The 1919-1920 Lithuanian War of Liberation

• ResearchGate: knygos tekstas

ENResort to War, a book published in 2010 in the United States, discusses, among other wars, the 1919–1920 independence wars of two of the Baltic States – Estonia and Latvia. Unfortunately, the 1919–1920 Lithuanian War of Liberation is not found in the book. There is an article devoted solely to the 1920 Lithuanian–Polish War, but that was only part of Lithuania’s 1919–1920 independence war. For Lithuania, the war with Soviet Russia, the Bermontians and Poland was the one same war for independence on three fronts rather than three separate wars, especially with reference to 1919, when the army of the newly re-established Lithuania had to fight on three fronts at once. It should be noted that the war with Poland began in 1919 and continued until the end of 1920; it was not strictly a 1920 campaign. Besides, the article confuses the Lithuanian declarations of independence of 11 December 1917 and 16 February 1918. The book’s authors are apparently not familiar with historiography in languages other than English; thus, only one episode of the Lithuanian War of Liberation was included in this book. However, historiography about Lithuania’s War of Liberation is relatively plentiful, because the extremely difficult and, from Lithuania’s perspective, relatively successful war – which resulted in the state managing to defend its freedom and independence – raised interest in fights for independence, thus there are a fair number of publications in which various aspects of this time period are examined. The Lithuanian nation’s fight for, and aim of re-establishing, an independent Lithuanian state has been studied by Pranas Čepėnas in Naujųjų laikų Lietuvos istorija.Volume Two is especially valuable to us, as Čepėnas analyses the causes and course of World War I, the activities of Lithuanian refugees in Russia, the consequences of the Russian revolutions, the course of the German occupation in Lithuania, Lithuanian political activities under conditions of occupation, the circumstances surrounding the re-establishment of an independent Lithuanian state, and battles for independence with the Red Army, the Bermontians and the Poles. In Vytautas Lesčius’s monograph, Lietuvos kariuomenė nepriklausomybės kovose 1918–1920, battles with the Red Army, the Bermontians and the Poles are examined in detail. A large quantity of factual material has been collected in this monograph, and it contains many original battle diagrams. Battles with the Red Army and the Bermontians were also examined in depth by Kazys Ališauskas in Volume One of the monograph Kovos dėl Lietuvos nepriklausomybės 1918–1920. A detailed description of battles is presented here, as well, although it differs from Lesčius’s monograph in that it relies somewhat less on archival sources, because Ališauskas, in writing his work as an emigrant in the US, did not have the opportunity to use material located in Lithuania. However, he was a participant in those battles and had previously written multiple respected articles based on original military documents. The Lithuanians’ battles with the Bermontians were described fairly thoroughly by Aleksandras Baniusevičius in the article ‘Lietuvos kariuomenės kautynės su bermontininkais prie Radviliškio’ (‘The Lithuanian Army’s Battles against the Bermontians near Radviliškis’). During the inter-war years, several scholarly articles by participants of the independence war were published that relied on archival sources and the direct experience of battle participants.The French general Henri Albert Niessel, Head of the Inter-Allied Commission for the Baltic Region, which oversaw the withdrawal of the Germans, described the commission’s activities in his book, which was translated into Lithuanian in 1938 and published in Kaunas. It contains a number of interesting facts about the commission’s activities, how the commission’s members assessed the situation and so forth. The former commander of the Lithuanian armed forces, Division General Stasys Raštikis, has written about the independence battles and their fatality totals in his memoirs, especially in the third volume. Also worth mentioning is a 1929 article published in the journal "Vojna i Revoliucija" by Feliksas Baltušis-Žemaitis, who fought on the Bolshevik side. This article was translated into Lithuanian by Vytautas Steponaitis and published in the journal "Mūsų žinynas". The actions of the Red Army and the leadership of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in the struggle against the Lithuanian army have been examined in detail by Bronius Vaitkevičius. The Poles wrote a great deal about the battles with the Lithuanians. These are mostly historical works or memoirs about the battles that the Polish units fought against the Lithuanians. Of these, a work devoted to the history of the Polish Legions First Regiment should be mentioned. The Polish Legions Fifth Regiment had to fight the Lithuanians often, so a book dedicated to its history describes a fair number of episodes from battles between the Lithuanians and Poles. Major Jan Dąbrowski and Poruchik Adam Kiciński also described some interesting incidents from battles between the Lithuanians and Poles. Marceli Handelsman, a volunteer with the Polish Legions Fifth Regiment, wrote quite a bit in his memoirs about the Lithuanian army and combat against it [p.151-153].