Polish example in the restoration of the Lithuanian State (August 1917 - July 1918)

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ENWhen speaking about the importance of the declaration adopted by the Council of Lithuania on 11 December 1917 in the context of the restoration of Lithuania's independence, I am often asked: why was the Act of 16 February 1918 important if both documents declared "the independence of Lithuania"? I usually answer by referring to Stanislovas Narutavičius who asserted, "when we declare independence, we refuse all the claims of others" (Lietuvos Valstybės Tarybos protokolai 1991, 49). The key point here is "we declare independence". This phrase first appeared and found its way to the documents of the Council of Lithuania only after the German kaiser granted his recognition to Lithuania on 23 March 1918. Until then the concept "to proclaim Lithuania's independence" was used while preparing for the Lithuanian conference in Vilnius and in the course of it as well as during other Lithuanian conferences abroad (in Stockholm, Lausanne and Bern); however, it was not always stated who was supposed to do it. The concept of proclamation and the context of the use of this term in the oral statements and resolutions of Lithuanian politicians encouraged me to investigate to what extent the Polish example was important in the restoration of the Lithuanian state and to find out whether Lithuanian politicians expected to obtain a document similar to the "proclamation" issued to Poland on 5 November 1916 (Polen war durch die Keiser-Proklamacion vom 5. November 1916 bereits als selbständiger Staat anerkannt worden) (Baumgart 1966). Key words: Lithuania, Poland, Council of Lithuania, State Council of Lithuania, declaration of independence, Jurgis Šaulys. [Extract, p. 70]