The Statehood Tradition of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Political Agenda of the Lithuanian National Movement: Theory and Practice

Abstract

The article analyses links of the statehood tradition of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the political agenda of the Lithuanian national movement which have not been specifically discussed in the Lithuanian or Polish historiography concerning the movement in question. The article aims at identifying and discussing theoretical and practical aspects, attempts to determine the impact of those links on the political targets of the Lithuanian national movement during its different stages and on the final wording of the statehood of Lithuania. It claims that in the first (cultural) stage of the national movement there were changes in the environment of the movement shifting from the statehood tradition of the GDL towards a modern wording of statehood based on ethnic values. Such shifts were determined by the changing concept of what is Lithuanian. The second stage of transition from cultural to political content directly faced the issue of prospects for the state of Lithuania. Stronger emphasis was laid on negative consequences of the „union“ for the statehood of the GDL and the relationship with Poland was straightforwardly identified as a cause for the downfall of the GDL statehood. Given such position the axis of the political agenda of the Lithuanian national movement became the aim stipulated in the decision of the Great Sejm of Vilnius of 1905 concerning the autonomy of Lithuania within its ethnographic boundaries. Following the close of this stage in the environment of the Lithuanian national movement the statehood tradition of the GDL was further used as a tool whenever it was necessary to provide grounds for the Lithuanian nation’s right to political independence. The article states that due to the changing context of the political life in Russia at that period and due to the international „issue of Poland“ on the eve of the First World War, individual moments of the statehood tradition of the GDL were used instrumentally in 1905–1915 as well. They were identified both in the political agenda of the national movement and used in political practice. During the years of the First World War, when the geopolitical status of Lithuania underwent changes, the influence of the tradition in question diminished. Leaders of the Lithuanian national movement attempting to forestall the possibility of restoring national ties between Poland and Lithuania actually waived their plans to implement the statehood model of the GDL. However, even renouncing Historical Lithuania in the Act of February 16th the same leaders of the Lithuanian national movement declared restoring „an independent state of Lithuania based on democracy and with capital in Vilnius“ and thus declared its link with the statehood tradition of the GDL. The author supports the opinion of Römer that the Lithuanian national movement had historical ambitions to maintain this continuation and „to build Lithuania not as a new creation but only to restore and revive it“. The said scholar referred to the „requirement of Vilnius, the capital of Historical Lithuania, and its association with the political restoration of Lithuania“ as a manifestation of such ambitions. This tendency might be noticed in the political practice of the Lithuanian national movement of 1905–1918. In that period activists of the Lithuanian national movement more openly related the statehood tradition of the GDL with the acquisition of Vilnius as the historical capital.