Lietuvos kariuomenė valstybės politinio gyvenimo verpetuose (1927-1940)

LTPo 1926 m. gruodžio 17 d. perversmo, Lietuvos kariuomenės vaidmuo Lietuvos politiniame gyvenime itin išaugo. Knygoje analizuojama Lietuvos karininkijos įtaka svarbiausiems valstybės politiniams įvykiams iki pat nepriklausomybės netekimo. Autorius pateikia daug papildomos statistinės informacijos knygos prieduose. Leidinys iliustruotas dokumentinėmis to meto fotografijomis. [Anotacija knygoje]

ENIn the political life of the First Republic of Lithuania, the army played a rather important role. It became obvious after the coup d’etat of December 17, 1926, the chief initiators of which were military officers. After the upheaval the officers as well as all the army became one of the main supports of Antanas Smetona’s authoritarian regime. Relying on the officers loyal to the Tautininkai (Nationalists) party and using different military institutions, the system of the authoritarian regime had been formed which provided for more than 13 years of its existence until the failure in resistance to strong external forces that caused the occupation of the State of Lithuania. In spite of the system’s efficiency, the leaders of the regime happened to undergo various and rather abundant shocks. However, in most cases the foult was with the officers themselves. It is important to stress that this social layer was not monolithic, not all officers supported the new regime, and some of them supported other political forces in the government. Therel ore the life of the Republic was often disturbed by numerous revolts and putsches. Such actions could hardly be justified. Having evaluated their consequences, it is possible to claim that the events served for the consolidation of Smetona’s government in 1927- 1940. The thesis overviews the process of the military politization and politics on the basis of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of the army. The army is discussed as the main support of Smetona’s authoritarian regime on the basis of the analysis of the war state, the activity of military commandant’s headquarters, courts-martial, military censorship, etc. It evaluates Smetona’s and the officers’ relationship after the coup d’etat of December 17, 1926, up to the Soviet occupation in 1940.The work also discusses the image of military officers focusing not only on the positive factors and the improvement of the relationship with society but also on their role in the political events of 1938 — 1940. In 1927 - 1940 frequent alterations took place in the government of the army having a negative impact on the army control, structural modifications and activity organization. In the analysed period, among eight Ministers of National Defence there were three army commanders and seven staff chiefs. Only at the beginning of 1935, when the Law of the Military Government came into force, the situation got stabilized. The new law defined the structure of the army government and both the rights and the duties of the highest military government, i.e. the President of the Republic, the Minister of National Defence and the Army Commander were specified. In the army, the consistent reorganization and modernization process began which evoked alterations both in the structure and dislocation of the army. After the coup d’etat of December 17, 1926 a diminished number of the soldiers observed until 1926 had undergone its gradual increase thus answering the demands of the Republic of Lithuania and fitting the mobilization possibilities. Although, in the case of war, according to the theoretical calculations, the number of the mobilized soldiers should seek 250-300 thousand men, in practice, the number was limited to 125 433.Such amount corresponded the register number of the mobilized reserves of the Army of Lithuania, e.g. in the division account ofDecember 1,1937, 125 604 mobilized soldiers were registered. From the point of view of nationality, the contingent of the soldiers was rather mixed; however, the officer body with few exceptions remained Lithuanian, in which one may trace the impact of the state nationalist dictatorship. In fact, the proportions of the soldier data corresponded the general proportions of Lithuania s census of 1923: in 1934 there were 89.67 % of Lithuanian soldiers in the army (the census data maintains that people of Lithuanian nationality made 83.88 %) the Jews — 4.25 % and 7.58 % respectively; the Polish-0.21 %and3.23 %; the Russians - 2.61 % and 2.49 %; the Germans - 2.68 % and 1.44 %; the Latvians — 0.49 % and 0.73 %; the Bielorusians 0.04 % and 0.22 %. In 1934, the number of Lithuanian officers made 98.54 %; officers of Jewish origin - 0.08 %, officers of Polish origin - none, officers of Russian origin — 0.62 %, officers of German origin — 0.08 %, officers of Latvian origin - 0.08 %, officers of Bielorusian origin -0.30%. At the beginning of the discussed period, the level of illiteracy in the army was rather high: nearly 40 % of them were illiterate. To sum up, the educational work among the soldiers was, in fact, done improperly. In 1928, when the obligatory primary teaching was introduced in the state and when the educational work in the army was intensified, in ten years, considerably higher educational indices were fixed. In 1937, the member of illiterate soldiers decreased to 2.98 %. The officers, in their turn, demonstrated a much higher level of intelligence. To say more, it was one of the reasons of their activity in the political life of the country. [...]. [From the publication]