Royal Irish Rifles ration party Somme July 1916
Society

Echoes of the Great War resonate a century later

On 28 July 1914, exactly one month after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were shot dead, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. The stage was set for World War I, an inevitable result of decades of political manoeuvring, militarization, alliances and planning for a conflict that would shatter the great European epoch, laying waste to empires and ascendant nations. […]

World War One
Opinion

Opinion: The First World War, tragedy and legacy

This summer, though full of fresh war fears, it will be time to commemorate the beginning of the First World War and people are remembering the conflict in different ways. Some are erecting monument for terrorist (or is it freedom fighter?) Gavrilo Princip in a still deeply-divided Bosnia, some are visiting war memorials, some are reviewing the statistics of casualties and destruction. […]

Virginijus Savukynas
Opinion

Opinion: Will Russia revive the Grand Duchy of Lithuania?

The idea of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is becoming relevant again today. Russia brought it back to life by carrying on an open war with Ukraine. Ukrainians joke sadly that Vladimir Putin has done at least one good thing: he’s united the Ukrainian people. But now, Ukrainians need to rethink their identity on a broader level. And in that context, the Grand Duchy, or Rzeczpospolita, doesn’t look so outdated anymore. […]

Opinion

Opinion: Dread, confusion and loathing in Palestine

For a past week, to talk about the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian relations objectively became quite a self-indulging activity. The debate itself is toxic, since, according to the opposing camps, any affection to the Palestinian cause turns one into an anti-Semitic, terrorist-loving, revanchist bastard, whereas backing Israel means support to genocidal, child-killing, quasi-religious nationalist regime. […]

Alexander Lukashenko
Uncategorized

Why does Lukashenko speak Belarusian on Independence Day?

Belarus’s Independence Day is celebrated on 3 July. On that day, 70 years ago, Minsk was liberated from the Nazi occupiers. This 3 July, President Vladimir Putin of Russia participated in Minsk’s celebration. Two days prior to that event, during a grand ceremonial meeting devoted to the national holiday, President Alexander Lukashenko delivered part of his speech in Belarusian. […]

Monument for Grand Duke Algirdas in Vitebsk, Belarus. Photo by tut.by
Opinion

Opinion: Why are our neighbours poaching our history?

It is a country’s business what monument, where and how it will be built or demolished. For instance, the Poles have built a statue of urinating Lenin, the Lithuanians seem not to be able to wipe out the symbols of the Soviet reality overlooking the capital from the Green Bridge (should we hold a referendum?), and the Russians may return the Stalingrad name to Volgograd or call it Putingrad – of course, with many busts of the “leader of nations” or the current militant president… […]

Kiev's Maidan
Opinion

Opinion: Repercussions of the Grand Duchy or public perception of the Ukrainian War in Lithuania

Memory politics has everything to do with how the Lithuanian public perceives events in Ukraine that have dominated the local media and political discourse since last December to an unprecedented degree, says Felix Ackermann, associate professor at Vilnius-based European Humanities University. […]

Lithuanian leaders sing the national anthem
Culture

Kudirka’s National Anthem behests will live forever

For the sixth time in a row, all Lithuanians, in their Homeland and abroad alike, celebrating the Lithuanian King Mindaugas’ coronation every year on 6 July, have coalesced for singing Lithuania’s National Anthem in over 30 countries worldwide. Behind the heart-gripping but simple verses there stands Vincas Kudirka, an outstanding 19-century public activist, publicist, song and satire writer and the author of Lithuania’s national anthem. […]