay
products, 3 per cent, for weaving, 4 per cent, for
manufactured chemical products, and 11 per cent, for
other miscellaneous products. Incidentally, one of the
biggest iron foundries in Russia, that of Tillman, is at
Kaunas. During the war the larger industrial establish-
ments were dismantled or destroyed by the Russians
themselves, but are gradually recovering. At Siauliai
(Shavli) are several tanneries which before the war ranked
amongst the biggest in the world. These are now being
restored to working order.

It goes without saying that the most prosperous future
awaits those branches of both commerce and industry
associated more particularly with agriculture. The weaving
of flax fibre affords a case in point. If only 40 per cent, of

NATIONAL INDUSTRIES 133

the present annual output were woven in Lithuania, it
would represent a value of several hundreds of millions
of marks.

Referring to this subject, the new Lithuanian Prime
Minister, in a declaration made before the Constituent
Assembly on February 8, 1922, said that the Government
proposed to devote attention to those branches of trade
and industry which work up the raw products of agricul-
ture and prepare the worked-up products for export,
the Government considering that such branches should
occupy the first place among the various classifications
of Lithuanian trade and industry.

The Lithuanian peasant is undeniably skilful in the
sphere of handicrafts. Members of the family weave
linen and woollen clothing of excellent quality, and make
wooden articles of every description, some of these being
of high artistic value, in this respect recalling the " kustar-
naya rabota " of the Russian villages. It is not, therefore,
at all unreasonable to anticipate that with the introduction
of capital a fiourishing textile industry might be built up
in Lithuania, seeing that the people both like and under-
stand this sort of work.

The amber industry should not be overlooked. The
Baltic coast is the only area in the world where the
collecting, digging and manufacture of amber constitute
a practical industry. The amber is found in the so-called
" blue earth " layers of the Tertiary period (the layers
are from 2 to 3J feet thick), not only on the beach, but
farther inland. Even before the time of Herodotus,
as shown by excavations of Greece, Italy and Egypt,
Baltic amber was known to the ancient world. In our
times the value of amber has diminished, but even so the
industry continues to exist in Lithuania Minor. All
products of amber, such as necklaces, buttons, buckles,
cigarette-holders, etc., which are displayed in the windows
of the jewellery stores, come from Lithuanian soil. In
the future this industry could be greatly expanded.

Besides agricultural products and timber, there are
other resources for the potential increase of the country's
production — such as large deposits of peat, chalk, quartz.

134 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

and sand suitable for glass manufacture, clay for the
pottery industry, and mineral springs in Birstona and
Druskenikai containing a large percentage of radium,
etc. Prospecting has also revealed the existence of oil-
shales and coal seams rich enough to repay exploitation.
There are not many waterfalls in Lithuania, but the
Nemunas(Niemen) River offers quite a head along its course,
so powerful, indeed, that the strongest swimmer cannot
make the slightest progress against the current. No
doubt this force will be utilized in the future. For example,
were the two bends of the river near Birstona straightened,
the project would develop enough power to run many large
industrial plants as well as electric railways. There are
also many other swift currents that can be harnessed.

Trade Figures.

Turning to trade, exports and imports in 1913, exclusive
of Memel, showed the following figures. Exports about
£4,000,000, imports about £2,500,000. Exports were
composed chiefly of breadstuffs, cattle and their products,
and timber ; imports, coal, iron, textiles, and metal
manufactures, including machinery.

For 1921 exports totalled 631,964,118 marks in value,
in round figures. The biggest individual items are :
Eggs, 75,762,185 in number, valued at 147,580,576 marks ;
timber of all kinds, 195,610,618 marks ; flax-seed and tow,
184,885,016 marks ; pig bristles, 21,933,102 marks ; and
hides, 20,393,953 marks. In percentages, timber repre-
sented 82 per cent., flax about 30 per cent., eggs and
chickens 25 per cent., livestock 9'1 per cent., and
rags 1 per cent.

Of these exports in 1921, Germany took 51*3 per cent.,
England 27*1 per cent, (chiefly eggs, amounting to
135,389,000 marks), and Lithuania Minor 14 per cent.
Very much smaller percentages went to Latvia, Czecho-
slovakia, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and America.

Imports for 1921 amounted to 879,881,930 marks in
round figures. Of these the most important group
consisted of textiles, representing 31'5 per cent, of the
total value. Iron and metal products constituted 18*4

FINANCIAL POSITION 135

per cent., sugar 9*5 per cent., herrings 3*5 per cent.,
salt 1-3 per cent., and tobacco and tobacco goods 2 per
cent, of the total. Among countries of origin, Germany
heads the list with 70*72 per cent. ; Lithuania Minor
follows with 11*95 per cent. ; then comes Danzig, 6*79
per cent. ; Holland, 3"38 per cent. ; America, 3*06 per
cent. ; Latvia, 1*6 per cent. ; and England, 0*85 per cent.
Czecho-Slovakia, Italy, Russia and Esthonia, and Japan
furnished inconsiderable quantities.

To show the expansion of Lithuania's purchasing power,
it may be pointed out that her imports for April 1921
alone, i.e. 70,000,000 marks in value, exceeded by
10,000,000 marks the total for the first quarter of 1920,
which was only 60,000,000 marks. In 1920 the imports
totalled 428,728,541 marks, and the exports 501,797,163
marks. Given better political conditions, especially the
removal of the constant Polish menace, greater produc-
tion and larger exports and imports would be assured.

Lithuanian Finances.

Reference has already been made to the Ost currency
and to the Government's intention to get rid of this as
soon as possible in favour of a purely Lithuanian money
suitably guaranteed with gold. In spite of numerous
economic and political difficulties, ordinary revenue is
now sufficient to cover ordinary expenditure, and were it
not for the exigencies of national defence, more particularly,
coupled with extraordinary outlays required for con-
struction (railway stations, workshops, bridges, rolling-
stock, etc.), there would be no deficit. The direct taxes
levied by the State are : Real property tax, tax on
private forests up to 8 per cent, of sales of timber,
patents for commerce and industry, progressive inheritance
tax. Indirect taxes are : Customs duties, taxes on
matches, tobacco and alcohol, export licences, regis-
trations and stamp taxes. A liquor sale monopoly, not
only for revenue, but as a means of coping with intem-
perance and secrest distilling, and a tobacco monopoly
are contemplated.

136 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

Under the Russo-Lithuanian Peace Treaty of 1920,
Russia has paid Lithuania the sum of 3,000,000 roubles
gold, which will probably be utilized in connexion with
the scheme for an emission bank to help in the extension
of credit upon reasonable terms to commerce and
industry.

The total State expenses in 1920 amounted to
422,329,000 marks against a population of 2,500,000, or
about 170 marks per capita. The expenses in 1921 were
801,523,000 marks against a population of 2,750,000, an
average of 291 marks per capita. Revenue for 1920
amounted to 422,329,209 marks, and for 1921 to
766,472,729 marks.

Lithuania's foreign indebtedness is inconsiderable. The
principal items are :

To the American Treasury, 882,136 dollars, dating from
June 30, 1919, for various products, medicines, aid rendered
to poor children by the American Red Cross. Interest,
at 5 per cent. ; redeemable June 30, 1922.

To the American Treasury, 4,159,491 dollars, from
June 28, 1919, for merchandise received from American
stocks in France (sugar, tinned goods, medical instruments,
pharmaceutical supplies, etc.). Interest, 5 per cent. ;
redeemable June 30, 1922.

To Great Britain, £16,811 12s. 4d., for tonnage for
transport of above supplies from France. Interest, 6 per
cent. ; redeemable January 1, 1925.

On June 1, 1920, the Government floated the so-called
" Liberty Loan," which was covered chiefly by Lithuanians
in the United States, and has realized to date some two
million dollars. The rate of interest is 5 per cent., and date
of redemption July 1, 1934.

The sum of 5,000,000 francs is owing to France
for locomotives and other material received in 1919.
About a million francs of this amount has been reim-
bursed.

During the occupation Germany advanced merchandise
and funds amounting to 100,000,000 marks, but as against
this must be set the enormous values of which the country
was denuded in foodstuffs and raw material by Germany,

NATIONAL DEBT 137

besides which, under the Versailles Treaty, Germany-
forfeits any claim she may formerly have possessed against
any of the Border States.

Among internal loans, the first was floated in 1919,
for one year, at 5 per cent., and yielded 12,149,200 marks.
With the exception of 510,000 marks, this loan has already
been redeemed.

A second short-term loan at 6 per cent, was floated
June 15, 1921 and realized 42,000,000 marks. It was
redeemable in May 1922.

In August 1921 an internal loan in Treasury Bonds,
bearing 4 per cent., was issued, and yielded 4,928,200
marks. It falls due in 1928,

In November 1921 an extraordinary loan at 3'6 per
cent, was floated for purposes of national defence, and
has yielded to date 27,669,250 marks. It matures in
1923.

Before the war there were 300 State credit establish-
ments and 500 private establishments, with a capital of
260,000,000 gold roubles, and savings bank - deposits
amounted to 160,000,000 gold roubles. There were also
184 separate co-operative organizations, with 75,521
members, and a capital of 9,000,000 roubles. These
organizations also had their own banks. Although the
post-bellum figures cannot yet vie with the foregoing, a
steady revival has set in, the co-operative movement being
particularly strong. The following figures bear witness to
the recent growth of this movement : In 1919 (from March
to December) there were registered 261 co-operatives, com-
posed of 253 consumers' societies, 6 producers' societies,
and 2 agricultural societies. In 1920 (January to
December) 78 were registered, composed of 59 consumers'
societies, 15 producers' societies, 3 agricultural societies,
and 1 cultural society. In 1921 42 were registered,
viz. 25 consumers', 8 producers', 6 cultural, and 3
agricultural societies. In January 1922 6 were registered,
i.e. 5 consumers' and 1 cultural. The total from March
1919 to January 1922 is therefore 387, i.e. consumers',
342 ; producers', 29 ; agricultural, 8*; and cultural, 8.
Of the foregoing societies, however, the accounts of only

138 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

85 are available at the time of writing with regard to
operations for 1919 and 1920, These show:

Various goods 3,776,282

Cash in hand

Capital

Turnover

The net profit was 1

920,975

1,435,946

17,314,298

,435,936 marks, out of which 62,877
marks were allotted in dividends to 13,561 members. The
co-operative movement in Lithuania is worthy of serious
attention from British business circles, since its ubiquity
should afford them the most direct medium for getting
into touch with general purchasers.

Several banks have been established since the war,
and are rapidly extending their sphere of usefulness.
They comprise the following :

Agricultural Bank (Ukio Bankas), with 10,000,000
marks capital, and deposits totalling 47,000,000 marks.

The Bank of Industry and Commerce (Prekybos ir
Pramones Bankas), capital 12,000,000 marks, and deposits
27,700,000 marks.

International Bank (Tarptautinis Bankas), capital
5,000,000 marks, deposits 16,675,000 marks.

Commercial Bank (Komercijos Bankas), capital 4,000,000
marks, deposits 48,000,000 marks.

Central Jewish Co-operative Bank (Centr. zydu kopera-
cijai remti Bankas), capital 3,010,000 marks, deposits
5,500,000 marks.

Bank of Credit (Kredito Bankas), capital 3,000,000 marks,
deposits 5,700,000 marks.

A very appreciable increase of banking investments
has followed in the wake of the peace treaty with Russia,
and a satisfactory settlement of the Polish-Lithuanian
dispute would undoubtedly encourage still further develop-
ment in this direction.

The project for an Emission Bank, already referred to
elsewhere, contemplates the formation of a joint-stock
company. The shares will be nominal, two-thirds being
reserved for Lithuanian citizens and the remaining third
open to foreign subscription. The proposed capital is
2,000,000 gold dollars. The manager of the bank and one

EMISSION BANK PROJECT 139

of his assistants will be appointed by the Government,
while one other assistant and two directors will be elected
by the shareholders. One of the directors will be
a foreigner. The Council of Administration will consist
of nine members, i.e. a managing director, two assistants,
and six members elected by the shareholders. Two places
will be reserved for foreigners. The bank's monopoly
will be for fifteen years. The notes issued are to be
guaranteed up to one-third by a reserve of precious metal,
and the remainder by foreign securities or merchan-
dise. The right of emission is Kmited to 3,000,000,000
" auksinas," any extension beyond that requiring parlia-
mentary sanction.

The proposed creation of a national currency to replace
the depreciated Ost mark is associated with the foregoing
project. The unit will be the " auksinas," equal to l/200th
of a gold dollar. This money will be issued in the near
future, as soon as the Emission Bank can be organized.
Negotiations were actually begun in March 1922 between
representatives of the German Reich and Darlehnskasse
Ost, on the one hand, and representatives of the Lithuanian
State, on the other, for the liquidation of the Ost currency,
but are not yet terminated.

Communications.

The total railway mileage for all Lithuania is 1,552
miles, of which 1,180 miles are broad gauge and the rest
narrow gauge. The roadbeds are generally in good
condition, but the ties need replacing. Thirty per cent,
of the railway stations were destroyed during the war,
but have been provisionally rebuilt, as also the bridges,
most of which are wood. Rolling-stock is greatly needed.
The Lithuanian railways in 1913 yielded a gross revenue
of about £2,400,000 ; net revenue, without deduction for
sinking-fund, new equipment, etc., about £1,300,000.
Under the terms of the agreement between the Allied
Military Mission and the German Railway Administration,
Lithuania was to receive 88 locomotives and 1,400 cars from
Germany, for damage inflicted by the Bermondt invasion.

140 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

but at the time of writing the complement had not yet
been handed over. The lines in 1921-22 yielded an income
of 114,942,000 marks, but showed a small net deficit in
comparison with outlays. Any comparison between pre-
war and post-war figures under this head must not lose
sight of the fact that through the Polish occupation of the
Vilnius territory the Lithuanian Government is deprived
of a very important portion of the total railway net-
work.

The system as a whole was bequeathed to the country
by the Russians, and in part was altered during the
German occupation. When planned by Russia the lines
were intended to serve the needs of Russian export, or
they pursued purely strategic aims. They are not, there-
fore, properly adapted to the economic and geographic
requirements of the country. The Lithuanian Govern-
ment is now considering a project for a network of broad-
gauge lines better suited to these national needs, supple-
menting the present system with lines of perhaps more
local importance, especially to feed the comparatively
neglected districts, as regards communications, and thus
facilitate the growth of agriculture, commerce and industry
throughout the country.

Waterways.

The Nemunas (Niemen), the country's greatest river,
is 961 kilometres in length, its source being in White
Russia. Its lower reaches, 112 kilometres in length, form
the boundary between East Prussia and Lithuania Minor.
The Nemunas is open only during four or five months of
the year over a stretch of 200 kilometres from its mouth,
and its navigable portion in Lithuanian territory, from
Jurburg to Kovno, does not exceed 110 kilometres, and
even this stretch is only suitable for the rafting of timber.
Owing to the prevalence of shallows, rapids and sandbanks,
navigation is attended with numerous difficulties. The
principal tributary of the Nemunas, the Vilija, or Neris, is
navigable for small steamers for 45 miles. The Nemunas
thus forms the backbone of Lithuania's system of com-

ECONOMIC POLICY 141

munications. The mouth of this river on the Baltic has
hitherto been in the hands of the Germans, whose traditional
intention, as I have pointed out in the chapter on the
Memel question, has been to control the foreign trade of
Lithuania and to debar the country from independent
access to the sea.

The economic policy outlined by the new Lithuanian
Government is based upon free initiative and free competi-
tion. It will be the aim of the Government to alford
foreign capital an opportunity to participate in the develop-
ment of the country's trade, in the case of States which
harbour no designs to oppress or crush Lithuania
economically.

Under satisfactory conditions, the safeguarding against
attack from without, more particularly, Lithuania should
be assured a highly prosperous future. Before the war,
the Virbalis station (Wirballen), on the Russo-East Prussian
frontier, was one of the most important continental customs
points for trade between Western Europe and Russia,
and as the quickest transit route in this respect, lathuania
should play a leading r61e hereafter in the rehabilitation
of economic intercourse between Russia and the outside
world.

Legal Reform in Lithuania.

With the substitution of a genuinely native regime for
what before the war was a purely Russian administration,
in the confines of the present Lithuanian State, and German
domination during the period of occupation, the new leaders
of the nation had to face the herculean task of effecting
transition from one language to the other in every branch
of public and official life. It was one thing, and a com-
paratively simple thing at that, to replace Russian with
Lithuanian in the colloquial intercourse of all departments
and those having dealings with them ; it was another,
and an immeasurably more difficult thing, to dispense with
the heritage of Russian practice embodied in written
laws and regulations applicable to every conceivable
official contingency. Indeed, it would have been physically
impossible, even if it had been desirable, to do this

142 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

immediately. With a prudence and wisdom which have
been conspicuous throughout the regeneration of Lithuanian
nationality, the new Lithuanian leaders preferred to take
over Russian law at the outset, but to inaugurate without
delay the business of translating the same into Lithuanian,
of adapting it to changed conditions, rejecting parts of
it no longer in harmony with the principles of a democratic
State, and gradually codifying it to satisfy the require-
ments of a thoroughly scientific system. Concurrently,
the setting up of courts for the dispensation of justice
has been attended with innumerable difficulties. It had
been the consistent policy of the old Russian regime to
suppress the Lithuanian tongue by every conceivable
means. This has already been shown in previous chapters.
Thus it followed that many Lithuanians educated in
Russia had a better literary knowledge of Russian than
of their native speech. Since the renascence of the
Lithuanian people all this is being rapidly changed, but
it has not always been easy to find sufficient trained jurists
with perfect knowledge of both languages, without which
the work of codifying the laws in Lithuanian at the present
moment cannot be satisfactorily accomplished.

It appears from information furnished by the Lithuanian
Minister of Justice that a great deal is now being done to
bring both the courts and the laws in line with modern
demands. The appeal machinery is being entirely over-
hauled. The Constituent Assembly has passed a Bill for
the establishment of a court of cassation to which recourse
will lie from justices of the peace and the district courts.
At the same time the competence of the various lower
courts has been largely extended. Formerly justices
of the peace had no power to deal with cases involving
sums over a thousand marks. Now, by virtue of the law
of March 14, 1919, the limit has been raised to five thousand
marks, except in eases of horse-stealing, which have to go
to the district courts. A Bill has also been introduced
increasing the scope of court orders (sudebnye prikazy).
Hitherto court orders could be issued for fines up to fifty
roubles, and detention up to fifteen days. The new Bill
proposes to make court orders applicable to offences

JUDICIAL REFORM 143

against the Excise and Customs regulations, secret distilling,
illegal felling of timber, non-fulfilment of regulations, etc.
In such cases the justices of the peace, after having
examined the militia reports and other evidence, and being
satisfied of the guilt of the accused, may inflict penalties
by court order. Cases of this kind must be dealt with not
earlier than twenty-four hours, and not later than seven
days from the alleged commission of the offence. The
accused in his turn has the right to appeal to the district
court. In civil suits, justices of the peace may sit on
cases involving movables and immovables up to ten
thousand marks.

A reform of great importance is the contemplated
introduction of trial by jury, which has not hitherto been
in operation. It is now provided that after election of
an organ of local administration for a term of three years,
trial by jury may be instituted in the district courts.
Steps are also being taken to increase facilities for legal
education, so that the cadre of candidates for judicial
appointments and court pleading may be far larger than
at present.

Under the Law of January 16, 1919, special delegates
from the Lithuanian Ministry of Justice took over from
the German courts (Friedensgericht, Bezirksgericht,
Obergericht and Kriegsgericht) all cases, documents and
money. This law provides that in the organization of
courts, legal proceedings, preliminary hearings and sentences
in criminal and civil cases, the laws formerly in operation
during the Russian administration must be applied in
so far as they do not contradict the Lithuanian Constitution
and the changes contemplated by the law in question.

Court proceedings must be conducted in the Lithuanian
language, protocols, judgments and sentences are written
in this tongue. Judges must be able to express themselves
in other local languages (Polish and White Russian)
where the percentage of non-Lithuanian-speaking citizens
renders this necessary. Knowledge of Jewish is not
indicated owing to the small number of lawyers familiar
with that speech. Where litigants do not understand
Lithuanian, interpreters are supplied.

144 LITHUANIA'S ECONOMIC PROGRESS

The Criminal Code and Regulations for Bills of Exchange
(Veksel) are already translated from Russian into
Lithuanian. In other cases the Russian text may be made
use of. The work of preparing the Civil and Criminal Codes
is one of immense difficulty, and cannot be finished in a
day. The materials necessary for the task are, however,
being prepared. A good deal depends on the consumma-
tion of agrarian reform by the Constituent Assembly,
the supply of funds, and the reversion of life to normal
channels.

The Minister of Justice is quoted as saying that since
the cessation of the German occupation there has been
a steady diminution of crime. Stern measures have been
adopted to deal with lawlessness, including the introduc-
tion of martial law. The militia also have gradually
improved and gathered experience, so that they too are
better able to cope with crime. Horse-stealing and
secret distilling are among the most prevalent offences.

CHAPTER XII

LITHUANIAN TYPES AND CHARACTER

Writers like Vidunas and Salkauskis have indulged
in very acute analysis of the Lithuanian character, but
although Lithuanians themselves, they have never written
anything more flattering about their own people than
foreign investigators, preferably Russian, German and
French, who have all been most powerfully impressed
by the distinctive traits of this interesting race. In the
following pages, therefore, I have drawn largely upon
such sources for a brief pen picture of both its intellectual
and physical aspects.

Lithuanians and Slavs (says a well-known Russian author,
Viatcheslav Ivanov) are two branches of the same family ; but
the memory of the Aryan cradle is more alive among the Lithuanians
than among us. In the intimate life of the village, the thought
and tradition of the old, in the living tissue of the language, in the
respiration even of that collective being which we call the soul
of a people, still vibrate the chords of the antique conception of
the world. Above this little people the old mythical oak extends
its moving branches, which still put forth an invisible efflorescence
and murmur the indistinct whisper of its omniscience, and across
the veil where now is hesitating the luminous regard of man, of
people of antique calm, contemplate the intense life of nature in
its most secret depths.

E. Reclus, in his Universal Geography, has attempted
to sketch the Lithuanian national temperament in more
concrete lines :

A people of woodmen, of waggoners, of cultivators, very much
attached to traditional customs, the Lithuanians willingly submit
to destiny and do not seek to influence it beforehand by their will.
The phlegm of the Lithuanians has become proverbial ; no other
people accommodates itself with such tranquillity to the vicissitudes
of life.

