Antanas Smetona was Stalin's spy

"Discussions regarding the monument to Antanas Smetona are ongoing. Without them, it is difficult to imagine a very clear decision, especially one based on the greatest possible consensus. And in order to make a decision not so much emotionally as rationally, it is necessary to answer several questions.

 

First would be more of a procedural issue. Who decides about the monuments, and actually about the politics of history in Lithuania, because monuments are an essential part of such politics. In any case, the people from the municipality in Vilnius have already decided, so it seems there is nothing more to discuss. And in general, the prevailing opinion in Lithuania is that monuments are the competence of municipalities of cities and towns.

 

If we were to imagine that the initiatives were decentralized, but the Lithuanian government or the Seimas had a say (final or advisory on the necessity or conformity of one or another monument to the history policy), then such fragmentation of the history policy would be avoided, when each district can supposedly have its own history policy. Such as we see in Širvintai or Ukmergė. But it cannot be ruled out that we will be able to see similar politicians in Šalčininkai, Kėdainiai or Pagėgiai.

 

Obviously, we don't have a consensus on a unified history policy. Maybe there is no need for such a consensus. But we must not allow situations to arise, when the politics of history is stretched across districts through monuments, and when it is necessary to think not about the construction of monuments, but their demolition, as happened in Ukmergė.

 

Now specifically questions about A. Smetona.

 

1. It is probably not worth doubting that Smetona became a symbol of that era, that successful Lithuania. According to Vytautas Kavolis, Smetona led the national revival of Lithuania, and later the reaction that took hold, and for the longest time - independent Lithuania, Smetona is a symbol whose positive contribution is commitment to his country. Similarly, Algirdas Julius Greimas said that Smetona is needed "so that everyone can still deny him and so that he can assert Lithuania's independence with his constancy."

 

A lot has already been written about this and it is not worth expanding. You just have to always keep in mind the question, how much was Smetona's merit, and how much was the nation's? So that we today, looking from the perspectives of the present, do not attribute everything, including the successful development of the nation, to the merits of the leader of the nation alone. So that we do not create personality cults in the history of Lithuania.

 

2. In the discussions about the history of Lithuania between the two world wars, especially in the deliberations of non-professionals, there is a lot of counterfactual history - what if it had happened (for example, if there was no Smetona, it would have been bad; if there had been no coup of 1926, the Russians would have been there). It should not be played with and presented as arguments, because in any case it will always remain only speculation.

 

3. One of the most important questions, which should concern us the most in today's context, is the known facts about how the Smetona family (Sofija Smetonienė's signatures are preserved on the receipt sheets) regularly, every week, received money from the USSR embassy, usually from the first secretary The hands of David Skalov, who was also the head of the Soviet spy agency in Lithuania. With this money until 1926 the nationalists of the coup financed the publishing of their press publications "Tautos vairas" and "Lietuvis", as well as avoiding prison sentences. The Soviets also provided the nationalist leaders with the necessary information and literature. Soviet support, coordinated activities of Moscow diplomats and nationalists strengthened the latter's influence in Lithuanian politics. As the Soviet envoy in Kaunas, Sergej Aleksandrovskis, boasted to the Kremlin, the nationalists work very efficiently and are extremely useful to the Soviets (Russian: "их работа отдыходно ценна для нас").

 

By the way, the leaders of the nationalists A. Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras back in 1923, it was to the Soviet diplomats. at the beginning they admitted that they were thinking about a coup. And on the night of the coup, D. Skalovas was in A. Smetona's apartment and talked with S. Smetonienė about the future political power in Lithuania.

 

We don't know if - or when - the payments ended. But we can probably all agree that Soviet money is a fundamental issue and problem. Because we need to answer, how do we rate? Are we ignoring it? Do we think this is a death sentence for the monument? Each monument carries a moral, a moral burden. So what is the moral of the Smetona monument, a lesson for the future? That, under certain personal or party circumstances, funding from the Kremlin is acceptable in the state of Lithuania?

 

4. Another problem is raised by Dainius Žalimos. He reminded that the Council of the Lithuanian Freedom Struggle Movement in 1949 February 16 in the declaration committed to follow the democratic 1922 The Constitution, which was despised by A. Smetona and other revolutionaries. This is the problem of the relationship between Lithuanian partisans and President Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas' declaration with an appeal to democratic Lithuania and Smetona's undemocratic Lithuania. How do we measure this relationship? Who are we with - Žemaitis-Vytautas or Smetona? What is the ideal of Lithuania?

 

5. 1940 in June, after the Soviets demanded that they be prosecuted for alleged espionage, i.e. i.e. arrest and to the Soviets, the head of the State Security Department Augustinas Povilaitis and the Minister of the Interior Kazimieras Skučas, A. Smetona did not object. How do we assess the betrayal of state officials to the Soviets, i.e. to their doom?

 

6. Finally, recently Kęstutis Girniaus recalled Smetona's Pro memoria, which the president wrote in East Prussia in 1940 after leaving Lithuania. in July In it, the leader of the nation devoted a lot of space to his personal affairs, but you would not find concern for the occupied state and nation. An authentic document reveals Smetona's thinking and state at the time. How would we rate it?

 

So, there are a lot of problematic things. They are not insignificant. They are very important for the identity of Lithuanian history. Good to see the discussion reignited. It does not need to be interrupted. We need to talk and, ideally, agree more or less by consensus whether we push for the construction of the monument to Smetona or postpone it for the future."