Lietuvos trispalvė virš kareivinių

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Karinė įgula; Kareivinės; Šauktiniai; Kovos simbolika; Karinis miestelis; Military garrison; Barracks; Conscripts; Cantonment.

ENThe regular forces of the Lithuanian Army marched into Klaipėda on 20 February 1923. Originally the garrison consisted of the 7th Infantry Regiment named after Samogitian Duke Butegeidis; its units stayed in Klaipėda and Šilutė until 30 April 1934. After that, the regiment was transferred to Tauragė, and in Klaipėda, the 6th Infantry Regiment named after Pilėnai Duke Margis was restored on the basis of one battalion of 7th Regiment. It was stationed in Klaipėda barracks until 1939. The barracks left to the Lithuanian Army by the French garrison were quite modern in comparison with other barracks in Lithuania: they had running water, sewerage, electricity, and central heating. The 7th Infantry Regiment, that was formed in 1919 and took an active part in Lithuania’s fight for independence, in 1923 arrived in the city where the German language predominated and where part of the local population were rather hostile to the Lithuanian Army and even to the state of Lithuania. As early as in the spring of 1923, the soldiers of the Regiment had to suppress disturbances in Klaipėda; several clashes of the army and the townspeople resulted in casualties. In the late 1924, Klaipėda garrison was prepared for an attack of the barracks organized by local revisionists underground. However, more serious clashes were avoided, and the organizers of the planned attacks were detained. Anyway, chilly relations between the garrison of the Lithuanian Army and most of the local residents in Klaipėda continued until 1939, especially due to the martial law introduced after the coup d'etat in Kaunas at the end of December 1926.In fact, Klaipėda garrison was not merely a military, but also a cultural outpost of Lithuania in the region annexed in 1923 and managed as an autonomous region. Not a single celebration of the Republic of Lithuania took place in the city without the participation of the military men. The most important occasions included the 15th of January (the Day of Klaipėda “Liberation”), the 16th of February (celebration of Lithuania’s Independence), and the ceremonies of National Holidays on the 15th of May and the 8,h of September. Beside national holidays, Klaipėda garrison celebrated the Regiment Day, and in 1929 and 1936, the regiments stationed in the barracks were handed'Cross of Vytis Colours. The garrison had uproarious New Year celebrations and during Christmas would traditionally enjoy gifts from the local Lithuanian community. Each Sunday, accompanied by a military band, the garrison troops marched to the churches of the city, and the band frequently delighted both the military personnel and the townspeople. The moral aspect of the dance parties in the garrison due to participation of hookers in them led to discussions between military people in the military press. The routine of Lithuanian soldiers and the daily life in the barracks was governed by a strict daily regime and regular trainings. One activity that young men of the garrison could undertake outside the framework of military regulations was sports. In 1926, a football team of the Klaipėda garrison and local Lithuanians Sport Union K.S.S. was formed, with the predomination of the regiment soldiers; in the interwar, it became a Lithuanian football champion 6 times, and vice-champion another three times.In the interwar period, the garrison was open to the community. All three Song Festivals of Lithuania Minor (1927,1933, and 1938) - one of the most significant cultural events held by Lithuanian organizations in the interwar period - took place in the parade ground of the barracks, with the principal platform installed under the open sky. During the festivals, both the garrison troops and city residents heard several hundred or even thousand of choir singers performing Lithuanian songs and also saw some outstanding representatives of the Lithuanian national movement, such as Vydūnas (Wilhelm Storasta), Martynas Jankus, and others. In 1924, Dr Jonas Basanavičius, called the patriarch of the national movement in Lithuania, and poet Jonas Mačiulis-Maironis visited Klaipėda barracks. In the interwar period, officers with great merits to Lithuanian archaeology, Col. Petras Tarasenka and Lt.-Gen. Vladas Nagevičius, as well as some others, also lived in the barracks. Paradoxically, Lithuania, having acquired a port on the Baltic Sea in 1923, continued to form the garrison in its only port city Klaipėda out of grand forces and did not develop its navy. A training warship Prezidentas Smetona was more of a symbol; it did not have artillery cannons and therefore was not even able to perform representative functions - to salute to foreign warships arriving at Klaipėda port. Over 16 years, Klaipėda was visited by battleships or even their squadrons from the USA, USSR, Great Britain, Latvia, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Therefore, the function of the 21-Gun Salute, when meeting warships was performed in the same way as in representing Lithuania for infantry forces. [...]. [From the publication]