10 "5

146 TYPES AND CHARACTER

Salkauskis, in his remarkable study Sur les Confins
de Deuce Mondes, finds that the foregoing comment
calls for some modification. He adds that when the
necessity arises the Lithuanian will deploy his forces and
unchain his anger. He who reacts feebly to the ordinary
blows and shocks of life, responds suddenly with surprising
violence when his patience and his endurance are at an
end. Concentrated in himself, more inclined to contempla-
tion than to action, the Lithuanian manifests this tempera-
ment in his exterior. " The peasants of Lithuania,"
writes Reclus, " contrast singularly with the Poles in
the simplicity of their costume. They avoid striking
colours, daring fashions, lace and fringe. Their sombre
clothing without embroidery attests their national modesty ;
they do not try to make themselves conspicuous. Michelet,
comparing the Lithuanians with the Poles, ' sons of the
sun,' calls them ' sons of the shadow.' "

The popular poesy of the Lithuanians has inspired in
Reclus the following description of their moral traits :

Their songs or dainos reveal their naked soul. They are acute
observers, sometimes gently ironical, tender, melancholy, full of
the sentiment of nature. Although they have often been obliged
to make war and have also possessed great leaders, these
debonair people have not preserved the memory of a single
hero ; they sing of no exploit of war, they do not boast of any
battle won ; they confine themselves to bewailing those who are
dead. In this respect they are perhaps unique among European
peoples. They are distinguished also from other continental
races by the delicate reserve, by the modest discretion with
which all their popular songs speak of love.

Such, then, is the Lithuanian as Nature made him.
This passive temperament germane to the Oriental excited
the curiosity of Reclus, who wrote :

The people, for long oppressed by the forests of the Niemen, are
not of those who can compare their share of influence with that
which the other civiKzed peoples of the continent have exercised.
One asks oneself even with surprise how a race composed almost
entirely of men, refined, intelligent, full of imagination and poesy,
" loyal, strong in the consciousness of their personal dignity "
(Kant, preface to Milke's Lithuanian Grammar), had not been able
to give birth to a single great poet or to some eminent genius in
the world of mind.

EAST AND WEST ON LITHUANIAN SOIL 147

In the opinion of Salkauskis, much of the seeming
paradox in Lithuanian character may be explained by
the meeting of East and West on Lithuanian soil.
Lithuania has passed through both the active and passive
phases. Provoked by the invasions of her neighbours, she,
so to speak, emerged from herself and from her passivity
to come into contact with diverse nations, above all the
Russian, the Polish and the German. Thus she acquired
the active temperament hitherto lacking. Then, yielding
to the return wave, her national spirit, now capable of
creating, enters again into itself and works on the synthesis
of the primitive Oriental elements and the Occidental
elements thus acquired. " It is in this period," Salkauskis
adds, " that the Lithuanian people find themselves to-day ;
their renascence dates from the day when they entered
into it."

Further :

The productions of the Lithuanian national intellect differ as
the latter is subjected to the action and inlluence of one or other
of the above-mentioned nations. In relation with Russia and in
the domain of Greco-Russian civilization, Lithuania endeavoured
to establish between the Orient and Occident a material and
political equilibrium. Her external activity expended itself in
the struggle against Tartars and Teutons, and her internal activity
manifested itself in the legislative function by the elaboration of
the famous Lithuanian Statute, superior to anything that the
Russian people had attempted till then in that line.

At critical moments in Lithuanian history the Lithuanian
temperament has shown itself capable of amazing effort, in
the Xlth century, for example, when the pressure of neigh-
bouring peoples provoked on the part of the Lithuanians
an energetic resistance which, from legitimate defence,
soon transformed itself into an expansion of conquest ;
and again in the XlXth century, when the crushing weight
of an alien yoke stimulated the impetus of the national
renascence and gave it an irresistible vitality. When
reacting on the first-named occasion the Lithuanian genius
prepared the creation of a strong and powerful State ;
to-day the momentum of its energy has led it into a path
on which it will not stop until it has assured its national

148 TYPES AND CHARACTER

independence. Although several centuries divide the two
epochs, and although the present-day activity of the
Lithuanians is taking a different direction, Salkauskis
detects a very close link between them :

It is because in their efforts to create for the assistance of the
State a national civilization the Lithuanians were obliged not only
to give way, but even to submit at first to the influence and subse-
quently to the domination of the foreigner, that we see them to-day,
in order to recover their independence, working with ardour in the
acquisition of a superior intellectual culture.

Turning from these more or less philosophical aspects
of the question to rather more concrete considerations,
I will quote what Vidiinas has written about the physical
characteristics of his countrymen and women :

The true Lithuanian type (he says) is slender and above rather
than below the medium height. It has blue eyes, fair hair, a fresh
and healthy complexion. To designate this there are in Lithuanian
several expressions. It is above all the complexion of young
Lithuanian women that particularly strikes one. It is white,
delicate, with a beautiful rose colour in the cheeks. The lips are
exceptionally fresh. Women in good health, who have not been
guilty of excesses, preserve all this splendour till a ripe age, whether
they are married or not. . . . Persons with black hair and eyes
also possess this white and delicate skin. The stranger is often
inclined to think artificial colour has been applied, whereas the
true Lithuanian woman, in place of all that, relies upon fresh air,
good water and her own clean and pure blood. The face is long,
with a broad and prominent brow^ the lower part of the face being
often small and narrow ; the jaws, on the other hand, are pro-
jecting. Here probably is a characteristic resulting from a Mon-
golian strain. A remarkable thing, which one frequently encounters,
is the classic profile with the straight line from brow to nose. The
limbs are long and thin, the foot very arched, the Lithuanian having
a light and easy step, to describe which the language possesses
a series of expressions. He is also naturally skilful in all sorts of
work, thanks undoubtedly to a special disposition in muscles and
limbs, without which this skill of the Lithuanian would not have
become proverbial.

Vidiinas also remarks on the absence of grossness from
Lithuanian speech, in contrast to the German of corres-
ponding social position :

It is, above all, in his relations with Nature that one can note
the sensibility of the Lithuanian. Everything alive is for him

LOVE OF THE FOREST 149

connected with man, and he moulds his line of conduct on this
idea. In his songs he treats the trees as if they were his brothers.
The song of the cuckoo is a greeting from loved beings, so much
so that he will even imagine that his mother or little sister has
assumed the form of the bird which is fluttering above his head.
Among animals the horse is above all the object of his tenderness.
Preference for the horse is certainly something innate in him. It
can be remarked among the children of both sexes. And many
persons claim to be able to tell merely by seeing whether horses
have been bred and cared for by Lithuanians. The Lithuanian
horse is not only an instrument of toil ; it is also a friend to man.
It gives the impression of having learnt to suffer and rejoice with
man.

The idea that Nature is an intermediary between men, that she
takes part in their joys and sorrows, is very strong among the
Lithuanians. The forests and the thickets sigh with him ; the
flowers and the sun's rays rejoice with him, and the light of the
stars accompanies him for consolation.

Particularly marked is the Lithuanian's passion for trees.
In his eyes there is something sacred in the forest, and
he loves to live in a home surrounded with woods.
Practical needs seem a secondary consideration. That
is why in his songs and legends he returns constantly
to the forest.

That a race possessing these distinguished character-
istics should have exercised comparatively so little influ-
ence upon European civilization, Vidunas explains by its
relatively numerical weakness, by the lack of a national
organization absolutely necessary for the development
of internal forces, and above all by the fact that Lithuanian
intelligence has been constantly at the service of other
nations, and has apparently never had a proper chance
of asserting itself. But study of the proverbs and sayings
of the Lithuanians, of their popular tales and poems,
will convince one of their quite exceptional sagacity.

A very refreshing Lithuanian trait is a freedom of
attitude which makes no distinction between classes ;
a typical Lithuanian will bear himself the same in the
presence of a lord or a beggar. The Lithuanian is a man
of his word. The head or father of the family gives his
orders in the fewest words, but without appeal.

One can have entire confidence in the promise of a

150 TYPES AND CHARACTER

Lithuanian. Even to-day large sums pass from hand to
hand on the simple word without written acknowledg-
ment.

Despite centuries of political dependence, the Lithuanian
has not lost a certain masterful temperament. This has
nothing in common with the wish to enslave others, but
is rather a feeling of pure personal dignity. With this
is combined another trait less strongly marked in other
races. He does not fear solitude, which for him is often a
kind of refuge from which perhaps emanates the primitive
" atomic " character of the Lithuanian national life, the
want of harmony which one may even observe to-day,
although the suffering of recent decades has wrought
marvels in this direction.

In his intercourse with strangers the Lithuanian is
generally reserved and chary of speech. Although the lan-
guage lends itself admirably to eloquence, the Lithuanian,
until he knows you well, is laconic, and rarely disposed
to mingle in conversation unless this touches upon a
subject interesting to him as a Lithuanian, while a
momentary outburst is often succeeded by relapse into
contemplative calm.

Other impressive qualities are boldness, tenacity of
purpose and an iron will. Once a Lithuanian has resolved
to embark upon a given course of action nothing will
turn him from his purpose. At the present day these
traits, sometimes degenerating into obstinacy, manifest
themselves in an inordinate love for litigation which
is keeping the newly-established courts decidedly
busy.

The Lithuanian considers that his own penetration and
decision have a value superior to any money. He will
neglect no sacrifice for that which he deems good and
just. He gives himself completely to the thing or the
person that he honours. If he is deceived he does not
take vengeance. His attitude is rather one of shame
mingled with contempt — shame for the unworthiness
of the erstwhile object 6f his respect. In one of his
stories Wichert has made good use of this characteristic.
He does not make the lover slay the betrayer of his fiancee ;

NATIONAL^UPERSTITIONS 151

instead the lover himself commits suicide. In real life,
however, suicide is very rare among the Lithuanians, who
throughout the centuries have remained singularly immune
from the phenomena of degeneracy.

Forbearance and a too trusting disposition are typical
Lithuanian qualities which run through history. It was
thus that Keistutis fell into the hands of Jagellon. It
was thus that Vytautas lost his great battle against the
Tartars. And this disposition was largely responsible
for the fatal union with Poland which the Council of the
League of Nations would fain have the Lithuania of
to-day repeat. On the other hand, the Lithuanian does
not easily forget a betrayal of his confidence, as the Poles
are now finding to their cost. The latter's flagrant
breach of the Suvalkai agreement has from the first
proved a stumbling-block to any modus vivendi.

The Lithuanian is temperamentally religious. He is
much given to acts of devotion in which singing largely
figures. In many homes a verse is sung before every
meal. And before the commencement of a religious
service, those who have assembled will sing with extra-
ordinary fervour hymns which they themselves have
selected. One or two will begin, others will join, and soon
the entire company will be singing together. Hymns
set to some ancient popular melody are generally
preferred.

Among the Lithuanians there still survive numerous
superstitions which are generally regarded as heritages
of their former Paganism. Belief in the supernatural
is very common and in certain of its forms this belief
may be an echo of the cult of the dead and of ancestor
worship. A rather voluminous collection of materials
on this subject has been made by Villus Kalvaitis and
edited by Dr. Basanavicius under the title of Gyvenimo
Veliy, bei Velniy, (Life of Ghosts and Devils), Chicago, 1903.
During recent years, too, a large number of religious
fanatics and faith-healers of various kinds have made
their appearance in Lithuania, as elsewhere. The names
of some of these are still remembered. Vidiinas mentions
one Piklaps who functioned in the Memel region about

152 TYPES AND CHARACTER

1880 ; also Rodszuweit of Kartsninkai, near Pillkallen,
between 1870 and 1880, In many villages zinciai, or
persons capable of curing both corporal and spiritual
maladies, are held in high esteem and are often consulted
in preference to regular doctors.

CHAPTER XIII

IN THE COUNTRY

In past times the inhabitants were distributed in scattered
groups dwelling each, so to speak, in a sort of oasis hemmed
in by fields and dense forests belonging to nobody. Even
to-day in many of the older villages the arrangement of
houses on either side of an interminable street, so favoured
in Russia Proper, is less in evidence.

Where the older practice prevails, we find each farm
absolutely isolated, with its own special entrance. The
buildings rise in the midst of a garden which is surrounded
with groves of birch, fir or oak and, in sandy regions,
pine. That is why these farms are termed " sodiba,"
which means plantation.

Formerly a Lithuanian farm comprised a row of houses
sometimes to the number of twenty. The grouping of
these houses around the main dwelling was characteristic.
The latter was called " namas," i.e. the home.

Vidunas thus describes his parents' farm as it was
somewhat later than 1850. In the middle of the garden
rose the principal building, the " namas." About ten
metres to the side of the latter was the " kletis," or store-
house, two storeys high, with a large verandah, approached
by two stone steps. Around the kletis were clumps
of birch and maple. A little farther to the side of the
kletis was a building for the storage of all sorts of imple-
ments. Beneath was a cellar into which one descended
by steps in the wall. By the side of this building was
a space enclosed with a hedge made of interlaced osiers.
In the centre was a pond surrounded by grass in summer.
Here the poultry disported themselves during the day,
while at night they took refuge behind in the fowl roost.

153

154 IN THE COUNTRY

On the other side of the main building stretched the
larger part of the orchard traversed by a path leading to
the spring. Behind the latter, separated by a hedge,
extended a large open space covered with turf, forming
the farmyard, around which were grouped the various
stables and sheds for cattle, horses, sheep, etc.

Near the orchard was a space for hemp and hops ;
many bee-hives were also kept. By the side of the dwelling
house, some distance outside the garden, was the thrash-
ing floor with the baths (pirtis). In the direction of
the stables were several additional houses where the
families of the servants and other lodgers had their
quarters.

To-day this arrangement of buildings is rarely found.
The farm in question has been gradually transformed into
a typical model of the German farm.

The most interesting building of the Lithuanian farm
is the kletis which is also called " svirnas." Although
usually styled loosely a storehouse, Vidunas points out
that in reality it is much more than that, as the numerous
wooden carvings of the interior should indicate. In
popular songs the kletis is always the centre of sentimental
life. The girls of the household used to have their bed-
rooms in the kletis, and on the verandah they were
accustomed to pursue their daily manual tasks. Close
by the kletis was the flower garden of the daughters of
the house where they grew rue throughout the summer.
For the Lithuanian the kletis embodies all that he has
acquired through the sweat of his brow ; it is the spot
towards which his thoughts ever turn, whereby the farm,
the " sodiba " has its raison d^etre and from which the
farm and family issue and are renewed.

The house, properly speaking, and also the other buildings
are for the most part constructed of wood, which is only
natural in so heavily timbered a land as Lithuania.
Through a large doorway one enters a spacious apartment
at the opposite end of which is another door. This room
might perhaps be regarded as a sort of vestibule, although
its furnishing gives it another signification. The walls
are hung with all kinds of household utensils. In the

THE LITHUANIAN HOME 155

middle of one of the side walls is a huge fireplace sur-
mounted by a chimney — ^the " dumlakas," from " dumas,"
smoke, and " lakinti," to cause to fly. Besides the
central apartment there are two others which occupy
the extremities of the building, and these again are often
divided into two. The windows are small, as in nearly
all farmhouses of every nation. The frames are generally
painted white, the shutters in green or blue, but this again
is not peculiar to the Lithuanians.

But originally this division into three apartments did
not obtain in Lithuania. Descriptions of past centuries
agree in declaring that formerly Lithuanian houses
consisted of but the one room, which may help to explain
why even to-day the same word is often used to signify
both the chamber and the house.

The oldest part of the house divided into three is the
" namas," home. It is the site of the hearth or fireplace
which formerly was in the middle of the room : a fire
was kept constantly burning. This house was the centre
of the farm where all the members of the family who had
their lodging outside assembled. Vidiinas opines that
the old hearth may possibly have been copied from the
scene of Lithuanian fire-worship, and adds that certain
religious rites used to be practised by the hearth until
modern times, albeit not in Russian Lithuania.

The other rooms of the Lithuanian dwelling serve for
working and sleep. These were formerly situated in
separate buildings but are now united under one roof.
The working house, for example, where the women did
their needlework and weaving, and the men kept their
tools, has become the chamber most frequented by the
members of the household. By the side of the stove was
a niche in the wall where cooking was done in the winter
on a portable hearth, the smoke escaping by a hole through
the wall. The former sleeping house in many cases has
become a convenient reception room.

A tendency still further to subdivide these rooms may
sometimes be observed. The old desire to build many
houses has given place to the multiplication of small
rooms. To-day the Lithuanian almost always terms his

156 IN THE COUNTRY

home " namai," the plural form of " namas," probably
because several houses are now joined into one.

The interior of a peasant's cottage does not reveal so
easily as a more pretentious house its Lithuanian character,
because it is often in almost imperceptible details that
history manifests itself. The roof and walls are planked,
and the earth is flagged. Wooden benches are ranged
against the walls, and in one corner is a well scrubbed
table. Near the entrance is a large stove surrounded by
a ledge or in lieu thereof a bench. From 'the ceiling,
attached to a branch, hangs an elongated basket made
of birch boughs. This is the " lopschis," the baby's
cradle. Thanks to the elasticity of the branch this cradle
can be very easily rocked. The depth of the " lopschis,"
as well as the large amount of cord with which it is tied
to the branch make it impossible for the child to fall.

Most of the articles in the room are carvings or pictures
of various kinds. The Lithuanian has always been
celebrated for this sort of work. As far back as the XVIIth
ce^ntury a writer, speaking about the skill of the Lithu-
anian, quotes the proverb, " The Lithuanian rides on
horseback into the forest and returns therefrom in a
coach."

Nearly all Lithuanian graves are surmounted by large
wooden crosses, though sometimes iron is used for this
purpose instead of wood. Frequently the tombstones
are of curious shape, which is not without traditional
meaning and probably associated with mystical ideas.
A reproduction of the human body is often very striking ;
similarly birds are occasionally depicted in flight, whilst
a triangle finishes off the tombstone. Here also the
Lithuanian penchant for lively colours (other than in
di;iess) asserts itself.

A very singular article used in the house was the
" zibintas " — a receptacle, very often lavishly carved,
which contained the chips and shavings with which the
chamber of the spinning women was illuminated. As
everywhere in peasants' houses, the spinning room was
the hall of songs and stories. And every one of these
old zibintas, with its bizarre paintings and motley

NATIONAL DRESS 157

carvings, has heard almost all of them, while lighting the
labours of many generations of toilers.

Another interesting object is the " kanklys," a species
of zither, which is also always carved. The kanklys
is really an appendage of the zibintas, for it was in the
nature of a fete when a " kanklyninkas " performed in
the women's spinning room in much the same way as
the peripatetic rhapsodist of the ancient Greeks. The
kanklyninkas sang or recited to the accompaniment of
his instrument.

Dress among the Lithuanians has altered with the
times as in every other country ; but throughout cer-
tain characteristic features have survived. Old drawings
indicate that the principal article of clothing for both
sexes was a long garment of white linen resembling a
shirt. Over this was worn a robe of various colours,
which the wearer adjusted to suit his own fancy. Later,
towards the XVth and XVIth century, two of these upper
garments were worn. One end would be brought under
the arms and fixed to the shoulder with a clasp. The
two pieces of material crossed naturally at the back
and in front. A belt above the hips gave stability to
the whole. Often the upper garments \yould be simply
white instead of coloured.

Colours were worn for joyous occasions, white being
usual for graver festivals. This custom has survived to
our own day as indicated in Lithuanian popular songs.
Engravings of the XVIIth century (Pretorius) show that
in place of wearing over the loose white under-garment
two large pieces of material, women and young girls
often wore two small pieces which descended from the
hips at the sides, another in front and a fourth behind.
Another garment would also be worn over these, white
in hue. Embroidery and ornamentation woven into
the white garments have always been popular.

In winter furs were worn. The feminine headgear
called " kyka " has been retained till the present day.
Young girls had their hair either unplaited, tied with a
ribbon and adorned with a crown of rue which was gathered
daily in the garden, or plaited and coiffured in different

158 IN THE COUNTRY

styles. But the last-named usage did not become general
until recent times'. On the feet shoes of leather or bark
were worn. Sabots were unknown among the Lithuanians
until the XVIIIth century.

At that date Lepner speaks about two white under-
garments, which the Lithuanians wore in the Prussian
region. The lower part of the body was covered with
several garments already described, but over these was
placed a sleeved coat, coloured blue or green, with a
broad yellow collar, and cuffs of the same colour on very
wide sleeves. Fo* ceremonial occasions this coat was
worn longer than in ordinary life. Over this again was
put a linen garment entirely white. Shoes or boots,
worn instead of bark slippers, were of drab leather.

Male dress has always been simpler than that of women.
An upper garment with sleeves formed the man's entire
equipment. In summer the upper garment was of white
linen, in winter white or brown or grey wool. A belt
encircled the body and was fastened with a buckle. Later
the men wore an overcoat of grey cloth with a straight
collar and wide skirts with black borders. On the head
was a felt hat or in winter a leather cap.

In the XlXth century the women generally wore a
robe instead of all the pieces of material above described.
The name of these garments, which hung from the body
or which enveloped the latter, has been transferred to
the robe. They were in strips or squares, bright or sombre
in colour, and were called " margine " or " inodine."
Women now also wear a bodice imported by immigrants,
the Salzbourgeois. It is often red or green, though in
many places black is preferred. The taste for sombre
colours is well developed, above all in the regions where
a certain religious spirit drawn from the experience of
life prevails, and where there is less belief in the prolonga-
tion of that which is essentially Lithuanian.

It is gratifying to be able to state that petticoats are
generally short. Young girls and women wear white
stockings and low shotes. The story that stockings were
formerly unknown to the Lithuanians and that in their
stead they were in the habit of wrapping their feet in

FEMALE COSTUME 159

cloth or linen is devoid of all foundation. The word
employed to designate Russian socks, i.e. " autas,"
which means something which is drawn on like a boot,
for example, serves to disprove the older report. But
as Vidunas says, the frequency of such inanities at the
expense of the Lithuanians suggests either a deliberate
desire to depict the people as devoid of all civilization
or is due simply to crass ignorance.

Neither the bodice nor corset has come into general
use, though the latter has always been worn in the form
of a shirt-waist termed " papetis," which is often richly
embroidered at the collar, sleeves and shoulders. Vidunas
denies the allegation that the Lithuanians learned the art
of embroidery from immigrants, the Lithuanian language
being particularly copious in expressions having to do
with needlework. Moreover, it would be impossible to
explain the universal inclination for work of this kind by
mere imitation. Besides, productions of the seamstress's
art are comparatively more numerous in Lithuania than
among her neighbours of other nationalities. Embroidery
on white material has ever been held in the highest esteem
among Lithuanians, whilst embroidery in colours was
in fashion for everyday use. It is only during the last
dozen years or so that the latter has become somewhat
neglected. The upper garment of blue or green mentioned
by Lepner was still worn in the XlXth century and was
called " pamustine." It was frequently lined with fur,
the straight collar of sable and the shoulders adorned
with multicoloured embroideries.

