Dr. Leono Bistro užsienio politikos koncepcijos raida (1926 04 21-06 14)

ENDr. Leonas Bistras was one of the most eminent members of the Christian Democratic Party between the First and Second World Wars. He reached his political and social zenith in the middle of the third decade. On September 25, 1925, he was appointed Prime Minister and the Minister of National Defense of the twelfth Government. On April 21, 1926, after the resignation of Mečislovas Reinys, he took the portfolio of the Minister of Foreign Affairs into his disposal. Leonas Bistras held this office until the third Seimas was elected, and the Liaudininkai and Social Democrat coalition Government was formed on June 15, 1926. Bistras had to manage the foreign policy of Lithuania during the time that Europe was going through significant political changes, the time of the Locarno Conference and the Rhine Guarantee Pact. The latter reinforced status quo in West Europe, however it revealed the security problems of East Europe. Bistras was among those politicians, who regarded the results of the Locarno Conference as disadvantageous to Lithuania and Poland. It was assumed that after the Locarno Conference, Poland would not be able to ignore the revisionist goals of Germany, and would have to agree to “territorial compromises and compensations”. Bistras considered such a political tendency to be a direct political danger to the state, fearing that the “compensations” might be wrested at Lithuania’s expense. It was expected, that by taking advantage of Poland’s conflicts with Germany and the USSR, the danger might be neutralized. Therefore, Bistras set about to improve Lithuania’s relations with Germany and the USSR. He developed a diplomatic dialogue with Berlin and started to negotiate the conclusion of bilateral non aggression pact with Moscow. Moreover, Bistras intended to fully exploit the situation, and reanimate and internationalize the Vilnius question, which had been falling into oblivion.Worthy of note is that the political outlook of Bistras was influenced by d’Munnynck, a professor at Fribourg University, and Šalkauskis, a Lithuanian philosopher. They had been discussing the concept of a specific geopolitical situation and, consequently, of specific targets of the foreign policy of Lithuania. Such ideas influenced Bistras interpret and define Lithuania as a connecting link between the East and West, primarily between Germany and Russia (the USSR). Bistras began taking an increasingly more hostile stance toward those countries over time. From the late 1930’s to early in the 1940’s, the then, ex-Minister was strict in his criticism of a foreign policy orientation towards Germany and the USSR. On the other hand, he supported the reinforcement of relations with Latvia and Estonia, and diffusion of the conflict with Poland. Bistras acknowledged the fact that an anti-Polish policy was no longer of use to Lithuania. According to him, such a position on the part of Lithuania only served to complicate relations with Poland, and caused the country to suffer economic losses, while .at the same time, losing out on possible profits from its political flirtation with Germany and the USSR. Bistras also proposed to not exaggerate the Vilnius question, nor identify it as a major trends of Lithuanian foreign policy. Although Bistras was the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a short period of time, he enriched Lithuanian diplomacy with his original ideas and projections of validity and rationality, which are still subject of lively discussion to this day. There is no doubt, that the initiatives made in the early 1940’s by Bistras attained a much easier conclusion of the Baltic Concord on September 12, 1934 in Geneva.Bistras predicted that the Baltic Concord would serve to reinforce the international authority of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and assure an influence by these countries to the United Nations. His forecast was partly fulfilled. The features which distinguished the political thinking and activities of Bistras were dynamism, the search for compromises, and the aim to analyze and control the international situation of Lithuania. Political stagnation and reconciliation with the flow of events were not acceptable to him. The concepts, cherished by Bistras, achieved a more elastic and trustworthy foreign policy and made Lithuania more resistant to international upheavals. During the years of Soviet occupation, Dr. Leonas Bistras was exiled to Soviet concentration camps, twice. When he returned to Lithuania after his second exile in 1954, he settled in Kaunas. Bistras died in this town on October 18, 1971.

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