Live from the New Europe: Reporting from Lithuania

netWMD (netwmd.com) ^ | June 23, 2003 | Andrew Jaffee

[forty_years]

Live from the New Europe: Reporting from Lithuania By Andrew L. Jaffee, June 23, 2003	Home   Search   Forum   Terms

I've haven't been back to Lithuania in seventeen years. Lithuania: my mother's homeland. In typical American fashion, Lithuania is only one of my ancestral ties. But I'm so glad it is one of those ties. It has given me great strength and helped me to appreciate the great gift that is the United States.

After getting off the plane last Wednesday in Vilnius, the capital city, two things struck me. First of all, there are no more Russian/Soviet soldiers patrolling the streets. Second, the are no more statues of Lenin and no more communist propaganda billboards. In Soviet times, these massive, red billboards were everywhere. They were there to remind the Lithuanian people who was boss: the Russian communists. And if you didn't like it, there were plenty of Russian troops to convince you otherwise. KGB (Soviet secret police) headquarters was situated in the city center, as a not-so-subtle reminder to anyone who believed in Lithuanian self-determination.

Russians poured into Lithuanian under Soviet occupation in an attempt to ethnically dilute or overwhelm the indigenous population. They came not only because the Russian/Soviet government subsidized their emigration, but because life was better in the Baltic because Lithuanians, Latvians, and Estonians worked so hard, and had tasted democracy briefly from 1918 to 1940. Political decisions were made in Moscow or by trusted Lithuanian collaborators installed by their Russian/Soviet patrons. Dissent against Russian rule was punishable by death or expulsion to Siberian gulags. There was no free press and no free political system.

Sound familiar? Apartheid? The Third Reich? The British Raj in India? American dislocation of Indians during early U.S. expansion? Where were all the "Liberals" when Russians were squashing the self-determination of Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Moldavians, Kazaks, Turkens, Armenians, etc? Were "Liberals" espousing what the pigs did in Orwell's Animal Farm?--i.e., "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.". Sounds like discrimination to me.

The Russian occupiers have been thrown out. No more statues of Lenin. They were all torn down by jubilant but peaceful Lithuanian crowds (remind you of... Saddam?). No more communist billboards. All gone.

Now you only hear Russian spoken infrequently (and kids aren't forced to learn it in school). When you hear it, it is spoken by Russians who live here by choice or by Russian tourists who travel here by choice. And they are welcome because Lithuanians are a civilized people who have chosen to govern themselves through democracy. Notice I'm emphasizing concepts of free will in boldface.

Just yesterday, my Lithuanian relatives and I returned from Nida, a beautiful vacation resort on the Baltic Sea. While there, we enjoyed a Lithuanian folk festival held in celebration of the summer solstice. While there were many traditional Lithuanian folk performances, the festival organizers also invited Russian folk groups to participate. I thought it was mighty tolerant of Lithuanians to invite Russians to participate, especially knowing the history of Russian tsarist and communist aggression against their country.

There is a lesson in this for all peoples. The Lithuanian struggle against oppression was a peaceful one. Their democratic revolution in the late 80's and early 90's was fought with the pen, with meetings, with peaceful demonstrations, and with politics--even though the Russians responded with violence. Lithuanians didn't blow up buses full of Russian civilians. They fought the good fight.

Just think. Palestinians would've had a homeland a long time ago if they would've used their minds and not bombs. And they have been fighting a sympathetic and democratic "enemy." You know why that is? It is because Palestinian leadership (and unfortunately many Palestinian civilians) are not democratic nor are they interested in democracy. When will they learn?

I will try to continue reporting from Lithuania as best I can. Please check back to netWMD for further commentary.

[forty_years]

In ten years, France and Germany will be worse shit-holes than they are now, and countries like Lithuania will be the ones that count.

[xrp]

Palestinians would've had a homeland a long time ago

55 years ago and counting...

[Destro]

I guess the time when they helped the Nazis kill all those Jews doesn't get a mention in this article...

[VVS]

The most absurd blame game that nationalist governments
of post communist East Europe keep playing still is the
one to encourage hate against russians to
escape their own responsibilities for failures in economic reforms and extreme corruption. First of all,communist
is a political movement ,it is not a nationality.
Russians were themselves the victims of communism,and
communist party no longer rules Russia and it's neighbors.
It is idiotic to come up to a regular russian who never
had any affiliation with communist party or it's policy
and bitch about crimes of communism
that his people are responsible for. So,they hate russians
forever,then? There is no limit to hypocrisy in the Baltics,
with almost half of their economy being tied to CIS.
They love to get russian oil,yet spew hate to russians behind their backs. What is the democracy,when most of
ethnic slavs like russians and belorussians have no rights and no citizenship in 3 baltic states? who is practicing an Apartheid? russians? I think not..

[dfwgator]

Their democratic revolution in the late 80's and early 90's was fought with the pen, with meetings, with peaceful demonstrations, and with politics--even though the Russians responded with violence.

If there was a leader that should have stood trial, it was Gorbachev for ordering the Vilnius massacre.

[Destro]

Indeed.

[HostileTerritory]

Jaffe is a Jewish name... if he chose not to bring the Holocaust up in this article I don't think this implies any kind of whitewashing.

[Destro]

Me thinks thou doest protesteth too much....

[McGavin999]

If you're looking for a place in europe to vacation, think about vacationing in these New Europe countries. They deserve American tourist dollars, would appreciate them, and you'd have a wonderful time being among people who actually like and respect Americans.

[Destro]

Accusing the Lithuanians of single-handedly exterminating all the Jews in their country is an outright lie.

Of course it is! Duh! Everyone knows the Nazis helped them out.

[Destro]

Nice attempt at deflection--but the Lithuanians were not bystanders but active participators in the liquidation of the Jews.

[Destro]

some did--more like a vast majority did.