The People's Seimas ( lt, Liaudies Seimas) was a puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction the
occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
.
[ After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known as the People's Government. The new government dismissed the Fourth Seimas and announced ]elections
An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office.
Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...
to the People's Seimas. The elections were heavily rigged, and resulted in a chamber composed entirely of Communists and Communist sympathizers (the electorate had no choice as 79 candidates were offered to the 79 seats). The new parliament unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; lt, Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika; russian: Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialistiche ...
and petitioned for admission to the Soviet Union as a constituent republic. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Верховный Совет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, r=Verkhovnyy Sovet Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respubl ...
accepted the Lithuanian petition on August 3, 1940. The People's Seimas adopted a new constitution, a close copy of the 1936 Soviet Constitution
Events
January–February
* January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King ...
, on August 25 and renamed itself to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR
The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR ( lt, Lietuvos TSR Aukščiausioji Taryba; russian: Верховный Совет Литовской ССР, ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Litovskoy SSR'') was the supreme soviet (main legislative institution) of the ...
.
According to Lithuanian and Western sources, these events were merely a cover to create an illusion of constitutional legitimacy of the forcible Soviet occupation. When Lithuania declared its independence in 1990, it argued that it did not need to follow the process of secession from the Soviet Union outlined in the Soviet constitution. It took the line that the actions of the People's Seimas—and indeed, the entire process of annexation—violated both Lithuanian and international law, and it was merely reasserting an independence that legally still existed. According to Soviet sources, the election of the People's Seimas marked the culmination of a socialist revolution
Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revoluti ...
that the Lithuanian people had carried out independent of Moscow's influence. Thus, according to the Soviet line, the People's Seimas—as did legislatures elected under similar circumstances in Estonia and Latvia—represented the legitimate will of the Lithuanian people to join the Soviet Union.
Background
According to the German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty
The German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty was a second supplementary protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23 August 1939. It was a secret clause as amended on 28 September 1939 by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union after thei ...
, Lithuania was assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence. Almost immediately Lithuanian diplomats were invited to Moscow for negotiations. The Soviets proposed the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty
The Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty ( lt, Lietuvos-Sovietų Sąjungos savitarpio pagalbos sutartis) was a bilateral treaty signed between the Soviet Union and Lithuania on October 10, 1939. According to provisions outlined in the tre ...
: Lithuania would receive a portion of Vilnius Region
Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time.
The territor ...
in exchange for Soviet bases within Lithuania. Similar pacts were already signed with Latvia and Estonia. Finland rejected a similar proposal and the Soviets started the Winter War
The Winter War,, sv, Vinterkriget, rus, Зи́мняя война́, r=Zimnyaya voyna. The names Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940 (russian: link=no, Сове́тско-финская война́ 1939–1940) and Soviet–Finland War 1 ...
which delayed the occupation of the Baltic States. After the Winter War was over and Germany was winning the Battle of France
The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...
, the Soviets heightened their propaganda, accusing Lithuania of abducting its soldiers from the bases in Lithuania and conspiring with Latvia and Estonia against the Soviet Union. On June 14, 1940, the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding to form a new pro-Soviet government and to allow an unspecified number of the Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
soldiers to enter Lithuanian territory.
Lithuania accepted the ultimatum and on June 15, the Red Army entered Lithuania unopposed. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vladimir Dekanozov
Vladimir Georgievich Dekanozov (russian: Влади́мир Гео́ргиевич Декано́зов; born Ivan Vasilyevich Protopopov; June 1898 – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet senior state security operative and diplomat.
Biography Early ...
arrived to supervise the process of the annexation of Lithuania.
President Antanas Smetona
Antanas Smetona (; 10 August 1874 – 9 January 1944) was a Lithuanian intellectual and journalist and the first President of Lithuania from 1919 to 1920 and again from 1926 to 1940, before its occupation by the Soviet Union. He was one of the ...
opposed the occupation, and fled the country in protest. Before his departure, he turned over his powers on an interim basis to Prime Minister Antanas Merkys
Antanas Merkys (; 1 February 1887 – 5 March 1955) was the last Prime Minister of independent Lithuania, serving from November 1939 to June 1940. When the Soviet Union presented an ultimatum to Lithuania demanding that it accept a Soviet g ...
, who stood next in the line of succession under the 1938 Constitution. On 16 June, Merkys announced on a national radio broadcast that he had deposed Smetona and was now president in his own right.
Merkys appointed a new pro-Soviet government, headed by left-wing journalist Justas Paleckis
Justas Paleckis ( – 26 January 1980) was a Lithuanian author, journalist and politician. He was nominal acting president of Lithuania after the Soviet invasion while Lithuania was still ostensibly independent, in office from 17 June to 3 Au ...
, which later became known as the People's Government. Merkys resigned two days later at the behest of the Soviets, leaving Paleckis as acting president. Writer Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius
Vincas Mickevičius (pl. ''Wincenty Mickiewicz'', October 19, 1882 – July 17, 1954), better known by his pen name Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius, was a Lithuanian writer, poet, novelist, playwright and philologist. He is also known as Vincas Krė ...
became the new Prime Minister. For all intents and purposes, Lithuania had lost its independence.
