| Abstract [eng] |
Based on the provisions of the Statute of the Klaipėda Region, with effect from January 1, 1930, residents of the Klaipėda Region were obliged to perform military service in the Lithuanian armed forces. Up to this date, numerous books and informative materials contained in various articles have appeared on the topic of the Region of Klaipėda during the period from 1923 to 1939, its population, political relations and national incidents arising therefrom, including the armed forces of interwar Lithuania, the creation and modernisation of the army, however, information on the population of the Klaipėda Region as a separate element in the armed forces of interwar Lithuania has been scarce. The conscripts newly arrived for compulsory military service, coming from a region which was not positively disposed towards Lithuania politically and culturally, would come to the army with preconceived opinions and attitudes towards Lithuania and its government. This work has its aim to reveal specific problems related to military service by the residents of Klaipėda Region in the interwar period armed forces of Lithuania and issues involving political and national aspects. Using statistical sampling, data are provided on the numbers of residents of the Klaipėda Region who did initial mandatory military service, and what were the causes that accounted for the increase or decline in their numbers. It is examined to what extent the implementation of Lithuanian identity in the Klaipėda Region was influenced by the policy of “re-Lithuanisation” pursued in the Lithuanian army. Furthermore, an analysis of the problems relating to military service of the residents of the Klaipėda Region in the armed forces of interwar Lithuania in terms of newcomers from the Klaipėda Region serving in the army and in terms of national/ethnic relations within the region itself. In the first chapter of the work statistical method is used for the purpose of analysis of statistical data, which helps estimate numbers of the residents of the Klaipėda Region who did compulsory military service, having preliminary established with which ethic group they identified after application of synthesis method. Analytical method is employed in the second and third chapters when dealing with the policy of “re-Lithuanisation” in the Klaipėda Region and nationally and ethnically based incidents in the Lithuanian armed forces, because an analysis of newspapers and archival records of that period provide a better picture on the residents of the Klaipėda Region in the Lithuanian armed forces during the interwar period. Comparative method has been applied to the historiography section whereby archival data are collated with the available historiographic materials. Geopolitical situation in the region, as well as throughout Europe, was not stable and was prone to significant changes at any moment, therefore the conscription of the young people from the Klaipėda Region to the Lithuanian army was part and parcel of the measures involving the policy of “re-Lithuanisation” pursued by the Lithuanian government and a faster integration of the population of the Klaipėda Region. The conscripts from the Klaipėda Region had to do their military service in the Lithuanian army under the pressure of the current political circumstances. Following the introduction of conscription of draftees from the Klaipėda Region to the Lithuanian armed forces, the numbers of males of German background more than doubled. Lithuanian authorities had failed to understand the specifics of the Klaipėda Region and therefore efforts were made to speed up the “re-Lithuanisation” of the region’s inhabitants and distance them from the German influence. Lithuanian authorities did their best to make the army attractive for a resident of the Klaipėda Region so that it would give pleasant impressions and exert profound educational influence. Officers responsible for educational and cultural events were appointed in regiments. The package of civic and patriotic education was implemented via miscellaneous clubs, sporting events, festivals, anniversary celebrations, excursions, tours, theatrical performances, libraries, movie going, etc. Various nationally motivated incidents in the Klaipėda Region and in the armed forces of Lithuania, cases of desertion, provocations inside or outside troop units, only pointed, time and again, to the fact that Lithuanian authorities and armed forces had failed to meet the challenges. Although Lithuanian authorities and the military leadership made considerable efforts at Lithuanisation of the soldiers coming from the Klaipėda Region and the implementation of the “Lithuanian spirit”, in the end they had to reconcile to the actual situation and acknowledge the fact that it would be hard to erase the differences between Lithuania Proper and Lithuania Minor that had been shaped over the period of more than 700 years. |
