- April 12, 2013
- 283
‘Lithuania is facing Polish occupation’ – the new face of Lithuanian nationalism
Polish occupation threatens Lithuania. To counter this, the country should become the place of a national revolution that has already started and is in progress now, and it is only a matter of time when it reaches its peak.
By no means is it a harbinger of a political science fiction novel, but such conclusion can be drawn after hearing the reading of one of the leaders of ‘Sajudis’, a signatory of the Act of Independence, the deputy in the first government of independent Lithuania, a communist, Soviet collaborator and journalist, who is today one of the nationalist political leaders, Romualdas Ozolas.
With his extensive lecture delivered on 22 April in Vilnius Teachers’ House also begs a conclusion that the Lithuanians themselves are guilty of the current situation, but the biggest culprit is Poland and Poles.
‘Poland, in addition to our own servility, is the largest and most important danger for Lithuania’ – says Romualdas Ozolas. And although the author of the lecture notes that also Russia, Belarus and Germany are threats to this country, he devoted to them only a very little attention, and focused mainly on the Polish threat.
Ozolas, known for his skepticism, or rather for considering the EU as a threat to national existence of the Lithuanian state, argues that at a time when the European Union disintegrates, Poland will immediately ‘re-occupy the eastern Lithuania (the Vilnius region – ed.), and will take over the entire Lithuania ‘. The United States legitimize the occupation because of the fact that Poland is a faithful European ally for them. This is not a new opinion of Romualdas Ozolas, as he has been talking about it for several years and on every occasion. One of them were the defense plans prepared in 2010 by NATO in case of Russian aggression against the allied countries. As you know, according to the plans, the Polish military divisions would be the first to stand up for Lithuania.
‘In other words, with the action plan, NATO will allow the Polish army to enter our territory and act as if we were part of Poland. Hearing our question, of course, the whole world would begin to prove that it is unreasonable and foolish. However, Lithuania has several centuries of experience remembers that Poland, telling Lithuanians about the threat of Russian aggression, occupied some parts of the Lithuanian state, and in 1791 forced them to legally dissolve the state. Not to mention the breaking of the Suwalki Agreement in 1920. Coming once, Poles, as do the rest of the Slavs, do not like to go out’. In 2010, Ozolas argued and appealed to the authorities to reject the NATO defense plans.
We tried to find some expert from the outside of the Ozolas’ political circle, who could confirm fears of the reading’s author, or argue with him. Our interviewees, however, either ‘did not know’ his position, or did not want to ‘seriously’ comment on that matter, which they believe is hardly a political one…
Meanwhile Ozolas believes that ‘in the history of almost thousand years the Polish- Lithuanian relations, Poland, as a country, never acted fairly towards Lithuania”. Treating Poland as a strategic partner, according to Ozolas, is an anachronistic revival of the period when they regained independence.
‘We have to openly say that Poland was not, is not and can not be, not only a strategic partner but also any partner at all’ – Ozolas said in his lecture. He also thinks that the situation has gone so far that there is no turning back.
‘The conflict is now a fact, and it would be better to let it manifest itself fully now, as long as the European Union has not yet been in a total chaos’ – says Ozolas, but he also does not lose hope that Lithuania will still oppose the ‘Polish imperialism’. His hopes are pinned mainly on the participants of the traditional march down the main street of Vilnius, in which we can find nationalists, skinheads and neo-Nazis under the slogan “Lithuania for Lithuanians’. And even though this year’s march was unsanctioned by law, the organizers has recently attracted more attention of the Lithuanian authorities. President Dalia Grybauskaite called the participants ‘the national youth’ and The head of the Vilnius Police said openly that he does not intend to punish the organizers of the illegal march as ‘he is delighted with the event.’
Meanwhile, Ozolas claims that the march of March 11 is the spark that will ignite a real revolution which will lead to a national liberation. As is clear from reading, the release is going to be be very difficult because the Lithuanian national existence is threatened not only by Poland, but also the Belarusian claims of historical heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, including the capital of the duchy – Vilnius. In the same time, according to Ozolas, the German claims pose a threat to Klajpeda, which is already taking on a German character. Ozolas paid the least attention to Russia and the potential risks on is part.
‘Oh I will not speak of Russia – it has had the desire to be normal and even beneficial for our neighbor for long. It’s like there is wasn’t Russia at all (…)’- says Ozolas, noting the fact that the non-existence of Russia, however, is far from the black hole of emptiness.
We can only be surprised by Ozolas’ skipping the Russian threat, especially given the fact that Russia, in the words of its former representative by NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, does not hide that in the event of any military turmoil, she would again occupy ‘the Baltic States, including Lithuania.
Tłumaczenie Emil Iracki w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Emil Iracki within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.
