When it comes to discovering exotic places trust me and James Bond! To be frank, I am not sure that Bond’s out-of-the-beaten-track-gimmick-packed-escapades have taken him to Lithuania yet. However Daniel Craig, Bond’s recent incarnation did spend time in this country, a hardship he will remember for some time. Craig has embarked on a successful career as an action movie hero. He shot “Defiance” his first holocaust movie, around Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. In this film, he impersonates a boorish real-life Jewish partisan during the WW II Nazi occupation. Craig can easily shed Bond’s tuxedoes for the crumpled outfit of a Jewish country bumpkin. His stay was no “quantum of solace” but a three-month-long visit trudging in the mud and snow in the freezing wooded countryside.
To both Craig and me, Lithuania was a second choice. Although the story of “Defiance” takes place in neighboring Byelorussia, for the sake of expediency it was shot in Lithuania. This country is far friendlier than Byelorussia, and the locals speak better English. It is quite an achievement for a country which only gained its independence from the USSR in 1990.
Lithuania was a consolation prize for me. My planned New Year’s opera celebration in Berlin had been cancelled due to the insufficient number of participants, possibly the result of the economic crisis. Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania is not yet on the music-lover itinerary. We nonetheless enjoyed a small concert and an opera on New Year’s Eve.
A magnifying lens is still needed to spot Lithuania on the map. For too many people, Lithuania, or Lietuva, has it is called in the Lithuanian language, is located between Poland and Russia on the Baltic Sea. As the Guardian newspaper derogatorily noted, the country is virtually interchangeable with the other two Baltic States Estonia and Latvia. Shrouded in secrecy behind the Iron Curtain, these small countries were off-limit to western tourism unless one was the self-important holder of a Communist party card. In 1965, French philosophy luminary Jean-Paul Sartre visited Lithuania with his companion the feminist icon Simone de Beauvoir. Sartre coined the sobriquet “Grey zone of Europe” for the region.
This New Year’s trip was highly educational, and in spite of the daily-bone chilling temperatures (expected) it was also fun, which was a bonus. Until my trip to Lietuva, I only knew that Vilnius, Riga and Tallinn were the respective capitals of the three Baltic States(1). The question was of which state? Vilnius is currently the capital of Lithuania. Lithuania often changed its capital. It has had four so far, and we visited three of them. The nicest one was the medieval castle on the island of Trakai (picture below).
Lithuanian history is both convoluted and heartbreaking. Since the Middle Ages the country’s fortunes swung from glorious to despondent. Lithuania was several times independent and several times colonized and occupied. Its interludes of independence were short-lived compared to the harsh and long occupation periods. During its heyday in the 15, 16 and 17th centuries, the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Grand Duchy of Lithuania was the largest country in Europe. It covered present day Lithuania and part of Poland, Latvia, Russia, Byelorussia, and Ukraine; it stretched all the way from the Baltic to the Black Seas. The demise of the Grand Duchy came in 1795 when it was divided between Russia, Prussia and Austria.
It was occupied and plundered by so many countries that the list is too long to write. The worse occupations were without doubt under the Soviets and the Nazis. The Soviets actually invaded twice, in 1940 and in1944, when they chased the Nazis. Lithuania has been through sequel pogroms, famines, ethnic cleaning, Holocaust, forced deportations, genocides and mass migration. It is estimated that during WW II and the first ten years of the Soviet occupation, the country roughly lost 10% of its population. The Lithuanian Diaspora in the United States of America is estimated around 1.65 million. Chicago is said to have a Lithuanian population larger than that of Vilnius(2). These are impressive figures for a 3.4 million inhabitant country.
One of the national pastimes of this young country in search of its identity is to tally the famous and infamous people of Lithuanian heritage, dead or alive. Several websites have been set up to list these “famous Lithuanians”. Because of shifting borders, a person was rarely Lithuanian during his or her whole life; they are therefore claimed by Lithuania’s neighbors as well. Many of them are Jewish. These people make a colorful mix. To name a few: Alexander Bialskis an early FBI chief; Aaron Copland and Philip Glass, the musical composers; Nadine Gordimer, the Nobel literature prize winner; Chaim Soutine and Lasar Segall(3), the painters; Menachem Begin, the politician; Pope John Paul II’s mother; the Oligarch Roman Abramovich; Charles Bronson, the macho actor; Sasha Baron Cohen (alias Borat) the pseudo-Kazak journalist of the mock-documentary; and Monica Lewinsky of the White House sex scandal. Many of the above have been claimed by several countries. Lithuania is the only country which has claimed Monica!
Lithuania’s other claim to fame is its late conversion to Christianity. Its leaders waited until the 13th century to forsake paganism. Although conversion was gradual, like Poland it has become a strict Catholic country. In pagan days, people worshiped several divinities centered on the forces of nature; many of these nature-based beliefs have persisted today and come to life in the country’s rich mythology. Lithuanians are fiercely proud on their pagan origin. One of their claims to fame was to defeat the mighty Christian Teutonic knights.
Among their most cherished deities (dievas, deities in Lithuanian), is the humble and harmless grass snake Žaltys. Dievas comes from the Hindu word divi which also means god.
The grass snake is the messenger of the ancient Baltic deities. It plays a significant role in the local mythology. One of the older fairy tales is the story of Eglè, the queen of the grass snake. She was a humble country girl who fell in love with a prince who wasincarnated as a snake. The grass snake brings good luck and fertility. Until recently, many peasant families kept a snake at home, not as a pet but rather as an honored member of the family. To kill a snake brings bad luck. In villages one can see grass snake memorials next to churches. Too bad we missed the day of the snake on January 25.
Contrary to Daniel Craig’s rough Lithuanian experience, our group didn’t have to trudge in the snow. We nonetheless traveled to the Byelorussian border do discover a traditional village in the middle of the forest. In the words of our guide, this trip was supposed to be our immersion to the local culture. We were expected to be fed and entertained by the local people in a rustic setting.
So far our French group had been totally cut off from the local culture, particularly in terms of exploring the gastronomy. Probably and in order not to offend the chauvinistic French palate, during our stay in Vilnius we were treated to a non-descriptive international cuisine and never had the opportunity to taste the national culinary delicacies. Lithuania is not yet a gastronomic hotspot, but it certainly has couple of culinary specialties worth tasting. I was looking forwards to tasting the famous zeppelins, sort of potato pancakes which are praised by every guide book. The heavy mushroom soup would have been very welcome too.
Our rustic lunch came as a disappointment to me. The food was heavy and tasteless. The French party did not complain thanks to the availability of red wine. I could hardly believe my eyes: in a country famous for its beer, our devoted guide had carried bottles of wine to make sure that the French tourists were not too disoriented. I found the episode totally incongruous, but I was the only one. To make matter worse, the resident grass snake never came to greet us. Was he disapproving the wine?
Beatrice Labonne, January 21, 2009.
(1)Tallinn is the capital of Estonia, Riga that of Latvia and Vilnius of Lithuania.
(2)Vilnius population: 610,000.
(3)Born in Vilnius but regarded as Brazilian.
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