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"Balkelis, Tomas"
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The making of modern Lithuania
This book explores the making of modern Lithuania, arguing that, contrary to contemporary Lithuanian nationalist rhetoric, Lithuanian nationalism was modern and socially constructed in the period from the emergence of the Lithuanian national movement in the late 19th century to the birth of an independent state in 1918.
Book
The Logic of Violence in the Polish-Lithuanian Conflict, 1920–1923
The article is devoted to violence that took place in the Polish-Lithuanian borderland after the Great War. Using the theoretical insights of Stathis Kalyvas (2006), the author explores violent actors, types, and the dynamics of violence in the conflict over the neutral zone between Poland and Lithuania between 1920 and 1923. The focus is on the experiences of civilians and the social impact of violence on the formation of their national identities. The author suggests that violent ways of nation making forced the local populace to adopt national identities to ensure their security, but the process of forced nationalization was limited and may have resulted in the emergence of indifference among certain groups of the population.
Journal Article
Demobilization and Remobilization of German and Lithuanian Paramilitaries after the First World War
This article explores the dynamic relationship between demobilization and remobilization in Lithuania after 1918. Focusing on the formation of Lithuanian and German paramilitaries and their military roles in the postwar conflict, the article argues that their emergence was grounded in their experiences of the Russian revolution and demobilization. War veterans formed the nucleus of both groups but they were joined by new volunteers who saw the postwar conflict as an opportunity to fulfil their nationalist, anti-Bolshevik or revanchist aspirations. The paramilitaries played significant roles in state- and nation-building in the Baltic region.
Journal Article
Population Displacement in Lithuania in the Twentieth Century
Population Displacement in Lithuania in the 20th Century: Experiences, Identities and Legacies offers an account on how two world wars produced a series of population displacements in Lithuania in the course of the 20th century.
eBook
Demobilising, Remobilising: Paramilitary Formations in Lithuania, 1918-1920
After the collapse of the empires and the outbreak of the Bolshevik and national revolutions, Lithuania lie in the middle of a 'zone of unrest', where various ideologies competed with one another. The country was the theatre of operations for a series of armed conflicts that formed a single, interminable cycle of violence. Alongside Lithuanian formations, Red and White forces from Russia, German free corps, and various Polish units were involved. The distinction between regular troops and paramilitary units was often fluid. The latter came to play a formative roll. They were a product of the First World War that at the same time exerted tremendous influence on the future of new and old nation-states. Adapted from the source document.
Journal Article
From Self-Defense to Revolution
After the Great War, a new burst of military activity swept across the western borderlands of the former Russian Empire, in a wave of bloodshed unseen since the early days of the war.¹ As part of this wider conflict, between 1918 and 1920 the territory of what is now Lithuania was flooded with armed groups of different stripes and political interests. The primary conflict was between Lithuanian nationalists and Bolsheviks, each offering transformative state-building projects. However, they were also joined by Poles, Russian counter-revolutionaries, and German volunteers, who fought the Bolsheviks; and, on occasion, the Lithuanians.²
All of these troops
Book Chapter
Social Banditry and Nation-Making: the Myth of a Lithuanian Robber
According to Eric Hobsbawm, social banditry is a form of social protest that is typical of, but not necessarily confined to, peasant societies. Social bandits remain within peasant societies, and are considered by their people as heroes, as champions, avengers, fighters for justice, perhaps even liberation leaders, even if the authorities view them, instead, as common criminals. Here, Balkelis discusses the geography of social banditry by introducing to English-speaking audiences the Lithuanian bandit Tadas Blinda, who is totally unknown in the West but who enjoys the reputation of a heroic outlaw in contemporary Lithuania. In addition, he examines the association between social banditry and nation-making, in which social conflict played a significant role, and identifies some key strategies that elites use in the process of reworking popular bandit stories into national myths.
Journal Article