THE VOICE OF INTERNATIONAL LITHUANIA
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The world in Lithuania
Norwegian Gunnvald Laukhammer, the main person behind the success of Lido Marine,
is not exactly thrilled with the way the Lithuanian authorities often are acting.
LIDO Marine is a Norwegian owned Lithuanian company, established originally under the name Lauremija in 2002, with roots in the maritime business back to 1977 and as own firms since 1986. The company's founder and general director, Gunnvald Laukhammer, has long experience in building and contracting, ship interior outfitting, industrial insulation and ventilation systems in the Norwegian onshore and offshore industry.
By basing the company in the port city of Klaipeda, LIDO Marine has been able to take advantage of the wealth of experience in the ship building industry of the city. During post-war soviet times, Klaipeda was one of the major centres of ship repair and ship building for the Soviet shipping industry. Four major ship building yards and numerous related businesses operated in the city; even today Klaipeda is host to 43 ship-repair, building and technical services companies.
In 2006 the company also bought facilities in Kretinga, a town not far from Klaipeda, and established Baltic Marine Furniture to produce furniture and interiors to supply the mother company’s ship and offshore fitting operations.
LIDO Marine currently has a staff of around 75, mostly Lithuanians divided into teams of 5 to 30 people, who travel all over Europe (sometimes also in other parts of the world) to furnish ships and offshore platforms. Baltic Marine Furniture employs twelve persons at the factory in Kretinga.
The authorities do nothing to facilitate or help us
Gunnvald Laukhammer is not exactly thrilled with the way the Lithuanian authorities often are acting. "Sometimes I feel they are more eager to create problems than to help out," he says. "Take as an example that our company Baltic Marine Furniture now for a long period of time has tried to get permission to extend the furniture workshop building in Kretinga. But instead of welcoming new jobs and investments with open arms, the local authorities seem to do what they can to thwart us, and we still have not received a building permit for a rather simple building extension, on our own land, after about two years of waiting. Now another winter may come before we can start building," he says.
Gunnvald is not overexcited when he talks about the many bureaucrats and politicians he thinks Lithuania has too many of.
"I simply no longer allow myself to get annoyed at how poorly the systems in this country often works," he says in his laconic, Western-Norwegian, manner.
"It is, however, strange to see," he says, "that an investor and export company like ours is getting no support or help from the local Lithuanian authorities. I feel, on the contrary, that they sometimes are attempting to cheat and take unfair advantage of us and other foreign companies here."
“For a company like ours, maybe not so large but still engaged in important export-oriented industry, bringing value to the country in terms of wages, taxes, purchase of equipment /materials and trade with other local business, etc., etc., the authorities should exercise benevolence to give us best possible conditions to ensure that companies like ours can evolve as quickly as possible. They should not create unnecessary delays and obstacles. We all loose on that.”
What should Klaipeda focus on for the years to come?
Gunnvald Laukhammer came to Klaipeda first time 14 years ago. It was during this first visit that he met Džiuginta, the woman who eventually became his wife and moved with him to the Norwegian west coast, where their two boys Eivin and Simon were born. In 2003 the family moved to Klaipeda and has lived here ever since.
“That was a period of decline in the construction of new vessels in Norway, while in Lithuania it was at that time generally many opportunities. And such opportunities are still existing here. We also thought of our children's upbringing and the opportunities this country in the future could offer. Therefore, we chose to move here eight years ago.” tells Gunnvald.
He has, in other words, a good basis for comparing Norway and Lithuania, and I asked him what he thinks Klaipeda region should pursue in the future.
"Tourism," he replies immediately. "The coast here in Lithuania is a real gem that too few tourists still have discovered. But the government must do more to facilitate - with better infrastructure and a more comprehensive range of accommodation, entertainment etc., as found in Western Europe."
“In addition, one must focus on things that are natural for this region and which is already available, like the maritime sector.”
“Agriculture should continue to be a priority. Lithuania has large agricultural acreage, and in a time of rising food prices the country should go for their own food production rather than imports. Export of food products to other populous countries such as Asia should also be explored possibilities for.”
“It is export-oriented industry that creates value, while imports represent drain of money. Norway has exported more goods and services than those imported, and consequently the nation has now money in the bank, a good social security system and standard of living for its citizens.”
“Many countries in Europe have lost much of its industry and we are now seeing the results of such a policy. The world countries that now succeed are those that have received industry the West has not protected and cared enough about.”
“The most important in all business operations is to think long term, demonstrate stability, quality/service and reliability.”
The basketball players understand how to think collectively
“How do you see the situation that now occurs due to the huge wave of emigration from Lithuania?”
“It is regrettable that too many "young" people leave the country. Some for a period, others for good. It was these people who should be the country's future, as they are some of the most creative and best workers Lithuania has fostered.”.
“They were the ones who in the future should develop, build and run the country. This migration will be a bigger and bigger problem that politicians must now approach in earnest. What do we do, how do we act, how do we create confidence so that people after leaving school with qualifications, will have faith in the future and wish to remain in their home country?”
Lithuania is among the best basketball nations in the world. Because these young sportsmen understand how to think collectively. Such thinking should also be implemented into all other relationships in the Lithuanian society. Today’s situation encourages too much selfishness where each individual is only self concerned. Just being able to smile at each other in everyday life should not cost so much energy, you would think.”
“Lithuania is a small country, and it should not represent too much trouble to get to the attitudes change, if there is an real will to do so.”
“And, again, to give and receive trust as well as think collectively are essential elements to success, in my opinion.”
Gunnvald again shrugs his shoulders...
They have dug up our street four times in one year!
I did this interview with Gunnvald Laukhammer in his private home in the Klaipede district of Melnrage, a few kilometres north of the city centre. Getting there was easy, until a few hundred meters remained. What then met me, didn’t look much like a street at all, more like a ditch or a dry riverbed covered with crushed stone and manhole covers that towered a foot or more over the ground level in an uneven pattern along what once was a street. I was happy that it wasn’t dark outside. That could have caused fatal consequences for the car I drove.
Arriving 'in security' at Gunnvald’s he tells me that the municipality dug up the street more than a year ago to lay down new pipes for water, drains and sewers, and eventually cables for street lights. The plan was also to cover the road with cobblestones.
"But now this farce of a road story has gone on for more than one year, and during that period, the municipality has managed to dig up the street four times," Gunnvald tells with an ironic grin.
"The authorities in Lithuania must learn to manage the taxpayers' money in a much better way. Our road problem is just another example of how badly the authorities here are wasting the people’s money because of poor planning and coordination,” he says.
“If you have little money, which is understandable, one should consider alternative solutions, not choose the most expensive ones to the delight of some and chagrin of everyone else - solutions other countries, with far better economy, cannot afford. In short, the money one has available should be to the benefit for most possible people.”
With a certain hope in his voice that he and his family will not have to experience one more winter with a ditch instead of a street outside their Melnrage home, our little interview has come to an end...
Džiuginta and Gunnvald Laukhammer on one of the manhole covers sticking more than
a foot up from what once was the street outside their home in Melnrage, Klaipeda.
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JAMES ANDREW CLARKE:
Irish horse farmer who succeeded in real estate and settled in Klaipėda
James A. Clarke (34) with wife Marina (27) and son Daniel (2).
It is a very likeable couple sitting in the sofa in front of me here in the Radisson Blu Klaipeda this Saturday morning. Young, smart, successful people who have chosen Klaipeda as their hometown and base for the business activities, James has built up here over the last few years. Their two-year-old son Daniel is running around, full of energy. Luckily I manage to snap a quick family photo the one second he sits quietly with his parents.
James was only 21 years old when he came to Klaipeda and Lithuania for the first time. The building engineer who had grown up in an Irish family farm had come here to buy horses on behalf of his uncle, Ireland's largest horse-farmer.
Something out here at the Lithuanian coast must have caught James' interest and curiosity even then, so after having travelled around and seen more of the world, he came back here in 2003. And now the business got serious.
That very same year, BNTP (Baltic Real-Estate Developments) was established in Klaipeda, where it successfully developed the first modern business park in Lithuania - Klaipeda Business Park. Since then BNTP has expanded its portfolio through developments and acquisitions to include commercial centres and land plots in Lithuania and Latvia.
James has been very active and successful in his real estate endeavours since the start-up eight years ago.
BNTP has built up a solid business reputation and got a proven track record of successful developments
and investments since the start-up in 2003. See www.bnt.lt for additional details about the company.
BNTP’s ‘business park’ in the Klaipeda Free Economic Zone.
"It was probably a combination of caution, long-term planning and luck that made us less harder hit by the economic downturn than many others," says James, and mentions that he was particularly pleased to have sold one of the firm's major real estate projects just before the crisis hit in 2008.
Luck was also with James when he six years ago met the then 21 year old Marina. She was at that time a student of business administration at the LCC International University in Klaipeda, a well recognized teaching institution established in 1991 by a joint venture of Lithuanian, Canadian and American foundations. LCC has over those 20 years distinguished itself in the region by offering a unique, future-oriented style of education and an interactive academic environment.
Similar to many other students in Lithuania, Marina worked in a restaurant beside the studies. And it was in this restaurant that Amor one lovely evening, six years ago, decided to make a couple of James and Marina.
The love relationship between them developed over the months and years that followed, with marriage and now two-year-old Daniel as result. Daniel shall also soon become big brother to a new baby the couple is expecting later this summer...
The family also have plans ready to build their new home in Klaipeda, a villa on a hilltop overlooking the Dane River and an attractive 18-hole golf course that now has been developed a few kilometres from the city centre.
James' interests in life are, however, stretching beyond family and business. Since 2004 he has been the man behind a charity football tournament for children in the territory of his Klaipeda Business Park the last weekend of August every year. Last year 30 000 Lt was raised during the event, and the money was donated to the non-governmental non-profit public organization "The Centre for Information and Support for Large Families".
It is no big secret that football is one of James' major interests in life, and his next big plan in this respect is to unite Klaipeda's two football teams into one, thereby raising the professional level and get the team approved and activated in accordance with FIFA rules. He also wants to establish a football school for 600 pupils, and wants to build a brand new football stadium in Klaipeda.
And then there is a common concern that both James and Marina are urging for, namely to establish better kindergarten and primary school services in Klaipeda, preferably with an international flavour.
And when I see what this young couple already has managed to achieve, I am convinced that Klaipeda in the coming years will experience a small revolution and a lot of new, positive growth. New optimism is already in the air...
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Next time you eat bacalao* in Spain or Italy...
* The word bacalao is Spanish, and simply means cod. Actually, in many Latin countries like Brazil, Italy, Greece and of course Spain, the term bacalao is used for stockfish or salted cod. In Portugal, bacalao is said to be prepared in at least 365 different ways – one for each day of the year.
Reidar Inselseth is General Director of the Espersen fish factory in the Klaipeda Free Economic Zone, where cod from the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean is converted to delicious fish fillets for southern European markets.
Every day, all year round, a truck drives out from the Espersen fish processing plant in the Klaipeda Free Economic Zone, fully loaded with over 20 tonnes of finished fish fillets for the south and west European markets. Not many days later, these fish products are to be found at a restaurant table in Spain, Italy and Greece as delicious dishes prepared by chefs who so often are amazing fish experts and know to appreciate the wonderful ingredients the Baltic Sea and Arctic Ocean have to offer. Because it is from these seas Espersen Lietuva gets its fish raw material, roughly 40 tonnes per day.
About 50% of the fish they purchase from the Baltic countries Lithuania, Latvia, Sweden and Denmark, while the remaining half is purchased from Norway, caught in northern Atlantic waters. Some of the fish is purchased fresh, some frozen.
Espersen was the first company that was established in Klaipeda Free Economic Zone. The opening took place in January 2003. Now 275 people work here in this fish processing company, and the company has already invested EUR 10 million here in the course of these years. The facility stands as a magnificent specimen of a modern fish processor, one of the very best in the world and has become an almost indispensable and important partner for the fishermen in Lithuania and other Baltic nations.
Fish products from the plant are eaten at present by people in the UK, Germany, France, Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece.
The mother company of Espersen Lieutva, A. Espersen A/S, was founded in Denmark in 1937 with the purpose of taking advantage of the abundance of cod in the Baltic Sea region. The company was established by J.P.A. Espersen with its first premises on Bornholm, an island in the middle of the Baltic Sea.
Since then, constant growth has transformed it into one of the world´s most important white fish processing corporations with a staff of more than 1.100 employees in modern production plants in Denmark, Poland, Lithuania and China.
Among its milestones, Espersen was the first food processing company in Europe to establish its own laboratories to monitor quality control.
In 1971 the entire equity capital of Espersen was turned over to “Direktør J.P.A. Espersen og hustru, fru Dagny Espersens Fond”. The yield of the Foundation contributes with financial investments to Espersen and is distributed among charity organisations.
Today, with an annual turnover of more than 200 million Euros, Espersen is considered a financially well consolidated company basing its transactions on strong partnerships with both suppliers and customers.
For contingency reasons Espersen has chosen to have production in several at countries - Denmark (Bornholm), Poland, Lithuania, China and Vietnam.
The new Espersen office building in the Klaipeda Free Economic Zone
is shaped as a ship bridge.
Interview with General Director Reidar Inselseth
I sit with the director of the Espersen plant in Klaipeda, Norwegian Reidar Inselseth, in the new office building his firm has just built. The building is designed as the wheelhouse of a ship, with a shiny blue glass surface, and the 'bow, roof top and masts' in stainless steel.
Reidar has been director of this facility for four years now, and among other things, been responsible for extensive new investments and developments of the company. My first question to him is what he finds hardest by being entrepreneur and company leader in Lithuania.
