Grand Duchy of Lithuania for some, Soviet past for others?

Lithuania celebrated the start of its presidency in the European Union with a weird map, which appeared in Vilnius near the parliament building.

On one of the sides of the pyramid, that covers a non-functioning fountain, the map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the times of Vitaut’s rule is laid as a black stain over the map of modern Europe.

We are far from seeing in this map some expansion attempts or the claim for the Great Lithuania from sea to sea. This does not even go for an artistic provocation. However you cannot pass this pyramid by either, since it appeared on the day when Lithuania started its presidency in the European Union. The GDL map on the map of modern Europe is a conscious message with a political and historical implication.

Small Lithuania more often and more courageously claims its GDL’s succession, to be precise it claims itself as the only successor. With Lukashenka’s historical vandalism it becomes ever easier for it to do so. In 2009 Lithuania widely celebrated the 1000-anniversary of Lithuania’s being mentioned in historic chronicles. The authorities of Belarus did not notice the millennium. Greatest gratitude goes to the artistic group Pahonia, which took the state’s functions and arranged a marvelous exhibition on the occasion of the important date.

Yet for another time will Lithuania celebrate at the state level the day of Mindouh’s crowning. Government’s awards are delivered on this day. This date will not be mention in any official media in Belarus. But the dictatorship spends large money in order to make us count the year of the country’s independence and statehood only from the Soviet era.

We cannot dispute the right of the Lithuanians to be proud of having been a part of the mighty Grand Duchy of Lithuania. But it was a part of it, not the Duchy itself, which common for Belarusians, Poles, Ukrainians. That is why such a map causes bewilderment.

To be honest, the pyramid with a black GDL map could have been left unnoticed had it not been for Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affair’s congratulations to the people of Belarus on the “independence day” on Twitter.

Intergovernmental relations presume the exchange of congratulations on holidays even with dictators. It is done formally following some rules of procedure. But an informal congratulations on twitter on an “independence day”, invented by a dictator, is at least inappropriate: as if saying “the GDL for us, the Soviet past for you”.

Belarus like Lithuania counts its history in centuries, and its independence – from the same time as Lithuania. The dictatorship, which rejects our history and our independence, will vanish, so it should not be helped with falsifications and even more so to congratulate the people on these falsifications.

Responding to the critique of the pyramid with a GDL map Vilnius’ city hall promised to add the explanatory inscriptions. It would be good if these inscriptions dispel the bewilderment and explain that the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a common state of Belarus, Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania, and a sort of a prototype of the European Union.