LTReikšminiai žodžiai: G. Petkevičaitė-Bitė; Gabrielė Petkevičaitė; Lietuvos Respublika; Lietuvos seimas; Steigiamasis seimas; G. Petkevičaitė-Bitė; Gabrielė Petkevičaitė; Lithuanian Constitutional Assembly; Lithuanian parliament; The Constituent Seimas; The Republic of Lithuania.
ENAfter the elections to the Constituent Seimas, Gabrielė Petkevi- čaitė-Bitė, the oldest of all the members of the Seimas, was invited to preside at the first meeting, which was held on May 15, 1920 in Kaunas. Having thanked for the great honour, she greeted everyone and made a speech, in which she surveyed Lithuania’s difficult road to independence. The author of the report tries to find out, why Bitė, but not S. Ro- zenbaumas, who was her senior, opened the first sitting of the Seimas, and also the reasons of her sudden-resignation from the Seimas. [From the publication]