Lithuania 1, Tsar 0

As late as the 1300s, Lithuania was the largest nation in Europe. It also had been the final European nation to accept Christianity.

But politics, geography, and cruel chance conspired to reduce Lithuania to a mere sliver — an annex of Tsarist Russia and Imperial Germany.

Today marks the 90th anniversary of its return to sovereignty — the 1918 Act of Independence of Lithuania. (The title to this post does actually miss the mark by a year. Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated in 1917. Snappy sound to it though!)

Of course, then came Stalin, then came Hitler, and then again Communist Russia. So we'll fly the flag again on 11 March — which in 1990 marked the reestablishment of the independence of Lithuania.

My forebears emigrated from Lithuania in the early 20th century. My mother's father — Josef Ambraziejus, born in 1877 — remembered burying Lithuanian-language books in the dirt floors of houses to save them from the Tsarist Cossacks who would raid villages, looking to eradicate any resurgence of of Lithuanian culture or resistance.

So, today, I proudly display the flag.

Prior related posts from my beer blog(!) on Lithuania.