Lithuanian footprints
in the world sands

I think many will be astonished learning about the huge variety of distinctive Lithuanian footprints existing in the soils of almost every corner of our world.

Some of the footprints are centuries old and sometimes hard to spot after having been exposed to wind, weather and sometimes conscious or unconscious oblivion.  Others are clear, visible and significant also today. 

Common to all the prints is that they help to tell the story of a fascinating nation and a people that during the past millennium has been through so unbelievably much.  Though the Lithuanian people are really not just one people but a facetted range of peoples from many very different nations and cultures. 

Lithuania is a nation where only about 50% of the population lives in the very country, while the other half is scattered throughout all corners of the earth. But those who live outside the country are of course as much Lithuanians as the present residents, and it is perhaps time to combine the international and local Lithuania into a unique, powerful unification? Maybe is it now the right moment to start significant bridge-building, reconciliation and renewed cooperation? 

We hope VilNews can be of some help in identifying and describing some of the nation's worldwide footprints, and also in bridging some of the gaps between the motherland and its diasporas..

Below a few examples of significant Lithuanian footprints in different parts of the world. Please write us and share your story with our readers!

BARI, SOUTHERN ITALY 

Bona Sforza (1494-1557), Grand Duchess of Lithuania, Queen of Poland, Duchess of Bari and Princess of Rossano, left the Royal Palace in Vilnius after her husband Grand Duke Sigismund the Old died in 1548. She stayed eight years in Poland and then went to Bari in Southern Italy to claim a sizeable dept from King Philip II of Spain. But instead she was poisoned by her trusted officer, Gian Lorenzo Pappacoda, acting on behalf of King Philip.  She was buried in St. Nicholas' Basilica in Bari, where her daughter Anna had a beautiful tomb made in the current Renaissance style for her remains (above, left).

See also: https://vilnews.com/?p=1652

CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

Dr. Mendel Kaplan (1936-2009), steel magnate, writer and philanthropist, whose family emigrated from the town Rietavas (near Klaipeda) in the 1920s was called "the father of the South African Jewish community," also very much involved in the establishment of the South African Jewish Museum in Cape Town, a museum that appears more Lithuanian than Lithuania itself. Walking through the museum's cellar floor is like walking through Rietavas in year 1900.

Read more at: https://vilnews.com/?p=1703

DELHI, INDIA

Professor Lokesh Chandra (84), one of India's leading experts on Sanskrit and Buddhism, tells me this early morning in his New Delhi office: "The very mention of Lithuanian opens up an image, a vision that gives a people their identity through language. It shows how the darkness of dreams becomes the new embodied hope. My father was stimulated and strengthened in his work on the development of Hindi by the history of Lithuanian language. It has been the eternal continuity of these people; - it rustles something deep in their being. My father felt that we in India share with our distant Lithuanian brothers the silent geography of lost frontiers. Political freedom is inseparable from language."

And the professor continues his amazing story: "My father would relate how grandmas in the remote villages narrated folk-tales to eager grandchildren in their Lithuanian language which was despised by the Slavised nobility and punished by the Czarist regime. My father also told me how the Lithuanian daina (songs) were abandoned by the courts, but still continued to live on in the villages, faithfully preserved by the poorest people of Lithuania, guarded by the mothers of the families even during the darkest periods of Lithuania's history."

"Such was my first contact with Lithuania, in 1937, at an age of ten," smiles Professor Chandra this early Delhi morning.

Read more at: https://vilnews.com/?cat=18&paged=2

BOGOTÁ, COLOMBIA

Antanas Mockus (his full name is Aurelijus Rutenis Antanas Mockus Šivickas) was born 25 March 1952 in Bogotá, Colombia. His parents were Lithuanian immigrants. He is a mathematician, philosopher, and politician. He was mayor of Colombia's capital, Bogotá (population more than 7 millions), for two terms, during which he became known for springing surprising and humorous initiatives upon the city's inhabitants. These tended to involve grand gestures, including local artists or personal appearances by the mayor himself — taking a shower in a commercial about conserving water, or walking the streets dressed in spandex and a cape as Supercitizen. The impact of Mockus on the development of Bogotá is described in a documentary film released in October 2009 with the title CITIES ON SPEED - Bogotá Change.

ARCTIC & SPACE 

Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), Lithuania's national painter and composer,  has a mountain and an asteroid named after himself. In 1913 on an expedition through the Arctic ocean a painter N.Pinegin turned his attention to a plateau in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, which resembled M.K.Ciurlionis' painting "Stillness" (above). So he called it the Ciurlionis Mountain. In1975 the Crimean astrophysicist Nikolaj Cernych discovered a new 8 km diameter asteroid and called it the Ciurlionis asteroid. It orbits round the Sun in approximately four years (average distance from the Sun: 384 mln. km).

LITVAKS (LITHUANIAN JEWS) IN ISRAEL AND THE U.S. 

Benjamin Netanyahu, Jon Stewart and Bernanke – prominent world Litvaks. Jews of Lithuanian origin are today in leading roles and positions around all the world – some of our nowadays most famous politicians, scientists, businessmen, economists, actors, writers and singers...

Read more at: https://vilnews.com/?page_id=152

FBI – WASHINGTON, USA 

Alexander Bruce Bielaski (1883-1964) was born in Montgomery County, Maryland by Lithuanian emigrant parents. He received a law degree from George Washington University in 1904 and joined the Department of Justice that same year. Like his predecessor Mr. Finch, Mr. Bielaski worked his way up through the department. He served as a special examiner in Oklahoma where he "straightened out the court records" and aided in the reorganization of Oklahoma's court system when the Oklahoma territory became a state. Returning to Washington, Mr. Bielaski entered the Bureau of Investigation and rose to become Mr. Finch's assistant. In this position he was in charge of administrative matters for the Bureau.

At the end of April 1912, Attorney General Wickersham appointed Mr. Bielaski to replace Mr. Finch. As chief, Mr. Bielaski oversaw a steady increase in the resources and responsibilities assigned to the Bureau.

After leaving the Bureau in 1919, Mr. Bielaski entered private law practice. According to The New York Times, while on a trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico in 1921, Mr. Bielaski was kidnapped. He escaped three days later, saving himself and the $10,000 gathered to rescue him.

Mr. Bielaski worked undercover as a prohibition agent operating a decoy speakeasy in New York City. From 1929 to 1959, he headed the National Board of Fire Underwriters team of arson investigators. In 1938, Mr. Bielaski served as president of the Society of Former Special Agents. He died in February 1964, at the age of 80.