Great attention is devoted to the coiffure. The older
practice of wearing the hair flowing loose has been entirely
abandoned. The hair is now carefully parted and some-
times plaited over the ears. If the hair was not very
thick, women until recently would introduce into their
tresses, as a sort of " transformation," some wool — ^red,
yellow, green, black or white in colour. On the other
hand, if the hair was abundant, a black or coloured band
was bound round the head with some white ornament
in front called " raistis." In a series of oil paintings
Edward Gisevius has shown samples of the Lithuanian

160 IN THE COUNTRY

costume and headdress. The Lithuanian Literary Society
of Tilsit possesses several specimens.

Formerly the Lithuanians did not wear aprons, this
fashion having been borrowed from immigrants. But
until lately they often wore broad sashes, the long ends
of which, ornamented with tassels, hung down at the side.
This sash, styled " juosta," was very popular and still
is, Lithuanian women spending a great deal of time in
its preparation. The juosta also figures largely in love
and is a favourite theme of sentimental ditties. The
successful swain makes a juosta for his well beloved either
as a sash or a collar. The symbols woven into it to
form a scheme of ornament are not merely haphazard
but until recently bore a special meaning, in this regard
recalling Hindu necklaces with their magic formulas
of love and healing.

White as a colour for dress enjoyed a great vogue up
to about 1890 in the region of Sesupe. Worshippers
at church thus attired offered a striking spectacle. The
value of one's wardrobe was estimated chiefly by its
rich embroideries and artistic texture. It is curious
that the older forms of dress have survived longer in
Prussian than in Russian Lithuania. As recently as
1907 there was a wonderful display of national costumes
on Lithuanian fete days at Tilsit. On one occasion
about three thousand persons assembled and prizes were
given for the most beautiful Lithuanian costumes.

Turning to Lithuanian habits and customs, here also
rural life provides the best field for their study, as it is
the peasant who adheres most closely to tradition. " My
mother (or father) used to do that," is a remark frequently
heard from young Lithuanians. Among the peasantry
the apportionment of time is largely determined by the
exigencies of agriculture and stock-breeding. Only the
more striking details can be mentioned here. The love
of the Lithuanian for song everywhere and almost at
all times is most marked. In those homes where the
religious spirit is predominant the singing of a hymn
constitutes the first and last collective act of the day.
A verse is sung before meals, before starting out on a

MARRIAGE CEREMONIES 161

journey, or undertaking some difficult task, etc. In
those homes where religion plays a less prominent role
a popular song or an amusing story takes the place of
the hymn. This characteristic Lithuanian trait manifests
itself especially on important occasions of life — weddings,
baptisms, funerals, harvest festivals, common tasks — ^the
building of a house, removal, etc. While no exhaustive
description can be given here, it must be repeated that
the song enjoys everywhere a preponderant importance,
above all at a wedding.

Even during the preliminaries, the demand in marriage
by the intermediary called " pirslis," the negotiations
usually terminate with a chanted phrase. The cele-
bration, which begins at the place whence one of the
two contracting parties sets out, consists of a series of
customs always accompanied by a song of greater or lesser
length. The old woman of the house, where thereafter
the young spouse is to rule, places a bonnet on the latter's
head to a vocal accompaniment, and the young wife
is installed in her duties in the same musical fashion.
Every service rendered the bride on the day of her nuptials
is paid for by her with things made by her own hand, such
as gloves of various colours, sashes, ribbons, chemises,
table napkins, etc. Everywhere and always the song
has its place. It might almost be said that a Lithuanian
marriage resembles an opera. Indeed one of the best
Lithuanian composers of the day, Mikas Petrauskas,
has introduced into his operetta "Vestuves " (The Marriage)
actual popular motifs, at the same time adhering strictly
to traditional usages, so that his work is really an artistic
representation of the Lithuanian wedding.

During a wedding there are of course all sorts of games.
Dancing is very popular. Among the latter may be
mentioned the dance of the hat which is executed only
by men ; then the dance of the rue performed only by
young girls. There are others in which the two sexes
join. At the same time these dances are not simply
movements to music, but, as in ancient times, constitute
the expression of specific ideas and sentiments. At
one stage there appeared some danger of these interesting

11

162 IN THE COUNTKY

dances being forgotten, but of recent years they have been
revived. I can add from personal observation that the
sense of rhythm is innate to the Lithuanian. I recall
on one occasion taking a London newspaper correspondent
to see a popular ball in Kaunas. The floor was packed
with couples who would promenade during the intervals
between the dances ; but within a few seconds from the
resumption of the orchestra every couple had fallen into
place, and so perfect was the " tempo " that a huge
blanket might have covered the heads of the crowd without
losing its surface smoothness. The hideous one-step
of Occidental society had not yet gained a foothold, and
so the ball was well worth seeing, for many of the popular
dances are decidedly graceful and call for no little physical
agiUty.

Vidunas mentions the custom observed among young
girls of decking themselves daily in summer with a garland
of rue, to which popular songs have lent a special signifi-
cance as an emblem of purity. Thus when in song the
loss of the rue garland is deplored, this intimates that
innocence or virginity has been forfeited.

CHAPTER XIV

LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY

Speaking of Lithuanian mythology, O, Schraeder, in
his work Reallexikon der indogermanischen Altertumskunde :
Grundziige einer Kultur-und V biker geschichte Europas,
remarks : " From the point of view of religions ... it
is above all the names of the gods and the conception of
the divinity amongst the Lithuanians which help to
penetrate the mysteries of the primitive Indo-European
belief."

Lithuanian mythology is attached to the common trunk
of Indo-European mythologies. The Lithuanians were
the last among civilized peoples to abandon Paganism
which survived till the end of the XlVth century as their
official religion. Salkauskis rejects the idea that tradition-
alism is sufficient to account for this, and favours instead
the supposition that Lithuanian Paganism derived its
vitality from some degree of perfection as well as the
powerful organization of a sacerdotal caste.

During one phase of the national Romantic movement,
German, Polish and Lithuanian investigators were wont
to compare Lithuanian mythology with classic mythology
and the sacerdotal caste with the organization of the
Roman priesthood. Later it was recognized that these
appreciations were somewhat exaggerated, but it is to-day
agreed that in Lithuania the ancient national religion
was more refined and better organized than amongst
the Germans or the Slavs. The critical study of avail-
able data is not yet complete ; but methods of comparative
philology, which have latterly been applied to this question
with some success, throw an interesting light upon Lithu-
anian mythological conceptions and Lithuanian religious
society.

163

164, LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY

The sacerdotal caste of ancient Lithuania was not
without resemblance to that of the Hindu Brahmins
or Gallic Druids. Its influence was great, not only in
religious, but also in the entire social life. One can gain
an approximate idea of its organization by examining
that of the primitive Borussians, a Lithuanian tribe
who were conquered and assimilated by the Prussians
in the XVIIth century.

They gave their priests the name of vaidilas or vaidilutis,
which we come across in German documents in the form
of Waidelotte. These words contain the Indo-European
root void (among the Hindus veda) which signifies " to
know." The vaidilas enjoyed the prestige of science ;
they were the Roman sapiens or German Wiste of the
Middle Ages. Vestal virgins, called vaidilutes, took
an equal part in the sacred ceremonies. In Lithuania
properly speaking they employed also instead of vaidilas
the word ^ynys, of the same origin as the Sanscrit
Jdndti, the Latin noscere, and the Greek yiyvwaKCj (gignosko)
and possessing the same signification.

The ordinary priests were subordinated to a sovereign
pontiff, krivis or krivaitis. Krivis comes from the Lithu-
anian kereti (German zauhern), and its etymological
signification is that of the ancient Hindu kartar, in Greek
ofyyios (orgios), ill Latin sacrificus. The dwelHng of
the krivis was called Ruomuva (Romowe). The etymology
of the word Ruomuva indicates that it was there that the
sacred fire burned, "as the Indo-European root rem, whence
it is derived, signifies in Latin cremare, ardere. The
inhabitants of the regions a little distant from Ruomuva
were called Rikajotas, which translated literally means
" the abode of the lords."

The accidental resemblance of sounds between Romowe
and Roma led the early investigators of the primitive
Lithuanian rehgion to suppose that the two words had
the same origin ; this was evidently an error of inter-
pretation. It appears, however, historically indisputable
that Ruomuva was the cult centre of the Borussians ;
that the sacred fire was kept there ; that the sovereign
sacrificer krivis or krivaitis resided there, and that

FIRE WORSHIP 165

he exercised supreme power over all the sacerdotal
caste.

There is every reason to believe that the religious organi-
sation of Lithuania Proper was identical with that of
Prussian Lithuania.

As at Ruomuva fire worship was practised at Vilnius,
the capital of Lithuania, and other places. There were
sacred trees and woods, foremost of all the oak, qr&uolas,
for which great veneration was entertained. It was
beneath its shadow that the perpetual fire burned and that
the sacrifice of goats and other sacred ceremonies were
held.

Primitive religions owed their powers of organization
to factors which were equally present in Lithuania.
As in all the Orient, the priests here were the scholars,
the sages ; they participated more or less largely in the
exercise of social authority ; it was to them that judicial
power and doubtless other functions belonged. There
is every reason to believe that in Lithuania, as elsewhere,
the social organization bore a theocratic impress and that
the sacerdotal organization occupied a high rung of the
social ladder.

Adam Mickiewicz, the celebrated Lithuanian poet,
wrote in this context :

Among the Slavs all religion passed into private life, into domestic
life, into the life of the village ; among the Lithuanians religion
passed also into political life. Among the Slavs superior castes
seem never to have existed. Those people were not able to form
a political society ; they were a composition of partial associations.
Among the Lithuanians, on the contrary, the castes of the priest-
hood, warriors and people were founded together and formed a
very compact social and political body imbued with a deeply
developed religious life

The word dievas, which in Lithuanian signifies God in
general, bears the same relation to the physical heavens
as the Sanscrit deva, Latin deus, Greek Zeus. In order
to form their mythological conceptions the Lithuanians
followed the same path as other Indo-European peoples.
Struck by the grandeur of celestial phenomena they
began to venerate them, then to personify them, and

166 LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY

finally passed from the sensible image to the abstract
idea of the Divinity.

The King of the Lithuanian Olympus is Perkunas
or God of Thunder. The word itself also means simply
thunder and is still used in that sense to-day. In this
the Lithuanian mythology offers a certain contrast to
that of the Greeks and Romans, who placed in a higher
degree of the Olympian hierarchy the god of lightning,
Zeus or Jupiter, who became subsequently " father of
the gods." The father of the lightning nevertheless
exists in Lithuanian mythology ; he was called among
the primitive Prussians zvaigMikis, which name, like that
of the Greek Phoebus, comes from the Indo-European
ghvoigvos, which means lightning.

Several peoples have venerated a divinity of the earth
whom they gave as a spouse to the God of Heaven. This
symbolical conception was not foreign to the Lithuanians.
They knew a divinity called Zemyn or Zeminele, a word
derived from Zeme, " the earth." It is certainly curious
to recall that the goddess ZefieXr] (Semele), whose name
has the same etymology, held a corresponding place in the
Thraco-Grecian mythology.

Moreover the terrestrial divinity among the Lithuanians
bore also masculine names like Zemelukas, jtemininlcas
and Zemepatis, which indicates that the tendency to
create gods in pairs did not generally exist among the
Lithuanians, and still less that of imagining sexual
relations between gods and men. This it is that sharply
distinguishes classic from Lithuanian mythology which
latter, however, is far from being indifferent to the sexual
problem, albeit tending to solve it in the sense of Oriental
ascetism.

The myths of the Sun and Moon from this point of
view are instinctive. One can find survivals of them
even to-day in popular songs. The moon (menuo and its
diminutive menulis are of masculine gender) is the hus-
band ; the Sun {saule and saulute are feminine) the wife.
In due course the fickle Moon paid court to the Morning
Star (auSrine) which so angered Perkiinas, the God of
Thunder, that he seized his sword and clove the Moon's

LOVE OF NATURE 167

face in twain. Another version ascribes this drastic
action to the Sun herself. We have here an expla-
nation of the moon's phases and the diminution of its
disc. It is also a deeper symbol, since in other songs
the Moon represents the father, the Sun the mother of
the new generations. The father gives to young people
their share of the inheritance and the mother prepares
the dot of the young daughters ; thus the relations of
the Moon and Sun explain the question of conjugal fidelity
which may not be violated with impunity.

Like the Slav the Lithuanian loves Nature. The sky,
the sun, the moon, the stars, the thunder and all atmos-
pheric phenomena are for him objects of adoration.
According to another very old conception, the entire
heaven with its constellations was incarnated in the person
of a single divinity, Karalune. Karalune, the Goddess
of Light, is represented as a beautiful virgin whose head
is adorned with a sun. She wears a mantle sprinkled
with stars and closed at the shoulders with a moon. Her
smile is the dawn. When it rains, while the sun shines,
Karalune weeps. But with the development of religious
ideas the heavenly bodies form distinct images. The
sun is a goddess who rides over the earth in a little coach
drawn by three horses, one of silver, one of gold, and one
of diamond. Slav traditions speak also of three horses
of the sun. The palace of the sun was in the East, in
that country whither the souls of the virtuous return
after death to enjoy eternal felicity. It was a lofty
mountain which the dead had to climb and which re-
presented the vault of the sky in a figurative sense. The
two stars, Ausrine and Vakarine (the star of morning and
the star of evening) ignited the fires of the sun, carried
water to the goddess for her bath and prepared her bed.

There was also a god named Vejopatis or Lord of the
Wind. This god appears in the Rig-Veda under the
name of Vayu, etymologically related to the Lithuanian
Vejas, wind, and to the Greek Aiolos or Eole. There
was among the Lithuanian an Audras, God of the Storm
and Tempest (audra means tempest) and a Bangputis,
God of the Waves {banga means wave and pusti to blow).

168 LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY

The Lithuanians recognized besides a large number of
divinities subject to the foregoing who personified more
or less clearly the manner of being, acting and thinking
of the man himself. The number of these inferior
divinities was considerable, and cannot be cited here.
It is, however worthy of note that the gods who represent
and protect the activity of man are subordinated to the
gods of nature. Salkauskis suggests that these relations
may attest the passive resignation of the primitive
Lithuanians to the powers of the universe and of
destiny. This resignation should not be confounded with
an attitude of despair ; it was rather a sort of intimate
abandonment which prompted Mickiewicz to say : " The
Slavs admire more external nature whereas the Lithuanians
have a more intimate and more exquisite feeling for
the life of nature." This kind of intimacy reveals the
soul of nature to the Lithuanians. It is this soul which
impregnates their mythology with so distinctive an anim-
ism, which nowhere among primitive mythologies is so
universal and sustained as among the Lithuanians, who
closely attach religious symbolism to mythical personifica-
tion. If, as they imagine it, nature is made up entirely
of living and animate forces, each inert material object
is but an envelope for a hidden life and even sometimes
the sign of punishment. For example, the little flints
which are present in sand are the breasts of Laume, a
malicious spirit formerly punished by God for her amours
with a handsome young man. The rainbow is merely
the belt of this same Laume {Laumes juosta). This
tendency to allegory was so powerful that it is difficult,
when studying the mythology of these people, to distinguish
that which belongs to symbolism from that which relates
to personification. In this respect it is interesting to
dwell upon the fire cult which was held in great honour
among the Lithuanians. The question of idols in general
in the primitive religion of the Lithuanians is not yet
fully explained ; certain authors affirm that idols made
their appearance in Lithuania only at the epoch when
that country had established its first relations with the
neighbouring Christian peoples.

LOVE OF SYMBOLISM 169

The sacred fire was called Sventoji ugnis (in Sanscrit
Spenta, holy, agni, fire ; in Latin, sanctus ignis). There
were two kinds of fire — one which was never allowed to go
out, and the other which was lit at fixed times and upon
certain occasions, for example, to consume propitiatory
victims. In addition to its association with public worship
the fire was the object of special veneration even in private
life, in the home, shown above all towards what was
called the " fire of the ashes " (peleno ugnis) which was
compulsory in every household. The divinity of the
hearth, the Estia of the Greeks and the Vesta of the
Romans, was called Gabija ; and it is not so long ago
that a Samogitian woman, when preparing the embers
for the night, would pronounce the formula, Sventa
Gabija ! gyvenk su mumis linksma ! " i.e. " St. Gabija,
live with us in joy ! "

For the Lithuanians fire was the best symbol of
the divine and universal spirituality. Converted to
Christianity, they have not lost this taste for symbolism,
and the cross became with their baptism an object of
similar veneration, which shows itself in the richness
and variety of the ornamentation of Lithuanian crosses,
of which a special architectural art could be made. In
this worship the Lithuanians never separate flowers from
the cross ; such a union of the symbol of joy with that of
suffering is a Lithuanian characteristic. We find the same
tendency even more strikingly revealed in popular poetry.

The Lithuanians believed in good and evil spirits.
One of the latter category named Giltine is the cause of
death, in which we should not see a natural and necessary
phenomenon. Another, named Aitvaras, represented in
the form of a flying serpent, bore riches to those whom
it favoured, since everybody knows that wealth is not
always the fruit of a laborious and economical life. The
devil, known under various forms {velnias, kipsas) was
incessantly pursued by Perkunas who tried to overtake
him in order to strike him with a thunderbolt. There
were spirits everywhere under the earth (kaukas or
nanis), in the waters of the rivers and lakes (Undines
or nymphs), etc.

170 LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY

Naturally the Lithuanians did not neglect the cult of
the dead. Says Mickiewicz : " The cult of the dead is
common to the Lithuanians as to other peoples of
antiquity ; but nowhere has it remained more deeply
rooted and so pure as in this race."

It has been more than once observed that the Lithuanians
are particularly sensitive to telepathic phenomena. Per-
haps, Salkauskis opines, this may be accounted for by
their fidelity to ancestor worship. Their popular literature
is rich in tales of the life led by souls after death (in
Lithuanian veles). The curiosity of scholars has already
explored this field of investigation ; the International
Congress of the History of Religions held at Leyde, in
Holland, in 1902, heard a very detailed paper on this
subject by M. R. van der Meulen.

The Lithuanians have at all times observed a very
elaborate ritual in their celebration of funerals. A special
feature of popular poesy is the funeral chant known to
this day as Baudos. Professional " weepers " accompanied
the cortege, and without doubt they took their office to
heart, since there were also in use lachrymatory urns.

Nor was the idea of metempsychosis alien to the
Lithuanians. On this subject Mickiewicz says :

The soul, according to the ancient religion of the lithuanians,
after dejith of the individual, can take different forms, either of
animals or plants and sometimes of men, according to the moral
quality. The soul of the best developed passes into heaven by
the Milky Way, and the seat of these privileged souls is located
amongst the stars north of the Milky Way. When a man is born
a new star always appears on the horizon. The stars of children
or of men who will not live long are very small and last a few years
only in the sky. The stars of men who die a violent death are
the shooting stars, whilst the fixed stars are attached to the destinies
of gods and heroes.

The same author observes :

This race could only adhere to a religion which excludes none
of the great problems which qccupy mankind.

Legends of giants are as common as they are to all
Indo-European peoples. These gigantic forms, which
many scholars have declared are the arbitrary creation

POPULAR LEGENDS 171

of the popular imagination, will not seem at all surprising
when we realize that according to their original signification
they give meaning to the irresistible strength of physical
nature. In the Lithuanian legend of Water and Wind
these are giants who devastate the earth. In the Mohilev
government people tell how the giants' heads reach the
clouds, how the giants seize the summit of the mountains
in their hands and toss them like grains of sand to another
spot, while they move with the swiftness of the wind.
The tradition of two children of the race of giants is also
preserved here. When one of them blows, the wind roars
round the peasants' huts ; when the other spits, he makes
a bottomless lake. When a violent tempest tears up
century-old oaks, and the horizon is illumined with light-
ning, the peasants say that the giants are at play. In
the epic poetry of the Greeks and Scandinavians, the Finns
and other nations, giants have always had the same super-
natural character. Later, they fell to the rank of heroes,
but nevertheless retain many traits of their old mythological
character. The peasant believes that there actually was
an epoch when giants of incredible strength and amazing
size fought on the earth. " To-day," say the peasants,
" the earth is not as it was formerly ; a curse hangs over
it. To-day the trees do not grow so high and the stones
are almost without life. But formerly rye grew as high
as the vine. In olden times men were of greater stature,
the trees extremely strong, and they bore such fruit as
one can hardly describe. But afterwards all people
became smaller and weaker from year to year, and we
shall yet come to such a pass that men will be trans-
formed into dwarfs and will require half a dozen to lift
a single straw."

Popular superstitions and beliefs are innumerable and
cannot be dealt with at all exhaustively here. Again
natural phenomena play an important r61e. To succeed,
any enterprise should be implemented at the time of a
new or full moon. If a peasant on the way to his field
or the town meets a woman carrying an empty cask,
the omen is a bad one. Equally so if an animal runs
across the road before the wayfarer. If a peasant suddenly

172 LITHUANIAN MYTHOLOGY

thinks of a wolf on the road, it is a sign that danger
threatens the domestic herd. The language of grain is
interpreted by soothsayers. Great importance is ascribed
to dreams which are also interpreted by specialists. The
belief prevails that dreams go by contraries. Thus if
you dream you are going to become rich, you may be
sure you are destined to become poor ; or if you dream
you are very well, that you will soon fall sick.

Generally it may be said that Greek, Hindu, and Persian
influences can be traced in Lithuanian mythology, and
anything like adequate treatment of the subject would
require a special volume.

In olden times a temple dedicated to the god Perkunas
stood near the royal palace at Vilnius, but this gave
way to a Catholic church when Lithuania became
Christian.

CHAPTER XV

LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

The Lithuanian language is not, as is often supposed,
a Slavonic idiom, but, together with Lettish and Old
Prussian, constitutes the Aestian or Baltic linguistic
branch which is parallel to the Slavonic and German
groups. Belief in the existence of a primitive Balto-
Slavonic idiom is due simply to the neighbourhood of
the two races and the presence in Lithuania of a large
number of words borrowed from Russian and Polish and
vice-versa. The philologist Brugman, in his Precis of
Comparative Grammar, enumerates seven distinctive
characteristics of the Baltic or Aestian idiom, which give
it an independent place in the Indo-European linguistic
family.

Among Baltic languages Old Prussian is already extinct,
the Borussians having been for the most part Germanized
by the XVIIth century. Lithuanian has many points
of contact with Lettish, which is spoken to-day in Kurland
and Livonia. It may be safely affirmed that the two idioms
originally formed one language of the Aestian or Baltic
linguistic branch.

