Nationalism Rising: A Torchlight March for Lithuania
I was invited to Vilnius by a youth organization called Kryptis. On February 15, I spoke at a conference of identitarians from Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Britain, the United States, and Lithuania. It was a very successful first international conference for Kryptis, but the highlight was the march. Torchlight parades are an increasingly prominent nationalist gesture in Europe, but in some countries they are frowned on as jingoistic or even “neo-Nazi” [...]
I am surrounded by sea of people, all marching with torches. A chant begins: Lye Tu Vah! Lye Tu Vah! Lye Tu Vah! The chant becomes a roar and then dies away. It is patriotic Lithuanians shouting out the name of their country as they march through the streets of their capital city, Vilnius. We are celebrating the 101st anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania as an independent state. I feel a great surge of emotion as I join the chanting, swept away by the love these people feel for each other and for their land.
We march to Cathedral Square, where there must be 100,000 people gathered in the cold to celebrate Independence Day with an outdoor concert of patriotic music that begins with the national anthem. All ages are here, from grandmothers to toddlers, adorable in their onesie snow-suits, waving tiny Lithuanian flags. Later I go with Lithuanian nationalists to a bar where there is mead on tap; my hosts sing patriotic songs late into the night.
This was my first torchlight parade, and my first independence-day celebration with European nationalists. It was a stirring, unforgettable occasion.
I was invited to Vilnius by a youth organization called Kryptis. On February 15, I spoke at a conference of identitarians from Poland, Germany, Ukraine, Britain, the United States, and Lithuania. It was a very successful first international conference for Kryptis, but the highlight was the march. Torchlight parades are an increasingly prominent nationalist gesture in Europe, but in some countries they are frowned on as jingoistic or even “neo-Nazi.”
This was Kryptis’ second march. Last year, the march was a wild-cat celebration with no official recognition, but it attracted about 300 people. This year, Kryptis had government permission, and the march was led by a police vehicle and a large banner that read “Lithuania is Here.” Kryptis shared sponsorship with a conservative Catholic organization, and the two groups prepared about 1,400 torches. All were taken and lit, and many people joined without torches. Kryptis was delighted with the turnout, and expects many more participants in what will become an annual tradition.
My hosts had invited foreign visitors to carry their own flags. Nationalists understand that it is not a sign of disrespect to carry the flag of Flanders or Brittany or Wales in someone else’s national parade. People who carry torches are part of a genuinely pan-European nationalism that recognizes the beauty of all European nations and regions. They share a passion for the preservation of all identities.
Of all the flags of the world, I wondered which one I could carry with real commitment. Not the one worn by the soldiers of “regime change” in Syria, Iraq. Not the one that has been irretrievably tarnished by “diversity.” I asked my hosts if they would welcome a Confederate Battle Flag. They said they, personally, would be delighted, but that the foreign media would call it a symbol of “racism.” I carried only a small Lithuanian flag, one of hundreds a pretty girl was handing out.
This was my first trip to Lithuania. Vilnius is a lovely European capital, with a historic center of cobbled streets and handsome buildings. One of the first things any American—racially conscious or not— will notice is how overwhelmingly white it is. I have been here three days and seen only one non-European: an African in my hotel.
Vilnius is famously safe at all hours of the day. Despite the masses of people in Cathedral Square, there were hardly any police. An American crowd of even one tenth the size would have had to be protected from itself with a huge armed force—and rival gang members might still blaze away at each other. In Germany or France, the streets would have to be blocked off to keep Muslims from driving trucks into the crowd.
In Vilnius, the only concern seemed to be supplying enough port-a-potties. The Lithuanian police trust their people to be orderly, polite, and considerate.
I remember 1990, when Lithuania became the first of the Soviet Republics to declare independence. I remember feeling envious—yes, envious—of Lithuanians. They were a united people in a nation reborn, with a real chance to forge a destiny. I was losing my nation; they were building theirs.
