The Lithuanian reaction to the loss of Klaipėda and the combined gift of Soviet "security assistance" and Vilnius
ENTo regard the interwar Klaipėda (Memel) and Vilnius (Wilno, Vilna) questions as problems specific to Lithuania alone would be incorrect. It would be more accurate to regard both issues, including the restoration of the Lithuanian state itself, as general symptoms of the crisis of the Versailles system. It is hardly possible to understand the reaction of the Lithuanian government and public to the Klaipėda and Vilnius questions by analysing them in isolation from the general context of the development of European political structures during the twentieth century. Arnold Toynbee was among the first to note the close connection between the Klaipėda and Vilnius questions. Subsequently, Alfred Senn extensively examined this link. Admittedly, both of these authors stress the political-diplomatic aspect of Lithuania’s problems that was clear during the years following the end of the Great War. However, it appears that Lithuania’s problems had deeper conceptual grounds too. Of course, we may see the main idea of the Versailles system as democratising Europe’s political-state structure, but the practical implementation of such an aim came up against great difficulties. Following the collapse of the German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires and the foundation in their wake of a structure of nation states, the lack of a balance of power became obvious. Unfortunately, the new states did not become agents of stability, as one of the chief creators of the Versailles system, American president Woodrow Wilson, had hoped. The new states were simply too small and weak to stand up to reactionary pressure from imperial forces. Moreover, the civilising potential of these states was insufficient for them to be able to integrate the territories they inherited from the former empires in a democratic manner.The view that the two world wars were in fact a single phenomenon beginning in 1914 and ending in 1945 is not without grounds. Meanwhile, the interwar period can be regarded as a sort of truce, accompanied by constant pressure and uncertainty, which was interrupted from time to time by local conflicts. In one way or another, the case of Lithuania with its Klaipėda and Vilnius questions seems to justify such a view. [...]. [Extract, p. 167-169]
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