Lithuanian comprises two main dialects — ^High and
Low Lithuanian. The former is spoken in the eastern
part of the country (Vilnius and Kaunas governments).
It embraces four-fifths of the Lithuanian linguistic territory.
The second is the idiom of the west and north (govern-
ments of Kaunas and Prussian Lithuania), and embraces
only about a fifth of the Lithuanian-speaking people.
The essential phonetic differences of the two dialects are
the following : The uo and ie of High Lithuanian are u
and i in Low Lithuanian. Thus High Lithuanian duona

173

174 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

(bread) becomes dtma in Low Lithuanian, and High
Lithuanian pienas (milk) becomes jnnas in Low Lithuanian.
The sounds tj and dj of Low Lithuanian becomes c and dz
in High Lithuanian. The zones of the two dialects are
separated by a straight line which from the Kurland
frontier passes through the towns of Vezenai and Krupiai ;
thence almost forty-eight kilometres in a north-westerly
direction through Siauliai, the postal station of Bubiai,
thirteen kilometres from' Siauliai, Raseiniai, and thence
towards the south-west through Taurage, across the
Prussian frontier, and thence following the course of the
Nemunas arrives at the Kurisches Haff. East and south
of this line High Lithuanian is spoken ; west and south of
it Low. These two principal dialects are subdivided into
other minor dialects. Low Lithuanian has dialects of
the south-west, north-west and east. High Lithuanian
has dialects of the west and east.

From many standpoints, especially the phonetic,
Lithuanian appears to be the most archaic of all liv-
ing Indo-European languages. Lithuanian words bearing
resemblance to corresponding Latin and Greek words
are numerous. The following is but a partial list :

Latin,

Lithuanian.

Vir (man)

Vyras

Deus (God)

Dievas

Ignis (fire)

Ugnis

Vinum (wine)

Vynas

Dies (day)

Diena

Sol (sun)

Saule

Jocus (joke)

Juokas

Senis (old)

Senas

Dare (to give)

Duoti

Duo (two)

Du

Trahite (pull !)

Traukite

Tres (three)

Trys

Jungus (yoke)

Jungas

Nor are these special cases laboriously sought for,
to prove the similarity of the two languages ; on the
contrary, they could readily be increased . The resemblance

LINGUISTIC ANALOGIES 175

between Lithuanian and Greek is also very striking.
Both have a dual number ; they are further alike in their
use of the instrumental, vocative and locative cases.
The following Greek and Lithuanian words suggest a
common origin :

Oreek. Lithuanian-,

Meter (mother) Motina

Vespatis (despot) Viespatis

Later borrowings from German, Russian and Polish
have less philological interest ; nor do they affect the
essence of the language which remains Lithuanian. The
national existence of Lithuania is bound up with her
language ; for a Lithuanian State in which a foreign
tongue was spoken would be an impossible anomaly.

Very characteristic of Lithuanian is the use of the
nominative with the infinitive, the dative with the infinitive,
the dative absolute, and particularly the quite special
use of variable and invariable participles. The participle
is almost always used in a subordinate clause follow-
ing the conjunction. For example, the phrase, " He
says that he sees," in Lithuanian would be rendered,
Sako, had jis matqs, i.e. " He says that he (is) seeing."
This construction runs through all the tenses with different
forms of the participle. Another peculiarity of the
language is the use of the verb " to be " as the auxiliary
for both active and passive constructions. Thus in
Lithuanian we say for " I have turned," Esu sukfs,
meaning literally, " I am having turned." I can say
from personal experience that this peculiarity is at first
more than a little puzzling. The difference, however,
is shown by the participle itself which has distinct forms
for both moods. As in Russian the Lithuanian participle
proper (not the gerund) is declined as an adjective with
seven cases — ^viz. nominative, genitive, dative, accusative,
vocative, instrumental and locative.

Like Sanscrit and Greek, the Lithuanian verb has a
reflexive or medium voice which is constantly employed.
It is formed very simply by adding an s to the ending of
the active voice or, if the verb is a compound one, the

176 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

syllable si is inserted between the verbal stem and prefix.
Thus suku, " I turn," becomes sukuos, " I turn myself."
Sukalbame, " we agree or speak together," becomes
susikalbame, " we understand each other," etc.

The use of s and si for the reflexive voice suggests the
Russian sya, but in Russian this syllable, a contraction
of sebya, meaning " self," is used only as an ending, and
cannot be inserted between a verbal prefix and stem,
as in Lithuanian.

As in Russian, there is a feminine form for family names.
But Lithuanian goes even farther in this respect and
provides special forms of the family name for various
members of the family. Thus the wife of Mr. Svelnas
is Svelniene ; the girl daughter is Svelnyte ; the grown
daughter Svelnike ; the boy son Svelnytis ; the grown
son Svelnukas, etc.

Sentences are usually laconic, as in antique languages.
For example, the genitive attributive is freely placed
between the adjective and the substantive — Antrasis
iydy, Bendruomeniy, Suvaiiavimas (literally, Second of the
Communes of the Jews Congress). The auxiliary is often
omitted. After all declarative verbs the subjunctive is
invariably used. Prepositions are comparatively seldom
employed. The subordination of the subsidiary to the
principal clause is stricter than in German or English.
Co-ordination is rather determined by the sense of the
phrase than by conjunctions.

In its rhythm Lithuanian is probably unique in our day.
It submits itself to the tension of parallel rhythms which,
as it were, oppose each other. The fundamental rhythm
is that of the mutation of syllables or sounds, short and
long, to which must be added the change between the
acute and grave sound. The acute tone is often given to
the short vowel, i.e. in some isolated words, sunus, son ;
upe, river ; but in the greater number of cases of declined
words, the tone changes from one syllable to another,
though always between the same two. Nevertheless the
tonic accent has merely secondary importance. In fact,
in good Lithuanian, the tone should never be too strongly
accentuated. A very marked accent would threaten the

ABUNDANCE OF DIMINUTIVES 177

existence of the case endings. This tendency, indeed,
is already noticeable in Low Lithuanian, where the stress
is often fixed on the first syllable.

The Lithuanian language is rich in vowel sounds, above
all in a ; among diphthongs the sound uo is notable.
Lithuanian proper lacks the /and h, which are used nowa-
days only in words of foreign origin. The Lithuanian for
France, for example, is " Prancuzija."

It may well be doubted whether any other known
language possesses so many diminutives and caressive
forms as Lithuanian. Certainly in this respect it surpasses
Russian, Italian, or Spanish. One example will suffice.
Brolis is the simple form for brother ; but the following
variations are all in use : Brolelis, brolaitis, broluiis,
broliukas, broliilis, brolutis, brolytis, brolaitelis, broleliukas,
brolutelis^ broluzelis, broluiaitis, brolytukas, broliuhdis,
brolytu&is, etc.

R. Bytautas, in his Philosophy of the Lithuanian
Language, writes : " Lithuanian possesses an incalculable
richness of expression, as it has in abundance all the
essentials for an extension of its vocabulary. With the
aid of various prefixes and terminations, while slightly
modifying the radical of the words, it forms with remark-
able facility a multitude of new expressions which can be
derived from every part of speech." In this regard
Lithuanian recalls the Greek ; there is the same natural
richness, the same suppleness, the same adaptation to the
most varied nuances of thought ; but its brevity and
construction are more akin to Latin.

Tp illustrate the foregoing contention Salkauskis gives
the following example. The idea of " to eat " receives a
different expression according to the subject of the action.
For a man one says valgyti ; for animals in general esti ;
but if one speaks of certain species one must again use
a special word. Thus for a dog or cat lakti is used ; for
domestic fowl lesti. Further, to feed a man the verb
valgydinti is correct ; but to feed a child is peneti ; a horse,
cow or other horned animal, Serti ; a pig liuobti, a cat or
dog lakinti; domestic fowl lesinti. A man's food is called
valgis, a child's penas, a horse's, etc., paSaras, a pig's

12

178 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE:

jovalas, a dog's or cat's lakalas, and domestic fowl's lesalas.
In this manner the Lithuanian distinguishes between a
collection of similar phenomena, giving to each one a
special designation, thanks to the richness of derivative
forms, and this not only in the domain of concrete ideas,
but also in that of abstractions. The idea is expressed
by different terms according to the object, the quality,
the quantity, the position, the relation, etc., under which
it is envisaged.

From the verb sakyti, " to say," are derived : Sakytojas
and sakytoja, the person who says, male and female ;
sakymas, the action itself, the " saying " ; sakinys, the
object of the action, that which is said, the " proposition " ;
pa-saka, the result, the story ; sakykla, indicating the
place from which one speaks, the chair or tribune, etc.

Judging from the remarkable progress made by the
literary language during only about thirty-five years of
the renascence movement, in spite of the persecution to
which it was formerly subjected by Russia, it is not
unreasonable to expect that a few decades from now,
if its evolution proceeds at the same rate, it will take a
very high place among civilized tongues by virtue of its
antiquity, its richness and purity, and its philosophical value.

Before becoming an object of study by the Lithuanian
intellectuals themselves, the popular poetry of the country
since the second half of the XVIIIth century had begun
to attract the attention of eminent German writers.
Philippe Ruhig inaugurated the movement by reproduc-
ing in his essay on the language, entitled " Betrachtungen
der Litauischen Sprache " (Konigsberg, 1745), three Lithu-
anian popular songs with favourable comment. This work
evoked in Germany powerful interest in Lithuanian popu-
lar poetry. The, moment, too, was opportune, because
a reaction against pseudo-classicism had just set in
headed by Lessing and Herder, who were the first to
appreciate the distinction of Lithuanian poetry which,
in many respects, satisfied the aesthetic exigencies of
the time.

In his Litteraturbriefe of 1759, Lessing thus expressed
his enthusiasm for the Lithuanian songs, or dainos :

THE NATIVE DAINOS 179

You should learn also that poets are born in all latitudes and
that the vivacity of impressions is not the privilege of civilized
populations. In turning over the pages of Ruhig's Lithuanian
dictionary recently, I found after preliminary considerations on the
language some precious rarities which gave me extreme satis-
faction ; they were the dainos, i.e. chansonettes, such as are sung
by the young girls of the people. What naive pleasantries ! What
charming simplicity ! The frequent use of diminutives, the great
number of vowels mingled with the /, r and t give extraordinary
grace to the language of these songs.

After Lessing, Herder supported the vogue of Lithuanian
poesy. In his " Stimmen der Voelker in Lieder," he re-
produced a tasteful translation of eight Lithuanian songs.
One of these so pleased Goethe, that he introduced it in
his Singspiel, under the title of " Die Fischerin."

The publicity thus given to Lithuanian popular poetry
by Germany evoked also among Polish writers a certain
amount of interest in Lithuanian culture and history.
As elsew^here, Polish Romanticism in its reaction against
pseudo-classicism was seeking for less remote themes in
the history of the Middle Ages, and was, therefore, not
loth to find inspiration in the national culture of Lithuania.
But whereas German authors were attracted by the ethnic
side of popular poesy, Polish-Lithuanian mentality turned
more to mythology. In the doings of personages like
Gediminas, Algirdas, Keistutis, Vytautas, etc., or the battles
of the XlVth century against the Russians, Poland, and
the Order of Cross-Bearers, Polish writers discovered
an inexhaustible storehouse of literary material. In this
regard the intellectual classes of the country, who derived
their spiritual pabulum from Vilnius, differed from the
masses of the people, who were comparatively indifferent
to these concrete historical themes, their mental activity
manifesting itself rather in tales and fables drawn from the
lives of animals or based upon moral conceptions. Such
a rupture with the past had been deliberately fostered by
the Cross-Bearers in East Prussia, where the official use of
the Lithuanian language had been forbidden, and whence,
together with the Bohemians and Jews, the Lithuanian
bards, called vaidilas, the sole popular repositories of his-
torical traditions, had been expelled. Even in Lithuania^

180 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

when Christianity had penetrated the country, and the
use of the PoUsh language had spread, the ancient priests
and the national tongue were included in the same oblivion.
The people, fallen into servitude and attached to the soil,
forgot the glorious lays of olden times or recalled them
but fitfully in the privacy of the home. The upper classes,
indifferent to their national duty, gradually lost contact
with the people and thenceforth were incapable of furnishing
popular poesy with the elements of an epic. In these
circumstances the population fed on cosmic images A
surprising predilection was shown for animal personification,
the lion being quite a favourite. More interesting, however,
are the proverbs, adages, riddles, and conundrums attached
to moral tales. This class of literary output is especially
suited to the genius of the language, with its conciseness
and distinctive rhythm. The result is seen in a wide
range of little masterpieces which well repay study.

Nevertheless, the gems of popular literature are un^
questionably the dainos or songs, already mentioned.
We have already seen (vide Chapter XIII) how largely
song bulks in the life of almost every Lithuanian ;
analogously he distinguishes in his songs almost as many
forms, shades and varieties as there are in life itself.
Juska's dictionary gives more than thirty expressions for
what in English we should be content to render through
the single verb " to sing " ; and he gives fifteen names for
different songs, Salkauskis, however, classifies Lithuanian
songs into three main divisions, viz., religious hymns or
giesmes ; funeral dirges or songs of farewell, raudos ; and
general songs, dainos ; whence the corresponding verbs
giedoti, raudoti, dainuoti. The Lithuanian uses the words
giesme and giedoti to designate the song of the birds as
though he wished to emphasize its religious character.

Salkauskis says of the dainos :

They certainly constitute the richest efflorescence of Lithuanian
lyricism ; remarkable above all are those which owe their inspira-
tion to family life. The family was always the most solid basis
of Lithuanian national existence, the vitality of which is due in
great measure to the purity of morals which is maintained at the
domestic hearth ; one can realize this in those dainos in which
the family finds the faithful expression of its joys and of its daily

EMBLEMS OF PURITY 181

vicissitudes, and in which the problem of love is set and then solved
with a breadth and depth of view which does npt fail to astonish.
They are so characteristic, both from the moral and artistic stand-
points, that it behoves us to dwell upon them for a short time.

The question of love and purity is presented under an
allegorical form which must date back to a remote antiquity.
The symbolism of the dainos is apparently attributable
to the same stock as the mythological songs. Vidiinas
remarks in this context :

The interest of the Lithuanian songs and stories rests not only
in the profound and tender sentiments which they express ; one
recovers therein the last rays of a sun which has long since set,
and the trace of ancient events of the history of these people.

The dainos give to the young girl the epithet of " beautiful
white lily " {balta gra&i lelijele is in Lithuanian of the
feminine gender) ; the young man is described as
" beautiful white clover " (the Lithuanian baltas grazus
dobilelis is masculine). This is a guarantee of happiness.

Adolescent the young girl devotes her time to the culture
of a garden ; but in the midst of flowers which there abound,
the green rue {zalia ruta) occupies the place of choice.
Its freshness, its bright colour symbolize virginity. It
is upon this plant that the young girl bestows her
greatest care, and it is from this that the garden
takes its name (ruty, dar^elis). Often by the side of
the rue grows the " shrub of God " (diemedelis), which
has the same meaning for the young man. While under
the eye of her mother the young girl tends her garden,
the young man takes care of his brovni bay horse
{beras kirgelis), the image of a virile temperament.
The young girl appears in the world crowned with rue
{lalii^ tuty, vainikelis). A ring of gold and silk ribbons
complete her toilette, but the crovm of green rue,
symbolizing her purity, is her most beautiful ornament.
" As in the dark night a little star sparkles in the heavens,
so shines the young girl under her green aureola."

Kaip tamsioj naktelej
Danguj iiba zvaigSdele,
Taip mergele zibejo
Kol vainik^ turejo.

182 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

But, whatever the subject-matter of the dainos, one is
ever struck by the absence of grossness. In this connexion
a Lithuanian commentator has observed :

Lithuanian folklore is remarkable for its absolute purity ; all
allusion to sexuality, even to sensuality, is rigorously banned.
What freshness and what innocence after the grossness, the violence
and, sometimes, the unbridled bestialitj' of the Slav folklore !
The Lithuanian song does but conflrm that which legend and
tradition teach us of the purity of morals of ancient Lietuva,
happily conserved in modern Lithuania, despite the solvent influ-
ence of the dynastic union with Poland and of its result, the
degrading Muscovite domination. It is impossible, when ques-
tioning the soul of ancient Lithuania, not to associate with the
cult of the Sun and Fire the adoration of Virginity. . . . When
social and economic order has been re-established in our hier-
archical republic, recently resuscitated, we shall invite the artists,
the poets, the thinkers — ^all the bruised heroes of our stupid
and ugly epoch, all the intellectual pariahs of the plutocratic and
materialistic Occident, to come and enjoy a long rest of body and
spirit on the hills where our ancestors fed the pure Fire and which
bear even to-day names of the spiritual world : Rambynas,
Alexota. There, in the immense solitude of the Nemunas, they
will refresh their heart and their spirit with the inspiration of
Druidical times, effacing from their memory the hideous recollection
of modern concepts of love.

The most ancient historic chant extant is one dating
from 1282, which celebrates the glory of Prince Daumantas
of Pskov. A later chant describes the sad end of 300
heroes, who in 1362 defended the fortress of Kaunas against
the attacks of Winrich of Kniprode, and preferred to
perish in the flames rather than fall intoJ;he hands of their
enemies.

Belles lettres proper date from the XVIIth century in
Prussian Lithuania. The earliest known author is Christian
Duonelaitis, who wrote six fables and five idylls, famous
for their style and vigour. Perhaps the best known
name abroad is that of Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1845),
professor of the academy of Lausanne, where the hall
in which he lectured still bears his name. In 1840 he
became professor in the College de France. It is true ihat
Mickiewicz wrote in Polish, but the inspiration and subject
matter of his verse are almost exclusively Lithuanian.

LITHUANIAN BELLES LETTRES 183

Among his masterpieces are, Sonnets of the Crimea, Konrad
Wallenrod, Sir Thadeus or Lithuania, Grazyna, Dziady and
others. It is conceded by experts that Mickiewicz ranks
among the greatest poets of the XlXth century. Among
his contemporaries were Ignatius Chodzko, Poska,
Daukantas and Valancius.

The result of the tyrannical Tsarist prohibition of
Lithuanian books from 1864 to 1904 was to drive Lithuanian
literary effort abroad, chiefly to Prussia and America.
In Prussian Lithuania Tilsit was the principal centre of
Lithuania's intellectual life. Here were printed books
reviews, journals, etc., which were smuggled over the
border into Lithuania Major. In these circumstances
the language found the most favourable conditions for
development in Lithuania Minor, where writers like
Kursaitis, Jacobi, Vidunas, Sauerwein and others
flourished. The last-named was a German, but he possessed
such a mastery of the Lithuanian language, that nobody
could suppose from internal evidence of his Lithuanian
writings that he was other than a Lithuanian. W. St.
Vidiinas, born in the district of Heydekrug, East Prussia,
in 1868, is still very much alive and justly regarded as one
of the most distinguished of all Lithuanian scholars,
poets and philosophers. In his youth he wrote in German,
but later devoted himself solely to Lithuanian. He is
famous as a dramatist. Among his works the trilogy
entitled The Eternal Fire has had great success. In his
play. In the Shadow of the Ancestors, he shows himself
fully conscious of^his Lithuanian nationality. He is the
author of numerous tragedies, comedies, mysteries and
legends. From 1911 to 1914 he engaged in editing a
monthly review entitled Youth, and in 1916 he published
his book Lithuania in the Past and Present. Vidiinas is
further celebrated as a choir leader and as a public speaker.
He is also the author of a Lithuanian grammar in German.

In Lithuania Major, notwithstanding the Russian
persecution, a certain number of poets continued to
cultivate the Muse in secret. The name of Maironis,
really the pseudonym of Jean Maculevicius, is famous
in this connexion. Mention should be made of the valuable

184 LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

contribution to Lithuanian literature of the Jesuits who
entered the country in 1569. In 1608 they were detached
from the PoUsh province and formed an independent
Lithuanian province, where they established the colleges
of Kraziai and Niesviz and in Prussian Lithuania the
academy of Braunsberg and the college of Poessel. In
these various institutions the Jesuits promoted theatrical
representations by their pupils. The plays were actually
performed in Latin, but for the benefit of the auditors,
few of whom were familiar with that tongue, scenarios
were printed in Lithuanian. These performances attracted
thousands of spectators of all classes and covered a vast
range of subjects, both sacred and secular.

Immediately before the war tremendous literary activity
was displayed throughout Lithuania. Among lyrical
poets should be mentioned Putinas, Gira, Gustaitis,
Vaitkus ; among epic poets Puida, Seinius, Kreve ; among
dramatists, besides Vidunas, Vargsas, Keturakis, and
others. The authoresses Ragana, Bite, Kymont-Ciurlionis
and Lazdyny Peleda have written admirable novels.
Prominent among modern Lithuanian historians are
Daukantas, Mathieu Valanfiius and Maironis.

CHAPTER XVI

ART AND MUSIC

I DO not propose to trace Lithuanian art and music back
to pre-historic times, relics of which bear a general family
resemblance to similar survivals discovered in the Scan-
dinavian Peninsula. Instead, I shall try to interest the
reader in comparatively contemporaneous exponents of
these branches of national culture. And without further
prieliminary, I wish to introduce him to perhaps one of
the few known men of our own day who have achieved a
great reputation both as artists and musicians. Yet such
was Mykolas Ciurlionis, who died prematurely in 1914
at the age of thirty-nine, in the full flush of his creative
genius. Comparatively unknown, I fear, in this country,
Ciurlionis before his untimely demise had already achieved
an otherwise European reputation, more especially in
Russia, where he was acclaimed a genius of the very first
rank.

He was born in 1875 at Druskinikai, Vilnius government.
When five years old he already displayed musical talent,
and at nine entered the musical school of Prince Michael
Oginski where he remained till 1888. It was then that he
made his first attempts at composition, which attracted
Prince Oginski's attention and patronage, thanks to which
he was able to enter the Warsaw Conservatoire. At the
close of his studies he made a considerable reputation as a
composer of distinction, but his true vocation lay elsewhere,
and in 1902, still at Warsaw, he was initiated into the
principles of painting and speedily became an independent
artist. Soon he quitted Warsaw for Vilnius, where he took
an active part in the Lithuanian renascence movement.
His sojourn at Vilnius was for Ciurlionis the most fruitful

165

186 ART AND MUSIC

period of his short life, and it was there that he painted his
most remarkable canvases. The two last years of his
life he spent at Petersburg, where death came suddenly,
doubtless as the result of overwork. He bequeathed to
posterity some four hundred pictures and studies produced
for the most part during the last five years of his career.