"The lack of predictability," he replies immediately. "Unfortunately, that is something that to a far too high degree characterizes this country. For my company this is so serious that we hardly had chosen Lithuania for our production if we eight-nine years ago had known what we now know."
"This country is steeped in corruption, which we feel very directly when we often are subjected to strange inspections etc. from the authorities; something we do not see anything like in any of the other countries where we have fish processing plants. We are, for example, constantly subjected to unreasonable disclosure requirements and controls, even if we always follow highly acclaimed and transparent international principles of production, environmental control, bookkeeping and treatment of employees. It feels as if here in Lithuania companies like ours still have to prove their innocence instead of being greeted with open arms and cooperative attitudes."
"Do you see these things as something that remains from the Soviet times?"
"Yes, I think so. There is, for example, too little of free and open competition, far too many monopolies, generally too low level of knowledge in public administration, and too big distance from the country's legislature to where things really happen."
"What do you think the Lithuanian authorities should do with this?"
"First and foremost, they must streamline their anti-corruption efforts and substantially increase transparency in the entire state administration. And those who are appointed to executive positions must be selected on the basis of merit, not because of party affiliation."
"Are there other, more practical problems you face for your business in today's Lithuania?"
"The biggest problem in this respect is undoubtedly the increasing shortage of labour here due to the massive emigration that has taken place in recent years. Many of those we have trained in fish processing in our firm have travelled to the west, and now we are seriously struggling to find qualified workers. What we see in the Lithuanian society today is becoming a daunting demographic composition with too many old and very young and too few in working age."
"This is a problem that the authorities immediately should take more seriously. Society should be organized so that it again becomes safe and interesting to live and work here. We must have safe, good schools, health care and jobs. Today these things combined are just so negative that too many choose to leave their home country."
"The lack of labour is, by the way, now so precarious that the government should allow for greatly increased immigration from countries farther east."
Reidar Inselseth is clearly engaged in these issues, probably partly due to the fact that he has a Lithuanian wife, with whom he has two school-age children. The family would like to live in Klaipeda, but hope the negative trends in the country soon will turn so that they can again feel the optimism and satisfaction of living and working here.
Meanwhile, truck after truck rolls out from this top modern fish processing plant here in Klaipeda.
Restaurant guests in Rome, Madrid and Athens hardly have a clue that the delicious, tasty dinners they are about to eat origin just from here...
Recipe for Bacalao a la Vizcayna
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Bacalao a la Vizcayna is a Spanish dish. It is basically sautéed salted fish that is popularly known as a staple food during the Lentewn season.
Ingredients:
half a kilo of dried and salted bacalao (dried salted cod fish)
1 tbsp flour
half a cup olive oil
5 cloves minced garlic
1 medium chopped onion
2 medium chopped tomatoes
half a cup of water
200g tomato sauce and 1 cup canned garbanzos
2 medium red bell peppers, cut into strips
pepper grounded and salt
2 medium cubed potatoes
Procedure:
1. Soak the dried fish in water for at least 1 hour and drain out the excess water. Afterwards, boil the fish, drain and set aside. When cool enough to handle, flake and discard the bones of the fish and then set aside.
2. Sprinkle flour over flaked fish, then fry it in olive oil until light brown in color. Afterwards, set it aside.
3. Sauté garlic, onions, and tomatoes. Add water and simmer the mixture for 2 minutes. Pour in tomato sauce and bring to a boil.
4. Add prepared fish, garbanzos, and pepper. Season with salt and pepper
5. Add fried potatoes and simmer.
A recipe from: http://myrecipehouse.com
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Californian Rotarians visiting Lithuania
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Report written by Millbrae CA Rotarian Walter Gladwin, Millbrae Rotarians, California
The basic purpose of this trip was to visit our Rotary Club’s Sister City Club in Siauliai Lithuania, visit the Auksuciai Farm that our club has been supporting for several years, visit two Museums in Lithuania that have items donated by the Sliupas family (Vytas Sliupas is a member of our Millbrae California Rotary club).
Eventually five of us started this adventure, Denis & Marciana O’Halloran, Deirdri & Walt Gladwin and Shirley Kwok. We all planned on getting to Lithuania on July 1.
Day 2 - July 2 in Vilnius, Lithuania - Have Breakfast. Coffee (Kava) is good and strong. Shirley was delayed in Newark NJ and had to spend the night there. Her connecting flight “lost” her luggage so all she has is her carry-on. We go on our walking tour basically limited to the Old Town area, a UNESCO protected site, which is very pleasant, and maintained in a strict manner to represent the visual of the period. We then proceed to the Vilnius University Library established in 1547. A very impressive set of buildings. Next are the Gediminas Castle and its funicular lift to the top of the hill. One can see that attackers would have an extremely difficult time with this defense.
Day 3 - July 3rd Depart Vilnius and stop at the famous Trakai castle. More pictures on the road to the city of Kaunas for lunch. We visit the Pazaislis Monastery where Napoleon quartered troops on his way to Moscow 200 years ago. The horses were stabled in the church and the damage is clearly visible. One of the Nuns gives us a history lesson and surprises us with her use of a laser pointer. In town we visit the War Museum to see the tapestry that our club member Vytautas Sliupas and his wife Vanda worked on for 10 years. Then to the Ciurlionis Art Museum. One room is set as a music hall so we enjoy a few minutes of the recorded music. We are off to Klaipeda for the night. Shirley’s luggage still has not caught up to her.
Day 4 - July 4 – Happy Birthday USA!!! – which goes unnoticed where we are. We are going to tour the “Amber Coast” by a short ferry ride to the Curonian Spit (Kursiu Nerija), a narrow stretch of land from Klaipeda south to the Kaliningrad (Karaliaucius) Oblast, which currently is a part of Russia. The East side (Courland Lagoon or Kursiu Marios) has fresh water; the West side is the Baltic Sea. We stop at a popular Park. There is a walking path thru the area known as the Witches Hill (Raganu Kalnas). Along this path are various wooden carved pieces depicting mythical beings, each with a story that our guide relates. Some pieces have magical properties, one of which grants wishes. Shirley sits in one and asks for her luggage. It takes an hour to walk the entire trail. At the town of Nida have lunch outdoors in a slight drizzle and a walk to the house were the Author Thomas Mann spent summers for three years. Back to the ferry and Klaipeda. Shirley’s wish at the Witches Hill comes true, her missing luggage has arrived.
Day 5 – Off to Palanga to visit the Amber Museum. Amber is the resin from Pine Trees that hardened under pressure some 20 million years ago. It sometimes will contain vegetable or small creatures imbedded in it as it formed. See some really neat samples of carving and imbedded “bugs”. We then visit the Dr. Jonas Sliupas (Vytautas’ or Vytas’ father) Museum and his monument. Jonas was a historical person, former Mayor, Teacher, activist, Ambassador and other roles in the country’s development in the last 125 years. Onward towards Siauliai we stop in Plateliai to visit a former USSR ICBM site. It was active until the Soviet withdrawal in 1993. They took all of the rockets, warheads and small arms. The current government is restoring the base as a historical attraction and allows self guided tours of safe portions. Onward to Kursenai, we meet Aldas Kikutis the Director of the Auksuciai Farm we have come to visit. He leads our van thru miles of fields on a dusty road and we often lose sight of his car but not his dust. The farm, we learn, is quite large. A portion is the experimental crop development area where the Rotary Clubs have been involved. We examine the water system in the farmhouse; the fields, the refrigerated storage shed and return to the farmhouse where a large finger food banquet has been prepared. The resident Agriculture Student, Toma Bilyte, from the University of Siauliai has prepared far too much but we make a large dent. She keeps urging us to eat more. The recently grown fresh asparagus is sampled. Yummy!!!. There is a thunder storm approaching and we need to get out of here and onto a hard road. So Aldas leads us out to a highway that leads to our final stop in Siauliai. We are taken to our hotel which has been arranged by our Sister Club, Siauliai Rotary Klubas. There we are met by Rotarians, including the new President Rimundas Domarkas, who greet us very warmly. They host us with dinner at the hotel and give us an outline of events for the next few days. Many stories are told back and forth and a good time was had by all.
Day 6 - We have to move to a different room today. There are athletes staying here from South Africa, Macao and elsewhere. We get picked up by our Rotarian hosts, given VIP Credentials for the World Games that start today. These are the 5th TAFISA World Games for All Games sponsored in part by the International Olympic Committee. We go to the center of the city where the opening parade will take place. There is a fly over by two Polish Air Force jets assigned to NATO, at about 150 feet altitude and they are loud, then 6 sky divers parachute down right on the street in front of us. Wow!!!. Off to the Hill of Crosses. It has been a memorial for many years. During the Soviet Occupation, starting in 1945, it was destroyed on a regular basis to try to Sovietize the population. Each time the local people would install new crosses at night. Finally the attempts were abandoned by the Soviets. Today there are 10s of thousands of crosses of all sizes, from 10 feet tall to one quarter inch in size. At 7PM we go to the Opening Show for the Games. Our VIP status gets us premium seating in booths. A parade of the participating Countries, an outstanding Arial act, Gymnastic performance, a fitness performance by senior citizens, folk dancing, Stilt Walkers and a good buffet dinner during all of this.
Day 7 – Nicest morning so far. We go to the University Library to deliver a book to the Dr. Jonas Sliupas Archyvas. The book is a collection of 100 Lithuanian motive Postal Cards that Vytas sent to his family from different countries he visited during his travels. We are given a tour of the Library starting with a game of Chess in the Lobby. The board is part of the floor and the pieces are 3 feet tall and heavy. After many moves, some suggested by bystanders, the game is called a draw. We view the slide show and are shown many of the items in the Jonas Sliupas collection. Then we walk on the pedestrian boulevard which was the first ever constructed in Soviet occupied lands. We get a tour of this lovely Victorian home built in 1908 by the owner, a Mister Frenkel, of a Shoe Manufacturing business. The home was used as a hospital during the Soviet times, as the Soviet Occupation is referred to by the Lithuanians. We get a “wild” ride back to the hotel as our drivers may have had a bit too much of the beverages.
Day 8 – We visit a Church in which is an organ that was donated by Rotarian Janet Fogarty, one of our Club’s members, from her Father’s Estate. There is a wedding and christening here also, a beautiful bride, he so-so, and the Priest takes time to explain, thru our interpreter, that it takes years to rebuild churches that were damaged or destroyed during the “times”. The Siauliai Rotary Klubas donated the Carrilon Bells and the Priest has them played for us. A very special treat. Back to the Hotel to pack. We leave for Vilnius in the morning.
Day 8 – The Rotary Club President Rimundas and the party host meet us at the hotel to wish us goodbye. We exchange good wishes and thank yous and an invitation to visit our Club again, “maybe possible” we are told. Our van arrives and we are off to Vilnius. Later we go to a below ground level restaurant with an ancient staircase that winds down and you have to duck your head a couple of times. We all order a Lithuanian meal - Deirdri has Halibut, Walter has Rabbit Pie, both very good.
Day 9 – July 9 – We have a free morning before being shuttled to the airport. During breakfast we hear a military band. Outside is a formation consisting of a 40 person band, a platoon of soldiers and a platoon of sailors all smartly dressed. Officers with swords. Orders are given and the formations respond. There is a large group of civilians gathered just in front of them and they proceed into the building next door to the hotel. It turns out that it is the Defense Ministry being visited by high ranking foreigners. Just to complete the scene there are a number of guys dressed in black suits, white shirts and ties with ear pieces scattered around the area. Wana bet, Lithuanian Secret Service? Our van is a few nervous minutes late to pick us up. The plane is a turboprop, noisy but smooth and there are no travel hitches this time.
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World history as taught in our schools does not get into the level of detail as told by local guides. That is our conclusion after being in the country. The earliest mention of Lithuania dates from about 1009. At one point Lithuania ruled the area from the Baltic to the Black Sea to Moscow.
We were very satisfied with the arrangements made, the flexibility of the local guides, their punctuality and their ability to answer our off the wall questions. In general the food was very good. The places we visited were interesting, the best were the Witches Hill and everything in and about Siauliai. Thank you Siauliai Rotarians for having invited us!
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SOUTH AFRICAN EMBASSY
Wathint' abafazi, wathint'
imbokodo; uzokufa!
(If you strike a woman you strike a rock, and you will die!)
A saying from South Africa during the darkest days of the nation’s oppression.
Ambassador of South Africa to Denmark and Lithuania,
H.E., Ms. Samkelisiwe I. Mhlanga
Speech by Ambassador of South Africa to Denmark and Lithuania, Samkelisiwe I. Mhlanga,
at the soon-to-open Crisis Centre for Women in Klaipeda
I would like to thank you for the honour of allowing us to pay a short visit to this inspiring centre you are establishing here in Klaipeda. I would like to commend the community leaders of Klaipeda for your insight and your hard work and I would like to wish you well with all your future planning and efforts. I would also like to express my admiration to the employees of the centre. These are the people who accepted the calling to fight abuse every day of their lives. Ladies and Gentleman, we admire you.
As South African’s we are humbled to be here, as the life stories we have heard and witnessed today in this place, cannot but remind us of the hardships and suffering of the women of our own country. It should also remind us that no nation on earth should claim to be completely free if the vulnerable members of its society continue to suffer abuse, injustice and discrimination.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I come from a continent whose history is filled with colonialisation and oppression that brought with it unmentionable hardship. I come from a country where a racist regime governed for 5 decades and passed laws that kept a country in bondage and cost the lives of thousands of its citizens.
In general, all racial and ethnic groups in South Africa have long-standing beliefs concerning gender roles, and most are based on the premise that women are less important, or less deserving of power, than men. Most African traditional social organizations are male centered and male dominated. Even today, in some rural areas of South Africa, for example, wives walk a few paces behind their husbands in keeping with traditional practices.
