France–Lithuania relations are the bilateral relations between France and Lithuania. Both countries are full members of the Council of Europe, European Union, NATO and the Eurozone.
History
First contacts in the early period and during the Grand Duchy of Lithuania French relations with Lithuania began in the 14th century, when the French king Charles IV the Fair was informed that the Grand Duke of Lithuania Gediminas intended to be baptized. The French king was informed about this by the Pope John XXII residing in Avignon, with whom Gediminas corresponded in 1322–1324.
French knights were in the ranks of the Teutonic Order that attacked Lithuania, including the attack on Pilėnai Castle, as well as in the Crusades of 1391, 1392 and 1394. The crusade of 1394 was led by the Duke of Burgundy Philip II the Brave.
Relations during the ATR era In the 16th–17th centuries, in an effort to weaken the Holy Roman Empire, France tried to prevent the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from rapprochement with the Austrian Habsburgs, France forged dynastic kinship ties with the rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and nominated its candidates for its throne. As a result, the French princes Henry of Valois (reigned 1573–1574) and François Louis de Conti (1697, but never took the throne) were elected rulers of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Henry of Valois is also known for the fact that the Vytis sign is on the clock tower of the Palace of Justice thanks to him. Later, representatives of the younger Bourbons branch often unsuccessfully applied for the throne. In September 1733, Stanisław Leszczynski, supported by French diplomats, was elected ruler of the ATR.
King Henry of Valois is buried in the Church of Saint-Dionysius in Paris, and the heart of John Casimir Vasa is buried in the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The mausoleum depicts a battle between Poles and Lithuanians against the Cossacks.
In the 17th–18th centuries, pro-Pranciscan political groups (Pacs, and for some time in the 18th century, the Potocks) formed in the ATR.
At the end of the 18th century, the French Revolution influenced the public life and reforms of the ATR, the ideals of which influenced the Constitution of the Third of May.
As early as the 19th century, At the beginning of the 19th century, French surnames (Lautrec, de Choiseul-Gufje) were found in Lithuanian birth records, which proves that due to various circumstances, individual French people lived in the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.Both Lithuanians and foreigners recorded in non-Lithuanian terms – Our Family Tree (musugiminesmedis.lt) Lithuanian genealogist Rimvydas Butautas-Kudirka derives the Kudirka surname from an alien from Southern France who settled in Prussia in the 17th century (from the French Couderc, which in turn comes from the Occitan coderc, meaning meadow, grove).Couderc | Etymology-occitane
Relations when Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire In 1797, the University of Vilnius began teaching French language and literature.
Napoleon created the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807–1815, and the Lithuanian Transnemunė belonged to it. Meanwhile, Lithuania Minor was occupied as early as the end of 1806. The French surrendered to the French on 16 June 1807. After the capture of Königsberg, the Prussian king Frederick William III with his wife Louise and children arrived in Klaipėda via the Curonian Spit, which became the temporary capital of Prussia in 1807–1808 years.
In June–December 1812, Greater Lithuania was occupied by the army of Napoleon I – it was French time. The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was restored with the capital Vilnius, and the Lithuanian population initially welcomed the French army as liberators. There was also a Lithuanian regiment in Napoleon's army, one of the most prominent members of which was the poet Silvestras Teofilis Valiūnas. On 14 July 1812, the lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were formally annexed to the Duchy of Warsaw. After France lost the campaign to Russia in 1812 On 8–10 December, about 50,000 retreating French soldiers gathered in Vilnius and its surroundings, the vast majority of whom (about 37,000–40,000) died of hunger and disease by the beginning of 1813 and were buried here – such places are called French cemeteriess. The cemetery in Šilainiai has survived to this day; There were also cemeteries in the Jurbarkas area[ http://jkgg.lt/prancuzkapiai-kur-ilsisi-1812-metais-zuve-jurbarke/ French Cemetery. Where do the soldiers of 1812 rest? – Jurbarkas region guide (jkgg.lt)], Vilnius Northern town.Napoleon's soldiers' cemetery in Vilnius – the largest in Europe? – DELFI
In 1832 the famous poet and writer Adam Mickiewicz moved to Paris. His poem Vėlinės George Sand was translated into French. After the unsuccessful uprisings of 1831 and 1863, Lithuanian nobles fled to France in search of political asylum. Some of them later became members of the Lithuanian society "Želmuo" founded in 1886 by Mikalojus Akelaitis, which maintained ties with Lithuanian gymnasiums, and later – with the social democratic party.Lithuanian Search for Paris (bernardinai.lt)
1870–1871 In the war, French prisoners of war who were captured contributed to the excavation of the King Wilhelm (now Klaipėda) Canal section from Dreverna to Malku īlanka.