It is primarily in Russia that the art of Ciurlionis has
evoked the liveliest general interest, and the best mono-
graphs on his work are from Russian pens. One of these —
that of Chudovsky — says in part :

To-day that he is dead, the authors of the spiritual renascence
of Lithuania present Ciurhonis as a national artist. It is not for
us to judge of that ; nevertheless his extraordinary independence
of all contemporary art leads one to suppose that he actually was
inspired by the secret forces of his people. It is well to believe
that this strange genius was not a fortuitous caprice of Fate, but
the precursor of a future sublime Lithuanian art. . . . When I
think of him, of the Lithuanian, a single idea impresses itself upon
my mind ; these people have not had their Middle Age ; perhaps
they have conserved till the twentieth century, much more than
we other Russians, the giant energies of the mystic life received
from the Aryans and which our brothers of the West lavished on
the Middle Ages in such grandiose abundance. And then Ciurlionis
acquires a strange meaning and a strange grandeur.

The same critic recognizes the acuteness of vision
peculiar to Ciurlionis : " His pictures bear testimony to
the faculty which he had, like primitive man, of perceiving
at the bottom of living phenomena the very essence of
life," because " he had a conception of the world as rich
as himself," which may explain why, although educated
in the atmosphere of Occidental culture, he always felt
drawn to the mystical visions of the ancient Orient.

Another Russian critic, Leman, observes :

The marvellous harmony of the celestial mechanism which
reveals all the real infinity of the universe ; the pitiless logic of
natural selection, the theory of Laplace with his tourbillions of
fire which are reflected, so to speak, in the atoms of Descartes,
these it was that beguiled his soul for ever by the imposing verity
of a rigorous concatenation. The cult of the sun, that flaming
centre which carries us into the unfathomable spaces of creation ;
the magnificent idea of a single principle, link and soul of the
system which is subject to it, conduct Ciurlionis to the study of

THE WORK OF ClURLIOXIS 187

ancient Persia and of Egypt, and sweep him still farther to the
sources of thoo^^t and to the six religious and philosophical
systems of India

All this partly explains why, as Chudovsky puts it,
" the work of Ciurlionis is a visual revelation of the world
of beauty, and of harmony, of the eternal and illimitable
life."

Speaking of the method adopted by Ciurlionis in order to
express his aesthetic feelings, §alkauskis says :

A traveUer Ls crossing the arid spaces of a desert. Suddenly
his gaze discloses in the distance a peaceful \ision : the sensation
is real and corresponds also to a reality. But the traveller has
need of all his e3q>erience to recognize that this reality vhich
appears before him exists, but is situated at some other spot than
where be seems to see it. The mirage interposes itself between
a real object and the perception, real also, which the traveller has
of it. It serves as intermediary ; it can also serve as symbol.
The penetrating eye of (^urUonis, without calling in question the
reality of the sensations ^rhich it receives, sees in the phenomenal
world a mirage across which it endeavours to seize the true reality
of things. That which it has thus succeeded in discovering he
depicts in his pictures.

This symbohc sense of the work of Ciurlionis has been magis-
terially explained by Yiatcheslav Ivanov, to whom we owe the
best study of our artist, entitled, Ciurlionis and the Prvblem of
the Synthesis of the Arts. " The inspired art of CiurUonis," he
writes, " borders upon divination. This seer is above all interest-
ing and persuasive when he undertakes a task foreign in itself
to painting, when he abandons himself without reserve to his gift
of second sight. Then the objects of our sensible world generalize
their fonns and become diaphanous. Matter seems to pass to
a second plane of creation and permits us to perceive only the
rhythmic and geometric principle of its being. Space itself seems
invaded by the transparency of forms which do not exclude nd^-
bouring forms but permit themselves, so to speak, to be penetrated
by them. This geometrical transparence appears to be an attempt
to expose to the \iew the spectacles of a contemplation in which
our three dimensions of space no longer suiBce.'' The artist seems
therefore to have found a fourth in time. " How, by what laws
can the vision of this remote and sublime material arise fiom the
pitiful material that surrounds us ? " demands the same critic.
'' To answer this question is to describe the method of fiurUonis,
the novelty of whidi justly determines the extreme originality
of the artist. In our opinion his method is the pictorial elaboraticio

188 ART AND MUSIC

of the elements of his vision according to a principle drawn from
music. ... In 3 certain sense this work is an attempt at synthesis
of painting and music ; an attempt undoubtedly unpremeditated,
naive, yet none the less executed with a semi-conscious application
which is always the attribute of genius. These two sisters are
opposed one to the other ; painting knows only space ; music
admits only time. Their synthesis is conceivable in reason as
a harmony of the spheres, as the parallel march of two worlds
whereof one chants in colours and the other sparkles with tones,
but in art it is unrealizable. Ciurlionis has not attempted to
realize' it ; but he has been able at least to describe it ; he had to
consider time and space as a homogeneous whole. But yet again,
in art he was born to indicate this conception. He has given us
the sensation of being in a space which contains simultaneously
time and movement, a space which is the basis of a chatoyant
play of colours. . . . And the musical method for our artist has
been the sesame which has opened for him the inviolate sanctuaries
of the universal mystery. He has seen the music of phenomena
and has made use of it to lift the veil of Isis. He has tried to
penetrate the secret of forms issued from the divine seed of the
primitive forms of realities ; his pictures are attempts to explain
the world."

Such is the judgment passed upon Ciurlionis by one of
the ablest men of contemporary Russia.

One of the ideas which Ciurlionis loves to express with a
visible predeliction is that of the living unity of the world,
as also of its march to perfection. Hence his taste for
cycles of pictures which he terms sonatas. V. Chudovsky,
who sees in the sonata a tendency " to show the aesthetic
theme by way of improvement in successive moments of
its movement towards final beauty," considers that the
cycle which Ciurlionis entitled " La Mer," and which he
divides according to the dialectic Triad, into thesis, anti-
thesis, and synthesis, is that which corresponds the best
to the ideal essence of the sonata.

Says Salkauskis :

The delicious vertigo of infinite spaces, the swell of the ocean of
life, the seductive face of evil, the union of earth and heaven in the
signs of the constellations, the birth of the world after the fiat lux,
the profound truth of fantasy and of myth, the eloquent silence
of the desert, the apocalyptic sense of urban agglomerations, the
nostalgia of the terrestrial Paradise — such are some of the subjects
which have inspired Ciurlionis.

LEADING PAINTERS 189

Some titles of the pictures of Ciurlionis, chosen almost
at random, are suggestive of his penchant, viz., "Rex,^'
"The Recital," "The Sonata of Beethoven," "Fantasy,"
"Paradise," "The Paladin," "Spring," "Sign of the
Zodiac," " The Virgin," " Andante of the Sonata La Mer,"
" Conte fantastique," etc. In living artists like Sileika,
Kalpokas and Varnas, Ciurlionis has found disciples and
imitators who not unworthily maintain the tradition of his
unique art.

Antanas 2muidzinavicius is by many considered the
most remarkable painter of the Lithuanian Renascence.
He pursued most of his studies in Western Europe, and
from 1904 to 1907 attended the School of Fine Arts in
Paris. On returning to Lithuania he there founded the
Society of Fine Arts, to which have belonged most of the
leading Lithuanian artists including Ciurlionis himself,
Petras Rimsa, Slapelis, Kalpokas, Sileika, Ulianskis,
Varnas, Zikaras, etc. Zmuidziiiavicius also did much to
organize expositions. The first, which contained the works
of one hundred and fourteen artists, had immense success,
and had to be removed from Kaunas to Riga in deference
to an insistent demand. Among his paintings " The Tomb
of the Heroes" and " The Vision " merit special mention.
The first depicts an old man seated on the tomb of dead
warriors and narrating to a child the glorious past of Lithu-
ania. " The Vision " represents the Vytis, the Lithuanian
Knight on his charger, brandishing his naked sword ; in
the background of the picture dawn is beginning to touch
the horizon with crimson. This work, which was exhibited
at Vilnius in 1912, provoked tremendous enthusiasm.
Zmuidzinavicius is the author of numerous landscape
paintings very finely executed.

Among sculptors Rimsa and Zikaras are conceded the
first place. I have already referred to Rimsa as the author
of the group entitled " The Lithuanian School," which re-
presents a Lithuanian woman seated at her spinning wheel
and teaching her child its mother tongue. This scene is
the symbol of ike Lithuanian school oppressed under the
Russian yoke, of the epoch when only in the privacy of
the family dared one speak the national idiom. Another

190 ART AND MUSIC

work by the same artist shows the Lithuanian Knight
fighting against the PoUsh eagle ; this work was one of
the most admired at the Vilnius exhibition of 1914, and
it clearly characterizes the national tendencies.

Zikaras is one of the best known of the younger genera-
tion of Lithuanian sculptors. He attended the School
of Fine Arts at Vilnius, and subsequently the Academy
at Petersburg. He soon made a name for himself with his
ceramic productions. A very typical piece of statuary
shows a Lithuanian woman quarrelling with a Russian
policeman who wishes to confiscate goods which have been
smuggled across the Prussian frontier.

Aleksandravicius has done honour to the Lithuanian
name in America, having pursued his early studies at the
Chicago Fine Arts Academy. In 1912 he returned to
Lithuania and successfully directed the School of Fine
Arts at Kaunas. The monument to the Lithuanian
philologist, Dr. Jaunius, is his work.

Jusaitis represents Lithuanian art in France and
Germany, having studied at Paris and Munich. He works
in marble and has produced groups which have attracted
flattering attention in many salons of Paris and of
expositions in Vilnius.

Other names that occur to one are Ulianskis, Antokolslci,
Velioniskis, and Vivulskis, the three last of whom have
followed their career almost entirely abroad, but are none
the less Lithuanian by origin.

It is noteworthy that, with few exceptions, the most
distinguished of modern art exponents in Lithuania are
drawn from the ranks of the people. This remark holds
specially true of the sculptors.

Before leaving the subject, a few words should be said
about a more humble but very interesting category of
Lithuanian art production, in the shape of the peasants'
handicrafts in wood and amber which are beginning to
attract attention beyond the confines of Lithuania. Wood-
carving, more particularly, has attained a high pitch of
excellence as exemplified in everyday articles like walking-
sticks, culinary utensils, boxes, sabots, etc. Motives
drawn from the animal and vegetable kingdom are popular

PEASANT HANDICRAFTS 191

and often executed with astounding fidelity. In domestic
architecture, which remains to-day very much what it
was centuries ago, we find the same principles applied.
Many Lithuanian farm-houses are ornamented with
elaborate carvings, heads of animals being a favourite
theme. The implement used is often an ordinary saw,
and the pains bestowed upon the task are considerable.
The Lithuanian peasants are very proud of these master-
pieces. Weaving is an artistic occupation which the
Lithuanian people practice with success. For centuries
women and girls have applied themselves assiduously
to the work. Much taste and fancy are devoted to various
articles of feminine wearing apparel, which are designed
in brilliant colours. Swaddling clothes for infants, ribbons
to decorate musical instruments, scarves, hat-bands,
tablecloths, gloves, and so forth, are all items of this
domestic industry. Crosses are another characteristic
product of Lithuanian popular art. These Catholic
people love the symbol of their faith, and one finds it almost
everywhere, on the roads, in silent cemeteries, in front of
houses and churches. These crosses usually naeasure
five to six metres in height, and are always very carefully
made. They are adorned with images of Christ, the Virgin,
and the Saints, and often reproduce entire scenes from
biblical history. Frequently, too, these crosses are painted
in lively colours. Every farm has its large crucifix, which
is reverently tended and occasionally surrounded by a
flowerbed. Many of these specimens of Lithuanian
popular art were destroyed in the war, and it will be one
of the tasks of the New State to preserve the residue.
Exhibitions of peasants' handicrafts are now regularly
held at Kaunas, and well repay a visit.

In the churches one may observe the decisive influence
which Christianity has exercised over Lithuanian art.
These structures are so numerous that Lithuania is some-
times called the land of churches. They are usually
erected on an eminence, those built on the lofty banks of
the Nemunas enjoying a wonderful situation. Originally
the churches were built of wood, which is the most easily
procurable building material in Lithunia. The earliest

192 ART AND MUSIC^

structures were small. In course of time they grew, more
spacious and artistic, the interior being adorned with
wooden pillars. The belfry was formerly separate from
the main building, and usually higher, in two stories.
In many places the churches are enclosed with a high
wall. The style of these wooden churches has hardly
varied for centuries.

On the other hand, stone churches, found chiefly in the
towns, have had an interesting development. The first
churches were built of brick. Several specimens may be
seen at Vilnius ; the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul,
and the church of the Franciscans at Kaunas date also
from this epoch. They are of ^othic architecture and
several, viz., St. Bernard and St. Anne at Vilnius, are
regarded as amongst the most perfect monuments of that
style. With the counter-Reformation, directed above all
by the Jesuits, the Italian cupola was introduced into
Lithuanian architecture. Thereafter specimens of the
Italian renascence and the baroque style predominated.
Towards the end of the XVIIIth century and at the
beginning of the XlXth, Greek models came into favour
at Vilnius, but these were succeeded again by a wave of
Gothic influence manifested in the churches of Vilki and
Janov among others. Many of the church altars belong-
ing to the counter-Reformation period are magnificent,
affording striking proof of a rich imagination. Images
of the Madonna are common in Lithuania. The most
celebrated is that of " Ausros Vartai " (Ostrabama) at
Vilnius, which is regarded as a national sanctuary. Even
the Russians, in their most iconoclastic mood, never
ventured to interfere with this emblem.

The Lithuanians are essentially a music-loving people.
Here again, a distinction must be drawn between popular
music and the art of musical composition. In the former
sphere, melodies for the dainos are most common. These
motifs have never been fixed on paper, but have been
transmitted from ear to ear and mouth to mouth. They
are generally as old as the words. Recent investigation
has proved that these chants were composed according to
the Greek musical system, in the diatonic style proper

MODERN MUSICIANS 193

to Hellenic music. Thus the connexion between the
Greek and Lithuanian peoples is verified not only in the
ethnographic and philosophical domains, but also in that
of music. The resemblance to the music of the lonians
and Dorians is most striking in the finale of Lithuanian
popular songs. It consists in this, that the final note gives
the pitch of the piece. An interesting example of this
similitude is the finale of the Hymn of Homer to Demetrius,
which is preserved almost intact to this day in the region
of Trakai. Even the rhythm of Lithuanian songs recalls
Greek melodies. Occasionally we find the bar of two or
four time suddenly interrupted by a bar of three time.
Very often also in a piece of 4/4 time appears a bar of 5/4.
It is not uncommon to encounter a melody which begins
with a bar of 2/4 and ends with one of 5/8.

The dainos to-day form an essential part of the Lithuanian
musical art. The people consider these melodies their own
and are deeply devoted to them. The sailor on his raft
which carries him down the Nemunas to the sea times his
poling to the elegiacs of the dainos. The peasant wields
his scythe to the same accompaniment. Lithuanian girls
and women while weaving invoke in their dainos a more
beautiful world, a life replete with the joys of spring.
These melodies are a national heritage which neither
Russian nor Polish gendarmes could destroy.

Among musicians of the Lithuanian revival one of the
best known abroad is Mikas Petrauskas, who studied at
Petersburg and Paris. Several years before the war he
established himself in America, where he opened a
Lithuanian conservatoire. Petrauskas is known as a
composer of operettas, and his works have been produced
with brilliant success on the stage of the United States.
He is also a noted tenor, and for some time sang at the
Russian Imperial Opera. His younger brother Kipras
Petrauskas is even better known as a tenor for the most
part connected with the Russian opera, both before and
since the Revolution. He has constantly been associated
with the famous Shalyapin who regards him as perhaps
the greatest tenor in Russia, and therefore in the world.
The younger Petrauskas recently returned to Lithuania,

13

194 ART AND MUSIC

where he is working hard to develop Lithuanian opera,
and that too with no small success. Native talent is
extraordinarily rich in that country and only needs
encouraging. Other well-known Lithuanian musicians
are S. Simkus, Talat-Kelpsa, T. Sasnauskas, Brazys and
Naujalis.

Simkus, like Petrauskas, is a pupil of the Petersburg
conservatoire. He has set to music a series of dainos
and composed many choruses which are widespread
in Lithuania.

Sasnauskas is also a well-known composer who studied
at Petersburg. His cantatas have achieved a signal
success, and have been performed on numerous occasions
in Russia and America. The Lithuanians abroad frequently
organize musical seances in order to cultivate the national
sentiment of the members of the colony and maintain
amicable relations among them.

Brazys is one of the most eminent authorities on musical
theory in Lithuania. He was formerly director of the
choir at the Vilnius cathedral, and is the author of numerous
scientific works on the Lithuanian popular songs. His
most recent publication entitled Melodies of Lithuanian
Dainos appeared a few years ago.

Naujalis is best known as a church composer. He
pursued his studies at the conservatoire of Ratisbonne ;
later he became organist of the cathedral at Kaunas. His
principal works belong to church music, his hymns and
religious songs enjoying a high reputation. Naujalis
also composed melodies for the patriotic poems of Maironis.
Founder and professor of the conservatoire at Kaunas,
he has made a name for himself in the teaching of music.

The most characteristic Lithuanian national instruments
are the kanklys, truba, and a kind of kettledrum.
Formerly the kanklys was widely used to accompany the
dainos, but to-day is less popular. The truba is a kind of
flute. Violins and concertinas are also in common use
among the peasantry.

The love of music in all its forms is deeply ingrained in
Lithuanian character. The Lithuanian soldier, like the
Russian, invariably sings on the march, and I shall always

NATIONAL HYMN

195

associate my life in Kaunas with the sound of these military
chants given forth by deep-chested infantrymen in the
early hours of morning, as I lay half waking, half sleeping,
in my comfortable bed at the British Mission in Keistucio
Gatve.

LITHUANIAN NATIONAL HYMN

I append here -for reference the text of the Lithuanian national
hymn, together with an English metrical rendering, for which I am
indebted to Miss A. C. Sawers, a member of the staff of the Lithu-
anian Legation, London :

Lithuanian Text,
Lietuva, tevyne musy,
Tu didvyriy zeme !
I§ praeities tavo sanus
Te stiprybg semia.
Tegu tavo vaikai eina
Vien takais dorybes,
Tegu dirba tavo naudai
Ir zmonii^ gerybei.
Tegu saule Lietuvos
Tamsumus praSalina,
Ir sviesa ir tiesa
Mus zingsnius telydi,
Tegu meile Lietuvos
Dega miis^ sirdyse !
Vardan tos Lietuvos
Vienybe tezydi !

English Version.
Lithuania, land of heroes.

Thou our Fatherland that art,
From the glorious deeds of ages

Shall thy sons take heart.
May thy children, day by day,
Labour in the narrow way.
May they strive.

While they can.
For the greater good of man.

May the sun of Lithuania
Pierce the darkness of the night.
And the light of truth and honour

Guide our steps aright.
May the love of our dear land
Nerve and strengthen heart and hand,
We will strive.

While we can,
For the brotherhood of man.

CHAPTER XVII

THE PERSONAL EQUATION AND CONCLUSION

I HAVE mentioned in earlier chapters the manner of my
introduction to Lithuania through the British Commission
for the Baltic Provinces (sic).

But my association with the Lithuanians themselves
ante-dates my modest activities with the British Commission
and subsequently as British Vice-Consul in Kaunas and
Vilnius. It goes back indeed to spacious days in Russia
Proper, early during the war when I was working at the
then Petrograd, now again happily Petersburg, as assistant
correspondent for The Times. There in my scanty leisure
I foregathered with the new sportsmen as a member of an
athletic club yclept " Sanitas " — somewhat reminiscent
of a fashionable tooth-powder, but a worthy institution
none the less — ^where I knew Pozhela, a young Lithuanian,
the amateur champion middle-weight wrestler of Russia
in the Graeco-Roman or French style. He was, I well
recall, a wonderful physical specimen, as are many of
his countrymen, with his black hair, rosy cheeks, retrousse
nose and ever-ready smile. Allowing for the limitations
of the French system, Pozhela was one of the most naturally
gifted mat-men I have ever seen, and had he taken up the
infinitely superior Japanese art of Judo, would certainly
have become a top-notcher. He was absolutely tireless
and his good nature and high spirits never flagged. He
came back from the Dvina front badly wounded in the right
arm, but soon recovered and wrestled as hard as ever.
When I asked him if the war had affected his nerves he
seemed tremendously amused. Nerves did not worry
him.

It is, therefore, some slight moral satisfaction to realize

196

BY LORRY TO KAUNAS 197

that even in those days I was fully aware that the
Lithuanians were not Russians, but a distinct race with
a distinctive language.

My resumption of Lithuanian ties was with a gentleman
who has achieved a high reputation in a walk of life
somewhat different from that so successfully cultivated
by young Pozhela. I refer to Mr. T. Naroushevitch
(Narusevicius), at the time of writing the popular Lithu-
anian Diplomatic Representative in London. I returned
from Russia to Japan shortly before the Revolution
of March 1917, and it was at Tokyo that I first met
Mr. Naroushevitch, who, then an official in the, Moscow
municipal administration, had come to Japan on business,
and invoked my services as translator from Russian
into English. Four years or so later we met again quite
unexpectedly at the Lithuanian President's residence in
Kaunas, and were not long in recognizing each other and
in renewing our former acquaintance.

I journeyed down from Riga to Kaunas at the end of
August 1919 in charge of a heavy motor-lorry laden with
preliminary supplies for our branch mission. With me
was Mr. S. W. Powell, now British Vice-Consul at Kaunas.
In addition we had two Lettish chauffeurs and two Let-
tish soldiers as armed guards, both decidedly " hefty "
lads, who apparently would have welcomed nothing more
heartily than a chance for a scrap with the detested Germans,
who at that date were still in occupation of the territory
south of Riga, and without whose " Ausweis " passage
through those regions would have been impossible. This
was on the eve of the outrageous Bermondt adventure,
and we frequently passed machine-gun posts where
German "non-coms" carefully scrutinized our papers before
allowing us to continue our journey. On more than one
occasion we had the privilege of giving a lift to sturdy
specimens of the famous Iron Division which figured
largely throughout the sporadic fighting with Latvia
and Estonia, which preceded the armistice so ably arranged
a short time before by Colonel S. G. Tallents, the British
Commissioner, at Strasdenhoff, on the Aa River,

I well remember that this motor-lorry trip of about

198 THE PERSONAL EQUATION

150 miles was no joy ride, despite the magnificent weather
which favoured us throughout. The going was quite good
as far as Shavli, but after that we were constantly hitting
sandy stretches into which the heavy wheels of the lorry
deeply sank, stopping further progress till we had descended
and shoved behind with all the beef at our disposal. Not
only that, but we were continually compelled to excavate
loads of sand from under the wheels and lay down tree
branches as rails for the wheels to pass over until the ground
grew firmer. Tiring work, this was, in a temperature
nearer 90 than 80 in the shade.

