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Only one in five mortals had ties to the Communists, two did not belong to any organization, and two were … members of prosmetonic organizations. They were not the culprits or the fiercest instigators of the riots.
But after 1936. In early May, A. Smetona offered the nation a “gingerbread”, a new law on parliamentary elections (and the hope of having democratic representation), and wanted to show the whip to the president. Something had to be fired.
Don’t hesitate to spill blood
“My dear parents, Sister Bronyte, Birutuka and Brother Ignatuk (…) were sentenced to shoot us. The decision will be enforced on the 23rd in the morning. The four of us will fall into a well and no one will find our grave. We cannot say goodbye to you directly, nor do you say goodbye, so I say goodbye through these lines, “wrote one of the participants in the Suwalki farmers’ strike / riot, who was sentenced to death in his last letter to their families.
He was the son of wealthy farmers (51 hectares), the “spring man” (Catholic youth organization) Alfonsas Petrauskas. *
That day, 1936. May 23 – it is worth remembering that A.Smetona was not just a “velvet dictator”. That he was ready for the government to spill the blood of his compatriots, let in moderate portions. And not just the political opponents who had acted before his presidency, who seemed to have realized the risks of rebelling against the “father of the nation.” If necessary, he scrupulously dealt with the “salt of the earth”: the farmers, who made up the majority of the country’s population, the peasants, who were overwhelmed only by the entire economic and social situation of the state, the behavior of the government during the crisis. And perhaps he made a terrible mistake, in addition to the financial requirements, in mentioning the free elections to the Seimas …
Perhaps this execution is not surprising, because the bloodless uprisings in Lithuania ended together with democracy, immediately after 1926. The December coup. During his time, President Kazys Grinius agreed to resign himself, believing that he was behaving in a noble and majestic manner.
Believing that no publication is worthy of human lives and a possible civil war in the country, perhaps even the invasion of a hostile neighboring state. Unfortunately, this “reluctance” to bloodshed by the December 17 coup is often attributed to him as an expression of alleged weakness.
* The letter was quoted by Juozas Gaila – Gailevičius and the historian Sigita Černevičiūtė.
Photo by A.Baranauskas and A.Vienuolis-Žukauskas Memorial Museum / Armored vehicles and tanks from the December 17 coup in the Lithuanian Armed Forces
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