Daktaro Juozo Purickio politinė veikla Vilniaus klausimu

LTLietuvos diplomato, visuomenės veikėjo bei įžymaus žurnalisto dr. Juozo Purickio (1883-1934) politinėje veikloje Vilniaus klausimu, manyčiau, reikėtų išskirti du periodus. Tai laikotarpis, kai jis aktyviai dalyvavo Lietuvos nepriklausomos valstybės atkūrimo veikloje Šveicarijoje ir dirbo Lietuvos Respublikos užsienio reikalų ministru; bei laikotarpis, kai, pasitraukęs iš tiesioginių pareigų Užsienio reikalų ministerijoje, ėmėsi žurnalisto plunksnos. Pirmuoju laikotarpiu jam, kaip valstybei atstovaujančiam politikui, reikėjo konkrečiai spręsti atgimstančios ir nepriklausomybės siekiančios valstybės problemas, o antruoju laikotarpiu jis tapo visuomenės nuomonės ir jos siekių propagandistu, samprotavimų dėl Vilniaus susigrąžinimo skelbėju. [p. 12].

ENDr. Juozas Purickis (1883-1934), a famous Lithuanian political and public figure, a minister of foreign affairs (1920-1921), a delegate in negotiations with neighboring countries, a co-author of many international treaties and other state documents and a well-known journalist, was directly involved in the solution of the problem of the Lithuanian and Polish relations and the belonging of the Vilnius territory as part of his everyday activities. It was due to his diplomatic skills that Lithuania had achieved its recognition as an independent state on international level and resisted the diplomatic efforts of the Entente countries to bring Lithuania under Poland’s subordination in the negotiations in Brussels when the League of Nations attempted to establish the eastern boundary of the Lithuanian state on the basis of P. Hyman’s territorial administrative plan. Having withdrawn from politics and become a worker of press, an editor of newspapers and a very productive journalist, J. Purickis wrote a lot on the Vilnius matter in Lithuanian press. He continued to assert that Vilnius was a historical and traditional capital city of Lithuania, while Vilnija was the territory inhabited by Lithuanians, and that under no circumstances Lithuania could renounce its own land and culture. He supported normalization of relations with Poland only on condition that it admits Vilnius to Lithuania. Without seeing any such possibility in reality, already in 1925 he prophetically foresaw that Lithuania might succeed in regaining Vilnius only upon favorable development of international political relations. In his opinion, until this happens, Lithuania should improve relations with neighbors, the Baltic states, Finland and the Soviet Union by means of diplomacy, treaties and other undertakings.