Lithuania's official position since 1990 has been that Merkys' usurpation of the presidency was illegal and unconstitutional, since Smetona never resigned. Therefore, Lithuania contends that all subsequent actions leading up to the Soviet annexation were ''ipso facto'' void.
On June 27, Paleckis dissolved the Fourth Seimas of Lithuania
The Fourth Seimas of Lithuania was the fourth parliament (Seimas) elected in Lithuania after it declared independence on 16 February 1918. The elections took place on 9 and 10 June 1936, a bit less than ten years after the Third Seimas was diss ...
, citing the Constitution of 1938.
Elections
On July 1, the Paleckis government announced elections to a new parliament, the People's Seimas, to be held on July 14. The Communist Party of Lithuania
The Communist Party of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos komunistų partija; russian: Коммунистическая партия Литвы) is a banned communist party in Lithuania. The party was established in early October 1918 and operated clan ...
emerged from underground with 1,500 members[ after the Soviet invasion. Soon afterward, the government announced the formation of the Union of the Working People of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos liaudies darbo sąjunga), ostensibly a popular front. Voters were presented with a single list of candidates, including some non-Communists. No other organizations were allowed to participate. On July 11 and 12, the Soviet authorities reduced the possible points of opposition by arresting leading figures of the old regime and deporting some of them to the interior of the Soviet Union – even though Lithuania was still formally an independent state. Later elections were extended into July 15. Each voter had his or her passport stamped after voting. According to the official results, voter turnout reached 95 percents. Most of the original election records were destroyed. The remaining bits show that turnout was indeed high, but many ballots were invalid (missing, destroyed, left blank, or marked with anti-Soviet slogans). The Union list received over 99% of the votes, a total that was announced even before the polls closed—classic signs of massive election fraud.
]
Annexation
The People's Seimas met on July 21, 1940. Its sole order of business was a resolution creating the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; lt, Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika; russian: Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialistiche ...
and requesting the Soviet Union to admit Lithuania into the Union. This resolution was passed by acclamation. Twenty representatives were to deliver the declaration to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
The Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Верховный Совет Союза Советских Социалистических Республик, r=Verkhovnyy Sovet Soyuza Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respubl ...
: acting President Justas Paleckis, Minister of the Interior Mečys Gedvilas, Minister of Agriculture Matas Mickis, Minister of Education Antanas Venclova, Minister of Defence and Commander of the Army Vincas Vitkauskas, former priest and chief control inspector Liudas Adomauskas, chairman of the trade unions Motiejus Šumauskas
Motiejus or Matas Šumauskas (2 October 1905 in Kaunas – 28 May 1982 in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian communist activist and Soviet politician. He served as the chairman of the Council of Ministers (equivalent to Prime Minister) from 1956 to 1963 ...
, Communist Party activists Karolis Didžiulis-Grosmanas and Icikas Meskupas-Adomas, writers Liudas Gira
Liudas Gira (27 August 1884 in Vilnius – 1 July 1946 in Vilnius) was a Lithuanian poet, writer, and literary critic. His is noted for his early poetry, which resembles traditional Lithuanian folk songs. Gira was active in cultural and political ...
and Petras Cvirka
Petras Cvirka (March 12, 1909, Jurbarkas District Municipality, Klangai, Kovno Governorate – May 2, 1947, Vilnius) was a Lithuanian writer of several novels, children's books, and short story collections. He wrote under a variety of pen names: A. ...
, poet Salomėja Nėris
Salomėja Bačinskaitė-Bučienė, mostly known by her pen name Nėris (; 17 November 1904 – 7 July 1945) was a Lithuanian poet.
Biography
Salomėja was born in Kiršai, Suwałki Governorate (current district of Vilkaviškis). She graduated ...
, Palanga
Palanga (; bat-smg, Palonga; pl, Połąga; german: Polangen) is a seaside resort town in western Lithuania, on the shore of the Baltic Sea.
Palanga is the busiest summer resort in Lithuania and has sandy beaches (18 km, 11 miles long ...
mayor Stasė Vaineikienė, soldier Viktoras Ditkevičius, farmers Juozas Demskis and Birutė Abdulskaitė, workers Kazys and Pranas Petrauskas, Pranas Zibertas, and Marija Kutraitė.[ Each member of the delegation received 5,000 ]litas
The Lithuanian litas (ISO currency code LTL, symbolized as Lt; plural ''litai'' (nominative) or ''litų'' (genitive) was the currency of Lithuania, until 1 January 2015, when it was replaced by the euro. It was divided into 100 centų (genit ...
payment for their signatures, which was a substantial sum for that time.[
The Soviet Union approved the Lithuanian resolution on August 3, and the People's Seimas declared itself the provisional ]Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR
The Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR ( lt, Lietuvos TSR Aukščiausioji Taryba; russian: Верховный Совет Литовской ССР, ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Litovskoy SSR'') was the supreme soviet (main legislative institution) of the ...
.
References
{{Seimas of Lithuania
People's Government of Lithuania
1940 in Lithuania
Legal history of Lithuania
Occupation of the Baltic states
Seimas