Lithuania, Romania and the great powers (1938-2007): bonds, parallels, confluences
ENThis chapter aims at reconstructing the main trends of Romanian‐Lithuanian relationships starting with 1938‐1939, meaningful and dramatic years in the history of East‐Central Europe whose symbol remains the secret annexes of the Molotov‐ Ribbentrop Pact, with tragic consequences upon the two countries, up to 2007, when Romania was accepted into the European Union, thus completing the fifth wave of enlargement that started in May 2004 when Lithuania had also been accepted in the EU. Their relation is looked at from the perspective of their bonds with neighbouring Great Powers, which played such an important role in the dynamics of their evolution during the 20th century and beyond. This statement is not to be understood as a deterministic approach, as small states such as Lithuania proved capable to play such an important role in the downfall of a mighty superpower as the Soviet Union. A peculiar attention is paid to the period 1938‐1940. We choose to focus on this time because of the importance it played for the two countries and its consequences on the Romanian‐ Lithuanian relations. This interval can be also documented with archival records, which cannot be said about the years 1990‐2007. This study draws on researches which I started 15 years ago as a Ph.D. dissertation dealing with Romania’s relations with the Baltic states during the interwar period and continues to this day. A volume of documents dedicated to the Romanian‐Lithuanian relations has been published281, as well as a special issue of Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies282 and a monograph dedicated to the history of Lithuania283. In the meantime, new documents have become available, which are used in writing this chapter. [Extract, p. 140
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