In due course we reached that festive little health
resort known as Radzivilishki, where we decided to stay
the night. The place was full of German troops, and while
we halted our limousine to let our guards seek out
appropriate quarters, we found ourselves the cynosure of
many a sinister Teutonic eye. Two of these belongecf to
a stocky red-faced unter-offizier whose broad deep chest
was adorned with an iron cross. He seemed more than
ordinarily interested in us, but did not ask for an intro-
duction. The motive of his curiosity was revealed later.

After a good deal of reconnoitring, we put up for the
night at a luxurious caravansery styled the Bristol, if my
memory serves me rightly. It was a two-bedded room
into which we were ushered, so Powell took one bed and
I the other. The motor-lorry meanwhile had been run
round to a neighbouring garage. Although severely
assailed during the night by a species of wingless
mosquito, we were so weary in the wake of our strenuous
exertions that we soon fell asleep. We were aroused,
however, about midnight by the abrupt entry of a small
posse of German soldiers, headed by none other than our
rubicond friend of the iron cross, who, with profuse
apologies, explained that we were suspected of smuggling
lethal weapons in our lorry, and must therefore accompany
the posse to the Military Commandant for interrogation.

Having protested in the best German I could muster at
such short notice, I as O.C. Lorry rose, dressed rnyself,
and did the bidding of these burly myrmidons. One
of our Lettish chauffeurs went with me as guide for the

A GERMAN AIRMAN 199

return trip, because the night was black as pitch, and I
should never have been able to find my way back unaided.
Luckily the ensuing ordeal did not prove very terrible.
With my Ausweise and my winning way I was soon able
to convince the commandant — a very worthy fellow —
that my intentions were strictly civilian and that my lorry
freight was harmless, wherefore we shook hands with
considerable eclat and parted for ever.

Resuming our ride the next morning we finally ran into
Keidany. As we were ambling bumpily over the cobbled
streets a young and handsome man in the uniform, as I
subsequently discovered, of the Lithuanian aviation
corps, bounded out of a wayside house and clambered up
behind. Turning to me in German he explained that he
had been piloting Colonel Robinson, Head of the British
Military Mission at Kaunas, down from Riga, but had run
out of petrol, and had therefore landed in a neighbouring
field and would be vastly obliged by a loan from our stores.
We soon came upon the machine, an L.V.G., near which
stood Colonel Robinson himself, a fine soldierly figure
in uniform. While the young pilot was filling up, I asked
Colonel Robinson who he might be. The Colonel placed
a hand to his mouth and in a loud aside remarked, " Don't
say a word, but he's a genuine Boche ! " We learned
afterwards that his name was Rother, and that he was
acting as a flying instructor in the Lithuanian aviation
corps.

We all grew to love Rother, for he was a sunny cheerful
character and, what is more to the purpose, a first-class
airman. So cordial were our relations that we quite
regretted his sudden departure for Germany some months
later in very dramatic circumstances which I communicated
at the time to the British Press, including The Aeroplane.
This incident was connected with the capture by the
Lithuanians near Dvinsk of a German Junker monoplane,
which was flying to Moscow with two Turks, one of whom
was subsequently known to be the famous Enver Pasha.
They had descended too soon, thinking they were already
in Russian territory, and the Lithuanian military had taken
them into custody. For the time being the German pilot,

200 THE PERSONSIT^EQUSTIOJN

named Hans Hesse, also a famous war airman who had
flown from Berlin to Bagdad, and participated in many
raids on English towns, and the two Turks were interned
in a local hotel at Kaunas. Then one fine day the startling
news was bruited abroad that the Turks had escaped.
The manner of it was this.

Young Rother had taken out a machine from the aero-
drome, ostensibly on a practice flight, with one of his best
pupils, as far as an outlying fort. Here, through some
collusion, the two Turks with a military guard were
enjoying a stroll. As the machine landed, they approached
it, whereupon Rother whipped out a spare automatic and
deftly threw it to them, whilst with another he covered
his pupil and made him re-start the propeller. The
two Turks, threatening the guard in their turn, then got
into the cockpit and Rother carried them safely off to
Germany. The following day he had the nerve to telephone
the General Staff from Tilsit to say that if they would pay
him his arrears of salary he would return the stolen aero-
plane. It was reported that he received something like
a million marks for this daring rescue, and he certainly
deserved it. I never met anybody who did not cordially
admire Rother for his skill and courage, which particularly
appealed to our British officers then at Kaunas,

To resume after this digression. Colonel Robinson
told me that, not trusting Rother, he had sat behind him
all the way from Riga with a drawn revolver in his hand,
but fortunately Rother had played no tricks. From
Keidany my companion Powell, not being very well, left
the motor-lorry and flew with Colonel Robinson to Kaunas,
which they reached in twenty minutes. Powell had himself
been an air cadet towards the end of the war and was
therefore quite at home in a plane. Less lucky, we spent
a good many hours on the road before arriving at our
destination, thanks to more sand, and at one spot a regular
bog into which the front wheels of the lorry sank after
breaking through what had seemed a perfectly firm road
surface. It took the united efforts of many able-bodied
men from an adjacent village, and more than an hour's
hard work, to extricate us from this impasse, but after

LIFE IN KAUNAS 201

that our luck changed for the better and we dashed down
the Ukmerge chaussee, and the Laisves Aleja of Kaunas
at dusk, in really fine style, and I was able to join my chief,
Colonel R. B. Ward, and Powell at supper in the Metropole
Hotel, where we had our temporary quarters, before turning
in for a well-earned rest.

From the very outset we made the acquaintance of
Polish intrigues, for a Polish plot had just been unearthed
and the town was under martial law, all street traffic
being suspended from 9 p.m. I remember that we had
to send a wireless message to Riga the same evening and
that Powell and I were challenged at least six times in the
course of a hundred yards' walk from the hotel to the wire-
less station and back.

The retrospect of my more than a year's sojourn at
Kaunas, unbroken save for a few trips to Vilnius, including
our ill-starred removal thither with the Lithuanian Govern-
ment in the autumn of 1920, shows that we did not fare
at all badly. Excellent premises, with all the comforts
of home, were found for us at No. 19, Keistucio Gatve,
where we spent many pleasant, if strenuous days, for we
were pioneers on the job, and had to do all the rough spade
work for our professional successors.

Food is good and plentiful in Lithuania, and we lived
on the fat of the land, thus gradually filling out the con-
cavities bequeathed by war service and increasing our
neck and waist measurements.

Colonel Ward was essentially an open-air man, and out
of office we were constant companions, during the summer
months on morning rides with our Lithuanian liaison
officer, dear old Colonel Tomasauskas, on the bracing,
beautifully timbered uplands ; as members of boisterous
bathing parties in the swift waters of the Nemunas, or
motor-boat trips thereon ; on occasional motoring jaunts
to the famous Red Chateau and other neighbouring estates ;
sometimes with Colonel Ward as pilot in an aeroplane
flight over Kaunas ; and, last but not least, as ill -matched
opponents in the classic game of clock golf in our back
garden ; while in the winter we skated and tobogganed
together.

202 THE PERSONAL EQUATION

Our household pets comprised a couple of goats, several
rabbits, a cat, and the Colonel's own personal possession,
a delightful polizei-hund named Jim. In summer meals
were taken in the garden, under a tree, where good digestion
waited on appetite, thanks largely to the hilarity provoked
by the pup's harmless persecution of the two goats. We
in turn were persecuted by wasps which apparently had
established a nest somewhere near our table, because
although we must have slain hundreds in the course
of the summer, we were never able to exhaust the supply.
Fortunately none of us got stung.

The story of our Vilnius experiences has been told in
Chapter XIX. But while in reminiscent mood I may say
that I first visited Vilnius, then Vilna, in the summer of
1915, shortly before its capture by the Germans, when
travelling through to Warsaw as a war correspondent.
Again, I had paid the town a visit during the Polish
regime in the winter of 1919-20, in bitterly cold weather
which froze the oil in our Crossley overnight. My presence
synchronized with that of Marshal Pilsudski and the Papal
Kuncio, Cardinal Ratti, now Pope of Rome, who were
attending special service in the cathedral at the time.
Large bodies of Polish cavalry and infantry were paraded
in the wide open space fronting the cathedral, where,
despite a temperature which menaced' my toes with frost-
bite after remaining stationary for even a few minutes,
these poor fellows were compelled to stand for upwards of
an hour, in terrible physical discomfort, to satisfy the Polish
love of " swank " and puerile military display. I then
had an opportunity to confirm the previous impression
gained from my second visit to Warsaw not long before,
that the Poles had succumbed badly to the imperialistic
spirit. Officers formed virtually a privileged class to whom
precedence was granted everywhere, notably on the rail-
ways, where the mere civilian had to be content with such
accommodation as was available after my lords the officers
had been served. The practice of saluting on the smallest
provocation had been restored in all its pristine glory.
No officer entered a restaurant, hotel lounge or other
public place, without looking anxiously around for some

BOLSHEVIKS IN VILNIUS 203

brother officer to salute, and one felt instinctively that
his failure to find a victim would involve severe disappoint-
ment. Other less showy, but more useful qualifications
of an officer's calling, especially solicitude for the comfort
and welfare of one's men, and technical knowledge, were
not cultivated with anything like the same enthusiasm.

I should like also to add a few words about the brief
Bolshevik regime in the city prior to the entry of the
Lithuanians in the summer of 1920. I hold no brief
for the Soviet, but seeing that it was my duty to enter
Vilnius with Captain Baring Gould, then British Military
Attach^, immediately after the withdrawal of the Red
Army and the assumption of authority by the Lithuanians,
I feel entitled to refer to the preposterous reports of
Bolshevik atrocities which were sedulously printed by a
certain section of the West European Press. It was
stated, for instance, that something like 1,500 persons
had been shot. As a matter of fact, the most painstaking
investigation by the Lithuanian officials could not verify
more than thirty of such executions, and the majority of
the victims were Polish soldiers. Incidentally, I myself
examined one of the graves in which several bodies had
been buried in the outskirts of the town. It may be taken
for granted that for every person shot by the Bolsheviks
the Poles had similarly taken toll of adherents of the
Soviet, so the account was perfectly squared. I allude
to the matter just to show what monstrous exaggerations
are apt to gain a start of the truth when the inspiration
is tendencious.

The Bother incident was not our only aeroplane
adventure. It is well known that German machines main-
tained regular communication with Moscow, though as
a rule they flew so high as to be scarcely discernible.
Once more, however, • as in the case of the Junker mono-
plane, luck deserted a German pilot who was carrying
the famous Swiss Communist Von Platen in a Gotha from
Moscow to Germany in the spring, I think, of 1920. Von
Platen had with him his newly-wedded wife, who, besides
being herself a convinced and fervent Bolshevik, was a
celebrated Russian soprano. The machine ran out of

204 THE PERSONAL EQUATION

petrol owing to a leak, so the story ran, and had to land
in Lithuanian territory, not far from Kaunas. Von
Platen himself was detained some time in prison, but his
wife was allowed to live at an hotel, where I made her
acquaintance. We also met on several occasions at the
home of a mutual friend, where I had the good fortune to
hear her sing. She certainly had a wonderful voice,
perfectly trained, and I thoroughly enjoyed these few
meetings. I can well believe that the lady made a very
able propagandist of Communist principles. She spoke
with obvious sincerity about the proletarian love of music
in Russia and declared that no artist could wish for a more
attentive audience than one composed of the working
classes, who did not attend in order to exhibit their clothes
but to listen. Both Von Platen and his talented wife
were eventually released and went, I believe, to Switzerland.

During Our stay in Kaunas we naturally met most of the
Lithuanian leaders, notably Smetona, the first President,
Slezevicius, Narusevicius, Stulginskis, Galvanauskas, Dob-
kevicius. Dr. J. Sliiipas, M. P. Klimas, M. Yeas, Balutis,
Kairys, the able Social Democratic chieftain : Baron
Silingas ; Professor Simkus ; Professor Voldemaras, and
others . The last-named was the head of the first Lithuanian
Cabinet in November 1918, but besides his connexion with
politics is a distinguished scholar who, before that date,
had taught history and classic philology at the Universities
of Petersburg and Perm. He reads, writes and speaks
fifteen languages, including English, which he knows
almost perfectly although he has never been in England.
As a raconteur I have rarely met his equal, and on many
occasions he kept the table " on a roar " with his amuSing
anecdotes drawn from every walk of life. But the gift
of tongues is common enough among the Lithuanians.
The servants at our consulate nearly all spoke four, i.e.
Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and German.

In the course of our official duties, it was our privilege
to announce to the Lithuanian Government Great Britain's
de facto recognition of Lithuanian independence, which
resulted in a popular ovation in our honour outside the
Metropole Hotel, where we were then quartered, in the

NEED FOR NEW BRITISH POLICY 205

autumn of 1919. It is to be regretted that we had to leave
our post without being permitted to convey an intimation
of de jure recognition, to which Lithuania was long ago
entitled.

While we thus waver and procrastinate, France and
Poland are perfecting their plans for the political and
military domination of Eastern Europe, the essential
prelude in their case to the hoped-for economic strangle-
hold. If they cannot achieve their entire programme in
Upper Silesia they will leave no stone unturned to involve
both Lithuania and the Memel region in their toils. The
Franco-Polish policy of alienating the Memel region from
the rest of Lithuania at all costs has led to an anomalous
situation which I have already attempted to describe
elsewhere. If we are not careful we shall wake up one of
these days to belated realization that the Poles, in collusion
with their French patrons, have carved out another
" corridor," this time from the south through Lithuania
along the Nemunas River to link up with the Memel region.
Whether or not before then Memel had received the
nominal status of an independent State, France would see
that in practice Poland possessed the port she covets in
fee simple, regardless of the national susceptibilities of
the Lithuanian majority.

With the mass of data available to substantiate the
foregoing anticipation, it seems strange that British
statesmanship can continue blind to what is going on or
so callous to British economic and political interests as
to connive at it. Granted that Lithuania herself would
never voluntarily sign her own death warrant by accepting
any such solution of her difference with Poland as that so
blandly proffered by M. Hymans, it would be childish in
the light of facts to imagine that Polish "diplomacy,"
fertile in underhand expedients, will not eventually succeed
in precipitating another /aif accompli in Western Lithuania,
on the familiar lines of the Zeligowski and Korfanty
adventures in Eastern Lithuania and Upper Silesia
respectively. Poland will act thus, as she has acted in
the past, with the open or secret approval and backing
of the Quai d'Orsay.

206 THE PERSONAL EQUATION

Confession is good for the soul. The special and peculiar
bane of the post-bellum situation here and elsewhere has
been and is the refusal to recognize facts, and the habit
of repeating parrot-like the thing that is not. The thing
that is not, so far as Poland and Lithuania, and Poland
and Upper Silesia are concerned, is a community of Franco-
British interests, and one very salient fact we refuse to
recognize is the necessity for a change of British policy
to meet the lack of such community. We have seen from
the first that so long as the Polish-Lithuanian dispute
is entrusted to the tender mercies of the French and Belgian
members of the League of Nations, there can be no settle-
ment save by force majeure and the stultification of every
principle for which the war is supposed to have been fought.
France is irrevocably bound to Poland by special pacts,
and to imagine that either her representatives or those of
Belgium, who shares France's Welt-Politik, will ever
sanction a decision running counter to Polish wishes and
ambitions is too feeble for words.

If it is too late in the day to appeal to justice, then let
me appeal at least to self-interest to elicit from all classes
of the British public, who have to work for a living, a
plainly-worded demand that political reactionaries shall
no longer be permitted to penalize an entire people whose
friendship and pro-British orientation may in the near
future prove an invaluable asset to this country.

APPENDIX

ANNEX I
SUVALKI AGREEMENT

The Delegation of the Government of Lithuania, composed of :

(1) Representatives of the Lithuanian High Command, Lieut.-
General Maxim Katche and Commander Alexander Sumskis,

(2) Representatives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Messrs.
Bronius Balutis, Voldemar Carneckis, and Mykolas BirziSka,

and the Delegation of the Government of Poland, composed of :

(1) Representative of the Polish High Command, Colonel
Mackiewicz,

(2) Representative of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, M. Jules
Lukasiewicz,

met at the Conference of Suvalki, on September 30-October 7,
1920, and, after having presented their crWentials, which were
recognized in good and proper form, concluded the following
agreement.

Chapter I

On the Line of Demarcation.

(a) A line of demarcation, which does not decide beforehand
what are the territorial rights of the two contracting parties, is
fixed in the following manner :

From the frontier of East Prussia to the confluence of the Tcharna-
Hantcha with the Niemen, i.e. the line fixed by the decision of the
Supreme Council on December 8, 1919 ; then along the Niemen to
the mouth of the Greva ; then ascending the Greva to the line
Noretch-Rotnitsa ; then in a straight line to the confluence of the
Scroblis with the Neretchanka ; then along the Neretchanka to the
mouth of the Derechnitsa, leaving the village of Salovertsy on the
Lithuanian side and the village Holodubno on the Polish side ;
along the Derechnitsa to the spot where it is crossed by the Vilna-
Orany railway, almost 2J kilometres to the east of the Orany
station ; then along the road through Bartele Kuice, Novy-Dvor,
Eishishki, Podzitwa, Horodenka, and the station of Bastouny,
leaving this road and the Bastouny station in the hands of the
Polish authorities.

207

208 APPENDIX

(6) In proportion as hostilities between the PoUsh troops and
Lithuanian troops cease, the above-mentioned line throughout its
extent, in conformity with Chapter II of the present agreement,
must not under any pretext be passed by the troops of the two
contracting parties. However, this line shaU not prevent the
peasants from cultivating their fields which are situated on the
other side of it.

(c) The establishment on the spot of the line of demarcation
on the groxmd of the old government of Suvalki in the portions
that are contemplated by the decision of the Supreme Council of
December 8, 1919, shall be referred to the Control Commission of
the League of Nations.

Chapter II
On the Cessation of Hostilities,
(a) In confirming and completing the cessation of hostilities
between the Polish army and the Lithuanian army, which have
been accepted during the present Conference, and which have only
a provisional character and relate only to certain places, the two
contracting parties imdertake to cease all hostilities on the entire
length of the line of demarcation described in Chapter I, para, (a),
of the present agreement, i.e. from the frontier of East Prussia to
the southern line which passes through Potourse, almost 9 kilo-
metres to the south-east of Eishishki.

The Soviet troops having been removed to the east of the Vilna-
Lida railway, military actions shall be stopped between the Polish
troops and the Lithuanian troops on the sector of the line of demar-
cation between the southern line of the village of Potourse and the
station of Bastouny inclusively.

(c) As regards the cessation of hostilities and the establishment of
the line of demarcation between the Lithiumian troops and the Polish
troops in the region to the east of the southern line of the village of
Bastouny, these questions shall be regulated by a special agreement
when the Soviet troops are removed from there. In case of failure
to arrive at this agreement, the two contracting parties, in order to
determine these questions, reserve the right to appeal to the League
of Nations.

Chapter III
On the Station of Orany.
(a) The Polish authorities undertake to allow to pass freely
through the station of Orany, Lithuanian trains which are pro-
ceeding from Olita to Vilna and return, except troop trains and
trains with war material, and guarantee to the Lithuanian
trains at the Orany station all help and all technical conditions
necessary for their free movement in either direction.

(6) As an exception, the Polish Government consents to allow to
pass without difficulty through the Orany station trains with troops

SUVALKI AGREEMENT 209

and war materials which are proceeding from Olita to Vilna, on
condition that there are not more than seven of them ; that there
shall not pass more ^l-\an two trains a day, and that the passage
of these trains through' the Oiany station shall take place between
seven and 17 o'clock Polish VSk.-'e.

(c) Supervision of the strict execution of the decisions described
in paragraphs (a) and (6) of the present Chapter shall be entrusted
to the Control Commission of the League of Nations.

Chapter IV
On the Exchange of Prisoners.
The two contracting parties declare reciprocal consent in prin-
ciple to begin the exchange of all prisoners made by either con-
tracting party. The order and date of exchange shall be decided
separately.

Chapter V

On the Duration of Agreement.

The present agreement comes into force at noon of October 10,
1920, this date, however, not affecting the cessation of hostilities
already accepted, and remains in force until all litigious questions
between the Poles and the Lithuanians shall be definitely settled.

During re-drafting of the present agreement the two contracting
parties have made use of the map of the German General Staff on
a scale of 1 : 100,000.

The present treaty is drafted in two equivalent copies, in Lithu-
anian and in Polish, and is signed at Suvalki, on October 7, 1920.

For the Lithuanian Delegation. — Lieut.-General Katche, Bronius
Balutis, Voldemaras Carneckis, Mykolas Birzi^ka, Majoras
Siunskis.

For the Polish Delegation. — M. Mackiewicz, Colonel ; J. Lukasiewicz.

ANNEX II

ENQUIRY

Into Military Events of the Polish -Lithuanian Conflict from
July 1920 to October 9 of the same year, the date of
the occupation of Vilna by the Polish Troops of General
Zeligowski.

Attached is an Explanatory Note from the Chief of the General
Staff of the Lithuanian Army, Colonel KleScinskas.

JULY.

6th. — In consequence of the Bolshevik offensive, the Polish
army began the evacuation of the region situated between Dvinsk
and Turmont.

14

210 APPENDIX

7th. — ^The Chief of the 3rd Lithuanian Division received orders
to advance and occupy the region evacuated by the Poles. An
encounter has taken place between Lithuanian and Russian detach-
ments near Lavkes. A detachment of Bolsiievik cavalry arrived
at the Turmont station and demandec? a free passage through the
Lithuanian lines in view of an attack of Polish forces in the rear.
A categorical refusal was opposed to this demand. Major Kos-
ciALKOVSKi arrived from Vilna at the Lithuanian Headquarters
with a proposal that the Lithuanian Command should withdraw
all its forces from the line of demarcation and dispose them between
Dvinsk and Lake Drisviaty, with absolute prohibition to cross the
demarcation lines. To this proposal was joined one for the
elaboration of a general plan of military operations against the
Bolsheviks.

A refusal was given to this unseasonable proposal, of Major

KOSCIALKOVSKI.

8th-llth. — ^The Lithuanian armies successively occupied the
localities evacuated by the Polish troops.

12th. — ^The Lithuanian troops extinguished a fire caused by Poles
in the region of Lakes Golodus (Suvalki) and Meischagoly.