But Ladies and Gentlemen, things are changing in my country. Twentieth-century economic and political developments presented South African women with both new obstacles and new opportunities to wield influence.
Ambassador Samkelisiwe I. Mhlanga and Political Councellor Douw GJ Vermaak from the South African Embassy in Copenhagen were at the soon-to-open Crisis Centre for Women in Klaipeda last week, Here discussing the topic of violence against women with Klaipeda’s Mayor, Vytautas Grubliauskas (left)
and the staff of the Municipality’s social department.
As you will know, in South Africa, there was a long tradition of women’s participation in the national struggle. In recognition of these women’s commitment and their sacrifices our first freely–elected Government identified non‐sexism, together with non‐racism, as the core values that would underpin our new democracy.
Today women occupy various roles in South African society, some very visible, some very subtle.
So I came here today to tell you that If women can be relied upon to come forward in desperate times to serve the common purpose of liberating the masses in the just struggle for a free South Africa, then why should women all over the world not expect their due which is nothing less than an equal place in society?
Today women make up a third of South Africa’s parliamentarians and almost half of the Cabinet, holding key portfolios across the board. It is something South Africans should be proud of and continue to improve on.
It is truly wonderful to see women being able to take charge of their own destiny ‐ and that of their families, communities and nations. In South Africa we hold as an unshakable belief that we must continue to fight discrimination and abuse against women and help to move forward the women’s agenda internationally.
I would like to leave you today by telling you of a saying that originated in South Africa in the darkest days of our oppression. The saying goes like this "Wathint' abafazi, wathint' imbokodo; uzokufa!" (If you strike a woman you strike a rock, and you will die!)
The legacy of oppression and mental and physical abuse weighs heavily on women. As long as women are bound by poverty and as long as they are looked down upon, human rights will lack substance. As long as outmoded ways of thinking prevent women from making a meaningful contribution to society, progress will be slow. As long as the nation refuses to acknowledge the equal role of more than half of itself, it is doomed to failure.
We will keep this centre in our thoughts and our prayers. Thank you.
Samkelisiwe I. Mhlanga
Ambassador
South African Embassy
Gammel Vartov Vej 8
2900 Hellerup
Denmark
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Text: Aage Myhre
International Lithuania got its “flying start” already in 1323, when Grand Duke Gediminas founded Vilnius as Lithuania’s capital city, and immediately decided to invite merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers from all Europe to come to the new capital, guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became international, though with less of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Rome – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals.
Below is our brief presentation of some main waves of immigration to Lithuania, and the role foreign nations and cultures have had here.
Russians
On Didzioji Street you can see St Nikolay Orthodox Church in
original yellow colour. Built in 1514. In 1609-1827 it belonged to Uniates
order. Then, in Russia Empire times, the church was re-modelled.
Russian culture is a very important part of the polyphonic culture of Lithuania. It is characterized by professional forms of modern urban culture - theatre, music, and art. Two stars of Russian theatre are connected with Lithuania - Vera Komisarzhevskaya and Vasily Kachalov. Literature occupies a special place. It was created by people of different aesthetic orientations, religious backgrounds, and ethnic origins: Pavel Kukolnik, who was of Austrian ancestry, Vasily von Rotkirch, who was descended from a line of German knights, Aleksander Navrotsky, who was born in St. Petersburg, and Aleksander Zhirkevich, who was an heir to nobles of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Diverse in genre and theme, fables, tragedies and dramas, poems, novellas and short stories, sketches and memoirs make up a rich library. Between the world wars important contributions were made to the cultural development of Lithuania by the artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, the opera singer and director Teofan Pavlovsky, the writer and journalist Arkady Bukhov, the culture historian and philosopher Lev Karsavin, and the historian Ivan Lappo. Also noteworthy in the Russian literary life of Vilnius were such celebrities as Vyacheslav Bogdanovich and Dorofei Bokhan as well as the poets Vasily Selivanov and Konstantin Olenin.
This heritage is being discovered anew by the Russians of Lithuania (roughly 308,000 people, who make up 8.7 percent of the total population of the country). It is valuable as a fruitful experience of cultural interaction.
Tatars
Tatar
Mosque in Nemėžis, near Vilnius.
The Tatars are a unique ethnic group currently living in Lithuania, in the western part of Belarus, and along the eastern border of Poland. During the 14th-16th centuries their ancestors settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
Lithuanian Tatars are descended from the Golden Horde and the Crimean Khanate. Their distinctive community, although separated from its Tatar-Turkic roots and surrounded by a foreign world, was able to preserve the culture and characteristics of their ancestors as well as their national and religious identity. For various reasons Lithuanian Tatars lost their language rather quickly, but on account of their profound attachment to Islam, they have preserved their national consciousness for 600 years. The rulers of Lithuania and Poland have always been tolerant of the Tatar community and its religion. In these lands the Tatars built mosques and freely practiced their religion. They were granted various rights and privileges; the Tatar aristocracy had the same status as the nobility of Lithuania and Poland. For centuries Lithuanian Tatars maintained the image of fearless and capable warriors; their main activity was warfare. During various periods the Tatar community found its place in the life and liberation struggles of the Lithuanian and Polish nations. At the beginning of the 20th century national struggles for independence also roused the Tatar intelligentsia to a national reawakening; educated Tatars appeared in various fields, in learning and in warfare. Encouraged by the movement of national rebirth, Polish scholars of Tatar ancestry have begun to study the history of Lithuanian Tatars.
During the period of sovietisation, Lithuanian Tatars lost much in the area of spiritual culture and religion. The national rebirth of Lithuania and restoration of independence at the end of the 20th century created the conditions for Tatar communities to return to their ethnic culture, to their roots, to the sources of their national life.
In 1988 the Lithuanian Tatar Cultural Society was re-established, and with it - the social activity of Tatar communities. In 1997 the 600th anniversary of the settlement of Tatars and Karaims in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was celebrated. In 1998 a spiritual centre, or muftiate, was re-established for Lithuania's Sunni Muslims.
Karaims
Karaim
temple, a ‘Kenasa’, in Trakai 30 km from Vilnius.
The Karaims are the smallest ethnic group in Lithuania, inextricably linked with the Crimean victories of Grand Duke Gediminas who brought 380 Karaim families to his castle in Trakai back in 1397.
According to the ethno statistical data collected in 1997, there are 257 Karaims living in Lithuania. Their social activity is directed, first and foremost, toward the preservation of their distinctive culture, language, customs, and religion.
During the 600 years that they have lived in Lithuania, this small Turkic people have preserved a strong national consciousness. A rather inward-looking community life, firm moral principles based on the teachings of the Karaim religion, and steadfast adherence to tradition - all these things have contributed to the survival of the people, of their basic characteristics, such as language, customs, and rituals, and thus, of their national identity. What also helped the Karaims of Lithuania survive under difficult conditions was the tolerance and respect for them expressed during all those centuries not only in the everyday contacts between people but also in the official state documents of various periods.
An exceptional period in the history of Lithuanian Karaims was the Soviet occupation, which thoroughly shook up the accustomed foundations of Karaim community life. The consequences of that time, which are still felt today, make it much more difficult for people to "return to their roots," to the rhythms of their national life.
Many world scholars are interested in the cultural heritage that Lithuanian Karaims have preserved to the present day. The still living Karaim language, which belongs to the West Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic family of languages, receives the most attention. It is being studied from several angles - as a language that has preserved rare old forms and words that have disappeared from other languages of the Turkic family and also as one that has borrowed and in its own way adapted some features of vocabulary and syntax from neighbouring languages (Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish).
Jews (Litvaks)
Vilna
Great Synagogue, destroyed/burned by the Nazis
and
later by the Soviets during/after WWII.
Vilnius was for centuries called „Jerusalem of the North“ , due to the fact that the Lithuanian Jews, known as “Litvaks”, had created a flourishing, diverse culture in the course of almost 700 years of their presence here.
The religious culture of Lithuanian Jews enriched the world Jewry. A wealth of famous scholars of Judaism lived and worked in Lithuania. The Vilnius Gaon Eliyahu was one of the most prominent Talmudists of all times. The spiritual academies - yeshivas - attended by young men from many countries were known throughout the world. In different periods of time there were over 250 synagogues in Vilnius.
Litvaks made a weighty contribution to the development of Judaism, and cherished a highly developed secular culture, which enriched not only the culture of world Jewry, but also that of Lithuania, as well as the whole world. Litvaks spoke Yiddish and created outstanding literary works.
The Lithuanian Yiddish is considered to be the fundament of the literary Yiddish language. Books on Judaic, published in Vilnius, spread all over the world. Libraries in Vilnius were famous for the wealth and value of books kept there. The world known Judaic scientific institutions, first of all, the Jewish Scientific Institute YIVO, were situated in Vilnius. Jasha Heifets, Zhak Lipshits, Chajim Soutine and many others enriched the world of art and music. Litvaks - emigrants from Lithuania became prominent scientists, public figures, politicians in Israel, the USA, South Africa. The Nazi regime annihilated Lithuanian Jews and their culture. Less than 10% of Jews survived. This practically destroyed the remnants of the Litvak legacy.
Italians
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Grand Duke |
The grand Duchess, Italian Princess Bona Sforza |
The Lithuanian Royal Palace
was designed
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Italy had
an extraordinary, but still little known role in and for Lithuania over many
centuries.
When Lithuania’s Grand Duke, Sigismund the Old in 1518
married the Italian Princess Bona Sforza, this became an
Italy was involved in and with Vilnius already from its very first days as a capital city in the early 14th century. Even the name “Vilnius” was used for the first time when Grand Duke Gediminas in 1323 wrote to Pope John XXII asking for support in Christianizing the duchy.
Throughout the Renaissance, when Italy was a trading centre and a melting pot for the world’s greatest civilizations, also Vilnius became a Renaissance centre, competing with Florence and Milan. This development began when King Sigismund the Old (1467-1548) married Bona Sforza (princess of Milan and Bari) and returned to live in Vilnius in 1518. They created together an Italian community within the court and, under the influence of the Queen, Italian culture became the preoccupation of the city’s elite; macheroni, skryliai, and even the confection marcipanus became staples among the cogniscenti; and life at court became a series of cultural events, with rich noblemen competing for extravagance. In 1532 the Vilnius Cathedral Orchestra was already performing with the Queen singing alto.
The education of their son, King Sigismund August (1520-72), was the responsibility of a Sicilian, Jonas Silvijus Amatas, between 1529 and 1537. King Sigismund August founded Lithuania’s first library in 1547, and sent scholars and traders across Europe to assemble volumes of practical and historical value.
Italians played a very important role in the development of architecture and art in Lithuania till the end of the 18th century, and it has been said that Vilnius is “the world’s most Italian city outside Italy”.
Germans
Building in Vokiečių (German) street in
Vilnius Old Town, with the gate to the Evangelical Lutheran Church, originally
built by Germans in 1555.
It has been a long history of cooperation between Germany and Lithuania. History tells us that when Grand Duke Gediminas 700 years ago began the restoration of Lithuania, this was done with the help of German colonists, and several cities were founded with the German systems of laws. When Vilnius in 1323 was named a city, this was legalized on background of the so-called “Magdeburg Rights”. German craftsmen and merchants, who had been invited to Lithuania by Gediminas and his successors, may have been the first ones to settle in Vokieciu gatve (the German Street). In the 16th century the German merchants built their beautiful and still existing Lutheran church here. Other Germans came when the Hanseatic League helped to intensify commercial and trade relations with the countries of the Baltic Sea and their neighbours.
Poles
The Polish (Holy Spirit) church at
Dominikonu street, Vilnius
The history of the Poles in Lithuania mainly dates back to the 14th century in which Lithuania made an Alliance with Poland that developed into a Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 –1795). In the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Polish culture was mainly dominant in the Vilnius district. After having belonged to the Russian Empire from 1795 onwards the Vilnius district became part of Poland after World War I. It was returned to Lithuania in 1939 as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop-Pact. In 1697 when the Sejm/Seimas enacted a bill of rights that resulted in changing the language of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania into Polish, the prestige of the Polish language (the language of the ‘small nobility’, the so-called szlachta) increased as opposed to Lithuanian as the language of the peasantry. The higher prestige of Polish as well as the usage of Polish by the Catholic Church led to the “Polonisation” of part of the Lithuanian population mainly in the Vilnius region. As several linguists put it, the distinction between Poles and Lithuanians was almost strictly based on economic status and religion. Polish identification was a reflection of status and was independent of ethnic identity.
The Poles live all over Lithuania but the largest groups (90% of the Poles) can be found in Vilnius (18.7% of the inhabitants are Poles), and further on in the Vilnius district and the districts of Švenčionys, Trakai, Šalčininkai and Varėna. Some Poles also live near the Polish-Lithuanian border.
According to the 2001 census the Polish nationality is the largest minority in Lithuania. 234,989 people or 6.74% of the total population consider themselves to be Poles.
Today‘s International Community
Lithuania is again a free country with open borders for people from around the world. The latest twenty years have proved that the ancient ideals of keeping up this country as an international melting pot are returning. Approximately four million visitors are arriving here now, on an annual basis, and people from more than 50 countries have decided to settle here since 1991. A new, multicultural society is developing. The fifty year of isolation under the Soviet regime is irrevocably over, and a new era for Lithuania’s international community is already here…
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VIC
VILNIUS INTERNATIONAL CLUB
New board for
Vilnius International Club
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PERSONAL INFORMATION |
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Aage Myhre |
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+370 699 33 222 |
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VilNews Editor-in-Chief. Has lived in Lithuania for more than 20 years. M.Sc. of Civil Engineering (dept. of Architecture) + Architectural Psychology, Strasbourg, France. Journalist, editor, photographer, architect, developer, philanthropist. |
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Zilvinas Beliauskas |
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+370 687 76 625 |
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zilvinas@zilvinas.be ; zilvinas.beliauskas@vilnius-international-club.com ; zilvinas.beliauskas@vilnews.com ; |
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Psychologist. Psychology teacher, Mykolas Romeris university - http://zilvinasb.home.mruni.eu/. Research fellow, Lithuanian Culture Research Institute - http://lkti.lt/en/aboutus . Manager of cultural activities, Vilnius Jewish Public Library - http://vilnius-jewish-public-library.com/ . |
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Torben Pedersen |
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+370 685 16 060 |
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Deloitte Partner (retired). VilNews Board member. Danish Chamber of Commerce Board member. Has lived in Lithuania for 18 years. M.Sc. In Auditing, State Authorized Public Accountant (Denmark). |
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Kristina Janusauskaite |
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+370 612 16 789 |
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Advocate, Law Firm BLS Lithuania, Vilnius; Lecturer, Vilnius University Law School; Arbitrator, Vilnius Commercial Arbitration Court; External Consultant, World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) |
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Andrius Koncius |
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+370 699 43 449: +370 5 21276 10 (office) |
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Managing Director of UAB COWI Lietuva. |
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Amelija Rudenko |
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+370 699 19 135 |
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General Manager of UAB "E.L.L. Nekilnojamas turtas", lecturer at www.ttvam.lt (Hotel and lodging general management), former professional in hospitality industry (10-year experience in international hotel business), author of the book "Viesbuciu darbo organizavimo pagrindai". |
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Audrius Sakalauskas |
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+ 370 698 38 156 |
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Freelance business development consultant, food & beverage expert, tea taster |
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David Telky |
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+370 865 44 592 |
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Clothing manufacturer in Lithuania for 20 years. |
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Web page for VIC: http://vilnius-international-club.com/
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Labas Aage Myhre,
I learned of your website through the British-Lithuanian Society, of which I have been a sustaining member for four years. The B-LS does a wonderful job of promoting Lithuanian social and cultural events in the United Kingdom, and helps to promote initiatives in Lietuva through The Tiltas Trust, a registered charity. For details, go to www.britishlithuaniansociety.org.uk.
I am very proud to tell you that the best man I ever knew was my maternal grandfather, who was Lithuanian. The spelling of the family name changes from document to document, but his father's surname was Markauskus (Markowskas? Markauskus?) and his mother's maiden name was Janusraitus (again, different spellings). There is NOTHING that would make me happier than to be able to trace my roots within Lietuva. If you - or anyone you know - can help me, I would be most grateful. Do you know which part of the country people with these names came from originally? You don't know how much this means to me.
My great grandparents left Lietuva in 1897, moved to Liverpool for four years and then went to Pittston, Pennsylvania, where my grandfather was born. He worked as a coal miner, but after an accident in the mine, decided to try his luck at securing a job at Henry Ford's factory in Michigan. Sadly, after a long time waiting in the hiring queue, he never got the job. So, he knocked on the door of another great American, and this time he got the job. The man who hired him was Thomas Edison. He raised his family in the Vailsburg section of Newark, New Jersey, and when he retired from the Edison Company he presented me with his retirement medal. I was his first born grandchild, and he raised me as if I were his son, which isn't surprising considering that he, a real "soldier's soldier" had daughters but no sons.
My grandfather gave me everything that money cannot buy. In return, I hope to honour his memory by doing whatever I can that will help Lietuva. My resources are limited - I do not have "extra" money, but I can make my contribution in other ways.
I have visited Lietuva twice and am happy to report that never once was I swindled by a taxi driver or a rogue trader. All the people were honest to a fault. Service in the restaurants is very slow (a holdover from Soviet times?), but everything else in the country is wonderful.
Lietuva is the best country in all the world for four reasons: The best food (cepelinai), the best beer (Svyturys), the best basketball players (Sabonis, Jasekevicius, etc.), and - most obviously - the most beautiful and charming women!!!
Please keep me on your mailing list. Your website is excellent!
Yours sincerely,
Brian Holmes, United Kingdom
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Mark your calendars:
The Christmas Charity Bazaar will take place on Saturday 3 December!
‘Team Ireland’ at last year’s bazaar.
The 9th International Christmas Charity Bazaar (ICCB) will take place on Saturday, 3 December, 2011 at the Vilnius Town Hall (Rotuše) under the kind patronage of Mrs Alma Adamkiene. The Bazaar, organised by the International Women’s Association of Vilnius (IWAV) in cooperation with the international diplomatic and business communities and Lithuanian friends, has become the unofficial start to the Christmas season.
The 2010 event was attended by more than 5.000 visitors and raised nearly 300.000 Litas for beneficiaries, including: Kaunas Medical University Clinic, Vilnius Residential Home for Children and Youth, Ekklesia Charity Foundation, Vilnius University Children's Oncology Unit, Kijeliu Home for Severely Disabled Children (specialusis ugdymo centras), Alantos Nursing Home for the Elderly, Children-Youth Day Care Centre “Musu Namelai”, and the Training Centre for the Blind and Visually Impaired. More information is available from: www.iwavilnius.com/iccb.
All the organisers of the Christmas Bazaar are volunteers, who commit to the requirement that all money collected on the day of the Bazaar and related activities go directly to the beneficiaries. Sponsorships help to cover organisational costs; sponsors also have the option to fund the beneficiaries directly. The beneficiaries do not receive cash; the projects funded through the Christmas Bazaar are directly paid to the suppliers as per invoice. Potential beneficiaries for support this year are being evaluated presently and will be announced in October.
The attached description will present you with the opportunities to become involved in the Christmas Bazaar, a traditional event which becomes more successful each year in spite of challenges. We do hope that you will be able to join us in making a difference in the lives of the ill, less fortunate and disadvantaged.
If you have any question, please contact either Mercedes Sprouse, Co-Chair of the Organising Committee (e-mail: mercedes.sprouse@gmail.com; Mob.tel: +370.65568114), or Rima Ingstad, member of the organising committee responsible for sponsorship (e-mail: rima@svcentras.com ; Mob.tel: +370 687 73733).
Partnership and sponsorship opportunities
Sponsors participate in ICCB by invitation only under the following categories:
Benefactor:
A capital investment over 40.000 Lt which supports a particular beneficiary in substantive development and reconstruction. Benefactors receive highest priority in publicity.
VIP sponsor:
Principle investment over 5.000 Lt in materials, supplies, equipment, services and development of the event. VIP sponsors receive priority placement in publicity materials.
Contributors:
Sponsorship under this category may include cash donations of any kind, vouchers for goods or services for the Lottery, and facilities for organisation of the event.
Regarding the Lottery, Top Raffle Donors contribute prizes worth more than 1,000 Lt. The minimum contribution can be a combination of prizes however the total value must be no less than 200 Lt.
Information Partners:
Organisations which provide free advertising space and publicity in substantial quantity and length of time shall be recognised as a media sponsor, according to the value of the contribution.
Volunteers opportunities
About 50 key organisers work over six months to prepare the event. Another 200 volunteers become involved in the days before and during the Christmas Bazaar. Anyone interested in joining a particular country stand or contributing toward the overall organisation of the event is warmly welcome to contact the Chairs.
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Christmas Charity Bazaar background
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Gunilla Possenius with Professor Vytautas Landsbergis.
By: Gunilla Possenius
Vilnius´ International Christmas Charity Bazaar is approaching - but how and when did it start?
For the ninth year Vilniaus Rotuse will open its doors for the International Christmas Charity Bazaar (ICCB) on December 3. This annual event has become one of the true signs that Christmas is approaching.
But how many know today how it all really started? Over the years, inaccurate information regarding how ICCB started was circulating. So now it is time for the true story to be told.
Of course, other kinds of Christmas bazaars were arranged in Vilnius before the first ICCB in 2003.
IWAV, the International Women´s Association of Vilnius, under whose umbrella the ICCB now is organized, many years had a bazaar-like event at its November or December Monthly Membership Meetings with handicrafts and Christmas things from local organizations or artists.
Also, SWEA Vilnius (the local branch of Swedish Women’s Educational Association International, Inc.) together with the International Church of Vilnius had its Christmas Bazaar in Sandora Hall in connection with its Lucia celebration in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Vokieciu 1999-2003.
In 2000, the Swedish Embassy organized a Swedish Christmas Bazaar in the exhibition hall of the Embassy. In 2002, the Austrian Embassy organized an Austrian Christmas Bazaar in the residence.
However, none of these could qualify as International Christmas Bazaars. Not even the SWEA/International Church Bazaar, although the SWEA Vilnius membership counted ten different nationalities and the Church many more.
For a Bazaar to be International a number of countries must be represented and/or participating, selling items from different countries.
History of ICCB
In autumn 2002, Gunilla Possenius (President of the Swedish Women’s Association, SWEA Vilnius) and Åshild Hauge (wife of the Norwegian Ambassador), during a walk in Vingis Parkas discussed the possibility of setting up an International Christmas Bazaar in Vilnius. From previous postings, both of them had experience of International Christmas Charity Bazaars in other countries.
Already, a number of international ladies were involved in the mini-Bazaar and the annual Lucia celebration which, since 1999, SWEA Vilnius was running together with the International Church of Vilnius (of which Åshild was a board member) in the Lutheran church on Vokieciu.
In early December 2002, at an Austrian bazaar at the Ambassador’s residence, Gunilla, with her talks with Åshild in mind, asked Rosie Schwarzinger, the wife of the Ambassador, whether she would be interested in joining a group with some potential other ladies Gunilla would contact, to try to put together an International Christmas Bazaar. Rosie said she would absolutely not be able to be the motor herself or play an active part, but could join a group in case one was to be formed.
At that event, Gunilla informed Agne Zuokiene, of her plans to try - together with some other ladies - to give Vilnius what other capitals already had, an International Christmas Bazaar. Agne was pleased and would inform her husband, the Mayor of Vilnius.
In January 2003, Åshild and Gunilla informed VIC’s Charity Group (chaired by Ambassador Kåre Hauge) about the Bazaar plans. Åshild and Gunilla agreed that the Bazaar was to be run in a truly "Scandinavian" way, i.e. not let any person, organization or entity - private or public - use the Bazaar for their own promotion or ends, but always present it as an endeavour and achievement of a group of women. Nobody would be able to arrange a Christmas Bazaar on her own, anyway.
In January, Gunilla had also contacted Charlotte Davnie, IWAV’s longtime Charity Chair, from the US, and Birute Vizgirdiene, a much needed Lithuanian addition to the group with excellent contacts in Lithuania.
The five ladies met at the Norwegian residence, on March 19, 2003. There, Birute booked Rotuse for November 22, 2003, and it was agreed that Gunilla should send out an invitation to all embassies, to AISV staff and parents, to IWAV for its members and to SWEA members to a first meeting later in April, again at Åshild’s.
At two meetings in April at Åshild´s, working groups were created and various crafts groups were formed involving well over 40 ladies. As a working name, Gunilla suggested International Christmas Charity Bazaar (ICCB), which was accepted by the group as the permanent name. Anne Elsérius, having some years earlier created the labels for our SWEA glögg bottles, sold at the SWEA Bazaars, was asked to suggest some logos.
One of them was later accepted by the group as the official ICCB logo.
Three of the ladies asked by Gunilla to join her, also took on special tasks for the joint Bazaar working groups, in addition to being responsible for and working with their own country stands: Charlotte Davnie was in charge of Charity, Åshild Hauge coordinated baked products for the Bazaar Café and Birute Vizgirdiene handled contacts with Lithuanian authorities and media as well as translations.
All other contacts, administration and anything that fell between the chairs landed on Gunilla’s table.
The other four in the original group suggested Gunilla, who started it all, be the first ICCB Coordinator, which was approved by the larger group.
Our partners Radisson SAS Astorija, who ran the Bazaar Café and arranged for security, and Visus Plenus, who arranged stands and all equipment, both kindly signed all necessary documents for us, since we at that time did not yet have IWAV as our umbrella.
The first International Christmas Charity Bazaar (ICCB) in Vilnius took place on Saturday, November 22, 2003, 10 a.m.-16 p.m., in Vilniaus Rotuse (City Hall), Didzioji 31.
Participating with stands were Austria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, the Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden), Romania, Turkey, USA and the EU Delegation.
Vilnius International Rotary Club and the school Siuolaikines mokyklos centras also had stands of their own. The Lithuanian organizations Mazoji Guboja, Mes Esame, Markuciai and day centre Sviesa as well as Unicef and Atsigresk were invited to display and sell their items for their own charities.
The Bazaar was opened by the then First Lady, Mrs.Laima Paksiene, who at her own request sold her home-baked cookies at one stand. Mr. and Mrs. Adamkus both attended the Bazaar and expressed their joy and gratitude for us having arranged this first International Christmas Charity Bazaar in Vilnius.
The amount raised, LTL 63,000, was divided between Vytatuto Landsbergio Fondas for Vilnius University Children’s Hospital at Santariskes, Vilnius Municipality’s Social Support Centre (Socialines paramos centras), Gelbekit Vaikus (Save the Children) and Sv. Jono Vaikai’s home for street children.
A lengthy report on the first ICCB was published in IWAV’s newsletter, December 2003.
Gunilla Possenius
ICCB Initiator and Coordinator 2003
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How I came to Lithuania 21 years ago
Some private memories by Aage Myhre, VilNews Editor-in-Chief
aage.myhre@VilNews.com
1. Summer of 1990:
Landsbergis to Norway
2. November 1990:
A Volga journey from Riga
3. Nov 1990: Oil, a girl and
a satellite system
4. January 1991:
Soviet rolls back
January 1991:
5. With Landsbergis behind barbed wire and homemade barricades
6. 1991: Oslo and Vilnius
become twin cities
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Above: Signatures by VIC’s initial ‘working group’
in October 2001, 10 years ago.
Visit the VIC web page:
http://vilnius-international-club.com/
Vilnius International Club (VIC) has since October 2001* been a leading club and a dynamic meeting point for local people with international interests and for expatriates from many countries. The club’s mission is to support and encourage the cultural, historic, and economic vitality of Vilnius as a capital city and of Lithuania as an outstanding historic and contemporary scene for interaction and constructive activities between fine people from many countries. Men and women from the expatriate and Lithuanian communities, working in diplomatic, business, and cultural spheres, fulfil VIC’s mission through fellowship, monthly meetings, and occasional charitable programmes.
*VIC started its activities in October 2001, and was formally established in February 2002.
***************************************************************************************************
Opinions about VIC over the years
VIC has built a new bridge...
VIC is a refreshing initiative that has built a new bridge between local Lithuanians and foreigners in Vilnius. The success of the Club is a result of good balance between many different nationalities and great variety of cultural and social activities. It is important to maintain high share of Lithuanians in VIC as expatriates do not need a club to meet foreigners..
- Bjarne-Espen Christiansen, Manager of Scandinavian Airlines (Denmark)
The VIC format is very unique...
I think VIC format is very unique. It encompasses many features that many other clubs/organizations, between which we share our off-duty time, lack. It has planned events schedule, as well as beautiful ad-hoc social surprises; and, most importantly, diversity of people and themes.
- Vygandas Juras, Partner of Baltcap Management (Lithuania)
Potential to integrate Vilnius community into modern Europe...
It is a creative organisation with huge potential to integrate Vilnius community into modern Europe.
- Daiva Vitkute, Managing Director, Vilnius Consult (Lithuania)
I am extremely grateful for Vilnius International Club actions...
I am extremely grateful for Vilnius International Club actions enhancing cultural, historical and economic life in our city. I am also thankful for charity programs set for unprivileged inhabitants of the city. The variety of activities you accomplish in the city contributes to the philanthropic movement development as well as assists with the implementation of tangible social projects in Vilnius...
- The Mayor of Vilnius City Municipality, Arturas Zuokas
Always useful presentations and interesting people...
Always useful presentations, interesting people and comfortable surroundings...
- Dr. Kaare Hauge, Ambassador of Norway (Norway)
Well done with this great initiative...
I am very impressed with the diverse and extensive activities of VIC in Vilnius. I am sorry I can not participate in them while in Israel, but your detailed reports convey the sense as if I am there in the meetings. Well done with this great initiative.
- Amos Eiran, Lithuanian Consul, Tel Aviv (Israel).
I was thrilled to know that such an organization exists...
I was thrilled to know that such an organization exists and is dealing with such important past and present issues. It is organizations and events such as these that make me long for living in Lithuania...
- Jonas R. Bielkevicius, Electric Engineer, Boston (USA)
Something utmost wonderful I have experienced so far...
The VIC is something utmost wonderful I have experienced so far. It is very nice, democratic and intelligent. Unfortunately it is not possible to attend all events. Looking forward to meet at VIC soon!
- Andrius Koncius, General Director of COWI Baltic (Lithuania).
It has been a useful networking source...
I very much value the VIC. It has been a useful networking source as well as an excellent venue to discuss issues that I face as a professional in Vilnius with other thoughtful, insightful ex-pats.
- Michael Sessums, 2nd Secretary of US Embassy (USA)
Magnificent atmosphere and a very warm audience...
It really was a magnificent atmosphere and a very warm audience...
- Judita Leitaite, Lithuania's leading mezzo-soprano, after her VIC performance.
Atmosphere where I can combine my business interests with...
VIC meetings provide the atmosphere where I can combine my business interests with my common human need for communication, education and self-development. I hope I put my contribution to this atmosphere as well.
- Vaidotas Variavicius, General Director of Vilniaus Margarino Gamykla (Lithuania)
I am so impressed...
I am so impressed by VIC! Meeting theme suggestion: LITHUANIAN BUSINESS ATTITUDE AND HABITS. Several foreigners doing business in Lithuania have said the business in Lithuania is slow. Everything takes much longer time than estimated. Locals give impression they are ready to sign contracts any time, but still there are many arguments to postpone signing.
- Arne Brattetaule, Director of STATOIL Lubricants (Norway)
One of my most important opportunities...
VIC - one of my most important opportunities to join with international others in appreciating Vilnius as a place to live and as a total experience. Exiting men and women who are making a difference in Vilnius and Lithuania are members of VIC would like you to join them in celebrating and developing Vilnius. Don't miss the opportunity!
- Dr. Woodrow Sears, Management Consultant/University Instructor (USA)
I look forward to the next event with eager anticipation...
I have only been a friend of VIC for a short time and so only attended the Opening Concert of the Lithuanian Philharmonic with Muza Rubackyte and Stefan Lano so far. What an evening. An enthralling, moving concert followed by a superb reception with the performers and an opportunity to meet other, very friendly members of the VIC. I look forward to the next event with eager anticipation.
- Andy Williams, Consultant of Policijos Departementas prie VRM (Great Britain)
The Club provides interesting programs and events...
I am very happy to participate, whenever time permits, in the activities of VIC. The Club provides interesting programs and events and I wish you success and many more members.
- Vytas Gruodis, Director General of Baltic Management Institute (Canadian-Lithuanian)
A truly splendid idea/creation couched in very noble words...
A truly splendid idea/creation couched in very noble words. It seems to me that VIC has great potential for much real good.
- Dr. Arunas Gasparaitis, Radiologist, Chicago (USA).
I always wish I had been there...
I think VIC is a very good organisation doing useful work in modern society. The political and social coverage is very good... I think VIC could usefully develop an interactive platform connected directly to its published activities. When I read what speakers have said at VIC meetings I always wish I had been there to hear and react.
- Mervyn Benford, Lecturer, Oxford (UK)
VIC fills the gap...
VIC fills the gap between formal associations and social clubs - it provides a forum for discussion, yet in an informal enviroment. It allows networking without the constrained commitment that one feels in more organized meetings - sometimes this is the best type of networking because the start is on building friendships and not on business contact.
- Arunas Pemkus, General Director of Hill & Knowlton, Vilnius (USA)
Doing something to improve the situation...
What I find extremely important is that there is no obligation to attend the meetings, and when you attend it is great pleasure. And I value that we do not just gather and talk but also do something to improve the situation. Meeting theme suggestion:- Why foreigners choose Lithuania for business and living? Perhaps minutes of such meeting could be published in press so that young generation could see that it is worth staying in Lithuania.
- Agne Zinkevciute, Director of Vilnius Consulting Group (Lithuania)
Rich variety...
I think the themes have been interesting, and with a rich variety.
- Bertil Abrahamsson, Director, Lithuanian Telecom (Sweden)
Good program...
I think VIC's program is very good!
- Peter Modeen, Consultant, The World Bank (Finland)
A wonderful job...
You are doing a wonderful job managing VIC and there was no need to think myself about interesting programs.
- Carl Berneheim, Gen. Director of Cebeco Timber (Sweden)
I like the diversity...
I like the diversity of the programs and people. No specific suggestions, other than keep up the interesting programs!
- Chris Helmkamp, Reporting Manager, RIMI (USA)
A secret sect...?
It has a reputation of being a secret sect amongst some Lithuanians I know. This is supported by the fact that you get to hear about it only trough others and need to be invited in. I know it's not really like that but that is the impression. Should there be some low key publicity - a listing in Vilnius in Your Pocket? A website? Just something simple? May cause a membership explosion that would be difficult to manage.
- Andy Williams, Consultant, Lithuanian Police (UK)
Meetings are great...
Meetings are great, delightful people/guests and relevant topics...
- Rita Sakus, Consultant/Lecturer (Canada)
A vibrant and active club...
Allow me to congratulate you on having built a vibrant and active club that continues to address current and relevant issues.
- Sanjay Deva, General Manager of Gothenburg Radisson SAS Park Avenue Hotel (India)
This is not just a business club...
This is not just a business club. We meet a lot of different people and our communication is not limited by business topics. That goes perfectly well with the spirit of Vilnius, which through ages recommended itself as a cultural, multinational center. Especially appreciated are cultural and art-related programs. I would also like to suggest some activities which would bring concrete outcome: For example: Maybe our charity programs could be ongoing, so we could follow up on what we have done, and to continue the program for a certain period of time. I also think that we sometimes forget about the conception of our club and do not try to take what is best from our members in order to improve Vilnius, and make it a safe, nice and developed European city. We have very interesting and democratic people within the club, and I wish we could avoid that the club's activity becomes limited to observation of the situation.
- Ruta Bilkstyte, Senior Tax Expert, Deloitte&Touche (Lithuania)
*************************** VIC Mission Statement ***************************
The Vilnius International Club (VIC) supports and encourages the
cultural, historic, and economic vitality of Vilnius as a capital city.
Men and women from the expatriate and Lithuanian communities,
working in diplomatic, business, and cultural spheres, fulfill VIC's
mission through fellowship, monthly meetings, and occasional
charitable programmes.
******************************************************************************************
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VilNews had 100.000 visits in 6 months!
VilNews has been online for a little over six months now. When we started, our goal was to reach 100 000 visits in ONE year. Experts thought we were kidding. The fact is that we reached the target in just six months!
Thanks to you, dear readers!
Among the things we're going to focus on this autumn and winter, is to tell you more about this nation's relations with other countries around the world. For better or worse. Open, forthright talks will still be our standards.
Please write us with your ideas and comments!
The illustrations below show some characteristics of the nations we will cover, things that make them known here, presented in Lithuania’s flag colours.
 ARTICLE NO. 1 HUNGARY |
 ARTICLE NO. 2: ITALY |
 ARTICLE NO. 3: KARAIMS |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 4: DENMARK |
 ARTICLE NO. 5: JAPAN |
 ARTICLE NO. 6: CANADA |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 7:GERMANY |
 ARTICLE NO. 8: CHINA |
 ARTICLE NO. 9: INDIA |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 10: SWEDEN |
 ARTICLE NO. 11: TATARS |
 ARTICLE NO. 12: USA |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 13: RUSSIA |
 ARTICLE NO. 14: BELARUS |
 ARTICLE NO. 15: ICELAND |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 16: TURKEY |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 18: THE UK |
|
 ARTICLE NO. 19: NORWAY |
 ARTICLE NO. 20: POLAND |
 ARTICLE NO. 21: FRANCE |
|
|
|
ARTICLE NO. 22: THE LITVAKS (LITHUANIAN JEWS) |
||
Lithuania has an amazing 700-year history as an international melting pot. This has been especially evident since 1323, the year Grand Duke Gediminas founded Vilnius as Lithuania’s capital city and immediately decided to invite merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers from all Europe to come to the new capital, guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became international, though with less of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Italy and Mediterranean ideas – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals where Hanseatic influence became dominant.
VilNews will over some time this autumn publish articles about impacts of foreign nations and cultures here. We also welcome you, dear readers, to share with us information you may have about ‘foreign footprints in Lithuania’.
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Lithuania has an amazing 700-year history as an international melting pot. This has been especially evident since 1323, the year Grand Duke Gediminas founded Vilnius as Lithuania’s capital city and immediately decided to invite merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers from all Europe to come to the new capital, guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became international, though with less of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Italy and Mediterranean ideas – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals where Hanseatic influence became dominant.
VilNews will over some time this autumn publish articles about impacts of foreign nations and cultures here. We also welcome you, dear readers, to share with us information you may have about ‘foreign footprints in Lithuania’.
THE DANES AND THE BALTS
A thousand years of coexistence
Danish sugar produced in Lithuania.
Text: Kaare E. Janson
From the time of the Vikings, more than a 1000 years ago, the neighbouring Baltic Sea and the various ethnic tribes that lived about its shores attracted the interest of the seafaring Danes. In due course trade with these tribes began. But it was a bellicose time when stronger nations sought to extend their domains by conquest. These pagan tribes possessed great forests and to lay claim to them the Danes fought the Germans, the Swedes, the Finns, the Russians, the Estonians, the Latvians, the Prussians, and the Poles - but never the Lithuanians. In fact, after Europe recognized Lithuania as an independent state and even later, when it formed a union with Poland, Lithuania and Denmark from time to time formed alliances to defend themselves from their common foes – the Germans, the Swedes, and the Russians.
During the Middle Ages crusades were launched in Western Europe to Christianize these pagan Balts. Joining a crusade had its benefits: those who perished were assured of eternal salvation, and apart from the spiritual good that came from converting these heathens, there were temporal perks for the less spiritually inclined -- plunder, land for the grabbing, and women to ravish at the end of each battle.
Statue of Valdemar the Great in the town square
of Ringsted, Denmark. Reign: 1157-1182.
In 1161 Danish King Valdemar I (“The Great”) led a naval expedition to the Palanga area where a trading post was founded. However, the real purpose of his trip was to personally check the feasibility of this site for such a crusade. The king was wise; it is always better to look before you leap. However, the Danes decided against a Lithuanian crusade. Was it because each side liked the other or because the Lithuanians appeared too tough to fight? Whatever the reason, the Danes launched their crusade further west and north, leaving Lithuania for the German crusaders from Prussia and Latvia to conquer though their attempts would prove futile.
The Danish crusaders had far greater success: they conquered the Baltic coast from Lübeck to Prussia (the current Kaliningrad area) and from Riga to Narva. However their success was not sustained; sparsely populated Denmark had no available settlers to colonize the conquered territories. Over time the German crusaders took charge and brought in settlers from more populated Germany. The two most enduring Danish conquests were Estonia and the island of Rügen. Even so, up to the early 14th century Danish King Erik VI was still lord over Riga.
Danish realm under King Valdemar II.
On June 15 in 1219, Danish crusaders under the command of King Valdemar II ("The Victorious") won a decisive battle over Estonia’s heathens. During the final stage of this vicious struggle, legend has it that God granted victory by letting a red banner with a white cross fall from the skies onto the hard-pressed crusaders. Inspired by this divine sign the re-energized Danes won the battle. Estonians who survived this bloody massacre were given the choice of accepting baptism or death by the sword.
The Danes are indebted to Estonia for their beloved flag, the
Dannebrog, the oldest state flag in the world still in use by an independent nation.
Thus Estonia was turned into a Christian dukedom and the Danish king was made a duke of Estonia. Tallinn, the name of Estonia’s capital, means “walled Danish city” in Estonian, so a legacy from Denmark survives in this name. That striking red banner with its white cross became Denmark’s national flag; it’s the oldest flag in the world, one of the few national flags with its own name – “Dannebrog,” which means “the Danes' red banner.” Also, the highest decoration that Denmark bestows is called “The Order of Dannebrog.” Danes love their beautiful flag; at football matches with foreign teams many Danish spectators paint it on their faces! We are indebted to Estonia for our beloved emblem.
During the 14th century the Danish kings became increasingly concerned over the growing hegemony in trade of the Hanseatic League, a commercial union of cities dominated by Northern Germany who were allied with the Swedish kings. Therefore Denmark downsized its interests in Estonia and Latvia and focused on developing greater ties with Sweden, so as to mobilize all Scandinavian resources to combat the commercial dominance of the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe.
This strategy succeeded and in 1397 King Erik VII, the joint King of Denmark and Norway, went to Kalmar in Sweden to also be crowned the King of Sweden; this marked the start of the Nordic Union. Apart from the three Scandinavian nations, the Nordic Union included Finland, the Danish and Swedish possessions in Estonia and Latvia, the area of present-day St. Petersburg, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faeroe, Shetland, and Orkney islands. But the majority of the Swedish nobility disliked the idea of federation, and in 1523 the Nordic Union ceased to exist; it split into the kingdom of Denmark-Norway and the kingdom of Sweden-Finland.
The Danish presence in the Baltic region ended in 1645 when the Danish king sold his last possession -- the Estonian island of Saarema -- to the Swedes. The Danes realized that it would be too costly to compete with the Swedish and Russian ambitions in the Baltic region, and focused instead on developing colonies in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. It was only after the First World War that the Danes briefly became re-involved in the Baltic countries when Danish soldiers helped the Estonians and the Latvians to win their independence.
Thus history shows the absence of military conflicts between Denmark and Lithuania and their relationship over the centuries consisted of trade, trade and more trade. From the days of the Vikings and on into the early Middle Ages, Danes mainly purchased amber, fur pelts and slaves. The amber was dug from Lithuania's beaches; the pelts came from the animals trapped in their vast forests; and the slaves from territories that Lithuania had conquered. Eventually, slaves as a viable commodity ended as Christianity took root in Lithuania.
But other products filled this gap. Ships had become larger and required more sails, so Danish buyers began purchasing Lithuanian flax, hemp, wax, and tar. The flax was used for making massive sails, hemp for making the rope that these bigger ships required, the wax for polishing chores, and the tar for preserving and waterproofing the exteriors of these wooden ships. The Lithuanians enjoyed this trade; Danish silver was always good.
The use of sailing ships as commercial vessels ended in the 19th century; new ships were constructed from metal and powered by steam, and Danish purchases shifted from maritime supplies to horses and milk. Lithuanian horses became highly prized in Denmark for their strength and beauty. Milk as an export greatly increased from 1870 when individual Danish farmers, so as to compete in the market with the larger manorial farms, banded into commercial co-operatives and began the large-scale production of dairy products. This approach was highly successful and by 1900 Denmark had the most modern dairy sector in the world; Danes even went abroad to establish modern dairies elsewhere.
Alas, World War II ended all relations between Lithuania and Denmark. After the Soviet takeover of the Baltic States in 1940, the Danish Embassy in Lithuania ceased to exist. Denmark never recognized the absorption of these countries into the Soviet Union, and the Iron Curtain that the Soviets imposed in the aftermath of World War II, cutting off Eastern Europe from the West, isolated Denmark from its Baltic neighbours.
However, the relentless wheel of history made another big turn fifteen years ago, toppling the Soviet Union and restoring the sovereignty of the Baltic nations. Almost overnight diplomatic relations between Lithuania and Denmark were re-established. Today a lively trade between Lithuanian and Denmark flourishes and almost all sectors are involved. In some years Lithuania sells more to Denmark than Denmark sells to Lithuania. Denmark also is a leading foreign investor in Lithuania. Both nations are members of the European Union (EU), so goods and services move freely.
As both nations are also members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), our time-honoured political and military alliances have been revived. Centuries earlier the Lithuanians and the Danes had joined forces to fight a common enemy; fortunately, there’s no longer any need for that. Instead, as members of the EU and NATO, Lithuanian and Danish soldiers work side by side on peace missions. Let us hope that the relentless wheel of history continues to roll in the right direction.
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Lithuania has an amazing 700-year history as an international melting pot. This has been especially evident since 1323, the year Grand Duke Gediminas founded Vilnius as Lithuania’s capital city and immediately decided to invite merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers from all Europe to come to the new capital, guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became international, though with less of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Italy and Mediterranean ideas – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals where Hanseatic influence became dominant.
VilNews will over some time this autumn publish articles about impacts of foreign nations and cultures here. We also welcome you, dear readers, to share with us information you may have about ‘foreign footprints in Lithuania’.
Karaims – Turkic tribe that found a new home in Lithuania
Karaim house in Trakai, 30 km from Vilnius.
The Karaims represent the smallest ethnic group in Lithuania, inextricably linked with the Crimean victories of Grand Duke Vytautas who brought 380 Karaim families to his castle in Trakai back in the 1390s.
During the 600 years that they have lived in Lithuania, this small Turkic people have preserved a strong national consciousness. A rather inward-looking community life, firm moral principles based on the teachings of the Karaim religion, and steadfast adherence to tradition - all these things have contributed to the survival of the people, of their basic characteristics, such as language, customs, and rituals, and thus, of their national identity. What also helped the Karaims of Lithuania survive under difficult conditions was the tolerance and respect for them expressed during all those centuries not only in the everyday contacts between people but also in the official state documents of various periods.
An exceptional period in the history of Lithuanian Karaims was the Soviet occupation, which thoroughly shook up the accustomed foundations of Karaim community life. The consequences of that time, which are still felt today, make it much more difficult for people to "return to their roots," to the rhythms of their national life.
Many world scholars are interested in the cultural heritage that Lithuanian Karaims have preserved to the present day. The still living Karaim language, which belongs to the West Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic family of languages, receives the most attention. It is being studied from several angles - as a language that has preserved rare old forms and words that have disappeared from other languages of the Turkic family and also as one that has borrowed and in its own way adapted some features of vocabulary and syntax from neighbouring languages (Lithuanian, Russian, and Polish).
During the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Karaims suffered severely during the Chmielnicki Uprising of 1648 and the wars between Russia and Poland in the years 1654-1667, when many towns were plundered and burnt, including Trakai, where in 1680 only 30 families were left. Catholic missionaries made serious attempts to convert the local Karaims to Christianity, but ultimately were largely unsuccessful. The local Karaim communities still exist in Lithuania (where they live mostly in Panevėžys and Trakai regions) and Poland. The 1979 census in the USSR showed 3,300 Karaims. Lithuanian Karaim Culture Community was founded in 1988.
According to the Lithuanian Karaims website the Statistics Department of Lithuania carried out an ethno-statistic research "Karaim in Lithuania" in 1997. It was decided to question all adult Karaims and mixed families, where one of the members is a Karaim. During the survey, for the beginning of 1997, there were 257 Karaim nationality people, 32 of which were children under 16.
From linguistic and ethnogenetic point of view they belong to the oldest Turkish tribes - Kipchaks. This ethnonym (Kipchak) for the first time was mentioned in historical chronicles of Central Asia in the 1 st millennium BC. Anthropologically ancient Kipchaks were very close to Siberia inhabitants Dinlins, who lived on both sides of the Sajan Mountains - in Tuva and northern part of Gob.
Karaim priests,Khadji Seraya
Khan Shapshal together with
Simon Firkovich, 1930
In 5th cent. BC Kipchaks lived in the West of Mongolia, in 3 rd cent. BC they were conquered by Huns. Since 6 - 8 cent., when the first nomadic Turkish empires were founded, Kipchak's fate is closely connected with the history and migration of the Middle Asia tribes.
In Middle Ages Kipchaks started to play an important role in the Eastern Europe. European historians and linguists call them Kumans; Russian scientists call them Polovtsy. In Turkish literature they are known as Kipchaks.
Following after Turkish oguzes, who were the biggest Turkish tribe, in 10 th cent. Kipchaks crossed the Volga and settled in steppes near the Black Sea and Northern Caucasus. Huge territories occupied by Kipchaks from the West of Tian- Shan to the Danube, in 11-15 th cent. were called Dest-e-Kipchak (Kipchak's steppes). They did not have an integral state; khans guided the union of different tribes.
Khasar's kaganate, spread over southern territories of contemporary Russia, in 9 th cent.being at its blossom, was famous for its religious tolerance. Karaim missionaries reached the kaganate in 8 - 10 cent. passed their faith to some Turkish tribes (Khasars, Kipchaks-Kumans, and others), living in the southern steppes of Russia and Crimea. Common language and religion united these tribes as a nation for a long time; the name of religion became ethnonym. Contemporary Lithuanian Karaims are the descendants of those tribes.
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The Karaims of Crimea, Galich-Luck area, Lithuania and Poland who have common origin, past, religion, language (with dialects), spiritual and factual culture, make the same nation.
The history of Karaims is connected with Lithuania since 1397-1398. According to the tradition, The Great Duke of Lithuania Vytautas, after one of the marches to the Golden Horde steppes, had to bring from Crimea several hundreds of Karaims and settle them in the Great Duchy of Lithuania. Vytautas could bring Karaims after he had beaten one of the hordes not far from Azov. Transference of several hundreds Karaim families and several thousands of Tatars was not done once. It was connected with the state policy of The Great Duchy - to inhabit the empty areas, to build towns and castles, to develop trade and economic life.
Initially, Karaims were settled in Trakai between two castles of The Great Duke, present Karaim Street. Later they were found living in Biržai, Naujamiestis, Pasvalys, Panevėžys, however, Trakai has always been the community's administrative and spiritual centre in Lithuania. Karaims themselves began to hold it not only a homeland, but as fatherland, too. Throughout the centuries their ethnic and cultural relations with the Karaims from Crimea and Galich-Luck areas were not interrupted either.
In order to get thorough information about Karaims' social, cultural, ethnic and religious situation, in 1997 The Statistics Department of Lithuania carried out the ethno-statistic research "Karaims in Lithuania". It was decided to question all adult Karaims and mixed families, where one of the members is a Karaim. During the survey, i.e beginning 1997 there were 257 Karaim nationality people, 32 among them were children under 16.
The change in the number of Karaims during the period of 40 years is shown:
| 1959 | 1970 | 1979 | 1989 | 1997 | |
| Total number of Karaims | 423 | 388 | 352 | 289 | 257 |
| Compared to total resident population, % | 0.02 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.01 |
Distribution of Karaims by age and sex:
| Karaimes | Male | Female | ||||
| total | % | total | % | total | % | |
| Total | 257 | 100 | 132 | 100 | 125 | 100 |
| of whom by age groups, years | ||||||
| below 16 | 32 | 12.4 | 14 | 10.6 | 18 | 14.4 |
| 16-29 | 38 | 14.8 | 21 | 15.9 | 17 | 13.6 |
| 30-39 | 30 | 11.7 | 17 | 12.9 | 13 | 10.4 |
| 40-49 | 31 | 12.1 | 17 | 12.9 | 14 | 11.2 |
| 50-59 | 50 | 19.4 | 34 | 25.8 | 16 | 12.8 |
| 60 and above | 76 | 29.6 | 29 | 21.9 | 47 | 37.6 |
According to the living place:
| Total | of whom children below 16 years | |
| Total | 257 | 32 |
| Vilnius | 138 | 20 |
| Trakai | 65 | 9 |
| Grigiškės (Trakai region) | 6 | 1 |
| Lentvaris (Trakai region) | 4 | 1 |
| Kaunas | 4 | - |
| Noreikiškės (Kaunas region) | 4 | - |
| Panevėžys | 31 | 1 |
| Naujamiestis (Panevėžys region) | 2 | - |
| Pasvalys | 2 | - |
| Šeduva (Radviliškis region) | 1 | - |
There are many specific elements of Karaim cultural heritage, but especially the conscious following of national traditions makes the preservation of Karaim identity possible. And during the long course of time and despite various historical difficulties the main Karaim rites were kept up. Their power even today stimulates the youth's feelings of national identity.
At the engagement
ceremony the youth is
electing the leader of all
the wedding and handing
him over a thin withy red-
banded stick 'chybukh',
which is for symbol of
leader's power
Karaim' rites are related to the most important moments of human life - birth, marriage and death. Religious calendar and seasons circle give some special occasions as well (for example, young moon, harvest, sacrifice festivals, etc.). But even in the religious festivals it is more important for the Karaims to preserve their national customs.
The most solemn rite observed by the Karaims up to these days, is the wedding (toj). For a birth another kind of festivities are dedicated. When a girl is born, in kenesa kutlamach (a blessing prayer and giving of a name) should be offered. When a boy is born, the occasion used to require much greater celebration. However, nowadays it is just limited to a short ceremony in kenesa (the name of the newborn is loudly announced and a special blessing is sung) and a little party at home.
Karaim girls in national costumes
When a person dies, he is usually buried as soon as possible. There are Karaim cemeteries in Trakai, Vilnius, and Panevėžys. When laying down the corps, his relatives sit by the closed coffin till the burial. At that time the elder men of the community recite the psalms. There is a custom to burn as many candles, as many family members are morning. The coffin inside is lined with flax. Karaims are buried with their faces to the South. During the burial ceremony the people are not allowed to visit other burial-grounds. If the kinsmen invite, guests return to the deceased person's house. The prayers for his soul are recited there once more. Such public prayer sahynč (remembrance) is held in the deceased person's home every day the whole week, also after thirty days and in a year after his death.
The breaking of
bride's cake "Kielinlik"
One of the brightest and most solemn agricultural festivals Orach toju (Harvest festival) can't be held any more, because after the II World War Karaims lost their lands. During the last harvest festival in 1938 a harvest wreath was made, which up to these days hangs in Trakai kenesa. It only reminds us of the former close relations between Karaims and the holy nature.
KARAIM ORGANSIATIONS IN LITHUANIA
At present, two organisations of Lithuanian Karaims of having legal status and unifying all the Karaims of Lithuania are executing their activities:
1. The Religious Community of Lithuanian Karaims - one of the nine state-recognised traditional religious communities, is legally a successor of the Karaim religious community that existed in Lithuania since the end of 14th century. Its governing structure consists of the General Meeting of the Community, the Spiritual Board and the Community Board. Traditionally, Chairman of the Community is the Highest Priest. The Community is a self-governing and independent body from the spiritual authorities and public powers of other countries.
2. Lithuanian Karaims Culture Community - is executing its activities since the year of 1988. Its governing structure consists of the General Members' Meeting and the Board elected by the Meeting. The Board elects the President.
Contact e-mail address: lkkbpost@takas.lt
Both of these communities are non-profit organisations. Their members are not obliged to pay any membership fees. The Communities cannot suffice themselves and often they are supported by the State, other donors, and, sometimes, by the contributions of the members.
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Lithuania, once Europe’s largest nation, has an amazing 700-year history as an international melting pot. This became especially evident after 1323, the year Grand Duke Gediminas founded Vilnius as Lithuania’s capital city and immediately decided to invite merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers from all Europe to come to the new capital; guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became international, though with less of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Italy and Mediterranean ideas – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals where Hanseatic influence became dominant.
VilNews will in some upcoming issues publish articles about impacts of foreign nations and cultures here. We also welcome you, dear readers, to share with us information you may have about ‘foreign footprints in Lithuania’.
Amazing Italian influence
on Lithuania since 1323
The Royal Palace in Vilnius is now being rebuilt, more or less as one expects it to have looked like in the 1500s during the rule of Grand Duke Sigismund the Old (1467-1548), his wife, Italian Bona Sforza (1494-1557) and their son, Grand Duke Sigismund Augustus (1520-1572).
Text: Aage Myhre
aage.myhre@VilNews.com
While working with the restoration of Vilnius Old Town in the 1990s – as an architect – I often got to hear that this and that building was originally designed by Italian architects. I tried to find out more, but the information I got was very fragmented, so in the early 2000s I started collecting the pieces myself, putting together my own historical survey of the Italian – Lithuanian relationship since 1323. I found that Vilnius by some was known as ‘The world’s most Italian city outside Italy’ and ‘Europe’s most Baroque city north of the Alps’. I also found the fascinating stories of how Vilnius was regarded one of the world’s leading Renaissance cities, competing with Milan and Florence. I even went to Italy myself to find traces, and was truly amazed, not least while learning about the princess of Milan and Bari who became Lithuania’s Grand Duchess. The exceptional relationship between Italy and Lithuania, which was especially evident for the period of 1300 – 1800, will never come back, but will always remain as a remarkable memory, and leave its unique hallmarks in and on Lithuania forever.
1300 – 1400:
Grand Duke Gediminas founds Vilnius and writes to the Pope
It is a myth that Rome and Vilnius both were founded by wolves, but...
It is a myth that Rome and Vilnius both were founded by wolves. But it is no myth that the Italians have put an
indelible mark on Lithuania. When Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, in 1323 decided to put down roots in what is now Vilnius city, a Franciscan monastery was already in place – at the foot of Castle Hill where the Cathedral today is located. Since then, for hundreds of years, the spirit of Rome and Italy played a main role in the development of Vilnius and to a certain degree also of Lithuania.
No wonder that Vilnius sometimes is referred to as “the world’s most Italian city outside Italy”.
* Italy was involved in and with Vilnius already from its very first days as a capital city. Even the name Vilnius was used for the first time when Grand Duke Gediminas in 1323 – the same year he founded the city – wrote to Pope John XXII asking for support in Christianizing the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, by then one of Europe’s leading nations.
Grand Duke Gediminas and Pope John XXII.
* Gediminas invited merchants, craftsmen, bankers, farmers, and soldiers to come to the new capital, guaranteeing all freedom of beliefs and good working conditions. Vilnius became thereafter truly international, though not with much of German or Scandinavian influence, as one could expect, rather influenced by Rome – greatly different from the other two Baltic capitals.
* Early examples of Italian influence within architecture, with at least some fragments of heavy, massive walls and other elements, typical for the early Gothic period, still do exist in some Vilnius churches, among them the Cathedral, the Church of Assumption (Traku 9) and the Church of Resurrection (Didzioji 17).
* And, there is one church you really should visit if you would like to smell the 700 years of Italian influence on Lithuanian history. That is the St. Nicholas Church (Sv. Mikalojaus 4). This tiny little church was originally erected around 1320, and remains the oldest Gothic building in town, though with several changes over the centuries. But a true beauty!
St. Nicholas Church, Vilnius.
1400 – 1500:
Gothic Style, symbolized by the world famous St. Anne Church
* Young Prince Casimir (1458 – 1484) was supposed to be a Grand Duke, and also to ascend the throne of Hungary, but chose a spiritual life instead. He died of tuberculosis at an age of 25, and his remains (today resting in the Vilnius Cathedral) quickly won fame for miracles. Already in 1521, Casimir was elevated to sainthood, and canonized by Pope Leo X. He is considered the patron saint of Lithuania and Poland, and the cult of St. Casimir has left a deep mark in the history and art of Lithuania. And, of course, one of Casimir’s main teachers was Italian, the humanist Callimachus Buonacorsi, who described Casimir as a “holy youth”, and also wrote; “He should either never have been born or should have abided with us forever”.
* This was also the century when, according to the Polish historian Jan Dlugos, the legends about Lithuanian’s similarities with the ancient Romans arose – also stating that the name Lithuania derived from “l’Italia.”
* By the end of the 14th Century, the fusion of Italian and Northern European art had lead to the development of an International Gothic Style (the first Gothic style originated already around 1150, at the fall of the Roman Empire). Leading architects and artists travelled all over Europe, and also Lithuania got its part of this new Gothic wave by the end of the 15th Century, today first of all symbolized by the probably most famous structure in Vilnius, the Church of St. Anne (below) – a masterpiece nearly unsurpassed in the world - and the connected Church of St. Francis and St. Bernadine – built by Bernadine monks who arrived in Vilnius by the middle of the century.
St. Anne Church, Vilnius.
1500 – 1600:
Vilnius becomes a Renaissance capital, competing with Milan and Florence
* Throughout the Renaissance, when Italy was a trading centre and a melting pot for the world’s greatest civilisations, Vilnius also became a Renaissance centre, competing with Florence and Milan. The two great nations merged when Grand Duke Sigismund the Old (1467-1548) married the Princess of the Italian cities Bari and Milan, Bona Sforza (1494-1557), and returned to reign in and from Vilnius as the capital of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. They created an Italian community within the court and, under the influence of the Grand Duchess, Italian culture became the preoccupation of the city’s elite; macheroni, skryliai, and even the confection marcipanus became staples among the cogniscenti; and life at court became a series of cultural events, with rich noblemen competing for extravagance.
* During the rule of Sigismund the Old The Royal Palace in Vilnius was greatly expanded, to meet the new needs of the Grand Duke – a new wing was added, as well as a third floor; the gardens were also extended. The palace reconstruction plan was probably prepared by Italian architect Bartolomeo Berrecci d Pontassieve, who also designed several projects in the Kingdom of Poland.
It was in his Vilnius palace that Sigismund the Old welcomed an emissary from the Holy Roman Empire, who came to introduce Sigismund to Bona Sforza, his second wife, in 1517.
* The education of the royal couple’s son, the later Grand Duke Sigismund August (1520-1572), was the responsibility of a Sicilian, Jonas Silvijus Amatas, between 1529 and 1537. Sigismund Augustus further developed Lithuania’s first library that his mother brought from Italy, and sent scholars and traders across Europe to assemble volumes of practical and historical value. Sigismund Augustus later took an Italian lover, Diana di Kordona. Dates are not available, but it is recorded that even at the age of 40, she had maintained her beauty and charm.
* In 1532, the Vilnius Cathedral Orchestra was performing with the Grand Duchess, Bona Sforza, singing alto!
* Sigismund II Augustus was crowned Grand Duke of Lithuania in the Royal Palace. He carried on with palace development and lived there with his first wife Elisabeth of Austria, daughter of the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. She was buried in Vilnius Cathedral. Sigismund Augustus’ second wife, Barbara Radvilaite, also lived in the palace. According to contemporary accounts of the Holy See emissary, the Royal Palace at that time contained more treasures than the Vatican. Sigismund Augustus also assembled one of the largest collection of books in Europe. This collection became an important part of the library that opened in Vilnius in 1570, since 1579 known as Vilnius University Library.
The Royal Palace, Vilnius.
* Sigismund Augustus rebuilt the Lower Castle and furnished it in a very luxurious, Renaissance style. It was in fact turned into a centre of Renaissance culture, boasting an excellent library, a theatre, a choir, a picture gallery, and a collection of tapestries. The castle, as well as other venues of the city, was open for masquerades and competitions, scholarly disputes and feasts. In Vilnius, the ruler kept horse-stables with two thousand horses and even something like a zoo – five bears, a lion and ten camels. The plan was prepared by several Italian architects, including Giovanni Cini da Siena, Bernardino de Gianotis Zanobi, and others. The palace was once visited by Ippolito Aldobrandini, who later became Pope Clement VIII.
* In 1562, Georges Blandrata, a physician from the University of Bologna, was installed as antitrinitoriu teoretiku (roughly, master of theoretical information) at the royal court in Vilnius.
* In 1562, Lithuania got an extremely important, firm transport link to Western Europe and Italy, when the post-route Vilnius-Krakow-Vienna-Venice opened.
* In 1569, the bishop established Vilnius College and School Theatre. A year later, its first performance was a comedy, “Hercule”, by Italian S. Tucci.
* Also in 1569, the first four Jesuits arrived, and in 1570 they founded the Jesuit College of Vilnius. It became Vilnius University in 1579, by decrees of Pope Gregory XIII and Grand Duke Stephen Bathory.
* In 1571, an Italian goldsmith, Petra Petina, was accepted as a designer of coins and medals by the Lithuanian Royal Mint, and his coins and medals produced during the reign of Stephen Bathory are considered the most significant of ancient Lithuanian coins.
* In 1584, Simonas Simonijus, a physician from Padua, conducted the first autopsy and two years later, in 1586, he published the first medical text in Lithuania.
* On the 29th of October 1579, Pope Gregory XII issued a bull acknowledging the Vilnius University, which soon became the major intellectual centre of Lithuania and North-East Europe. It is regarded as one of the oldest and most respectable universities in Eastern and Central Europe, including its extensive collection of Latin literature. The University includes twelve courtyards, whereof the Great Courtyard is the most valuable in the historical and artistic respect. It reminds an Italian Renaissance square, though it combines elements of three styles – Renaissance Mannerism, Baroque and Classicism (see below picture).
Vilnius University and the Church of Sts. Johns’
(the church’s freestanding bell tower to the right)
1600 – 1700:
Vilnius silhouette turns Baroque
* During the 17th Century, Vilnius turned more and more Baroque, in fact becoming the largest Baroque city north of the Alps, as well as the one farthest to the east.
* During this period, excellent monuments of Baroque were built, such as the Church of St. Casimir (1604-1618) – designed along the line of the famous Il Gesu Church in Rome, and St. Theresa Church (1633-50) – where the façade was designed by the Italian architect Constantino Tencalla in accordance with the models of Roman architecture. Other outstanding monuments of the Baroque period are the churches of St. Ignatius and All Saints.
The Church of St. Casimir in the centre of Vilnius.
* And do not forget to visit the Chapel of St. Casimir in the Vilnius Cathedral - one of the most artistic Baroque Mausoleums in all of Europe!
* The most exquisite Baroque monument in Vilnius, however, is the unique Church of St. Peter and St. Paul (1668-1704). Its interior décor, consisting of 2000 stucco statues, is unique in Europe. The Italian sculptors Pietro Perti, Giovanni Maria Gallia and others did the decoration works during a period of 33 years. The church was renovated in 1801-04 by Giovanni Beretti and Nicolas Piano, both from Milan.
* Around 1600, Giovanni Battista became conductor of a castle orchestra and author of many masses and motets still played.
