Lithuania's declarations of secession from Russia: by whom, where, when and why were they published?

• Daugpilio universitetas: numerio tekstas

ENThe research object spans six texts referred to as the declarations of secession from Russia in historiography and/or the sources, namely the declaration of Lithuanian deputies in the State Duma to Alexander Kerensky of 28 August 1917; the declaration of the Council of Lithuania of 11 December 1917; the Lithuanian National Councilí's (in Lausanne) declaration of secession from Russia announced by the Lithuanian Information Bureau on 25 December 1917; the declaration of the authorized representatives of Lithuanian parties in the Third Lithuanian Conference in Stockholm of 6 January 1918; the text on secession from Russia telegraphed by the Council of Lithuania to the negotiations in Brest Litovsk on 26 January 1918; the resolution of the Council of Lithuania of 16 February 1918. The circumstances of adopting the above declarations and their importance in restoring the independent state and shaping the approach towards Lithuania in the international domain also constitute the object of the research. The research chronology covers the period from August 1917 when the Lithuanian press in Russia unambiguously stated that "Lithuania will not participate in the Russian Constituent Assembly but will convoke its Assembly in Vilnius" to 19 February 1918 when the resolution of 16 February 1918 adopted by the Council of Lithuania was published in the newspaper Lietuvos aidas. The research is innovative, because this is the first time when all Lithuania's declarations of secession from Russia are collected and their importance in restoring the state of Lithuania is evaluated.The research is based on unpublished sources kept in the Political Archives of the German Foreign Office (PAAA, f. RZ201) and the Manuscript Department of the Vilnius University Library. It also builds upon published sources: "The Minutes of the State Council of Lithuania" [Lietuvos Valstybės Tarybos protokolai], "The Council of Lithuania and Restoration of the Independent State of Lithuania in the Documents of 1914-1920" [Lietuvos Taryba ir nepriklausomos valstybės kūrimas 1914-1920 metų dokumentuose], "The Process of Restoration of the State of Lithuania, July - December 1917" [Lietuvos valstybės atkūrimo procesas 1917 m. liepa-gruodis], the periodicals Lietuvių balsas (Petrograd, Voronezh), Santara (Petrograd, Voronezh), Darbo balsas (Vilnius), Tėvynės sargas (Vilnius), Lietuvos aidas (Vilnius) as well as the latest Lithuanian historiography. The research resorted to the methods of qualitative analysis and synthesis (the new material of the sources was supplemented with the information circulating in historiography), the comparative method (the information published in Lithuanian periodicals was compared with that found in the documents of the Council of Lithuania), the descriptive method. To process the primary sources in Lithuanian, German, and French languages, the logical-analytical method was applied (the notional content and information analysis was conducted). The aim of the research is to investigate the declarations of Lithuaniaís secession from Russia and to evaluate their importance in restoring the state of Lithuania. Key words: Council of Lithuania, Lithuanian National Council (in Lausanne), Lithuania, Vilnius, Stockholm, State Duma (Russian Empire), Russia, Moscow. [Extract, p. 49]