Signatories to the Act on the Re-establishment of the State of Lithuania honoured at the Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Restoration of Independence

 

Press release, 10 September 2020

 

 

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence. The commemoration, hosted at the Seimas on 10 September 2020 to celebrate the occasion, honoured the signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania.  

 

Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas, awarded the signatories and members of the Supreme Council with a Seimas souvenir dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the Restoration of Independence, designed by a glass artist Remigijus Kriukas. The participants of the commemoration also viewed the video excerpt commemorating the historic moments of fundamental importance for the development of the independent state.

 

Viktoras Pranckietis, Speaker of the Seimas; Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis, President of the Supreme Council and Reconstituent Seimas and signatory to the Act of Independence; Birutė Valionytė, President of the Club of Signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania; Prof. Arūnas Gumuliauskas, historian, Chair of the Seimas Commission for the Cause of Freedom and the National Historical Memory; and Remigijus Kriukas, glass artist, spoke at the commemoration. We hereby offer the main quotations and links to the speeches of the participants.

 

Viktoras Pranckietis

 

The Reconstituent Seimas, in effect, demonstrated feats of unity and courage on a number of occasions. Today, these qualities have obviously become an integral part of the Lithuanian identity.

 

Thirty years ago, we looked at freedom through the cracks of the barricades. We gazed at it with hopeful eyes and, soon after, we opened the windows and doors to the wind of democracy. After the Act on the Re-establishment of the State of Lithuania was adopted, a breath of the air of freedom brought about vast opportunities for each of us. With thirty years behind us, we now have the occasion to witness the expression of the will of the nation and remain firm in our duty to further nurture and defend it.

 

Vytautas Landsbergis

 

When Algirdas Kaušpėdas, a Lithuanian popular singer, sang The State of Lithuania, this stroke a long-forgotten chord in our memory. It is a pity, though, that our Belarusian brothers still have not started singing powerful songs about their country. Hardly have they managed to elect their own government, only to be beaten up; the local puppet authorities were even summoned to Moscow to explain themselves. ‘Thinking about independence and separation from the great power is a shame. Give back all you still have!’ was the message they must have received.

 

With this in mind, we can see where we were and what we left behind 30 years ago. It is well worth commemorating. We wanted to be human and free, as our writer Vydūnas had summoned us to.

 

And yet, we wanted freedom not only for ourselves. The big world of benefit had already forgotten all about ideals and dreams. Therefore, Lithuania had a mission to remind everyone that not only material welfare indicators and income flows mattered. In fact, it is the spirit that matters: the spirit which makes man a human and which makes a people a nation.

 

Lithuania has given spread to such ideas, and the world has changed slightly, at least here around us.

 

Birutė Valionytė

 

We did not miss a historic chance. After the 50 years of occupation, we restored our state. We withstood the test of an economic blockade, and other plagues, yet stayed very focused in protecting our freedom. This required not only the determination of the nation to go towards the coveted goal, but also focused leadership of the Supreme Council, as well as joint work and mutual understanding between the authorities and the nation. Only through pooling our efforts were we able to defend Lithuania’s independence and get the occupying army out of Lithuania, becoming the first country of the Soviet block to do so. Now we often tend to forget all about it and take independence for granted. However, this should not be the case. Freedom is to be fostered and defended every single minute. As long as every citizen has this attitude deep in heart, the nation is invincible.

 

Arūnas Gumuliauskas

 

In the course of centuries, due to its important geopolitical situation, the State of Lithuania survived a number of fundamental turning points in history, inflicting a range of radical changes to the country’s political, economic, social and even cultural life. The twentieth century was especially abundant in changes.

 

Our history demonstrates that the development of Lithuania’s statehood at various times depended mostly on geopolitical changes taking place in the whole of Europe. It is the external factor that most often influenced the processes leading to either restoration or extinction of our state.

 

On the other hand, the transformations would not be possible without internal causes. The latter boil down to the position of a nation with regard to its statehood.

 

Remigijus Kriukas

 

I felt a great responsibility while creating this souvenir that marks a special date for Lithuania. I was wondering: what colour is Lithuania? Is it yellow, green, or maybe red? It is so multi-coloured, in fact. Golden, maybe? It is probably the colour of amber: the Baltic gold. The souvenir is a drop of amber enveloped in a clear and pure teardrop, with three polished planes, embellished by historical narratives, meant to symbolise the three decades of our restored independence, our tricolour flag, and the three Baltic sisters, who have never lost their faith and determination, holding hands.

 

Important information:

Photos of the event are available at the Seimas “Flickr” account. When making use of them, please indicate: ‘Photo by Olga Posaškova, Džoja Gunda Barysaitė, Office of the Seimas.’

 

 

Rimas Rudaitis, Chief Specialist, Press Office, Information and Communication Department,

tel. +370 5 239 6132, e-mail: [email protected]