14th. — ^News to hand of a complete evacuation of Vilna by the
Poles and of the approach of the Bolsheviks. Orders at once
given to the Chief of the 1st Division to entrain his troops and
put them en route in order to occupy Vilna. At the same moment,
a report arrived from the Lithuanian liaison officer with the Poles,
according to which Colonel Rylski had been sent to Kovno with
a proposal to the Lithuanian Government to send its troops by
rail to Vilna and to occupy that city.

This proposal did not prevent the Polish troops from directing
a violent fire on the Lithuanian echelons 6 kilometres from Vievis,
which gave rise to a fight lasting three hours. The Lithuanian
losses were several dozen killed and wounded.

This fight had the effect of retarding by 24 hours the advance
of the Lithuanians and permitting the Bolsheviks to occupy Vilna.

15th. — ^The Lithuanian troops enter Vilna.

16th. — Lithuanian forces occupy Rudzischki, Orany and Mar-
einkance.

17th. — A Polish brigade having penetrated into Lithuanian
territory is interned in Lithuania.

18th. — ^Lithuanian troops occupy Druskiniki and Rotnitza.

19th. — In consequence of the demand of the inhabitants of
Suvalki to come to their help against the Bolsheviks, orders are
given to the 1st Battalion of the Reserve to occupy the region
evacuated by the PoUsh troops. The battalion occupies the line
of villages Bobcy, Vizainy, Tschaplichki, Slobodka, as far as Lake
Seivy and Kadych.

20th. — ^The Poles precipitately evacuate Suvalki and Augustovo.

21st-29th. — The Lithuanian troops progressively advance.

LITHUANIAN-POLISH FRONT 211

29th.— The Poles have definitely left Suvalkl.

30th. — At 20 o'clock the Lithuanian forces enter Suvalki.

AUGUST.

2nd. — The Lithuanian troops at Suvalki have advanced as far
as the line Ratchi, Plotitchno, Lake Vigrus, Tscharna, Gantcha,
Vysoki Most, Boudvietce.

6th. — ^An agreement is signed with the representatives of the
Bolshevik High Command, according to which the Bolsheviks pledge
themselves to evacuate Lithuanian territory before August 24th.

8th. — ^The Lithuanian troops have advanced as far as the line
of the Augustovo Canal.

11th. — The Bolsheviks arrive at Rotnitza with a view to organ-
izing a " Revkom " (Revolutionary Committee), but are driven
from this locality by Lithuanian soldiers.

16th. — At Vilna, Lithuanian soldiers guard the public buildings
from which the Bolsheviks have been expelled.

21st. — ^Armed Bolsheviks made their appearance in the region
of Sopotzkine. After an armed collision with the Lithuanian
troops the Bolsheviks retired.

Representatives of the " Revkon " of Augustovo demanded from
the Commander of the 1st Reserve Battalion the surrender of
Sopotzkine and received a categorical refusal.

22nd. — The Commanders of the 1st Division and the Mariampol
Group received orders not to allow the Bolsheviks to cross Lithuanian
territory.

23rd. — ^News to hand of a Bolshevik check. The Bolsheviks
demand passage through Lithuanian territory for their wounded.
This has been refused.

Delegates from the 15th Bolshevik Army present themselves at
Seiny to the Commander of the Mariampol Group, authorized to
conduct negotiations with the Lithuanian authorities concerning
a passage into Lithuanian territory for the 15th Bolshevik Army.
The Commander of the Mariampol Group receives orders to refuse
the said passage to the Bolsheviks, and the Mariampol Group is
reinforced with two regiments and two batteries.

24th. — ^An order is given to the Lithuanian armies to occupy
the second demarcation line against the Bolsheviks.

The Commandant of Vilna is charged with the administration
of that town.

Lithuanian detachments destroy the railway between Orany
and Olkeniki with a view to preventing Bolshevik forces in retreat
from proceeding to Vilna.

A delegation arrives from Grodno at Druskeniki demanding the
occupation of Grodno. In consequence, the Conunander of the
Mariampol Group receives an order to send scouts to Grodno and
to occupy, if possible, the line Grobovo-Augustovo-Shtabin, and

212 APPENDIX

the remainder of the Lithuanian State frontier, in conformity with
the treaty concluded with Russia.

The Commander of the Mariampol Group reports as follows :
In his region considerable Bolshevik forces penetrated into Lithu-
anian territory, but were arrested, disarmed, and sent to the rear
under Lithuanian military escort.

25th. — Order given to the Commander of the 1st Division to
intern the " Revkom " of Landvarovo.

26th. — Order given to the Commandant of Vilna to demand
from the Bolsheviks an immediate evacuation of that town.

A Polish delegation arrives at Kovno. It is composed of Colonel
Matzkevitch and Captain Romer, who propose a plan of combined
action against Soviet Russia.

27th. — A delegation arrives from Grodno demanding that
Lithuanian troops should occupy that town.

28th. — ^The Lithuanian Government sends to the Polish Govern-
ment a Note in which it declares that Lithuania will observe strict
neutrality in the PoUsh-Russian war. It proposes to the Polish
Government to give an order to its troops not to pass the Lithuanian
frontiers and, as regards the region of Suvalki (where the frontiers
of Lithuania have not yet been fixed), to establish a provisional
demarcation line Grayevo-Augustovo-Shtabin, in order to avoid
sanguinary collisions.

Polish forces composed of a regiment of infantry, a battery and
a squadron penetrate into Augustovo.

The Commander of the Mariampol Group receives an order :

(1) Not to allow the Poles to approach the line occupied by us ;

(2) To inform the Poles that, owing to our neutrality, we cannot
permit them access to our territory, and that should the Poles
undertake a forward movement, we shall be obliged to offer them
armed resistance.

30th. — Having reinforced their troops at Augustovo and begun
guerilla warfare against the Lithuanians, the Poles drove the
Lithuanian detachments from Domorovo. Several Lithuanians
were kUled, wounded, and taken prisoners.

At 20 o'clock the Poles launch an offensive against the Lithuanians
on the whole Suvalki front.

A French officer arrived at Suvalki, leaves for Augustovo with
the Commander of the 10th Regiment of Infantry (Lithuanian) in
order to confer with the Poles. The result of these pourparlers is
the liberation of the Lithuanian company stationed at Augustovo.

31st. — ^The French General, Manneville, arrives at Seiny to
inform the Chief of the 2nd Lithuanian Division that the Poles
are advancing to occupy the Foch line. The Chief of the Lithuanian
Division declares to the French General that he has received no
instructions on the subject. He adds that in the event of a forward
movement by the Poles, he would be compelled to offer them
armed resistance.

LITHUANIAN-POIJSH FRONT 213

The. same day the Chief of the General Staff of the Lithuanian
Army, Colonel KleSCinskas, had a telephone conversation with
the said French General. The latter confirmed his communication
on the subject of the intention of the Poles to occupy the Foch line.
By order of the Commander-in-Chief of the Lithuanian Army,
Colonel Kle^Cinskas begged the General to transmit to the Poles
a demand to halt at the points which they occupied at the moment,
other questions to be elucidated by means of diplomatic negotia-
tions. The French General replied that he had already advised
the Polish Command thereof, but that it was impossible for him
to demand from the Poles a stoppage of their advance, such a
demand having no chance whatever of being taken into consideration
by the Poles.

Colonel Ki,E§fiiNSKAS declared, in the name of the Commander-
in-Chief, that if the Poles, notwithstanding this proposal, continued
their advance, the Commander-in-Chief would reserve for himself
entire freedom of action.

In spite of these pourparlers, the Poles continue their movement.

Several hours later, the Poles, after a lively engagement, occupy
Seiny and demand a withdrawal of the Lithuanian troops beyond
the Foch line, for September 2nd at noon.

SEPTEMBER.

2nd. — ^The Lithuanian armies have reinforced their resistance to
the Poles with a view to arresting their advance on Lithuanian
territory. They have also occupied the line Farm of Yasinowska-
Seiny-Lipsk.

5th. — The Poles have counter-attacked and the Lithuanian
detachments were obliged to retire on the line Lipsk-Rudavka-
Rigalovka.

The Chief of the Mariampol Group has received orders to defend
the line Rigalovka-Lipsk-Bogatery-Rudovka-Czarna-Gansza-Lake
Vigrey-Lake Perty-Kaletniki-Lipina-Fornetka-Lake Vizainy-Lake
Vichtinietz.

6th. — In reply to a proposal of the Polish Government to open
" direct negotiations with the object of finding an amicable solu-
tion," the Lithuanian Government sends its consent, and proposes
the town of Mariampol.

7th-8th. — Fighting on the entire front with varying success,
The Lithuanians lose Seiny once more.

9th.— The Polish Government proposes for direct negotiations
the town of Kalvaria instead of Mariampol.

12th. — ^The Lithuanian Government, while acquiescing in the
proposal for negotiations at Kalvaria for September 14th, proposes
to the Polish Government a suspension of hostilities on both sides
on September 13th at midday. Without taking this proposal into
account, the Poles continue their operations.

214 APPENDIX

13th. — ^At 10 o'clock, continually repulsing Polish attacks, the
Lithuanians occupy Seiny, and in conformity with the order of the
Commander-in-Chief, at noon suspended their action on the entire
front, with the exception of the village Giby where, as the Poles
pursued their attacks, the Lithuanians were obliged to defend
themselves.

14th. — Fighting is stopped on the entire front.

At 5.30 a Polish parlementaire arrives at Kalvaria, with a letter
for our delegation. He informs us that at noon on the 13th news
was received at Warsaw of the consent of the Lithuanians to nego-
tiations with the Poles, and that on the evening of 13th September
orders were given to the Polish troops to suspend their operations.

15th. — ^A PoUsh delegation has arrived at Kalvaria with Colonel
Matzkiewicz as president. The Lithuanian delegation, with General
Katche, arrived at Kalvaria on the 14th.

16th. — At Kalvaria, negotiations. On the front, scouting
encounters.

18th. — ^At 19.30 o'clock at Kalvaria, the negotiations are broken
by the Poles, who refuse to establish along the line of 8th December
1919 the neutral zone proposed by the Lithuanian delegation.
Truce on the 19th till 6 o'clock.

19th-21st. — ^The Poles renew the action against the Lithuanians
on the entire front.

There is sent from Vilna by rail, via Orany, the 7th Regiment,
to occupy the Niemen to the south of Goza.

The Poles having concentrated considerable forces, launched an
offensive against the centre of our army and, after violent fighting
we are thrown back on the line Lake Galadous-Dousnitsa-Jopse-
Gruchi-Kopcivo-Biala-Ganja.

The Lithuanian Government informs the Polish Government
that as direct negotiations have given no result, it has decided to
submit the settlement of the dispute to the League of Nations.

23rd. — ^Detachments of the Polish army are moving towards the
Niemen with the object of crossing that river. The rest of the
enemy's forces continue to harass the Lithuanian troops on the
line Pazerniki-Jivulchichki-NJemen.

At 22 o'clock the Poles cross the Niemen at Druskiniki after
having cut off several detachments of-1;he 7th Regiment stationed
at the Martsinkancie station. Polish cavalry has destroyed the
bridge over the Oula, which prevents the echelons (rolling-stock)
of the 7th Regiment from opening a way to the north.

24th. — On the front, encounters between scouts.

25th. — The Poles who crossed the river at Druskiniki have
attacked the rear of the Lithuanian detachments established 'to
the south of the Martsinkancie station and in the neighbourhood
of the vUlage Natcha, forcing these detachments to retire to the
east, the roads to the north being cut off by the Poles.

26th. — Important local engagements on the entire front. Some

LITHUANIAN-POLISH FRONT 215

detachments of the 1st Infantry Regiment, under Polish pressure,
are obliged to withdraw to the line Yurkchancie-Mistuny-Pulstoki-
Kuze. Order given to the Lithuanian army to concentrate in the
region of Vilna.

The Polish Government proposes fresh direct negotiations for
September 29th at Suvalki.

27th-28th. — ^The Lithuanian Government accepts the proposal
for negotiations at Suvalki, and proposes the cessation of hostilities
from the 29th.

On the front, scout encounters. Orders are given to the armies
to cease hostilities against the Poles on the entire front at noon
on the 29th.

29th. — ^Negotiations with the Poles have begun at Suvalki. The
Poles declare their consent to a truce, but only in the region of
the highroad Kalvaria-Suvalki between 16 and 18 o'clock.

30th. — Owing to the insistence of the Lithuanian delegation, the
Poles agree to a suspension of hostilities, but only west of the
Niemen. They will not, however, agree to one east of the Niemen,
ascribing their refusal to their ignorance of the whereabouts of our
armies and that of the Bolsheviks, and, indeed, while the negotiations
are proceeding at Suvalki, the Poles, after concentrating forces
south of the river Oula, assume the offensive along the Martsinkancie-
Orany railway.

OCTOBER.

1st. — With the help of a Lithuanian armoured train, the Poles
were repulsed. Notwithstanding their promise to cease hostilities,
the Poles, to the west of the Niemen, have attacked our positions
and driven back our detachments.

2nd. — ^The Poles renew the attack and occupy the villages
Juratchichki (to the south of Orany) and Jirvine.

3rd. — At 6 o'clock considerable Polish forces launch an offensive
against Orany, and at 9.30 occupy the town of Orany and the
station of the same name.

The Chief of the 3rd Division receives orders to dislodge the
Poles from Orany, and drive them back beyond the river Oula.

4th. — ^The detachments of the 3rd Division succeeded in driving
back some of the Poles, but the station and town of Orany remain
in their hands.

5th. — Intermittent fire on the front. The order is given to the
armies to entrench in their occupied positions and avoid all action.
The Chief of Aviation receives orders not to bomb the Polish armies,
and to suspend all machine-gun fire.

6th. — ^At the Suvalki Conference it is decided to suspend hostilities
in the region of Orany (from the Niemen to the meridian of Poturtche) .

Along the Vilna-Lida railway the Poles, assuming the offensive,
have occupied Gervichki, Potchebuty, Pocholie and Beniakonie.

A delegation has left Vilna for Yachuny, composed of the English

216 APPENDIX

Major Pargiter, the French Captain Pujol, and the Lettish Colonel
Ozol, in order to obtain from the Polish Command (nearest to
Vilna) explanations of the reasons for the movements of Polish
troops. At the same time the Poles at Suvalki declare that they
have no intention of occupying VUna.

The result of the Suvalki Conference is as follows : An agreement
is signed according to the terms of which a demarcation line will be
established between the Lithuanian and Polish troops, commencing
from the German frontier to the east, passing through Orany, and
terminating at the railway station of Bastuny, to the south of Vilna.

The Allied Delegation, returned to Vilna, reports that the Poles
have declared that they have received no orders relative to the
suspension of hostilities, and await instructions.

8th. — Superior Polish forces have launched an offensive from
the south to the north against Vilna, which is defended by two
battalions of the 4th Regiment, a battalion of the 9th Regiment,
and one battery.

Owing to the clearly ascertained intention of the Poles to occupy
Vilna, the order for evacuation of this town is given, which order
is executed on the night of 8th-9th October. During the whole
day of the 8th and the night of the 9th a violent engagement
developed south of Vilna.

9th. — ^Fighting continues with unequal forces (the Poles have
about five divisions) till noon, after which the Lithuanian army
receives orders to cross the Vilija and Vaka. At that time the
evacuation of Vilna had already terminated.

The Poles occupy Vilna.

The foregoing summary has been compiled from data furnished
by official documents and the War Diary of the General Staff of
the Lithuanian Army

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

The following appears from a rapid examination of the Polish-
Lithuanian conflict between July 6th and September 9th :

1. While the Polish army was sustaining a series of reverses and
at a time when the most feeble pressure by the Lithuanian army
against the rear of the Polish army would have caused the latter
a veritable catastrophe, the Lithuanian Government and army
observed a perfectly correct attitude towards the Polish army
(which had occupied Lithuanian territory since 1919), and perfect
neutrality, categorically refusing Bolshevist troops passage through
the Lithuanian lines and not hesitating to intern them.

2. When the Lithuanian Government and its army, owing to the
failure of the Polish army, were endeavouring to occupy Lithuanian
territory and the capital Vilna as quickly as possible and liberate
them from the Bolshevist administration, the Polish Government

POLISH OBSTRUCTIVE TACTICS 217

and its army on the contrary were obstinately resolved to prevent
the Lithuanians from occupying that town and those territories.
Even at the time of the disorderly retreat of the Polish armies
before the Bolsheviks, any forward movement of the Lithuanian
army encountered the resistance of Polish forces. The consequence
of this attitude was that the consent of the Polish Command to
the occupation of Vilna by the Lithuanians was obtained only
when the Bolsheviks had already occupied that town. With the
object of retarding the occupation of Vilna by the Lithuanian
troops, an action was also provoked at Vievis by the PoUsh army
which attacked a military train transporting armoured motor-cars.'

3. Notwithstanding the Bolshevik successes, the Lithuanian
Government and its army made every effort to free Lithuanian
territory, while threatening the Bolsheviks.

4. Considering that at the time of the gravest Polish military
reverses, the Lithuanian Government and Command refrained
from opening negotiations with the Bolsheviks regarding co-ordina-
tion of their operations against the Poles, one can only deem
ridiculous the Polish assertion relative to the concentration of
Bolshevist forces in the rear of the Lithuanian army, as well as
the co-operation of the Lithuanian and Bolshevik armies at the
moment of the failiu-e of the latter. This assertion is contrary to
the truth and common sense.

5. Faithful to their declaration of strict neutrality, the Lithuanian
Government and Command issued a series of orders relative to the
prohibition of no matter what military force from penetrating into
Lithuanian territory, not hesitating to disarm and intern the
Bolsheviks, which actually took place, and at the same time trans-
mitting the settlement of the Polish-Lithuanian conflict to diplo-
matic negotiations and to the League of Nations.

6. The occupation of Suvalki by the Lithuanian armies was
decided on in the wake of urgent and repeated demands from the
local population imploring succour from the' horrors of the Bol-
shevist administration.

7. Notwithstanding many proposals from the Lithuanian Govern-
ment regarding a peaceful settlement of mutual relations, the
Polish Government preferred a settlement of this question by arms
and was the first to begin military operations from August 28th
to August 30th.

8. As regards the negotiations which had just opened, the Polish
Government raised a series tit obstacles to them which, on the one
hand, showed clearly the insincerity of its desire to reach a pacific
settlement and, on the other, denoted a tendency to delay matters
with the object of putting its secret projects into execution. This
manoeuvre is confirmed by facts. While peace negotiations were
taking place at Suvalki, Polish attacks were launched in the region
of Orany with the evident object of occupying the railway junction
and preventing the transfer of our troops from Suvalki to Vilna.

218 APPENDIX

In occupying Orany the Poles attained their object, after
which the negotiations at Suvalki developed with more success.
In order to have their hands free in the region of Orany, the
Poles consented to suspend military operations only to the west
of the Niemen. As soon as their end was attained and the Orany
station was in their hands, they consented to conclude a suspension
of hostilities in the region of Orany, but only as far as the meridian
of Poturtche, leaving the region to the south of Vilna exempt from
all obligation, and clumsily ascribing their refusal to complete
ignorance as to the whereabouts of our forces and those of the
Bolsheviks. It is useless to insist on the absurdity of such an
explanation. How indeed could one suppose that the victorious
Polish Command did not know what troops were before it ? The
object was perfectly clear ; by drawing away in the region of
Orany our troops on the march from Suvalki to Vilna for the
purpose of defending that city, the Poles facilitated the occupation
of Vilna for the so-called rebel troops.

9. The negotiations of the Allied Delegation, which had left
Vilna on October 6th, and the reply of the Polish Command, clearly
show the nature of the " chivalrous conduct " of the rebel General
who did not scruple to employ any means to dissimulate his real
" noble intentions."

At the same time let us not forget that through the intermediary
of the English Colonel Ward, the PoHsh Minister for Foreign Affairs,
Sapieha, solemnly affirmed that the Poles did not even think of
occupying Vilna.

On October 7th at Suvalki was signed the agreement regarding
the establishment of the line of demarcation, and the same day
the Poles attacked Vilna.

10. From the attached statements of officers of the General Staff
of General Zeligowski's Army i it is clearly disclosed that Zeligowski
was never for a single instant a " rebel " General, and that every-
thing was and is directed from Warsaw.

ANNEX A

The Chief of the Organization Section of the General Staff of the
Army of General Zeligowski, Lieutenant Grodski, deposed as
follows : —

1. On October 1-2, 1920, a conference took place at Grodno
in the train of Marshal Pilsudski, at which were present Generals
PiLSUDSKi, Rydz Smigly, Bekbetski, Zeligowski, Zhantkovski,
Colonel KoTZ, officers of the General Staff, including Lieutenant

* Captain Buczynski, Chief of Armament Section ; Captain Engineer
Javorsky, Lieutenant Slovikovski, Attach^ to the Commissariat Bureau ;
Lieutenant Edmund Gegendorf Grodski, Chief of Organization Section
(who fled from the Polish army of General Zeligowski for poUtical
motives).

PLOT TO OCCUPY VILNIUS 219

Gkodski. At this meeting a plan drafted by Colonel Kotz, Chief
of the Volunteer Division, was finally adopted for the occupation
of Vilna, and General Zeligowski was appointed to direct the
operation instead of General Zhantkovski, who had been proposed.
The composition of troops assigned for the occupation of Vilna was
as follows : 1st and 3rd Divisions of Legionaries, 1st and 2nd
Lithuanian-White Russian Divisions, the Volunteer Division of
Colonel KoTZ, a total of five Divisions of Infantry with a corre-
sponding quantity of Cavalry and Artillery. At this time negotia-
tions were proceeding at Suvalki between the Lithuanians and
Poles on the suspension of military operations and the establishment
of a demarcation line.

2. On October 6, 1920, Marshal Pilsudski near Lida carried
out an inspection of the troops assigned for the occupation of Vilna.
On that day the Poles began an offensive along the Lida- Vilna
Railway.

3. After the Geneva Conference on the Polish-Lithuanian ques-
tion, where the subject of disarming General Zeligowski's troops
was raised, the following plan was drafted. To save himself from
disarmament, General Zeligowski with a division would ostensibly
flee to Kovno. Two divisions assigned for his disarmament would
march on his flanks. On General Zeligowski's arrival at Kovno,
however, he would overthrow the Lithuanian Government, while
the divisions assigned for his disarmament would go over to his side.

4. On the third day following the occupation of Vilna, electric
generators with munitions and arms for General Zeligowski's
army arrived in the town. In order to conceal the carriage of these
munitions to the warehouses from the observation of the French
officers attached to General Zeligowski's army, the General Staff
appropriated a large sum of money for a dinner in the Hotel St.
George to the foreign officers, which was given. During this dinner
all the munitions and arms were conveyed on carts and motor-cars
to the Schmidt factory.

