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.

[DPB101]

Exactly. Most Baltic peoples, Eastern Europeans and Ukrainians are anticommunist. Bashing them is stupid. They all are forces in American politics. What do we want to do? Drive them to the RAT party? They suffered not only Hitler but decades more under the Soviets. If you want your email box full of the real history of the Soviet Union, find anyone from these areas and make a gesture of sympathy for what they went through. They don't hear it much. Check out the story of Olga M. Cehelska Ph.D.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935018/posts?page=116#116

Reply #126 has more of her family history.

[nightdriver]

"Palestinians would've had a homeland a long time ago if they would've used their minds and not bombs."

It goes back a lot farther than that, Mr. Jaffee.

Ishmael (father of the arabs) started out mocking little Isaac (father of the jews) and he has never quit. It's a law of nature that the illegitimate always persecutes the legitimate.

[varon]

LATVIA: YEAR OF HORROR

Thanks for the link.

[DPB101]

bump to read later - I am the granddaughter of a Lithuanian immigrant and I know nothing of her pre-American life

Good place to start looking:

http://www.lithuanian.net/index.html

[DPB101]

Fascinating history. Amazing there is a Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. After WWII, Lithuanian partisans continued to fight the Soviets for nearly 8 years. Moscow finally brought in Moslems from Chechnya to wipe them out.

[varon]

I don't want America boosting such nations or tearing them down, let them go to hell or let them prosper -- but above all mind our own business and stop selecting allies du jour to score points with ethnic hyphenated Americans.

You don't like anyone. You're just a sad lonely person, aren't you?

[Destro]

The article is completely reasonable. Last St. Paddy's Day Parade, I didn't see Irish carrying the Union Jack. Similarly, I wouldn't think you'd see Lithuanians carrying Soviet or Russian flags.

Why insert that into this? I made no such comment.

[HISSKGB]

Your blanket condemnation of Lithuanians is appalling. Your egocentricity is beyond belief.

[Destro]

Outside of America I am.

[Destro]

not really.

[stevejackson]

I insert this because of your "blanket condemnation of Lithuanians," as HISSKGB aptly puts it.

Some Irish fought with the Nazis. So should Ireland and Irish-Americans "go to hell," as you put it?

[Destro]

Don't select edit me. I also wrote "or let them prosper" right after. This article is propaganda of no particular value.

[stevejackson]

This article is propaganda of no particular value.

Propoganda about what? Seems there are several posters here who think it has value. Why shouldn't people be happy about being free from the Soviets and establishing a new democracy, which incidentally is friendly to the U.S.

[HISSKGB]

Your denial is instructive.

[1rudeboy]

Shouldn't you be on one of the Serb threads defending genocide, instead of feigning indignation that it happens?

[1rudeboy]

Some guy travels to Lithuania, writes about his trip, and our friend Destro reads it as Holocaust-denying propaganda.

[Destro]

Nice bait.

[1rudeboy]

Of course, because I'm a Nazi.

[Destro]

You are?

[1rudeboy]

Sure I am, Einstein. Because you say so. Along with the Germans, the French, the Poles, the Italians, and any other nationality who contributed to the Nazi War effort.