The 20th century has been a horror for Lithuania: dismemberment by Poland, invasions by Russians and Germans, and brutal Soviet occupation. But this century can be anything Lithuanians make of it.
Not all is well, of course. The economy is booming but wages are still low by European standards. Many Lithuanians are tempted by the flickering foolishness of Hollywood. Talented young people emigrate to Germany, Britain, or even Chicago. Suicide and alcoholism rates are high; birthrates are low. Lithuania is a member of the European Union, and there are bootlickers in government who think modernity means swallowing the multi-culti poisons the EU peddles to its members. Their model is Angela Merkel’s Germany, not Victor Orban’s Hungary.
Like all of Eastern Europe, Lithuania is at a crossroads: will it be seduced by the glitz of the West? Will it adopt Western degeneracy or will it remain true to its identity? Lithuania has survived centuries of partition, occupation, cultural obliteration and repression, but it could be snuffed out by just a few generations of immigration.
Like all identitarian organizations, Kryptis vividly understands what is at stake. They are “a band of brothers, native to the soil, fighting for their liberty with treasure, blood and toil.” Their struggle is our struggle.
We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.
The logical question is whether Putin's military action of pacification of NATO extremists and denazification of Eastern Europe will stop in Ukraine (called by some commentators on social networks Nazikraine) or will the action continue in the direction of the west, i.e., to Central Europe and/or the Baltic States?Of course, at this moment, it is difficult to predict what the development of events will be in the next period, especially when this current operation in Ukraine is not completely finished. However, one thing is certain: analogous to the case of Ukraine, it can be predicted that Russia's next step depends ...
Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day: A state-sponsored institution in Vilnius rewrites history to the delight of Europe’s new ultranationalistsThis past winter here in Vilnius, the charming capital of Lithuania, was much like any other. During long solid weeks of subzero temperatures, as the flow of tourists and roots-seekers slowed to a trickle, I adjusted the route of my daily walk to pass by up to a dozen top tourist sights. Day after day, there was one constant: The most popular, winter-defying “must-visit” for foreigners is “The Museum of Genocide Victims.” Perhaps there is something grotesquely sexy about “genocide.” Maybe the promise ...
During the last decade the deteriorating political and military situation in the world have proved the necessity of well prepared Armed Forces.It is obvious that the level of patriotism in Lithuania is high as ever. Many young men are thinking to join the Armed Forces and be useful to the country. The government only should maintain and strengthen this trend. But battling with numerous political and economical problems the government is going to make some changes in military sphere that could have far-reaching adverse consequences.It should be said that today there is a serious gap in providing the national Armed ...
The Kaunas Garage Massacre of the Jews in June 1941It was with great interest that I read the op-ed jointly penned by Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and his Lithuanian counterpart, Gabrielius Landsbergis, in last Friday’s Jerusalem Post. As could be expected, such initiatives are usually written to offer a rosy picture of the wonderful relations between two countries and the bright prospects for future cooperation. As a descendant of Lithuanian Jews, a frequent visitor to Lithuania ever since independence, and the co-author of a recent book on the rampant Holocaust distortion orchestrated by successive Lithuanian governments, I didn’t know whether to ...
In June and July 1941, detachments of German Einsatzgruppen, together with Lithuanian auxiliaries, began murdering the Jews of Lithuania. Groups of partisans, civil units of nationalist-rightist anti-Soviet affiliation, initiated contact with the Germans as soon as they entered the Lithuanian territories. A rogue unit of insurgents headed by Algirdas Klimaitis and encouraged by Germans from the Sicherheitspolizei and Sicherheitsdienst, started anti-Jewish pogroms in Kaunas (Polish: Kovno) on the night of 25–27 June 1941. Over a thousand Jews perished over the next few days in what was the first pogrom in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. The most infamous incident occurred in what was ...
