Last December, Lithuanian MPs were debating a resolution on naming 2013 the year of the recovery of Klaipėda region. Historians then pointed out that Klaipėda was not “recovered” – it was not lost and had never been part of any Lithuanian state. So the resolution dropped the word “recovery” and now 2013 is simply the year of Klaipėda region. In official greetings and speeches, however, everyone still refers to a “recovery”.
Vasilijus Safronovas, senior research fellow at Klaipėda University's Institute of Baltic Region History and Archaeology, talks to 15min about the events in 1923.
“What recovery are you talking about?” the historian insists. “Are we still espousing the same 90-year-old legend – which was relevant between the wars – that we came back and reclaimed our lands? Let me ask you this – whenever were these lands part of Lithuania? Klaipėda was a town founded by the German Order in the 13th century. For two centuries after that, Lithuanians would occasionally come and burn everything down. I do not think that these ambushes could be used as evidence that it was part of Lithuania. And in 1422, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania itself acknowledged that Klaipėda belonged to the German Order.”
– But that does not diminish the significance of the annexation of Klaipėda?
– Indeed, it was an important move. It was believed at the time that every state that had access to a sea and could use it for trade was economically independent.
This conviction was what inspired to annex Klaipėda region. Ernestas Galvanauskas, who was Lithuania's prime minister at the time, took it upon himself to arrange the takeover. Author Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, who was the chairman of the Shooters' Union, joined him.
– How did the local population, which was largely German-speaking, took the annexation?
– It would be inaccurate to say that they took it positively. Most were rather neutral, but some were quite negative. Industrialists and traders of Klaipėda had hoped that the river Nemunas would be internationalized. That did not happen. This meant they would not be receiving timber from Poland. At the time, much preparation had been done to declare Klaipėda region a so-called Freistaat – free state. And here come the Lithuanians and upset all plans.
– The economy of the region was not going through its best times. Perhaps then, at least economically, Klaipėda was better off becoming part of Lithuania?
– It is a fact that Klaipėda region was going through a decline – as was entire Germany. The city used the same currency as Germany. And the year 1922 marked the peak of economic crisis in Germany. People would be paid their salaries in bags of inflated money.
– How did the locals identify themselves?
– It is hard to tell – the first census to ask people's nationality was not carried out until 1925. Before, all censuses, carried out by the German government, had only noted one's religion and mother tongue. Ant that meant that a person could very well say he or she spoke Lithuanian but was a German.
As far as we can judge by memoirs, after Klaipėda's separation from Germany, the prevailing moods were rather pessimistic – many people historically felt they were German citizens. They were used to the German order, many inclined towards keeping ties with Germany. After the land was annexed by Lithuania, many local people clearly gravitated towards Germany rather than Lithuania.
– Did the government of Galvanauskas have any supporters among Klaipėda residents?
– Few in Klaipėda supported the idea of annexation. But the government had secured support from other states. Lithuania would have never attempted the venture, had it been all alone in this. It might sound odd today, but Germany and Soviet Russia were the prime supporters of Lithuania annexing Klaipėda. In essence, the entire military operation – the so-called revolt – was arranged in consultations with these two countries.
– Why did Germany support it?
– It was Germany that prompted Lithuania to take the step in the first place. In early 1922, Germany started sending signals that it would oppose the land becoming a free state, implying that Lithuania was free to take action.
The entire task force, which entered Klaipėda in January 1923, was equipped with German riffles. Germany essentially said: We arm you and in return, after you've annexed the land, you will consult us on policies you'll pursue there. On the other hand, let us not forget that Germany was a losing state in the Great War and Klaipėda was governed by the Entente. Germans knew only too well that, had Klaipėda been declared a free state, it would have been much more difficult to get it back than if it had been given to Lithuania, itself an internationally recognised state for no more than two weeks.
Soviet Russia also supported the idea of the annexation because it was suspicious of Poland. Both Germans and Soviets understood that if Klaipėda became a free state, Poland's influence would grow there.
– At the time, the land was under the French administration. How much influence did it have on the region?
– The influence was rather symbolic. Klaipėda hosted a French administration, had a High Commissioner. But the entire executive power was in the hands of local people, i.e., Germans.
– Why was Jonas Polovinskas, a counter-intelligence chief, sent to lead the insurrection? And where did his second surname, Budrys, come from?
– He is a very interesting personality. Polovinskas was a counter-intelligence officer in the Russian Army and fought on the White side in the Russian civil war. He headed Lithuania's counter-intelligence department after 1921.
His real name was Polovinskas. He changed it during the campaign, in order give the impression he was coming from Lithuania Minor (Lithuania Minor was the name given to lands in modern-day Klaipėda region and Kaliningrad that had a significant share of Lithuanian-speaking population but was never part of Lithuania proper).
Even before the mock uprising, Budrys was sent by the government to explore moods among local residents. He returned to Kaunas (which was the capital of Lithuania at the time) with a message that hardly anyone in Klaipėda would support the idea of annexation. The involvement of local population in the campaign was negligible. Author Ieva Simonaitytė, who is sometimes referred to as an insurgent, only notes in her memoirs that she distributed food for actual insurgents.