5. Subsequently, the task of rationing General Zeligowski's
army and supplying it with ammunition and clothing was effected
in the following manner : In order to conceal transport from the
observation of the Control Commission everything was conveyed
from Central Poland in trains. Before reaching Lida everything
was unloaded from the trains and carried in carts and motors, past
Lida, to Beniakone and Vilna.

6. In December and January, Zeligowski's army was re-armed
with French rifles and machine-guns brought from Warsaw.

7. The Information Bureau of General Zeligowski's army
derives its financial resources direct from the Information Bureau
of the General Staff in Warsaw.

Officer Gbodski gave his deposition on April 14, 1921, in Kovno,
in the presence of the Minister of War, Professor Simkus, the

220 APPENDIX

ex-Minister of War, Colonel Zukas, Colonel KleS^inskas of the
General Staff, and General Katche, Chief of the Officers' Course.

Analogous depositions were given by the Chief of the Armament
Section of Zeligowski's General Staff, Captain Buczynski, his
assistant Engineer-Captain Javorski, and Chief of the Commissariat
Section, Lieutenant Slovikovski.

ANNEX B

Statement of the Polish Officer, Lieutenant Edmund
Gegendorf Grodski.

On April 8, 1921, 1 went over to the Lithuanian army with some
comrades of the army of Zeligowski (which is only a part of the
Polish regular army), the Chief of the Armament Section, Captain
Buczynski, CaptainrEngineer Javorski, and the Attache to the Com-
missariat Bureau, Lieutenant Slovikovski. Being in Lithuanian
territory I wish to furnish absolutely authentic information on the
organization of the P.O.W. operating in Lithuania. I know from a
certain source that the centre of this organization is at Warsaw, and
that at its head is Section No. 2 of Information of the Polish General
Headquarters, the chief of which is Lieut .-Colonel Matczynski.
The latter's substitute. Major Kieszkowski, is the Commander-in-
Chief of the entire P.O.W. organization. This organization is
directly connected with the 2nd Information Section, which in its
turn is subordinated to the Chief of the General Staff. The P.O.W.
organization possesses at Vilna its sections P.P.S. and P.O.W.,
equally directed by the 2nd Section of Warsaw. The Chief of the
2nd Section of Vilna is Major Koscialkowski, ex-Commander of the
Sharpshooters of the Niemen. At Kovno it is an old Starosta
of the Troki district. Lieutenant Staniewicz, who is entrusted with
the organization of the P.O.W. To the direction of Staniewicz
are confided the sharpshooters of the Niemen and the " bojowki "
(a preparatory fighting organization in Lithuania). At the head
of each bojowka is a Polish officer. At Kovno there are 100 members
of these bojowki, of whom none is inferior to the rank of non-
commissioned officer. All these men have done their six or seven
years of gymnasium, and have followed special courses of military
instruction. The chief of these bojowki at Kovno is an ex-officer
of the Russian army, Antzierovitch. As for the Commander of
the Sharpshooters of the Niemen, he is a Lieutenant of the name
of Staniewicz. This organization is divided into local comman-
datures, and into " obwody " (districts). The names of the com-
manders of these obwody are not known to me, nor the division
of these districts. With reference to the opinion of the Polish
Government on Lithuania, I can affirm that it has been decided
to overthrow by all possible means the Government of Kovno,

POLISH DEPOSITIONS 221

and it is to this end that it is deemed necessary to give a solid
organization to the P.O.W. Important funds are actually devoted
to this end ; an unlimited credit exempt from all control is
guaranteed ; also to the chiefs of the bojowki. The entire organi-
zation is directed by Lieut.-Colonel Matczynslti, who has at his
disposal unlimited credits, which he transfers to Major Kieszkowski,
who in his turn sends money by couriers to the chiefs of the bojowki.
The Chief of the 2nd Section proposes to unite all the organizations,
i.e. the P.O.W. and the P.P.S., Ordodzenie (Renaissance) and
Straz Kresowa (Guard of the Borders), into a single " organization
of the Niemen." I cannot, however, say whether this project has
been realized. All the other offtcers confirm these allegations.
The signatures follow.

Grodski, Stanislav Javorski,
Slovikovski, and Captain Buczynski.

The enquiry was conducted by Captain Uzupis,
Kovno, April 13, 1921.

ANNEX C
Deposition of Captain Buczynski.

I. To the question regarding the original armament of the
Zeligowski army and the renewal of the same, he replied :

After the occupation of Vilna by General Zeligowski's army, all
the regiments of that General were armed in the most defective
and heterogeneous manner. Machine-guns were completely lacking
and there could be no question even of establishing uniformity of
armament. I was appointed Chief of the Armament Section the
fourth day after the occupation of Vllna, and from that moment
I had no other concern than to improve the equipment of the entire
army of Zeligowski as speedily as possible.

Nevertheless, the engagements in progress did not permit me to
realize my project. It was in the second half of January that

1 completed the effective equipment, with the help of the Director
of the Arsenal, Engineer Javorski. At present, each infantry
regiment of General Zeligowski possesses 30 French " Hotchkiss "
machine-guns, and 20 to 24 automatic rifles of " Chassau "
pattern. As regards the rifle regiments 5 and 9, they are armed
with rifles of the French system.

Artillery. — 72 Russian light guns of 3 cm., 8 French long-range
pieces of 185 mm., 3 heavy mortars of 105 mm., 5 Russian pieces
of 48 lines (i.e. 4 in.).

Cavalry. — ^The cavalry regiments are armed with hand carbines
of various systems ; as regards machine-guns, each squadron has

2 light ones ; the 6th squadron has 8 heavy ones of Schwerlass
pattern.

222 APPENDIX

The rear-guard detachments and communications, as also the
female legion, are armed with French carbines. The residue which
remained after this transformation was sent to Warsaw.

II. To question No. 2 he replied : I know that the project for
the occupation of Vilna and the creation of a Central Lithuania
was conceived in the Siedlec market town in the environs of Warsaw
at the moment when the Polish army repulsed the Bolsheviks
under the walls of the capital. Marshal Pilsudski, with his new
General Staff, was at Siedlec at this time. The original plan of
appointing General Zhantkovski head of Central Lithuania was
abandoned on the arrival of Marshal Pilsudski at Grodno, from
Lida, owing to the origin of General Zhantkovski, born in Poland,
and not in Lithuania.

I assisted at the meeting of officers summoned to Marshal Pilsudski
to receive explanations regarding the relations of this newly-created
Central Lithuania with Poland.

III. Money and armament (arms and munitions) arrived in
Central Lithuania solely from Warsaw. All settlements of accounts
were effected direct with the Ministry of Military Affairs of Warsaw.

IV. As far as I know, Poland did not send new recruits to Central
Lithuania. On the contrary, the reserve battalions of Division I,
L.B., viz. of Novogrodek (previously in garrison at Vlotslavek),
of Grodno (stationed formerly at Czenstochova), of Minsk (stationed
at Plock), lastly of Vilna (stationed at Skierniewice), were com-
posed each of 1,500 men furnished by mobilization throughout the
territory of Poland. The soldiers belonging to these battalions
were distributed among the various regiments.

Independently of the aforesaid forces, two recruiting offices
functioned permanently at Warsaw, those of Captain Perhawicz
and Captain Kucharzewski, whose object was to discover officers
and men who were natives of Central Lithuania.

Captain Buczynski.

ANNEX D

Statement by Captain Javorski.

No. 4.

The following reply was given in answer to the question, whence
came the funds devoted to the organization and maintenance of
Zeligowski's army :

The Paymaster's Office attached to the General Staff Arma-
ment Section of Zeligowski's army was directly connected with the
Armament Section of the Warsaw High Command. Similarly,
the funds for the arsenal and munitions factory of Zeligowski's
army were obtained from Warsaw.

The payments were approved by the Armament Section at
Warsaw (General Ghniecki, of the Headquarters Staff).

POLISH SECRET ORDER 223

Finally, General Norwid, ex-Quartermaster-General, was the
chief administrator of Central Lithuanian affairs in Poland.

ANNEX E.

Statement by 2nd Lieutenant Slovikovski.

No. 3.

The following reply was given in answer to the question as to
whence came the funds devoted to the organization and main-
tenance of General Zeligowski's army :

The money was sent from the Ministry of War at Warsaw.

The supplies were partly provided by the Commissariat of the
Second Army at Lida, but not entirely, as some of the supplies
and forage were obtained from the local population in return for
ready-money, and also by means of agreements with contractors
who imported them from the " Kingdom " (Poland), Germany
and America.

Uniforms were furnished by the Commissariat of the Second
Army at Lida. They were partly made at newly-built factories
at Vilna. The cloth came from the town of Lodz.

ANNEX F

No. 6.
Warsaw D.O.G.

General District Command,
Warsaw.
February 9, 1921
Secret Order No. 20.

(2) Treatment of soldiers belonging to the Lithuanian-White-Russian

Division.

Supplementary to Order 5.1.21.25.1., it is commanded, in virtue
of the Commander-in-Chief's order, and is proclaimed to all soldiers
sent back from General Zeligowski's army for various reasons,
that the Lithuanian- White-Russian Divisions are placed under the
orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the Polish army by the same
right as all the other divisions of this army.

ANNEX IIo

Telegram from Colonel Chardigny, President of the Military
Control Commission to the Council of the League of Nations.
Colonel Chardigny to the Council)
War — ^Paris.

No. 15. For the League of Nations.

As the results of events at Vilna, the Commission begs to forward
by telegram, for your information, statements made by the Minister

224 APPENDIX

for Foreign Affairs at Warsaw on the 3rd, and by the Marshal
Commanding-In-Chief at Bialystoli on the 4th, contained in its
report No. 1, dated October 5th. The Minister definitely declared
that the Government would not cause Vilna to be occupied, and
expressed himself in favour of a settlement of the frontier dispute
between the two countries by a plebiscite of a summary and speedy
nature. The Marshal also assured the Commission that a march
against Vilna was not intended, but that he could not answer for
his troops in the event of provocation by the Lithuanians. He
declared that a division composed of officers and soldiers from the
Vilna district is operating in the Lida district, and that the feelings
of these troops might lead them on to unforeseen acts ; he added
that if he were not Chief of the State, he would, as a soldier, have
occupied the town a week ago.

Colonel Chabdigny.

INDEX

Adaptation of Russian law, 142
Aestian origin of Lithuanian race,

37, 38-9, 40
Agrarian law, operation of, 132
Agrarian reform, 129

central office of, 130
Agreement of Suvalki, 207
Agricultural exports, 125
Agricultural holdings, area of, 127
Agricultural societies, 74
Agricultural statistics, 124
Agriculture, Department of, 131
Agriculture, Ministry of, 128
Algird threatens Moscow, 15
Allies' treatment of Lithuania, 115
Altitude of Lithuanian hill ranges,

34
Amber industry, 133
Analogies of language with Latin,

174
Ancestor worship, 170
Animals, statistics of, 125
Appeal Court, formation of, 142
Ardvila, Grand Duke, 41
Area —

of forests, 30

of Lithuania, present, 17, 20, 123

under cultivation, 30
Assembly, Constituent, election of,

18
Associations —

secret, 62

student, 64

Bait, or Aeatiau origins of race, 37,
38-9

Baltic languages, 173

Banks, 137, 138

Basanavi6ius, Dr., 65-7

Battle of Vorksla, 1399, 45

Berne Conference, 1915, 86

Biruti, vestal virgin, 43

Bolshevik advance on Lithuania,
17, 93

Bolshevik occupation of Vilnius, 99-
100

Bolshevik propaganda, its ineffec-
tiveness, 95

Books, output of, 72
Building materials, 128
Buildings, arrangement of, 153-4

Calvinism, rise and fall of, in

Lithuania, 51
Catholic Church, oppression of, 69
Catholic renascence, 62
Character of people, 145-152
Chaucer, reference to Lithuania,

17
Christianity —

coming of, 50

under Gediminas, 42
Churches —

decoration of, 191-2

destruction of, 77
Cities, principal, pre-war population

of, 124
Ciurlionis, musical composer, 185-8
Climate of the country, 33
Code Napoleon, 60
Codes, civil and criminal, 144
Coifiure, Lithuanian, 160
Committee, central, " Lithuania,"

80
Conmiittee, Lithuanian, for war

refugees, 79
Communism, unpopularity of, 96
Conference of Berne, 1916, 86
Conference of St. Petersburg, 90
Conference of Stockholm, 1918, 91
Confiscations —

by Germans, 82

by Russians, 75
Congress of Vilnius, 1905, 67
Constituent Assembly, election of,

18, 94
Convention of Vilnius, 1917, 16
Co-operative Societies, 138
Council, National —

election of, 91

formed, 89
Crime, diminution of, 144
Crops, principal, grown, 124
Cultivation, systems of, 73
Currency, 122, 135, 139
Customs of people, 160

15 886

226

INDEX

Damos, or national songs, 146

Dairy farming, 126

Dancing in Lithuania, 161

Debt, foreign, 136

Demarcation lines violated by

Poles, 93, 111
Democrats —

Christian, 94

Social, 95
Department of Agriculture, 131
Deportations of population during

war, 75, 78
Devastations caused by war, 74-6
Dialects of the language, 173
Dioceses, XVIth century, 49
Diseases caused by war, 78
Divinities, pagan, 166
Dreams, belief in, 172
Dress —

festival, 157

Lithuanian national, 157-160
Drought of 1921, 126

Economic development. 173
Edict of 1894, secret Bussion, 56
Education —

in the Constituent Assembly, 94

statistics of, 69

under Eussian rule, 56, 57
Election of Constituent Assembly,

18, 94
Election, Polish, in Vilnius, 111
Embroidery, prevalence of, 159
Ethnographic limits of Lithuania, 20
Export statistics, 134
Exports, agricultural, 125

Farms, number of, 131

Festival dress, 157

Finance, 136

Fine Arts, Society of, 72-3

Finns, influence of, 39

Fire worship, 164, 169

Fiscal policy, 122

Flax weaving industry, 132

Food products, manufacture of, 132

Foreign debt, 136

Forests —

depletion of, 128

of the country, 127-8
Fortresses of Kaunas, etc., 75
Frontier lino fixed. 111
Funerals, 170

Gardinas —

climate of, 34

province of, 31
Gediminas, Grand Duke, 41-2
Geology of Lithuania, 36

German administration, 80-1
German claims in regard to Memel,

117
German confiscations of property,

82
German headquarters at Vilnius, 81
German language made compulsory,

83
German newspapers, 83
German occupation of Lithuania,

16, 80
German recognition of Lithuania,

92
Giants, legends of, 171
Grand Duke Rimgaudas, the first,

41
Grand Dukes of Lithuania, 41-7
Grodski, Lieutenant, of Zeligowski's

staff, 218
statement by, 218

Headgear in Lithuania, 157
Hills, ranges of, 34
Houses —

building materials used in, 128

construction of, 154

Independence —

attempted, 1655, 53
proclamation of, 17, 92
ratified, 94
Industries —

of the country, 132
peasant, 133
Iron foundry of Kaunas, Tillman,

132
Iron, use of in early times, 40
Isenburg, Prince, German Adminis-
trator, 81, 84

Jagellon —

attempts conquest, 44
made King of Poland, 44

JanuseviSius demands independ-
ence, 86

Jewish Co-operative Bank, central,
139

Jewish preference for Lithuanian
i Government, 104

Jews, centred at Plimg^, 28

Jury, trial by, 143

Kaunas —

captured in 1352, 43

climate of province, 33

province of, 26

town of, 27
Keistutis, Grand Duke, 43
Kudirka, Vincas, poet, 66

INDEX

227

Lakes, 30, 3d
Land —

appropriation of by State, 129

area of holdings, 127

distribution of, 61, 129-30, 131

peasant holdings of, 73

seizure of, 60
Language —

dialects of, 173

Latin analogies, 174

origin of, 37, 173-182

records of, 25, 30, 37-8

suppressed by Russian order, 57
Lausanne, Lithuanian representa-
tives at, 87
Law —

administration of, 59, 141-4

Russian, adaptation of, 142
League of Nations, intervention by,

107-9
Legal codes in use, 59, 60
Legends —

of the country, 171

of giants, 171
Lettish separation from Lithu-
anians, 39
Literature, 183
" Lithuania " Central Committee,

80
" Lithuania Day " organized in

U.S.A., 79
Lithuania Major and Minor, dis-
tinction between, 20
Lithuania Minor, record of, 32
Livestock of the country, statistics,

125, 126
Loans —

internal, 137

" Liberty Loan," 137
Lublin Union, effects of, 52
Lyda, town of, 26

Manufactures, 132
Marriage ceremonies, 161
Memel —

administered by French, 120

area of, 117

district of, 117

German claims regarding, 117

Germanized, 120

Lithuanian in character, 117,
119

particulars of, 32
Memorandum of Vilnius, 1905, 67
Mindaugas, Grand Duke, 41
Mineral resources of the country,

133
Mineral springs, 134
Monasteries, suppression of, 60

Moscow —

Lithuanian Society in, 71

threatened by Algird, 15
Muraviev —

persecutions by, 58

retards progress of Lithuania, 89

Russian Governor, 58
Musical character of the Lithu-
anians, 146, 151, 192
Musical composers, 185, 193-4
Mythology, influences on Lithu-
anian, 172

Name of the country, first use of, 40
Napoleon, Code, 60
Napoleon signs treaty of Tilsit, 33
Naroushevitch, Mr., statement by,

109
National Council —

election of, 91

formed, 89
National Hymn, Lithuanian, 195
Nemunas, river, 34, 141

affluents of, 35
Newspapers, 71

German, 83

Odessa taken by Vytautas, 45
Origin of Lithuanian race, Aestian,

37
Oat currency, 122, 135

Pagan customs, 163-172

Pagan sanctuaries destroyed, 44

Painters, Lithuanian, 189

Palanga, port of, 28, 29

Peace Treaty with Russia, 1920, 98

Peat, use of, 128

Percentage of difierent races in

Lithuania, 17, 21, 124
Periodicals, revolutionary, 62
Philology, Lithuanian, 37
Pilsudski directing Zeligowski, 106
Plays, performance of, 72
Poland —

association with, 17, 32

partition of, 1793-5, 53
Polish election in Vilnius, 111
Polish-Lithuanian conflict, diary of,

209
Polish occupation of Vilnius, 17
Polish oHensive launched, 102
Polish pogrom in Vilnius, 112
Polish treacherous attack on Lithu-
anians, 99
Polish violations of line of demarca-
tion, 93, 111
Population statistics, 17, 20, 123

pre-war, 124

228

INDEX

Poets, pnnoipal Lithuanian, 183-4
Police agents, Bussian, 72
Policy, fiscal, 122
Pope contributes to Lithuanian

relief, 80
Ports of Palanga and Sventoji, 28
Press of the coimtry, 71
Prices of various commodities, 126
Priests, pagan, 164
Primitive cottages of Lithuania, 156
Primitive religion of the country,

163-72
Proclamation of Independence, 17,

92

Badvila Family, home of, 28
Badvila, Nicolai (the Black), 52
Badvila, Nicolas-Christopher, 52
Bailways, 140

Batification of independence, 94
Becognition dejure denied, 113

by Germany, 92

by U.S.A., 19
Reform, Agrarian, 129

central o£fice of, 130
Relief, measxires for, in war, 79-80
Religious degeneration, 49-50
Religious history, 49, 163-72
Religious reform, 50-1
Religious temperament of Lithu-
anians, 151
Rimgaudas, first Grand Duke, 41
Russia —

advance of 1914-5, 75-6

appropriates provinces of Lithu-
ania, 53

revolt against, by Lithuanians,
64

tyranny of, 55-61, 74
Russian deportations during war, 75
Russian edict of 1894, secret, 56
Russian law, adaptation of, 142
Russian police agents, 62
Russian Proclamation of Freedom,

67
Bussian requisitions during war, 75
Russian schools in Lithuania, 56-7
Russo-Lithuanian Peace Treaty, 17

Schools —

closed by Bussian order, 56
opened by educational societies,

70
Bussian, in Lithuania, 57

Sculptors, Lithuanian, 190

Secret associations, 62

Secret Bussian edict of 1894, 66

Social democrats, 95

Social Populists, 95

Societies —

agricultural, 74

co-operative, 138
Society —

Lithuanian, in Moscow, 71

of Fine Arts, 72-3
Songs, folk —

of Lithuania, 146, 151, 192

of the poet Kudirka, 66
Speech, suppression of Lithuanian,

57
State Council, formation of, 93
Statistics —

agricultviral, 124

educational, 69

industry, 132

trade, 134
Stockholm, Conference of, 1918, 91
Student associations, 64
Superstitions of the country, 151
Suvalki —

agreement of, 17, 207

climate of, 33
_ province of, 30
Sventoji, port of, 28, 29, 30

Tartars influenced by Lithuania, 45

Taryba proclaims independence, 92

Taxation, 127, 135

Telepathic phenomena, sensitive-
ness to, 170

Temperament, Lithuanian, 147

Temperance work, 70

Teutonic Order, struggles with the,
42-43

Tilsit, Treaty of, 33

Timber, 127-8
rafting, 141

Topography of the country, 20

Towns, principal, 21-32

Trade statistics, 134

U.S.A.—

Lithuanians in, 85

organizes " Lithuania Day," 79
University of Vilnius closed, 56

Vestal virgin, BirutS, 43
Villages destroyed by war, 77
Vilnius —

area of province, 21

as German headquarters, 81

Bolshevik occupation of, 99-100

climate of province, 33

Congress of, 69

Diet of, 1905, 85

evacuation of, 93

fire worship at, 105

history of town, 21-25

INDEX

329

Vilnius (continued) —

memorandum of, 1905, 67

Polish election in, 111

Polish pogrom in, 112

seat of Lithuanian Government,
100

university closed, 56

university of, 88
Vitenis, Grand Duke, 41
Vytautas —

ceded Memel, 32

defeated by Tartars, 45

extension of Lithuania under, 45

reign of, 44-6

restored ports of the country,
39

War-
devastations caused by, 74-6
Lithuania during the, 75-9
refugees, Lithuanian Committee
for, 79

Waterfalls, 134
Watershed of Lithuania, 34
Waterways, 141
Weaving —

flax fibre, 132

peasant, 133
Women and national development,

74
Wood, use of, for building, 128
Writers, Lithuanian, 145

Zeligowski —

captures Vilnius, 17

establishes Central Lithuanian
Government, 103

instigated by Polish Govern-
ment, 106

organization staff, statement,
218

proclamation defining Govern-
ment, 105

supplied from Warsaw, 106

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