Social Democracy in the Formation of the Modern Lithuanian State

Abstract

The emergence and development of social democracy in Lithuania at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth was influenced by the rise of social democratic movements in various countries, as well as the specific circumstances in Lithuania: the agrarian nature of the country, the delay in capitalist development, the diversity of the ethnic composition of the urban population, the presence of Lithuania in the autocratic Russian empire, the latter‘s policy of national oppression, as well as emerging processes of national regeneration and national movements . The ideology and programme of the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (LSDP), as representative of Lithuanian social democracy, at the turn of the twentieth century, were characterised, like those of many other social democratic parties at that time, by the primacy given to Marxism. For most of the period, however, national liberation was presented as a precondition for social liberation. As a result, Lithuanian social democracy became an integral part of the Lithuanian national liberation movement, and in 1905, when the ‘national revolution’ began in Lithuania, the LSDP was the most active ‘political’ force in the ensuing events. The defeat of the revolution dealt a severe blow to the LSDP’s organisation, operational capabilities, influence on society and programme, however, and from 1907 until the First World War, the LSDP advocated autonomy within the Russian Empire. The beginning of the First World War and the German occupation of Lithuania meant that the social democrats’ approach to the future of Lithuania had to be adapted. LSDP members, in anticipation of the possibility of war-driven changes in the political map of Europe, began to call for an independent democratic Republic of Lithuania established in a democratic way, and actively promoted it (including in its publication Labour’s Voice in 1917–1918), including participation in joint action by various political currents focused on achieving national liberation. Social Democrats Steponas Kairys and Mykolas Biržiška, elected together with two leftwing members of the Lithuanian Council, Jonas Vileišius and Stanislovas Narutavičius, were the main opponents of Lithuania‘s ‘strong and everlasting union’ with Germany, proclaimed by a resolution of the Council of Lithuania on 11 December 1917 and established by four conventions. They were also, in essence, the main authors of the Lithuanian Independence Act, which was adopted on 16 February 1918. Protesting against the decision by the right-wing majority of the Lithuanian Council to proclaim Lithuania a monarchy and elect a king, the Social Democrats withdrew from the Council of Lithuania, arguing that it had exceeded its powers. Although from 1917 to 1919 some Lithuanian Social Democrats, especially outside Lithuania, became communists, those who remained faithful to the ideological tradition of social democracy, during the creation of Lithuanian statehood in 1918, in the autumn of 1919 and then in the period of the establishment of statehood, from 1920 to 1922, constantly emphasised the necessity of a free democratic state in Lithuania, but also a democratic approach to creating such a state. They had no illusions about the ideology and political practices of the Russian Bolsheviks and entered the Lithuanian government to fight the Bolsheviks for Lithuania’s independence. They also clearly opposed the aspirations of Polish land owners to annex Lithuania to Poland. In 1919, 1920, 1922 and in subsequent years, the Social Democrats protested unequivocally against undemocratic tendencies in the ideology and actions of right-wing political currents and strove hard to achieve the radical democratization of Lithuanian society and to make the Republic of Lithuania as democratic and socially just as possible.