8 - Dearly Priced Independence

Ten countries join European Union including Poland and Baltic Republics

The countdown is on: May 1, 10 new countries will become members of the European Union. They are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Malta, and Cyprus. After their entry, the Union will be made up of 25 Member States and will have 450 million citizens.
This event will mark the end of a long voyage that began immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the East vs. West confrontation in Europe. Many nations, formerly satellites of the Soviet Union in accordance with the Yalta agreement, regained their sovereignty and returned to the European home where they had lived for centuries.
Two more nations (Malta and Cyprus, large Mediterranean islands) asked to be admitted to the Union in order to break their political insularity; their location, straddling the border between the Christian and Islamic worlds, is bound to become strategic for the EU, which strives to be an element of stability and tolerance for the Middle East, where the destiny of the world hangs in the balance.
Peace has always been the first objective of the Union. It remains fundamental as the Union was formed precisely in order to avoid a repetition of the conditions that led to two world wars in 30 years. Europe has never had second thoughts on this objective: the last 50 years of peace in the Old World are an enduring demonstration.
After the entry of the 10 new countries, two important deadlines draw near: the June 12-13 elections for the European Parliament, and the launch of the Constitution, "an indispensable starting point for bringing the Union to full functionality," recently remarked by President of Italy Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, "and enabling Europe to take on its own responsibilities on the world scene."
Through our series, our readers followed the long way to the Union, which began in 1951 with the Treaty of Paris and continued with mixed success for over 50 years.
Along the way, the founding members (Italy, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg) were joined by Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom (1973), Greece (1981), Spain and Portugal (1986), Austria, Sweden and Finland (1995). Now that the Union has completed another leg of its course, we must present the new partners that will join the Union on May 1. This installment will deal with Poland and the Baltic Republics. We shall explore their national histories both recent and past, taking notice that these were never enclosed within national borders but always intertwined with those of other European nations. This great collective history in the shade of a common culture is what induced the Europeans to close the ages of divisions and conflicts.

Peaceless Poland
Europe owes much to Poland (capital: Warsaw), but has given back very little. It was the Polish king Jan Sobieski who stopped the previously unstoppable armies of the Turks in front of the walls of Vienna. The year was 1683, and Sobieski had managed to assemble an army that included not only the Polish troops but also those of the quarrelsome princes of Christianity. The history of Europe would have followed a different course without that victory.
In exchange Poland got very little. Torn by a succession of civil wars fermented by neighbouring countries (Austria, Russia, and Prussia), it was repeatedly dismembered. First in 1772, when all three its neighbours took advantage; then in 1793, when Russia and Prussia got the lion's share; finally in 1795, when Russia, Prussia, and Austria split every square metre of Poland among themselves and wiped it out entirely. It reformed in 1807: Napoleon managed to do that by taking land from the occupying powers with an army that included a great many Polish nationalists.
Since then, and up to the World War II, Poland was again repeatedly dismembered and reformed. In 1939, Nazi Germany invaded, and Poland was yet again divided between Germany and the USSR. While the Soviets imposed their regime to the part they had occupied, the Germans launched the 'final solution' that would, years later, bring millions of Poles, mostly Jews but also Catholics, to concentration and extermination camps of Auschwitz, Maidanek, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibór, and Chelmo. Warsaw's large Jewish ghetto was literally razed.
The Poles did not submit silently: their government went in exile to London and organized an army that fought the Germans both in Poland (creating resistance cells) and on the front lines (Italy included) as part of the Allied forces.
The government that took over after the war brought the country in the Soviet sphere of influence, but after Stalin's death and some violent riots asking for greater autonomy from Moscow, Prime Minister Wladislaw Gomulka enacted a cautious liberalization within the limits posed by belonging to the Eastern Bloc. Polish independence began to mature in 1976, when workers began to protest against the rising prices, thus seeding organized dissent that had the support of the Catholic Church (meanwhile, Pole Karol Wojtyla had been elected Pope as John Paul II). In 1980, this led to the formation of the first independent trade union in the Soviet Bloc, called Solidarnosc (Solidarity) and led by Lech Walesa.
Solidarnosc blocked the Gdansk shipbuilding yards for months, bringing Poland on the front pages of newspapers all over the world.
However, Moscow was unappreciative of this new state of things, and forced the creation of a military junta (1981) with full powers bestowed on General Wojciech Jaruzelski, who proclaimed a state of emergency to quell the riots and dissolved Solidarnosc.
Jaruzelski was not an obtuse executor of Kremlin's orders: his objective was to bring back order to Poland while preserving the dialogue with the Catholic Church and avoiding a Soviet military intervention.
He managed to achieve all three objectives, while the Gorbachov effect trickled out to Poland: the reforms launched in the Soviet Union allowed Poland's political climate to change and a rapid process of liberalization to develop.
In 1987, a referendum opened the country to economic reforms and to the democratization of public life. The first free election (1989) vindicated Solidarnosc: one of its historic leaders, Tadeus Mazowiecki, became the first non-Communist Prime Minister since the war, and the following year Lech Walesa himself was elected President of Poland.

