Translating Lithuania

Politicians cross the floor depending on who looks like winning so often that you might as well install a mirror ball and call it a disco.

Outwardly, people seem cold, brutal even, yet when they get to know you, they're some of the most warm-hearted people I have ever met. Albeit with the blackest sense of humour I've met as well. One saying here,.." a Lithuanian never laughs unless his neighbour's house is on fire."

And if that isn't confusing enough, then we have the language…my god! Even as a language teacher I don't understand this. It's based on Sanskrit, not Latin. All nouns are either masculine or feminine which is fine, but, every single noun has 7 different declinations for singular and a further 7 for plural. Verbs have 6 forms but that needs to be multiplied by 4 to account for the tense system. On top of that, Lithuanian has more diminutives and ways to express tenderness or affection than any other language. So did you get all that? No? Me neither.

To really get any sort of feel for this place, you need to understand the depth of its history. For several hundred years, Lithuania had been the largest country in Europe stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea and with a sizable chunk of Russia thrown in. But, by the 1700's it had become sandwiched between two devastating military machines, commanded by two men who even Napoleon was wary of. In the West, she faced Frederik the 2^nd, also known as Frederik the Great. On the East, she faced General Suvurov, Count of Rymnik.

Faced with the prospect of unwinnable wars on both fronts, Lithuania agreed on a series of 'partitions' effectively giving up territory and saving her people. However, the greed of the powerful is rarely sated and piece by piece, Lithuania was carved up until in 1795 when the last partition was so worded that the country of Lithuania ceased to exist.

It simply became part of Russia and remained that way for the next 100 years.

In 1918 Lithuania was given her independence back but it was short lived. Stalin, fearing betrayal from Hitler's Germany decided to give his army an extended holiday in Lithuania, but the boys partied too hard and weren't paying attention when Mr. Hitler decided to pop in on his way through Poland and gave said Russkies the boot.

The Russians, being Russian, didn't take too kindly to this and returned en masse and slaughtered everyone, and I do mean everyone in their path. Then the newly reborn Lithuania fell once more under the boot heel of the Soviet. So, given independence, only to be raped and butchered by the very same people, then by the Nazi's and then by the Soviets..again. And it stayed that way until the collapse of USSR in 1989. But even then, the Russians didn't leave until 1991.

Two events deserve mention here as they epitomize the personal resolve and connection with the land that these people have. The first is the 'Baltic Way" which occurred on the 23^rd August 1989. The people of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia combined to form an unbroken human chain that stretched from Vilnius to Riga to Tallinn, some 675 km. All in the name of independence. These weren't soldiers but mums and dads, kids, brothers and sisters, all standing arm in arm in the face of the Soviet military machine.

The second occurred in early January 1991. Where people from all over the country, again, mums and dads converged on the capital and peacefully occupied all the main govt buildings. Tensions were running extremely high and the country was literally at flashpoint. On one side, you had unarmed mums, dads and kids and on the other you had the Russian army including, their feared Alpha Team, a sort of SAS's SAS. Plus a division of elite paratroopers and a division of tanks.

Everything at this point awaited the order of one man, Mikhail Gorbachev. If he had ordered his army to open fire, it would have been a massacre to make the killing fields of Cambodia look like a child's playground, but thankfully, he could see that it was genuinely the will of the people and not just some upstart rabble rousing and so, he ordered his military to back down and gave the people of Lithuania their independence.

At last I felt like I was beginning to get a glimmer of understanding but in reality, I'd only just scratched the surface. Worse, much worse was to come.