A map of the wanted territories of the Balkan states in 1915There are many talks about nationalism among the peoples from the former Yugoslavia during the last three decades what is quite understandable taking into consideration the post-Cold War conflicts and atrocities, as a continuation of WWII crimes based on certain political ideologies,[i] committed on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia.Historia est magistra vitaeI want to argue that there is a direct link between contemporary nationalism(s) among the Yugoslavs and their national ideologies, which are developed in the previous decades and even centuries. What happened with the Yugoslavs from 1991 to 1999 ...
New scandalous information about the 2014 Maidan coup d'état in Ukraine has emerged that implicates Lithuania’s important role in instigating the violent events. David Zhvania, a former Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, revealed on his YouTube channel that the seizure of power in Ukraine was financed in “several ways.”“One of the external sources was the Lithuanian embassy, through which money and weapons were transferred, and the internal channel was Diamantbank. I have documented evidence to support my words,” said the former ally of Petro Poroshenko, the previous president of Ukraine.Zhvania called on Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova to initiate criminal proceedings ...
DELFI, which is the major Internet portal in the Baltic States providing daily news, stated on September, 10 that the number of emigrants from Lithuania exceeds that of immigrants by 1,000 in August. Shocking statistics shows that the country has registered a negative migration balance. Some 4,382 people left Lithuania in August. Thus, Lithuanians are leaving the country despite authorities’ claims on economic growth, stability and favorable perspectives.On the one hand, according to “Lithuanian economy review – 2017”, the GDP growth in Lithuania accelerated. In 2017, as compared to the previous year, Lithuania`s GDP increased by 3.8%. (http://ukmin.lrv.lt/en/economy-review/lithuanian-economy-review-2017) On the ...
TerminologyA meaning of the term Great Power(s) (GP) in global politics from the beginning of the 16th century onward refers to the most power and therefore top influential states within the system of the international relations (IR). In other words, the GP are those and only those states who are modelling global politics like Portugal, Spain, Sweden, France, the United Kingdom, united Germany, the USA, the USSR, Russia or China. During the time of the Cold War (1949−1989) there were superpowers[1] as the American and the Soviet administrations refered to their own countries and even a hyperpower state – the ...
In Arabic TV interview, Labour’s ex-London mayor blames Israel for IS attacks in Europe and mass expulsion of Jews from Arab world, again claims Hitler supported ZionismFormer London mayor Ken Livingstone on Wednesday called the creation of Israel “fundamentally wrong,” and “a great catastrophe.” The existence of the Jewish state in the Middle East, he said, could ultimately lead to nuclear war.“The creation of the state of Israel was fundamentally wrong, because there had been a Palestinian community there for 2,000 years,” Livingstone told an Arabic language TV station based in London, in a clip posted and translated by the ...
I am a Lithuanian, but I leave abroad and I am not going back. At least now, at least until the Government does not pay attention to its people. According to some authoritative research institutes, during 2017 Lithuania population is again projected to decrease (by 45 677 people!) and reach 2 758 290 in the beginning of 2018. (http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/lithuania-population/). As of 1 January 2017, the population of Lithuania was estimated to be 2 803 967 people. This is a decrease of 1.63 % (46 433 people) compared to population of 2 850 400 the year before. In other words, our ...
The outbursts of anti-Russian rhetoric of Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė is certainly very bizarre in view of her curriculum vitae. Dalia Grybauskaitė is a very educated woman. Because of the free education system of the former USSR, she was able to complete her university education at the elite Saint Petersburg State University. She became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1983, some five years before she earned a doctoral degree at the prestigious Academy of Social Sciences in Moscow. It is generally known that not every applicant is routinely accepted to become a Party member.This ...
The national scandal unleashed by the Lithuanian Rūta Vanagaitė and the Jewish Efraim Zuroff via their statements about Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, is gradually losing momentum. The Seimas (parliament) went right ahead and declared the incoming year, 2018, to be The Year of Ramanauskas-Vanagas. That is sad. Three years ago, I wrote about this person’s activities in Druskininkai in 1941. Society back then was silent about it. It was only the desire of some politicians to glorify this personage that led to the aforementioned Lithuanian and Jewish commentators to talk about him. They spoke loudly and an antisemitic bubble burst. Vanagaitė’s statement had some ...
