[ad_1]
The professor points out that although the formation of the Sąjūdis became an important factor that allowed Lithuania to regain its independence, the conditions for the emergence of this movement were created by the policy of “perestroika” initiated by the then leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev.
For the Soviet Union, the democratization and modernization processes of “perestroika” ended in a collapse, and for the nations, which were then especially mature, they opened up the hope of peaceful efforts to eliminate the consequences of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In this last pact, in their secret protocols, Nazi Germany and the USSR shared spheres of influence: they were divided over who should go to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.
“In 1988-1989, the main objective of the Lithuanian Restructuring Movement, as well as the Popular Fronts of Latvia and Estonia, was for the highest authorities of the USSR to officially recognize the secret agreements of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. After all, the Congress of People’s Deputies of the Soviet Union at the end of 1989 recognized its existence, thus providing a basis for international law to seek to eliminate that injustice, the act of aggression and annexation carried out by the USSR. The recognition of the pact exposed the lie that the Baltic states had voluntarily joined the Soviet Union. Then since 1989. In the fall of 1990, it was clear that during or after the next elections to the Supreme Council of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (which would take place to end of February 1990), the question of independence would probably arise ”, says the prehistory of the Law of March 11. A. Kulakauskas .
Popular movements and fronts similar to the Sąjūdis were formed not only in the Baltic States, but also in Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Azerbaijan. According to the professor, the Lithuanian people kept in touch with these fronts and, for example, Petras Vaitiekūnas, an active member of the Sąjūdis and future signatory, diplomat and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Law of Restoration of Independence of March 11, He was the man who informally organized and coordinated the press to the popular fronts of the republics and regions of the Union and to the opposition in general, publishing in Lithuania and sending it to recipients throughout the USSR.
Teacher. Antanas Kulakauskas had to contribute to the drafting of the Lithuanian Independence Restoration Act informally, in absentia, mainly through his friend Vytenis Povilas Andriukaitis, elected deputy of the Lithuanian Supreme Council; According to him, there were many discussions, hesitations, whether to declare independence which initially sought greater autonomy within the USSR. It was decided not to wait: Lithuanian diplomats in Washington agreed. With them, including Stasys Lozoraitis, the then adviser to the Lithuanian Embassy in the United States, the management of Sąjūdis and Vytautas Landsbergis had a telephone conversation.
“The fact is that in February 1990, the former Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic had already declared illegal the 1940 acts of accession of our country to the USSR. Therefore, according to the Lithuanian legal system, the affiliation of the country to the Soviet Union was illegal. The question was raised whether to immediately and unilaterally declare a “divorce” or adopt a law declaring membership in the USSR illegal, declaring the aspiration to independence and starting negotiations on practical implementation aspiration. After all, the enactment of the law is one, but there are issues of the army, gas, electricity and other issues, “recalls the historian.
Of course, even after the eventual decision to declare the restoration of independence and the fact that the independence of the USSR was illegal and was being abolished, the Soviet Union itself did not immediately recognize these abolitions. However, according to the principles of international law, Lithuania had the right to become an independent state again, because the independence of the country declared by the Law of February 16 was illegally revoked.
“In other words, March 11 Lithuania is a continuation of February 16 Lithuania. It is the same state system, in terms of government. Therefore, after the proclamation of the Act of Restoration of Independence, it was restored for a short time, almost twenty minutes, the Constitution of 1938, the last Constitution of that first independent Republic. Of course, it could not work because it no longer complied with the social and economic order of that time, so it was soon replaced by the provisional Constitution “, he explains the professor, noting that for diplomatic reasons.After all, this last act did not restore the Grand Duchy of Lithuania: the state was recreated.
Apart from the Baltic states, no one in the rest of the Soviet Union raised the question of independence until the 1990s. “But in Moscow there was a fierce struggle between the more liberal people and the conservative part of the communist leadership, who did not he wanted to change nothing, because he saw that when the Soviet Union began to change, it could completely collapse. They were right, but they did everything possible to make their predictions come true, ”says the historian.
Teacher. According to A. Kulakauskas, Lithuania’s decision to declare the restoration of independence exacerbated the crisis situation in the Soviet Union, more than in Latvia or Estonia. Lithuania declared its full independence in March 1990, and neighboring Baltic states recognized its membership in the USSR in May, only autonomous. Latvia and Estonia declared their independence for the second time in 1991. in August, after the Moscow coup.
However, it is a bit of an exaggeration to say that our country played a decisive role in the collapse of the USSR; it would be more accurate to say that Lithuania accelerated the union’s disintegration processes. “If Boris Yeltsin, the then leader of the Russian SSF, had agreed with Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union could not have collapsed. Of course, the Baltic states would be independent and other Soviet republics would probably have remained in the restructured union.” says the historian.
Evaluating the path taken by Lithuania during the last three decades after the restoration of independence, recalling the expectations of the Sąjūdis, prof. A. Kulakauskas assures that, as often happens during the period of great changes, I had to be disappointed by this, for example, people expected sudden positive changes, quality of life, equal to the Scandinavian countries. However, progress in many areas has been even better than expected.
“Of course, then no one seriously thought that Lithuania would be a member of NATO. The European Union did not exist at the time. We thought that we would be an independent and separate state that amicably coexists with both the East and the West. But the world was not in that. direction, and for Lithuania, as for other Baltic countries, joining the EU and NATO was vital to follow the path of Western civilization, which regressed in the 13th century, and to avoid dependence in Russia. We are a country. small, we have to respect, whether we like it or not, the biggest policies, especially since we are in the eastern fringe of the West, ”commented the professor from the Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy of the VMU.
