Griūvanti taika: Lietuva didžiojoje politikoje, 1934-1939 (1940)

LTMonografijoje analizuojama Antrojo pasaulinio karo išvakarių ir pradžios tarptautinė situacija Europoje ir Lietuvos santykis su vadinamąja didžią/а politika. Pasiremiant autentiškais šaltiniais ir naujausia istoriografija rekonstruojami tam tikri carinės imperijos geopolitikos fragmentai bolševikinės Rusijos (SSRS) veikloje tarpukario metais. Daug dėmesio skiriama Lietuvos politiniams diplomatiniams santykiams su Lenkija ir Prancūzija. Naujai nušviečiami Baltijos Antantės susiformavimo 1934 m. užkulisiai ir jos tarptautinė reikšmė, Kazio Škirpos ir jo šalininkų užmojis 1938—1939 m. sandūroje paversti Lietuvą Trečiojo reicho politiniu satelitu. Tiriama globali tarptautinių santykių krizės raida Europoje nuo nacių įsigalėjimo Vokietijoje iki Austrijos anšliuso, Čekoslovakijos sunaikinimo ir Klaipėdos aneksijos. Taip pat veikale gvildenamos Antrojo pasaulinio karo politinės priežastys ir aplinkybės, lietuvių nuožmi diplomatinė kova dėl Vilniaus ir kontroversiškas sostinės susigrąžinimas Ribbentropo-Molotovo pakto diskurse. Aptariamos sumenkusio Lietuvos suvereniteto pasekmės ir jos politinis įvaizdis Vakaruose po Raudonosios armijos bazių įkurdinimo. Apžvelgiamos sinchroniškos, bet nevienodos Lietuvos ir Prancūzijos žlugimo aplinkybės 1940 m. birželį. Kartu autorius kelia istorinės-politinės atsakomybės klausimą dėl Antrojo pasaulinio karo pradžios. [Anotacija knygoje]

ENThe theme of the book was primarily prompted by the rather intense debate of recent years about the causes of the Second World War and the agent that was politically and historically most responsible for starting it. For Lithuania, which suffered Soviet-Nazi-Soviet occupation as a result of the Second World War, lost its independence, and remained annexed by the USSR for almost half a century, the answers to these questions are particularly important. Taking historiographical research into account, I formulated the main objective of the book: to reconstruct the correlation of the most important political events of I934—1940 in Lithuania and Europe. This book is an attempt to answer the question whether the problems of Lithuanian foreign policy, their development in the mid-i930s, and the collapse of statehood at the beginning of the Second World War were a peripheral part of the overall European drama determined by its outcomes or it was a comparatively politically autonomous process, which to a large extent was controlled by Lithuania itself. In other words, did the state of Lithuania as a subject of international relations, its foreign policy, and diplomacy, operate in Europe more or less on the basis of the so-called big politics, as a natural part and continuation of it, or did it fail to adapt to the overall European context due to the specific national interests and the resulting goals, objectives, and issues of its foreign policy (the pursuit of international security guarantees, the retention of Klaipėda, the reclaiming of Vilnius) as well as to the tasks set for its national diplomacy? Was Lithuania a passive or an active, a bland or a sufficiently prominent participant in the political scene of Central and Eastern Europe between 1934 and 1940?.Between the wars, the issue of relations with Poland was fundamental and existential for Lithuania. One can say that the 1919-1920 conflict with Poland, during which the capital Vilnius and a third of the country’s territory (its south-eastern part) were de facto lost, encoded the foreign policy of inter-war Lithuania for the whole of the twentieth century. The struggle for Vilnius essentially became the calling card of Lithuanian foreign policy and diplomacy. The actual end of the war and the Lithuanian-Polish armistice signed in Kaunas late in November 1920 did not solve the problems. Lithuania continued to regard itself ‘at war’ with Poland. The situation did not improve much after to December 1927, the historic meeting between Voldemaras and Pilsudski in Geneva where Poland finally recognised Lithuania de jure, while Lithuania abandoned its ‘wartime status’ rhetoric and agreed to enter into negotiations on further normalisation of relations. Although the Little Border Treaty signed in 1928 renamed the demarcation line between the two countries as the ‘administrative line’ and facilitated economic activities of the border population, relations between the two countries remained tense. The two countries continued to have no formal diplomatic relations and the incidents ending in bloodshed were quite frequent at the border.From January 1928 to February 1938, there were around 150 incidents with consequences that that were severe to a greater or lesser degree : 77 times fire was opened on Lithuanian border guards, the residents of the border area, their homesteads, or simply the territory of Lithuania; 26 Lithuanian border policemen or other officers were kidnapped and released after interrogation, after a shorter or a longer period of time (in some cases, the kidnapped Lithuanian officers spent up to half a year in Polish captivity); 19 Lithuanian border policemen and border guards were wounded, beaten or mutilated, and seven border policemen or guards were shot or died of wounds in the line of duty. The contradictory and multifaceted political processes taking place in Europe in the 1930s affected, in one way or another, the peripheries away from their centre. On the one hand, they encouraged close following of these events, and on the other, they prompted attempts to adapt to them and to seek a new place of safety in the new geopolitical configurations. The Polish-German declaration of non-aggression signed in Berlin in January 1934 and the perceived thaw in relations between the two countries that followed had a significant impact on the political climate in Europe and caused concerns for Lithuania. Between 1934 and 1936, Lithuanian diplomacy matured the idea and actively sought to resume the political dialogue with Poland in order to legitimise and preserve the Vilnius problem and to normalise relations between the countries. To this end, the press of the right-wing anti-Smetona opposition in Kaunas revived an unofficial discussion about the return of the Vilnius region to Lithuania. [...]. [From the publication]