The historical Western policy of „Russophobia Vulgaris“, which is currently promulgated by the British Cabinet of Theresa May, is nothing new. It was originally started by the British Empire in the XIX century, followed up by the US after the WWII and now, as Russia it getting notably reinforced, is escalated in the form of the “New Cold War”. The Russian exodus from the West (diplomatic only yet), presented as a punishment for Russia’s alleged nerve gas poisoning of a former Russian/MI6 double-agent reminds us of the baiting of Jews in the Middle Age for alleged ‘poisoning of wells‘.We have ...
A picture taken on July 4, 2018 from the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan Heights shows displaced Syrians from the province of Daraa staging a protest (top L) calling for international protection, in the Syrian the village of al-Rafid, near the border fence with Israel. / AFP PHOTO / JALAA MAREYWith the recent failed bid by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Arab League at the UN security council, to try and end Israelis’ occupation of Palestinian land and to create a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, it seems an appropriate moment to review the situation for Palestinians since 1915.What ...
On the 16th anniversary of the country’s accession to NATO, Lithuanian Minister of Defense Raimundas Karoblis came up with a well-known myth: our state is an equal member of the alliance. “We are stronger than ever before and we are grateful to the Allies for their efforts in strengthening the defense capabilities in the region and their willingness to help when it necessary” said Karoblis.If you look at the facts, Lithuania is fighting alone with the epidemic of COVID-19 infection. However, like all other countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.You just need to look at Italy, which does not ...
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius is no ordinary diplomat. He is more a diplomatic hitman whose ideological mission is to blow holes in European-Russian relations at every opportunity.One of his recent “jobs” was to write an op-ed for the Irish Times in which he castigated the European Union for appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Linkevicius used a hoary old historical analogy comparing the EU with British leader Neville Chamberlain and his appeasement in 1938 of Nazi Germany’s Hitler.Apart from the ignorant historical waffling, the other curious thing about Linkevicius’ op-ed piece in Ireland’s so-called “paper of record” was the timing. It was ...
LONDON — Seventy years after he was shot by the Soviets, the reputation of Jonas Noreika goes on trial in Lithuania next week.Noreika — a hero to many in the Baltic state for resisting the Communists’ subjugation of their country — stands accused of being a Nazi collaborator who was complicit in the Holocaust.Jonas Noreika - "General Storm"The case before the Vilnius Regional Administrative Court charges the state-funded Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania with intentionally distorting the role of Noreika in the murder of Jews.It has been brought by Grant Gochin, a Lithuanian citizen living in the US, ...
Part IPart IIThe Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Vitezović’s anthropological-political ideologyOne of the most significant questions of our interest, which needs a satisfactory answer, is: Why P. R. Vitezović considered Lithuania as a Croato-Slavonic land, and therefore, Lithuania’s inhabitants as the Croato-Slavs?The most possible and realistic answers to this question are:1) Because of the historical development of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which brought the ethnic Lithuanians into very closer cultural relations with the Slavs (the Eastern and the Western) that resulted in the graduate process of Slavization of Lithuania’s cultural life and Lithuania’s ruling class. This historical fact influenced ...
Kaunas, Lithuania, June 1941 (before Germans arrived): Killing of the Jews by local LithuaniansFor the tiny village of Sukioniai in western Lithuania, the exploits of General Storm, a local anti-Communist hero executed by the Soviet secret police in 1947, have long been a source of pride. The village school is named after him, and his struggles against the Soviet Union are also honored with a memorial carved from stone next to the farm where he was born.All along, though, there have been persistent whispers that General Storm, whose real name was Jonas Noreika, also helped the Nazis kill Jews. But ...
