Lietuvos valstybingumas XX amžiuje : atkūrimas ir tęstinumas

• Bauža, Česlovas
• Setkauskis, Petras

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: 20 amžius; Nepriklausomybė; Tauta; Okupacija; The Lithuanian XX c. history; The Independence; The Nation; Occupation.

ENThe political aspirations of Lithuania to restore its state self-dependence were realized after the end of World War I and collapse of imperial European states. The favourable international circumstances promoted a modern form of the national state independence, the Republic of Lithuania. In the years between the two world wars the Lithuanian nation made an economic and cultural advance, yet it was also confronted with territorial and political allegations of neighbouring states and in summer of 1940 it was occupied and incorporated by the USSR. The Nazi occupation and the subsequent Soviet reoccupation ruined the hopes of restoration of independence for long. After the war Lithuanian partisans struggled for their state independence and suffered a tragic defeat followed by a silent resistance of most of the nation against the Soviet oppression. Some people joined the underground activities of dissidents. The Catholic Church played an important role in the oppositional movement. The Lithuanian emigration exerted every effort to restore the freedom of the occupied motherland. The Governments of the USA, France, etc., and broad public of democratic world supported the aspirations of Lithuanian nation.Under the conditions of the crisis of communist system the Soviet government assumed the policy of reforms, which is known as the Gorbachev’s reorganization. The leading Lithuanian representatives of art, science and intelligentsia took advatage of liberalization of political regime and in 1988 established the Lithuanian ‘Sąjūdis’ - the national front for Freedom, Democracy, and Self-Dependence. These events began the national revival. In February-March of 1990 ‘Sąjūdis’ won the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the LSSR. The Communist Party of Lithuania, which separated from Moscow, made no efforts to hinder the restoration of state self-dependence by parliamentary means. The hostile forces were too weak to impede the adoption of the Act of Lithuanian State Restoration on March 11,1990, which by the political, legal, and historical implications was related with the Resolution of 1918 on restoration of state self-dependence. These two legal events established the fundamentals of Lithuanian state and national identity. After the defeat of the communist coup d’etat of August 1991, in Moscow the Republic of Lithuania resumed its position as a subject of international law and politics, was recognized as a member of international community and admitted to the UN. All this meant the de facto and de jure recognition .of Lithuanian state self-dependence. [From the publication]