Those irreducible Baltics
There are three Baltic Republics: Estonia (capital: Tallinn), Latvia (capital: Riga), and Lithuania (capital: Vilnius). They share a lot of history: in the Middle Ages they were occupied and long ruled by the German knights of the Teutonic Order, they've always been the object of interested attention by both Germany and Russia, and in closer times (1934) they formed the defensive Baltic Entente. Too small and weak to successfully confront the giants surrounding them, they ended up becoming part of the Soviet Union. They paid dearly for their independence, as well as for their geographic position, guarding the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland: Germany wanted them in order to cut Russia off from the sea, while Russia coveted them for the opposite reason. The interests of great powers trump those of the smaller nations, then as now. The story of these three small states is no exception.
The Baltic Republics also share the stratagem used by the Soviet Union to take and annex them. In 1940, in the early stages of World War II, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania signed a mutual defense pact with the USSR as an insurance against Hitler's aggression.
However, the Soviets soon turned the pact into a de facto occupation. They imposed a constitution similar to the Soviet one and included the Baltic Republics in the Union.
The Baltics were far from acquiescent, though. Rebellions flared and were systematically suppressed, especially in Lithuania. This lasted until Gorbachov's perestrojka changed the situation, allowing strong openings for the Union's member Republics and therefore legitimizing the independent aspirations of Estonians, Lithuanians and Latvians. They took advantage of the attempted coup against Gorbachov and the ensuing chaos in Moscow and proclaimed independence from the USSR.
The Kremlin rolled with the blow (having other problems to attend to), but only recognized the independence of Estonia and Latvia. Not that of Lithuania. They made a point of it because Lithuania had always been the most hostile of the three republics: while the resistance of Estonians and Latvians had eventually been overcome, albeit with difficulty, the Lithuanians had been a tougher nut to crack, having organized militarily and lasted until the Seventies.
There had been clashes, loss of life, deportations and expurgations. Moscow had also put in place religious retaliations, like in 1987, when they forbid the participation of Pope John Paul II to the celebrations of the 600th anniversary of the Christianization of Lithuania. In 1990, Soviet-Lithuanian relations collapsed; in February the first democratic elections were clearly won by the independents, and on March 11 of that year the Parliament proclaimed that the country was detaching from the USSR. In response the Soviet army was sent to Vilnius, and there were a few victims. The government of Lithuania replied by calling for an immediate referendum, where 90 percent of the voters approved secession. Moscow was forced to acknowledge this result, even though the Red Army would only leave Lithuania in 1993.


For travelers
Warsaw (Poland) suffered enormous damage during World War II, not just for aerial bombing and artillery shelling but also for the systematic destruction of the Jewish ghetto (Europe's largest) carried out by the Nazis. Only the walls of two houses had been left standing in the central square, but every stone and brick was recovered from the rubble of the Old City, and houses and palaces were rebuilt as they were from their foundations. After the feverish works carried out from 1949 to 1963, the city returned to be an astonishing fusion of Renaissance Gothic and Baroque.
Not to miss are visits to the Fredric Chopin Museum, where testimonies and original documents on the famous Polish composer are assembled, and to the National Museum, which accommodates permanent exhibitions as well as international events, from Caravaggio to Andy Warhol. Every day from 6am, near Poniatowskiego Bridge, Europe's largest flea market sells everything from Soviet military gear to CDs.
In Tallin's (Estonia) old city, the Castle, the Russian Orthodox cathedrals of the 17th century and the Lutheran Church deserve a visit. Raeskoja Plats ("City Hall Square") sees a lot of action, and in spring every bar and restaurant puts tables outdoors. The oldest pharmacy in the country, opened in 1422 and still in business, operates on the same square. The Museum of Estonian Art (open Wednesday to Sunday) is hosted in an ancient barn. In Riga (Latvia), the historic neighbourhood of Vecriga is dominated by the Castle built in 1330. An elevator comfortably carries visitors all the way to the top of St. Peter's Church, whence the panorama of the Old City can be admired. Not to miss a visit to Riga's Museum of Motors, where Stalin's Gorki's and Breznev's cars are kept, with life-size statues of their former owners.
In Vilnius (Lithuania), the city tour can begin from the Cathedral, going through the Jewish Ghetto and ending on Three Crosses Hill. The Museum of Amber holds the world's largest chunk of fossil resin, weighing over 2 kilograms. One can also pay a visit to the Museum of the Genocide of the Lithuanian People, located in the building that accommodated first the Gestapo and then the KGB, both involved in the genocide. All museum guides are former prisoners.


Poles in Toronto
2603 Lakeshore Blvd West,
Toronto, Ontario, M8V 1G5
Tel: 416-252-4171
Fax: 416-252-0509
email: poltorkg@ca.inter.net
email: ps_cdn@on.aibn.com
email: poltorkg@on.aibn.com
Consul General: Mr. Jacek Junosza-Kisielewski
Consuls: Mr. Andrezej Janik, Mr. Piotr Strutynski
Vice Consuls: Mr. Gregorz Helak, Mrs. Elzbieta Waluk-Jaguszewska, Mr. Maciej Falkowski
Consular Agent: Mrs. Ursula Slazak.

Estonians in Toronto
958 Broadview Avenue,
Suite 202
Toronto, Ontario, M4K 2R6
Tel: 416-461-0765
Fax: 416-461-0353
email: estconsu@ca.inter.net
Honorary Consul General: Mr. Lass Leivat
Honorary Vice Consul: Mr. Thomas Hillar Heinsoo.

Latvians in Toronto
4 Credit Union Drive
Toronto, Ontario, M4A 2N8
Honorary Consul: Mr. Imants Purvs.

Lithuanians in Toronto
1573 Bloor Street west
Toronto, Ontario, M6P 1A6
Tel: 416-538-2992
Fax: 416-538-4345
Honorary Consul General: Mr. Haris Lapas.

Publication Date: 2004-08-22
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=4325