Belarus Independence Day is celebrated at the end of March. In Vilnius, Belarusians paid tribute to Konstantinas Kalinauskas, the leader of the uprising against Tsarist Russia, and the international Kalinauskas forum was held in the Seimas.
“We are standing against the same empire again. And we are once again dependent on the support of the free world”, Belarusian opposition member Sviatlana Cichanouskaja said at this forum.
One event ended in a scandal. The Belarusians invited the writer and historian Vladimir Orlovas to Lithuania.
“There will be those who will argue and try to defend, but basically they are one of the ideologues of Litvinism,” publicist Žilvinas Svitojus told LNK news.
Litvinism is a radical interpretation of history that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was supposedly the country of Belarusians, the real Lithuanians, or Lithuanians are the current Belarusians, and Vilnius is not a city of Lithuania, but of Belarus.
“Their goal is for them to create their own independent state. But again at our expense”, said publicist Ž. Svitoj.
Member of the Seimas, conservative Valdas Rakutis told LNK news that the ideologues themselves, “special speakers” coming here is another matter.
V. Orlovas planned to meet Belarusians living in Lithuania in Klaipėda, Kaunas and Vilnius. The meeting took place in Klaipėda, but when some public figures and politicians started to get angry, the Department of National Minorities announced that after receiving information about the content of the planned event, the meeting in Kaunas was cancelled, and its event in Vilnius was also canceled in the last hours.
“You see, these times require sometimes even more special measures. Once upon a time, we did not follow at all what kind of people come and when to perform in Lithuania. And then we found ways to limit our information space from such a possible impact”, said MP V. Rakutis.
And although V. Orlov’s officially planned events in Kaunas and Vilnius were cancelled, other halls were found and the meetings still took place. Controversy is inevitable. The Lithuanians who came asked why V. Orlovas was spreading the ideas of Litvinism and misappropriating the history of Lithuania.
Public servant Ž. Svitojus says that V. Orlovas is even trying to consolidate new concepts – to call the inhabitants of Lithuania not Lithuanians, but Lithuanians.
“We are called Lithuanians, a nation that has existed for a hundred years, who were once Žemaitsians,” said Ž. Svitoj.
According to him, when proposing a new name for Lithuania, they want to distance themselves from the history of the LDK.
“Even in Estonia, he says that modern Lithuania should be separated from LDK, which is why those terms should be used,” he said.
There is also outrage at Lithuanian politicians holding a map in which the Vilnius region is located in Belarus.
Historian Algimantas Kasparavičius suggests to the critics of Litvinism not to thicken the colors and thus not emphasize individual visits.
“The one who hurts him is the one who screams. We have a similar situation with politics and with influencers who saw something and are already saying that Lithuanians have attacked, so we will attack. This is where a whole series of phobias and misunderstandings come from,” said historian A. Kasparavičius.
Provocations associated with Litvinism are increasing in Lithuania. The most active critics of Litvinism receive threats, walls are pulled down near their houses, and firecrackers are set off.
Historian A. Kasparavičius says that the problem is that the history of Lithuania does not receive due attention in Lithuania itself.
“The big problem of Lithuania’s current political elite is that we don’t have any political philosophy at all. There is not a single philosopher in Lithuania who would philosophically reflect on international relations with Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Germans who were our neighbors,” the historian testified.
The most radical Litvinism denies the statehood of Lithuania. Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė said that responsibility is foreseen for spreading similar ideas.
Intelligence also claims that hostile countries are interested in spreading the ideas of Litvinism, thus pitting Lithuanians against Belarusians.
See the full LNK news report here:
