Lithuanian Nationalist Union

The Lithuanian Nationalist Union (Lithuanian: Lietuvių tautininkų sąjunga or LTS), also known as the Nationalists (Tautininkai), was the ruling political party in Lithuania during the authoritarian regime of President Antanas Smetona from 1926 to 1940. The party was established in 1924 but was not popular. It came to power as a result of the December 1926 military coup. From 1927 to 1939, the Council of Ministers included only members of the LTS. In 1936, other parties were officially disbanded leaving LTS the only legal party in the country. At the end of the 1930s new members started coming and bringing new ideas, which were right wing and closer to Italian Fascism. The party was disestablished after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in June 1940. The party under the same name (known as the Lithuanian Nationalist and Republican Union since 2017) was reestablished in 1990 and claims to be the successor of interwar LTS.

Not to be confused with Lithuanian Nationalist and Republican Union.
Lithuanian Nationalist Union
Lietuvių tautininkų sąjunga
LeaderAntanas Smetona
FoundedAugust 1924 (1924-08)
DissolvedJune 1940 (1940-06)
Merger ofParty of National Progress,
Lithuanian Farmers' Association
Succeeded byLithuanian Activist Front[1]
HeadquartersVilnius, Lithuania
NewspaperLietuvis (1924–28)
Lietuvos aidas (1928–40)[2][3]
Vairas (1929–40)[4]
Mūsų kraštas (1930–33)
Youth wingYoung Lithuania[5]
Paramilitary wingGeležinis Vilkas (1927–30)[6]
IdeologyAuthoritarianism
Lithuanian nationalism[7]
Corporate statism[8]
National conservatism
Anti-communism[9][10]
Political positionRight-wing[11] to far-right[a]
ReligionRoman Catholicism
International affiliationFascist International Congress
(observer)[12]
Colours  Gold   Blue
^ a: In the 1930s, the party became increasingly more radical and sympathetic to Fascism.[13][11]

History

The party was established during a conference in Šiauliai on 17–19 August 1924 as a merger of the Party of National Progress (established in 1916) and the Lithuanian Farmers' Association (established in 1919). The party did not enjoy popular support and in the May 1926 parliamentary elections won only 3 seats out of 85.[11] However, its leaders Antanas Smetona and Augustinas Voldemaras were popular and influential public figures. The party was conservative and nationalistic; it stressed the need for a strong army and a strong leader.

During the December 1926 coup, the military deposed the democratically elected government and invited Smetona to become the new President of Lithuania and Voldemaras the new Prime Minister. The Nationalists and the Lithuanian Christian Democrats formed a new government. However, the relationship between the two parties soon became tense as Christian Democrats regarded the coup as a temporary measure and wished to hold new elections to the Seimas. In April 1927, Smetona dissolved the Seimas and Christian Democrats resigned from the government in May. New elections to Seimas were not called until 1936. The Nationalists remained the only party in the government until a political crisis after the German ultimatum regarding Klaipėda Region forced LTS to admit two members of the opposition to the Council of Ministers.[3]

Voldemaras established Iron Wolf (Geležinis Vilkas) as the paramilitary wing of the Nationalists. In September 1929, Smetona removed Voldemaras from the office of prime minister and installed his co-brother-in-law Juozas Tūbelis.[6] The new constitutions of 1928 and 1938 established a presidential dictatorship. Political opponents were suppressed. In preparation for the June 1936 election, other political parties were banned leaving LTS the only legal party in Lithuania. In 1930s, the party became increasingly more radical and sympathetic to Italian Fascism but opposed Nazism.[14][15][11]

Major periodicals published by the party included Lietuvis (1924–28), Lietuvos aidas (1928–40), Mūsų kraštas (1930–33), and Vairas (1914–40).[11]

Chairmen

The party's chairmen were:[11]

  • Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius (19 August 1924 – 29 June 1925)
  • Antanas Smetona (29 June 1925 – 26 December 1926)
  • Liudas Noreika (26 December 1926 – 4 August 1927)
  • Vincas Matulaitis (4 August 1927 – 1 October 1927)
  • Aleksandras Žilinskas (5 October 1927 – 1 February 1928)
  • Liudas Noreika (1 February 1928 – 30 May 1928)
  • Vytautas Vileišis (30 May 1928 – 2 October 1929)
  • Jonas Lapėnas (2 October 1929 – 1 June 1931)
  • Juozas Tūbelis (1 June 1931 – 5 January 1939)
  • Vladas Mironas (5 January 1939 – 2 December 1939)
  • Domas Cesevičius (2 December 1939 – 19 June 1940)

References
  1. Tadeusz Piotrowski, Poland's Holocaust, McFarland & Company, 1997, ISBN 0-7864-0371-3, Google Print, pp. 163-168.
  2. Sužiedėlis, Simas, ed. (1970–1978). "Lietuvos aidas". Encyclopedia Lituanica. Vol. III. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. pp. 340–341. LCCN 74-114275.
  3. Kamuntavičius, Rūstis; Vaida Kamuntavičienė; Remigijus Civinskas; Kastytis Antanaitis (2001). Lietuvos istorija 11–12 klasėms (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Vaga. pp. 396–397. ISBN 5-415-01502-7.
  4. Urbonas, Vytas (2002). Lietuvos žurnalistikos istorija (in Lithuanian) (2nd ed.). Klaipėda: Klaipėdos universiteto leidykla. p. 160. ISBN 9955-456-49-3.
  5. Kamuntavičius, Rūstis; Vaida Kamuntavičienė; Remigijus Civinskas; Kastytis Antanaitis (2001). Lietuvos istorija 11–12 klasėms (in Lithuanian). Vilnius: Vaga. pp. 385–386. ISBN 5-415-01502-7.
  6. Berend, Iván T. (1998), Decades of Crisis: Central and Eastern Europe Before World War II, University of California Press, p. 134
  7. Hiden, John and Salmon, Patrick; The Baltic Nations and Europe: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Twentieth Century; p. 56. ISBN 0582082463
  8. Badie, Bertrand; Berg-Schlosser, Dirk; Morlino, Leonardo, eds. (7 September 2011). International Encyclopedia of Political Science. SAGE Publications (published 2011). ISBN 9781483305394. Retrieved 9 September 2020. [...] fascist Italy [...] developed a state structure known as the corporate state with the ruling party acting as a mediator between 'corporations' making up the body of the nation. Similar designs were quite popular elsewhere in the 1930s. The most prominent examples were Estado Novo in Portugal (1932-1968) and Brazil (1937-1945), the Austrian Standestaat (1933-1938), and authoritarian experiments in Estonia, Romania, and some other countries of East and East-Central Europe.
  9. Eidintas, Alfonsas (2015). Antanas Smetona and His Lithuania: From the National Liberation Movement to an Authoritarian Regime (1893-1940). On the Boundary of Two Worlds. Translated by Senn, Alfred Erich. Brill Rodopi. p. 149. ISBN 9789004302037.
  10. Eidintas, Alfonsas (2015). Antanas Smetona and His Lithuania: From the National Liberation Movement to an Authoritarian Regime (1893–1940). On the Boundary of Two Worlds. Translated by Alfred Erich Senn. Brill Rodopi. p. 301. ISBN 9789004302037.
  11. Tamošaitis, Mindaugas (27 May 2019) [2008]. "Lietuvių tautininkų ir respublikonų sąjunga". Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija (in Lithuanian). Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidybos centras.
  12. Griffin, Roger. The Nature of Fascism St. Martin's Press, New York. 1991, page 121
  13. Payne, Stanley G. (1995). A History of Fascism, 1914–45. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 145. ISBN 978-0-299-14874-4.
  14. Eidintas, Alfonsas (2015). Antanas Smetona and His Lithuania: From the National Liberation Movement to an Authoritarian Regime (1893-1940). On the Boundary of Two Worlds. Translated by Alfred Erich Senn. Brill Rodopi. p. 301. ISBN 9789004302037.
  15. ‘Nazis Escape Death Sentence in Lithuania: President Smetona Changes Sentence to Ward Off Trouble with Germans’; Reading Eagle, 18 May 1935, p. 1.
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