The so-called Salvation Committee of Lithuania Minor, in whose name the campaign was arranged, was nothing more than a façade intended to show to the world that the locals revolted. In fact, all teams came from Kaunas.
– How did the annexation affect Lithuania's economic development between the wars? Is it true that economic growth was hardly possible without Klaipėda?
– Yes, it could be argued so. One has to bear in mind, though, that growth did not start immediately after the takeover. After the annexation, Galvanauskas himself, in cooperation with Transport Minister Tomas Naruševičius, prepared plans how to connect Lithuania's railways to the German network. At the time, there was no direct railway line with the port via Lithuania's territory.
The scheme was drafted, they even secured a loan from Great Britain. But then debate started in the Seimas and the decision was not made in time. Direct railway line between Telšiai and Klaipėda did not open until 1932, i.e, nine years later.
In general, Lithuania started seriously investing in the port's infrastructure only in 1930. One can say that, for one decade following the annexation, Lithuania did not use the port it acquired the way one might have expected. They did not fully recognize the importance of possessing a seaport – Germany remained Lithuania's key trade partner for another decade.
– How did moods among local people in Klaipėda change over this decade? What did they think of the process of Lithuanianization?
– Klaipėda residents would not assimilate. Very much so. One can say that, finding themselves under the Lithuanian rule, local residents leaned towards Germany even more than they had under the Reich.
One of the reasons for that was the fact that Lithuanians pursued rather irrational policies. Local Lithuanians had hoped that, following the annexations, they will be able to run for public offices and make decisions themselves. But Kaunas was suspicious of them and would send officials from the capital. Demands of local Lithuanians were often ignored.
An option treaty was drafted after the annexation – residents of the land, who refused to accept the Lithuanian citizenship, could keep their German passports and leave. But there weren't many who did, only about 10 thousand.
A gap between Klaipėda and the rest of Lithuania was manifest – roads in the land looked entirely different, and so did the town. While most of buildings in Kaunas were wooden, Klaipėda was all stonework.
– Some historians maintain that Klaipėda was used as a trump card in negotiations over Vilnius (which was part of Poland at the time).
– I do not believe it is true. Let's not forget that there were alternative options to follow. Until the mock uprising, Great Britain and the Entente had hinted that Klaipėda could be handed over to Lithuania, provided Lithuanian-Polish dispute over Vilnius was settled first.
One of the options was the so-called Hyman's Plan. After Lithuania rejected all schemes proposed by the Entente and took unilateral action in Klaipėda, the response came quickly. In March 1923, a decision was made to acknowledge Poland's eastern border – and, implicitly, its claim to Vilnius. The Entente states treated Vilnius question as settled.
– How did the port of Klaipėda develop after it was taken over by Lithuania? It is estimated that the number of incoming ships doubled?
– Growth in the port was indeed massive. The question remains, though, to what extent Lithuania implemented its national interests in the port. Lithuania did not start building a fleet until 1936 and, in 1939, it consisted of only 11 ships.
Meanwhile Latvia, having started to built a fleet in 1920, had over 100 ships by 1939. By the size of its merchant fleet, Lithuania was dead last in the entire Baltic region. It only started exporting its agricultural production to Great Britain in the 1930s. With its negligible fleet, Lithuania serviced merely 10 percent of all shipments in Klaipėda.
By early 1939, some 80 percent of all exports were handled via Klaipėda port – but one should note that between the wars, Klaipėda was primarily an import hub, not export.
In other words, Lithuania used the port intensively to export goods and even more so to import. So how is that in tune with Lithuania's national interests, if it essentially has no fleet and most of the trade flows inwards rather than outwards? The port did grow, but the growth should not be overstated.
A port is usually a transit hub, but there was no transit between the wars, since Lithuania did not have any relations with Poland until 1938. Only in the 1930s was there a short period of transit export of Soviet timber.
– What was the status of Klaipėda under the Soviets?
– Until 1953, cargo shipments in Klaipėda port moved in one direction. The Soviet Union was receiving reparations from East Germany, where they were dismantling power plants and factory equipment and shipping them as war trophies to the east via Klaipėda. True, much of the equipment would get damaged on the way. But in the 1950s, the port undergoes radical changes and becomes an export hub – the tendency it maintains until now.
Goods for exports, however, did not come from Lithuania but from the expanses of the Soviet Union, which initially opened trade with countries of the socialist camp. In the late 1950s, the Soviet Union started exporting oil to the West. Klaipėda and Ventspils became transit ports for oil exports to Northern Europe.
It had nothing to do with Lithuania's own interests. The entire port was under Moscow's direction, all development plans were drafted in Moscow. It remained so even after the Lithuanian Shipping Company was established in 1969. Everything that was built in Klaipėda port under the Soviets was a result of local hands but not local initiative.
