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Lithuania and the Provisional Government

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

John F. Cadzow*
Affiliation:
Kent State University

Extract

The Provisional Government, which held power from March to November 1917, had little effect on Lithuania. This was not due to the Russian government's attempt to carry on the war in the midst of internal rebellion and general chaos, but rather to Lithuania's having been overrun by the German army, which occupied the country for the entire period. Nevertheless, this period provides a glimpse into the forces at work, which were to effect profoundly Lithuania to the present. The Lithuanians were trying to establish an independent state of their own against the wishes of the Poles, Russians, and Germans, and in order to understand the situation properly, it is necessary to go back much further in history.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the Study of Nationalities, 1975 

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References

Notes

1 Oswald. P. Backus, “The Impact of the Baltic and Finnic People Upon Russian History,” Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 1 (New York, 1973), p. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 The Catechism by Martynas Mažvydas was published in Koenigsberg in 1547 and had been accepted generally as the first publication in Lithuanian. However, recently the text of a prayer published in 1503 has been discovered in the library of the University of Vilnius This pushed back the date of the first publication over four decades, nevertheless, because of the religious content it reemphasized the importance of the Reformation to the Lithuanian language.Google Scholar

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5 Up to this point East Prussia was the center for Lithuanian publication and at the University of Koenigsberg a good deal of attention was paid to Lithuanian literature. Almost all of the population of this area at this time used the Lithuanian language. “Rytu Prusijos Lietuviai,” Mazoji Lietuviskoji Tarybine Enciklopedija, III,(Vilnius: Mintis, 1971), p. 91. Further reference to Mazoji Lietuyiskoji Tarybine Enciklopedija will be MLTE.Google Scholar

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26 Some were of very short duration, while others lasted until World War II. The names were compelled from a section, “Periodiniu Leidiniu Rodyklė,” which appeared at the end of Vincas Kapsukas Raštai. Only the first seven volumes were used. R. Maliukevičius, ed., Vincas Kapsukas Raštai, I-VII,(Vilnius: Vaga, 1964). In addition, the three volumes of MLTE were used; and Aužuolaitis' “Literatur der Litauer,” Allgemeine litauische Rundschau, (Tilsit: No. 1, January, 1910), pp. 26–31.Google Scholar

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30 Polnoe Sobraniie Zakonov Rossiiskoi Imperii, (sobranie vtoroe), XLI, No. 44, 012. Henceforth cited as Pol. Sob. Zak. Google Scholar

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34 Milosz, Czeslaw, Native Realm, (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1968), p. 96.Google Scholar

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38 For further discussion on this aspect see V. Merkys, “Lietuvos Miestu Gyventoju Tautybes XIX a. Pabaigoje–XXa. Pradzioje Klausimu,” Lietuvos TSR Mokslu Akademijos Darbai, Series A, 2(5), 1958, 85.Google Scholar

39 Riech, November 1, 1907, p. 5.Google Scholar

40 Saltinis, January 3, 1908, p. 13.Google Scholar

41 Gosudarstvennaia Duma. Stenograficheskie otchety, (St. Petersburg: Gosudarstvennaia Tipografiia, 1906–1916). III, 1, II, 2500. The Roman and Arabic numbers represent the Duma, session, part, and page or column respectively. Hereafter cited as Stenog. ot. Google Scholar

42 Stenog. ot., III, 3, I, 2708.Google Scholar

43 Stenog. ot., III, Index, 16.Google Scholar

44 Stenog. ot., passim; Howard P. Kennard, ed., The Russian Yearbook for 1912, (London; Eyre & Spottiswoode, Ltd., 1913), pp. 727–729.Google Scholar

45 Kubilius, Juozas, Viltininko Mintys, (Kaunas: Spindulys, 1929), pp. 281–232.Google Scholar

46 Bielinis, Kipras, Penktieji Metal, (New York: Lietuviu Enciklopedijos spaustuvé, 1959), p. 232. Bielinis was a leader of the Social Democratic Party. After being expelled from school in 1902, he joined the Social Democratic Party in Lithuania and actively fought the Russian government. He was arrested in Nobember 1907, survived hard labor in Riga and, in 1912, was exiled to Siberia but escaped following the revolution of February 1917. Bielinis then temporarily became the secretary of the Lithuanian Commissariat in Moscow. From 1922–1926 he was a member of the first, second and third seimas in which he spoke out in behalf of his socialist principles. After the right wing takeover in 1926, Bielinis withdrew from active politics but with the Soviet and German occupations he once again became involved. In 1949 he emigrated to the United States where he worked fostering Lithuanianism until his death in 1965. In addtion to the above, see Bielinis, Dienojant; J. Viks, “Kipra Bielini Prisiminus,” Mintis, I, No. 1, 1971, 53–68.Google Scholar

47 Pol. Sob. Zak. (sobr. tretie), XXV, No. 26, 803.Google Scholar

48 For the complete text see Kairys, To Thee, Lithuania, pp. 91–92, or Ziugzda, Lithuanian SSR Historical Sources, pp. 390–392.Google Scholar

49 Thomas G. Chase, The Story of Lithuania, (New York: Stratford House, 1946), p. 260.Google Scholar

50 Kochan, Lionel, Russia in Revolution 1890–1918, (New York: The New American Library, 19657, p. 219.Google Scholar

51 Robert Paul Browder and Alexander F. Kerensky, eds., The Russian Provisional Government 1917, I, (Standford: Stanford University Press, 1961), p. 317.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., p. 319.Google Scholar

53 Ibid., pp. 319, 320.Google Scholar