Lietuvių politinių partijų ir ideologinių srovių (iki 1940 m.) istoriografija
Historiography of Lithuanian Political Parties and Ideological Movements (before 1940)

Summary/Abstract: The article gives a comprehensive analysis of historiography of the main Lithuanian political parties and ideological movements (before 1940), the key publications released on the political parties and ideological movements under analysis in different periods; it summarises the results of research under discussion, the arising problems and their causes. A conclusion in drawn that there was essentially no professional research of Lithuanian political parties and ideological movements (before 1940) up to the Lithuanian national revival at the end of the 1980s. Such a situation was determined by objective reasons: during the interwar authoritarian regime oppositional political parties, with the exception of the ruling Lithuanian Nationalist Union, were openly ignored and even officially banned in 1936. No objective research of political parties and movements could be possible in the years of the Soviet occupation, when the Soviet government manipulated the Lithuanian history by all possible means. Hence, the research carried out in the Soviet era has little enduring value. Even though the main political parties and movements which had previously functioned in the independent Lithuania revived their activities in exile after World War II, the previous disagreements, in particular the privileged position of the nationalist movement during the authoritarian regime, renewed the rat-race among political parties in exile. The said factors played a negative role in the writing of history on political parties and movements. Thus, the books dedicated to an individual party or ideological movement which were published in exile exaggerated the past of own party or movement, by simultaneously degrading other political movements. Besides, the key party documentation had remained in the occupied Lithuania. The interest in the Lithuanian political parties and ideological movements before 1940 has considerably increased in several recent years. After the restoration of independence, most attention was paid to the oldest political force – the Lithuanian Social Democratic Party – and the origins of parties in general, as well as their activities in the early 20th century, whereas in the second decade of independence most attention was paid to the activities of political parties and movements of the First Republic of Lithuania (1918–1940). Most research was carried out on the ideological political movements of varpininkaipeasant populists and Christian democracy of that period; the nationalist movement has received least attention of researchers to this day. The most up-to-date historical research studies focusing on domestic and international policy of the parties under analysis were written using extensive base of sources; in individual cases, party activities are compared with other political movements functioning in Europe at that time...

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