Ministro Juozo Urbšio laviravimas tarp rytų ir vakarų (1938 12 05-1940 06 16)

ENJuozas Urbšys was born on November 29, 1896, in Šeteiniai, Kėdainiai district. After graduating the gymnasium, he entered Riga Polytechnic Institute. During the First World War, Urbšys studied at a military school. While living in Riga and Moscow, he was actively involved with Lithuanian organizations there. In 1918, Urbšys returned to Lithuania and joined the army as a volunteer. Later, he worked at Lithuanian embassies in Berlin and Paris. From 1933 to 1934, Urbšys was appointed as a special envoy and authorized Minister in Latvia. From 1934 to 1938, he held the position of General Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After the failure of Minister Lozoraitis to regulate the severely strained relations between Lithuania and Germany, Urbšys was appointed the Minister of Foreign Affairs on December 5, 1938. His was the difficult task of dismantling all that had been done in foreign affairs for over 20 years. At the eve and the early days of the Second World War, Lithuania found itself to be situated between two aggressors, Nazis Germany and the Bolshevik Soviet Union. Juozas Urbšys believed in a policy of neutrality and that international law held the power to defend the independence of Lithuania. Juozas Urbšys first had to encountered the claims of Germany to Klaipėda lands. The Germans were force Lithuania into a position of offering the land to Germany at its own will. By upholding a strict stance of neutrality and refusing to offer the Germans a chance for negotiating a dependency status of Klaipėda lands, Urbšys was able to retain Klaipėda under the jurisdiction of Lithuania. Even at the expansion of German influence, Klaipėda lands had remained as Lithuanian territory. The unsuccessful efforts of Urbšys to meet with Ribentrop induced the Nazis to force Lithuania to their own will by threats.Events transpired such that on March 22, 1939 in Berlin, Urbšys and Ribentrop signed the treaty for the transfer of Klaipėda to Germany. The Germans pro vided some economic privileges to Lithuanians in Klaipėda, and attempted to draw the populace into the sphere of German influence. By 1939, Germany had already become the main foreign trading partner of Lithuania. When the Second World War began, the Lithuanian diplomatic corps failed to exploit the expedient opportunity for recovering Vilnius lands, which were legally part of Lithuania, from Poland. Soon after, Vilnius was occupied by the Red Army. This fact caused an alteration in the relations of Lithuania with Germany. Lithuania’s indecision prompted Germany to act, by agreeing to allow Moscow to take Lithuania under Russian influence as compensation, on September 28, 1939 in Poland. The majority of the Lithuanian diplomats of that time, including Juozas Urbšys, were intimidated from developing closer contacts with the Germans, and failed to comprehend the trickery of the Bolsheviks. Lithuanians believed in an appeal to justice, and preferred to continue friendly relations with the USSR. They failed to acknowledge that the time and preconditions for an advantageous relationship had been drastically changed. The Red Army had become an occupying force. Vilnius lands were employed as a decoy to lure Lithuania into the arms of the USSR without conflict. In the course of the negotiations taking place in Moscow from October 3 to 10, 1939, the Bolsheviks forced Urbšys to accept their terms. In exchange for the return of Vilnius lands, by then a considerably smaller territory than the one defined in the Treaty of July 12, 1920, the Lithuanian Government had to permit a temporary settlement of Russian military garrisons on Lithuanian territory. Anxious to reinstate Vilnius, their capital city, the Lithuanians accepted the conditions of Bolsheviks, as per the Pact of October 10, 1939.The date was to mark the beginning of long occupation. Lithuania lost its status of neutrality, and was unable to continue with an independent foreign policy. Once the negotiations with the Bolsheviks had been concluded, Urbšys timidly sought patronage in Germany in order to retain the self-dependence of Lithuania and to establish a counterbalance to the Soviet Union. However, Germany had little interest in Lithuania in 1940, because the focus of its attention was concentrated to the West. In a strategic ploy to gain wider integration, Lithuanian and Soviet Bolsheviks teamed up together to enact a seizure of Red Army soldiers in a frame-up, and accused the Lithuanian Government of the deed. Merkys and Urbšys went into negotiations with Molotov during the first half of June, 1940. There it was declared that Lithuania had apparently failed to adhere to the pact concluded with the USSR, and that the Lithuanian Government could not be considered pro-Soviet. On June 14, 1940, Molotov delivered an ultimatum to Urbšys to form a new Government, and bring the heads of Lithuanian Internal Affairs and Security, Skučas and Povilaitis, to trial. Furthermore, the ultimatum demanded unrestricted entry for new Red Army units into Lithuania within 24 hours. Urbšys attempted to find possibilities for softening the categorical attitude of the Bolsheviks, but the statement of Molotov was severe and brief: „If Lithuania delays in providing answer, Moscow will accomplish its demands in its own way and by its own means.“ Urbšys was among those members of the Lithuanian Government, who agreed to accept the ultimatum. On June 15,1940, the Red Army entered Lithuania. On June 17, 1940, Urbšys and his wife were exiled to Siberia and imprisoned until 1945. When Urbšys returned to Lithuania, he was unable to find employment. The former Minister earned his living by translating literary works from French, and wrote his memoirs. Juozas Urbšys died on April 30, 1991, in Kaunas.

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• Lietuvos okupacija ir aneksija 1939-1940: dokumentų rinkinys. Vilnius : Mintis, 1993. 407 p.