Partisan general Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas
EN[...] Jonas Žemaitis was a child of the first generation of the independence; he went to a Lithuanian primary school and secondart school (gymnasium), was able to see with his own eyes the state of Lithuania growing: the year 1922 saw the adoption of the first democratic Constitution, introduction of a national currency, passing of many mandatory economic laws, a true breakthrough in agriculture - land reform that turned Lithuanian rural populace into farmers and led to establishing thousands of new settler farms: the parcelling of manors, including the division of villages into homesteads, covered about 56% of the whole of the country’s territory. This reform was instrumental in modernising the domestic economy: if, with the war approaching its end, roughly 35% of all tillable land in the country ravaged by war and occupation was virgin soil, in 1921 this ratio was a mere 6%. In 1922 already, Lithuania went back to the pre-war level in terms of crop and grain harvest, and even surpassed that level when it comes to the volume of livestock. In 1924-1925, Lithuania’s industry returned to its pre-war productivity as well. Education flourished; by early 1923, the number of schools doubled, and the number of pupils tripled (up to 117,000). Key governmental bodies operating in Lithuanian were established, and a fast-growing athletic movement began. The tertiary course in Kaunas soon evolved into the Lithuanian University, which was opened on 16 February 1922. In less than two decades, it raised 3,700 specialists, scholars, educators. The Lithuanian language attained the status of the national language of the civil institutions and the official language of the government, its ministries, the military, science, and research. New traditions were born, with the first national song festival taking place in Kaunas in 1924.The first census of Lithuania’s residents that took place on 17 September 1923 showed that the country’s population was 2,028,971 (exclusive of Vilnius and Klaipėda regions). Lithuanians accounted for 82%, Jews 7%, Germans 4%, Poles 3%, Russians 2.3% of the total population. The ethnic minorities were free to foster their language and culture. Lithuania was an agricultural country, 84% of its population living in rural areas and Lithuanians accounting for 91% of all rural inhabitants. The professions in the country were largely represented by Lithuanians, with Jewish entrepreneurs traditionally dominating the export and import sector; on top of that, Jews owned 83% of all trade companies, compared to 13% owned by Lithuanians. At the time, around 330,000 Lithuanians were living in the US (180,000 of them born in Lithuania), another 100,000 in the Vilnius region and Lithuania Minor (mainly the region of Klaipėda) each, yet another 6,000 in England. During the years of independence, thousands of expats returned to Lithuania and were buying land, starting businesses, launching industrial companies and banks. Transfers from US Lithuanians accounted for 1/10 of the Lithuanian national budget, political movements of the diaspora were funding Lithuanian political parties, collecting donations for the efforts to build the state and its culture. The young Jonas Žemaitis and dozens of thousands of young people saw Lithuania getting back on its feet, and the only matter left unresolved was the destiny of Vilnius as the historical capital: it was occupied by Poland; in early 1923, however, success was achieved in incorporating Klaipėda, which had been sliced off Germany under the Versailles Treaty - that way, Lithuania got its own Baltic seaport. These two regions belonging to Lithuania was the most critical issue Lithuania and its diplomatic service had to address over two whole decades.Unfortunately, after Lithuania’s independence had been defended on the battlefield, the period of peace and creative work was but brief. The Soviet Union and Germany signed a non-aggression pact and the secret protocols in Moscow on 23 August 1939 spelled the fate of the Baltic states, the Republic of Lithuania among them, and the Nazi-Soviet conspiracy was finally sealed on September 28 with the boundary and friendship treaty and several more secret protocols. On 15 June 1940, the USSR government violated international law and every bilateral agreement, issued an ultimatum demanding that the government be replaced and an unlimited number of Red Army troops be stationed in the country, trespassed the border of Lithuania and occupied its entire territory. After the Germany-USSR war began on 22 June 1941, the Nazis replaced the Soviet invaders who returned to Lithuania in 1944; only this time, contrary to 1940, they were met with an armed opposition from the Lithuanian nation. The first partisan territorial units to combat the Soviet invaders already started appearing in the fall of 1944, and Lithuanian people fought an unequal fight against the USSR’s repressive units for nearly 10 years. Tens of thousands of Lithuanian men left their homes for partisan territorial units, one of them being Jonas Žemaitis, one of the most prominent figures of the Lithuanian nation, a talented soldier, a renowned organiser and unifier of partisan armed forces who was appointed to lead the national resistance. The international situation permitting, if Lithuania broke free from the Soviet occupation after February 1949, before a democratic Parliament of Lithuania is formed, the post of the President of the Republic of Lithuania would be held by the Chairman of the MSFL Council’s Presidium. [...].