* Along the way, scholars were going south for education, and fashions, fabrics, and music from Italy were shaping the culture of Lithuania.
* It is also really worthwhile going to Kaunas to see one of the most prominent examples of Baroque architecture in Lithuania. Go to the peninsula of the Kauno Marios Water Reservoir. The Pazaislis Church and Monastery (picture below) was started built in 1667, by Italian Camalduli monks, who were invited to Kaunas by the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kristupas Pacas. The most striking part of the ensemble is a hexagonal dome, and two protruding towers, looking like helmets. Several generations of Lithuanian and Italian masters worked at this impressive complex until it was completed by the middle of the 18th century, but the first, and main master, was the Italian architect Lodovico Fredo.
1700 – 1800:
The Italian sculptures on the Vilnius Cathedral
* Classicism was introduced to Lithuania from Rome, where some of the most famous Lithuanian artists, architects and other performers of the fine arts were studying during this century. The famous painter Pranciskus Smuglevicius studied for example at the St. Lucas Academy for a number of years, and the architect Laurynas Gucevicius was in Rome for studies during the period of 1776-1777.
* The first appearance of Neo-Classicism came also from Rome, when the architect Carlo Spampani in 1773 came here to design the portal in the White Hall of the Vilnius University’s Observatory of Astronomy.
* In 1784, the bishop of Vilnius, I. Masalski, invited the famous Italian sculptor, Tommaso Righi, to come here for the creation of sculptures on the Vilnius Cathedral. His creations can today be seen on the western façade, in six niches where he gave life to the four evangelists, with Moses and Abraham on each of the sides.
Vilnius Cathedral.
* The Vilnius Cathedral Treasury does also contain several objects with Italian origin, worth a separate study. The treasures were so carefully hidden behind brickwork in one of the Cathedral’s niches just before the World War II, that they were discovered again only in 1985.
* Attention should also be paid to the gorgeously carved High Altar of the St. Francis and Error! Hyperlink reference not valid., created by the Italian Master Danielo Giotto by the end of the 18th century.
* Also gardens and parks were made according to Italian style. The most famous was probably the Gostauto Garden, which today mostly is covered by the Presidency Park. The original garden was made following the example of Northern Italian parks, and was said to have been one of the most beautiful, being laid out geometrically with straight radial paths, round square and regularly shaped lawns characteristic of the baroque age.
* Try also to find time for a weekend trip to southern Latvia to visit the Rundale Palace (1735-1768) near the town Bauska, 200 km north of Vilnius, supposed to be the most beautiful Baroque palace in the Baltic States, created by the author of the St. Petersburg’s Winter Palace, the Italian architect Bartolomeo Rastrelli.
The Rundale Palace
* In 1795, Lithuania lost its sovereignty, and became a province of the Russian Empire. With this, also the extraordinary and long-lasting contact with Italy vanished. The 500 year golden period had come to an end.
1800 – 1900:
St. Peter and St. Paul Church gets its final Italian touch
* The direct Italian influence on and in Lithuania disappeared more or less in the 19th Century. But also the Russian Empire had its influence from neo-styles inherited from Italy, and some examples of these styles can be found in Lithuania.
* One example of direct influence from Italian masters, also in this century, is the renovation works on the St. Peter and St. Paul Church during the years 1801 - 1804 (see also above description for the period 1600 - 1700).
St. Peter and St. Paul Church interior.
* And, do by no means miss the chance to visit Traku Voké to see the magnificent Estate of Count Tiskevicius, built in 1876 - 80 by the Italian architect L. Marconi.
The Traku Voké estate of Count Tiskevicius.
1900 – 2011:
Italian pizza, technology and fashion invades Lithuania
* More than 200 years have passed since the golden period of the Italian-Lithuanian relationship ended. Today, the relationship is being re-built, and Italy is once again well represented in Vilnius, with Embassy, Cultural Centre, a Chamber of Commerce and many different companies.
* And, as in the rest of the modern world, the streets of the Lithuanian cities and villages have in the latest years been “invaded” by Italian pizzerias, fashion boutiques and furniture stores.
* The latest 20 years has also brought a good number of Alfa Romeos, Fiats, Lancias, and even a few Ferraris, Maseratis and Lamborghinis to Lithuania.
* The Italian influence on the Lithuanian architecture is no longer very important. But there has been one exception from that; the new Italian embassy building in the district of Zverynas in Vilnius. The former Italian Ambassador to Lithuania, Giulio Prigioni, did a fantastic job during the years 2004 – 2006 in leading the renovation of a 100 year old Palladian villa into a modern building that today is Italy’s very representative headquarter in Lithuania. The renovation project was done by the Italian architect Nunzio Rimmaudo.
Former Italian Ambassador Giulio Prigioni did a tremendous job to remake
this 100-year old Paladian villa into what today is the representative
Italian Embassy complex in Lithuania.
* Lithuania’s Armed Forces spent in 2006 - 2008 €75 million to buy three units of the Italian transport aircraft C-27J. The selection was made within a bid for the renewal of the old fleet of Soviet-made twin-engine An-26s in service with the Lithuanian Air Force. The Italian-Lithuanian relationship is again flying high…
LEFT: The Italian transport aircraft C-27J, now used by the Lithuanian Armed Forces.
RIGHT: A Maserati Quattroporte recently spotted in Vilnius.
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OPINIONS
Have your say. Send to:
editor@VilNews.com
Ph. D., Chicago
A wave of unity sweeps the international Lithuanian community on March 11th every year as Lithuanians celebrated the anniversary of the Lithuanian Parliament's declaration of independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. However, the sense of national unity engendered by the celebration could be short-lived.
Human beings have a strong tendency to overgeneralize and succumb to stereotypical us-them distinctions that can shatter even the strongest bonds. We need only search the internet to find examples of divisive thinking at work:
- "Those who fled Lithuania during World II were cowards -- and now they come back, flaunt their wealth, and tell us 'true Lithuanians' how to live."
- "Lithuanians who work abroad have abandoned their homeland and should be deprived of their Lithuanian citizenship."
In Lithuania Christmas Eve is a family event and the New Year's Eve a great party with friends!
Lithuanian say "Kaip sutiksi naujus metus, taip juos ir praleisi" (the way you'll meet the new year is the way you will spend it). So everyone is trying to spend New Year's Eve with friend and have as much fun as possible.
Lithuanian New Year's traditions are very similar to those in other countries, and actually were similar since many years ago. Also, the traditional Lithuanian New Years Eve party was very similar to other big celebrations throughout the year.
The New Year's Eve table is quite similar to the Christmas Eve table, but without straws under the tablecloth, and now including meat dishes. A tradition that definitely hasn't changes is that everybody is trying not to fell asleep before midnight. It was said that if you oversleep the midnight point you will be lazy all the upcoming year. People were also trying to get up early on the first day of the new year, because waking up late also meant a very lazy and unfortunate year.
During the New Year celebration people were dancing, singing, playing games and doing magic to guess the future. People didn't drink much of alcohol, especially was that the case for women.
Here are some advices from elders:
- During the New Year, be very nice and listen to relatives - what you are during New Year Eve, you will be throughout the year.
- During to the New Year Eve, try not to fall, because if this happens, next year you will be unhappy.
- If in the start of the New Year, the first news are good - then the year will be successful. If not - the year will be problematic.
* If New Year's night is cold and starry - look forward to a good summer!
* If the during New Year Eve trees are covered with frost - then it will be a good year. If it is wet weather on New Year's Eve, one can expect a year where many will die and dangerous epidemics occur.
* If the first day of the new year is snowy - the upcoming year will see many young people die. If the night is snowy - mostly old people will die.
* If the New Year time is cold - then Easter will be warm.
* If during New Year there are a lot of birds in your homestead - then all year around there will be many guests and the year will be fun.
Christmas greetings
from Vilnius
and epic battle for the
future
Philosopher, political theorist, historian of
ideas, social analyst, and political
commentator
Ukraine was and continues to be perceived by the EU political class as a sort of grey zone with its immense potential and possibilities for the future, yet deeply embedded and trapped in No Man's Land with all of its troubled past, post-Soviet traumas, ambiguities, insecurities, corruption, social divisions, and despair. Why worry for what has yet to emerge as a new actor of world history in terms of nation-building, European identity, and deeper commitments to transparency and free market economy?
Right? Wrong. No matter how troubled Ukraine's economic and political reality could be, the country has already passed the point of no return. Even if Vladimir Putin retains his leverage of power to blackmail Ukraine and the West in terms of Ukraine's zero chances to accede to NATO due to the problems of territorial integrity, occupation and annexation of Crimea, and mayhem or a frozen conflict in the Donbas region, Ukraine will never return to Russia's zone of influence. It could be deprived of the chances to join NATO or the EU in the coming years or decades, yet there are no forces on earth to make present Ukraine part of the Eurasia project fostered by Putin.
want to learn about the
new, scary propaganda
war between Russia,
The West and the
Baltic States!
believe their government
is corrupt
students say no to
bribes for doctors
During Soviet times, government was administered for the people in control, not for the local population, court decisions were decreed, they were not the administration of justice, and academia was the domain of ideologues. 25 years of freedom and openness should have put those bad experiences behind Lithuania, but that is not so.
Today, it is a matter of expectation that court pronouncements will be governed by ideological dictates. Few, if any Lithuanians expect real justice to be effected. For foreign companies, doing business in Lithuania is almost impossible in a situation where business people do not expect rule of law, so, surely Government would be a refuge of competence?
Lithuanian Government has not emerged from Soviet styles. In an attempt to devolve power, Lithuania has created a myriad of fiefdoms of power, each speaking in the name of the Government, each its own centralized power base of ideology.
Chepstow, Wales
Doesn't that sound suspiciously like Lithuania? Ah, but I didn't mention the mountains of Snowdonia, which would give the game away.
I'm talking about Wales, that part of the UK which Lithuanians used to call "Valija", but later named "Velsas" (why?). Wales, the nation which has welcomed two Lithuanian heads of state to its shores - firstly Professor Vytautas Landsbergis, who has paid several visits and, more recently, President Dalia Grybauskaitė who attended the 2014 NATO summit which was held in Newport, South Wales.
ENGLISH VERSION OF THE
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF VYTAUTAS LANDSBERGIS.
Although Lithuanian activities have thinned over the decades as that postwar generation died out, the Lithuanian Martyrs' parish hall is crowded with many, many hundreds of visitors who come to the Lithuanian cemetery for All Souls' Day. Similarly, the Franciscan parish has standing room only for Christmas Eve mass.
Although I am firmly embedded in the literary culture of Canada, my themes are usually Lithuanian, and I'll be in Kaunas and Vilnius in mid-November 2015 to give talks about the Lithuanian translations of my novels and short stories, which I write in English.
If you have the Lithuanian language, come by to one of the talks listed in the links below. And if you don't, you can read more about my work at
www.anatanassileika.com
http://www.vdu.lt/lt/rasytojas-antanas-sileika-pristatys-savo-kuryba/ https://leu.lt/lt/lf/lf_naujienos/kvieciame-i-rasytojo-59hc.html
"My love and best wishes to all. As long as VilNews exists, there is hope for the future,"" she writes.
Irena Veisaite means very much for our publication, and we do hereby thank her for the support and wise commitment she always shows.
You can read our interview with her
Facing a new reality
Dear readers of VilNews,
For a number of years, the EU and Russia had assumed the existence of a strategic partnership, based on the convergence of values, economic integration and increasingly open markets and a modernisation agenda for society.
Our agenda was positive and ambitious. We looked at Russia as a country ready to converge with "European values", a country likely to embrace both the basic principles of democratic government and a liberal concept of the world order. It was believed this would bring our relations to a new level, covering the whole spectrum of the EU's strategic relationship with Russia.
The likelihood of Putin
invading Lithuania
.jpg "lithuania today")
Founding Director at Summer Literary Seminars
Are all Lithuanian energy
problems now resolved?
Lithuania as a country does not have significant energy resources. Energy consuming infrastructure after WWII was small and totally supported by energy imports from Russia.
First nuclear reactor begins power generation at Ignalina in 1983, the second reactor in 1987. Iganlina generates enough electricity to cover Lithuania's needs and about 50%.for export. As, prerequisite for membership in EU, Ignalina ceases all nuclear power generation in 2009
The Klaipėda Sea terminal begins Russia's oil export operations in 1959 and imports in 1994.
Mazeikiu Nafta (current ORLEAN Lietuva) begins operation of oil refinery in 1980.
Have Lithuanian ties across
the Baltic Sea become
stronger in recent years?
The two decades that have passed since regaining Lithuania's independence can be described as a "building boom". From the wreckage of a captive Soviet republic, a generation of Lithuanians have built a modern European state, and are now helping construct a Nordic-Baltic community replete with institutions intended to promote political coordination and foster a trans-Baltic regional identity. Indeed, a "Nordic-Baltic community" - I will explain later in my text the meaning of this catch-phrase.
Since the restoration of Lithuania's independence 25 years ago, we have continuously felt a strong support from Nordic countries. Nordics in particular were among the countries supporting Lithuania's and Baltic States' striving towards independence. Take example of Iceland, country which recognized Lithuania in February of 1991, well in advance of other countries. Yet another example - Swedish Ambassador was the first ambassador accredited to Lithuania in 1991. The other countries followed suit. When we restored our statehood, Nordic Countries became champions in promoting Baltic integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions. To large degree thanks Nordic Countries, massive transformations occurred in Lithuania since then, Lithuania became fully-fledged member of the EU and NATO, and we joined the Eurozone on 1 January 2015.
Have you heard about the
South African "Pencil Test"?
But that is exactly what happened to me when I came back from South Africa. I will tell you how.
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