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.

[nopardons]

Historical facts should never be cherrypicked, twisted, nor revised. Things happen in chronological order. Each and every side has its bias; however, blaming sunsiquent events, attempting to claim that supporting of someone BEFORE the " bad " stuff happened, makes the the act " bad ", is fallacious ; at best.

Just keep posting the facts and let them stand on thier owm merit. The heck with the emotional malcontents.

[AlexW]

"If you're looking for a place in europe to vacation, think about vacationing in these New Europe countries

Come to Slovakia, my new second home...No visa required, and cost is a fraction of US and western Europe.

[DPB101]

Try posting the facts of terrorism between 1878 and 1917 and see what happens. The first attempted use of a plane for terrorism was hatched in Russia--the commies tried to crash a plane into the Tsar's palace 8 years before the Bolshevik revolution.

[stevejackson]

Each and every side has its bias and there were no innocent parties in Europe

There were Lithuanian collaborators (both with the Nazi's and with Russians). As there were Dutch ones, Italian ones, as well as American commies and Nazi's at the time, too.

There always are. They come out of the woodwork when evil rears up. I know I don't have to say this, but I will: The fact that a people has some collaborators doesn't condemn the whole group (and all their descendents).

[nopardons]

And the anarchists were cheerfully going all over Europe, attempting to blow up prominant buildings ( often filled with people )and/or trying to ( often succeeding !) stab or shot various presidents,emperors, emporesses, kings, queens, and archdukes/duchesses. Emperess Elizabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was stabbed to death in a railways station. The Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his morganistic wife were shot to death in Sarajevo ( sp ? ). Need I continue ?

[DPB101]

Apparently you have to say that because some people believe, as a matter of religious faith, they were and are observers on history and did not participate in history. The liberal mindset--always a victim: "I wasn't doin' nuthing officer!"

[nopardons]

Well said. Thanks !

[Destro]

Nope, as someone with this kind of "marketing" training seeing an article that mentioned New Europe and Lithuania by an American Jew without mention of the Nazi past (and present - for a vocal minority) made me think this article was written in search of (or justification for) an agenda. Dare I say, a neocon agenda?

[nopardons]

When Nazis took over some nations, some collaborated and some fought them; the same is true of when the Commies took over.

[stevejackson]

What groups are funding the publication of said articles-giving them a forum?

Please enlighten us to this grand conspiracy perpetrated by some guy who goes to Lithuania to visit family. Are the "neocons" Nazi's, too?

[Destro]

The Rumsfeldians neocon new Europe title tells a lot.

[stevejackson]

The Rumsfeldians neocon new Europe title tells a lot.

You've opened my eyes. The Bush administration is really a bunch of Nazi's engineering a Fourth Reich. Glad I've been straightened out.

[nopardons]

You're a patanoid delusional. What on earth do you even mean by your post and do YOU even know ?

[stevejackson]

Now that we know that Bush/Rummy/Condi/et al are Nazi's, isn't it strange how the Bush administration is, pragmatically speaking, the most pro-Israel admin in history (thank goodness for Israel).

[nopardons]

ROTFLMSO !

Some few, around here ( person/s shall remain nameless to protect them from their own abject and utter stupidity ) remain blinkered, blinded, deaf, and benumbed by the wads of tinfoil they wrap themselves in, I guess. LOL

Oh yes, we live in a " police state ", President Bush and his entire administration are Nazis, and we , we poor mortals just can't comprehend things, as they REALLY are, because only , ONLY , those with special gifts, not to mention the dread decoder rings ( I ASKE THAT THEY NOT BE MENTIONED ! )are able to know and to understand these things. (/sarcasm )

[nopardons]

( ASKED

[Cacique]

A thread on one of those "Eskimo" countries.

[Destro]

not Nazi but Trotsky. In addition in order to sing the praises of New Europe, we need to overlook some things about their old history.

Which is why this article fails to mention recent history.

[nopardons]

Which countries in particular ? You paint with far too broad a brush and wildly so.

[stevejackson]

not Nazi but Trotsky

Another revelation? So you're saying that Bush is really a hardcore Marxist-Leninist (Trotsky). Not a Nazi? Or Bush is a Nazi and a communist?

In addition in order to sing the praises of New Europe, we need to overlook some things about their old history.

Hardly anyone on this board is overlooking anything. I looked at the source website of this article, and it is very pro-Israel as well as promising further discussion of Lithuania's past (Nazi and communist accomplices).

Which is why this article fails to mention recent history.

First everyone's denying the Holocaust. Now they're denying what in "recent history?"