Relations 1918–1940
The first contacts between Lithuania and France were established back in the fall of 1918, and the 1919 Versailles peace conference featured a Lithuanian delegation under Oskaras Milašius. France pronounced de jure recognition of Lithuania on 20 December 1922, becoming a key political partner to the state of Lithuania of the period.
The French military mission in Kaunas (merged with the French military mission in Riga in 1921) was the first official representative office of the Entente countries in Lithuania. On 11 May 1920, Lithuania's independence was recognized de facto by France. In the same year, the Lithuanian mission began operating in Paris. Meanwhile, de jure France recognized it during the Ambassadors' Conference on 20 December 1922. Initially, there was tension between the states over the Klaipėda region and Vilnius. France was entrusted with the administration of Klaipėda region from January 1920, which it intended to declare the Klaipėda Free State. France was one of Poland's main allies in Western Europe, so it tried to reconcile the conflicting Lithuania and Poland. In December 1923, In January 1917, during the Klaipėda Revolt, battles took place between French soldiers under the Klaipėda Commissioner Gabriel Jean Petisné and Lithuanian activists, during which two Frenchmen and twelve Lithuanians were killed. As a result of the negotiations between the Ambassadors on 17 January, sovereignty rights in the Klaipėda region were transferred to the Republic of Lithuania.
In 1924, a French representative office was established in Kaunas (operated until 1940), as well as a consulate. From 1929 to 1940, the French legation rented a building at V. Putvinskio gatvė No. 14. Envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary René Ristelhueber and Georges Ferdinand Charles Dulong resided here. In 2013, a commemorative plaque was unveiled on the building during the Francophonie Days held in Kaunas.
In 1928 several bilateral agreements were signed between the states: a consular convention, an extradition treaty, a convention on judicial custody and assistance, the transmission of judicial acts and orders for questioning in civil and commercial cases, and a temporary agreement on trade relations. In 1930, an agreement was reached on the protection of trademarks. In the 1930s, France was Lithuania's 6th largest foreign trade partner. Until 1934, imports exceeded exports in the trade balance, but from 1935, Lithuanian exports to France began to increase and significantly exceeded imports. There was also cooperation in the fields of war and politics, and the Lithuanian army was also armed with weapons purchased in France.
Close cultural cooperation was also established between the countries – a department of romance philology was established at Kaunas University, a Lithuanian-French society was established, and Lithuanians were given opportunities to study and do internships at French universities. Lithuanian writers translated French literature into Lithuanian in large numbers. 1923 a Lithuanian-French society was active in Kaunas.
The French writer Žanas Mokleras visited pre-war Lithuania several times and wrote several books about Lithuania, including – Panorama of Lithuanian Literature (Paris, Sagittaire, 1938). A student of the Sorbonne, the famous linguist Žoržas Matorė was invited to Kaunas University to teach French, and lived in Lithuania almost until the beginning of World War II. He left behind memories of Lithuania.
Relations during the occupation of Lithuania
During the times of Soviet occupation, Lithuania did not have an official mission to France, even though individual persons were allowed to act in an emissary capacity.
On 2 June 1940, the Third Reich occupying France closed the Lithuanian legation; Lithuanian diplomats were forced to evacuate and leave for the southern part of France. Less than 2 weeks later, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union. France adhered to a policy of non-recognition of the occupation and Lithuanian representatives were issued diplomatic credentials by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although they were not included in the official lists of diplomats or invited to official receptions. Lithuania had its representative in France until 1960, as well as in the period 1989–1990.
According to the military attaché service of the French Embassy in Lithuania, 41 French and Belgian prisoners of war who escaped from concentration camps set up in Prussia during World War II may have been buried in the Klaipėda city cemetery. About 15–16 French prisoners of war who died or were killed were buried in the cemeteries of towns and villages in Klaipėda, Šilutė and Tauragė counties.
After Lithuania was reoccupied by the Soviet Union, part of the Lithuanian cultural elite fled to France, actively contributing to cultural and academic life there. Notable ones are Jurgis Baltrušaitis, Jurgis Baltrušaitis. Jurgis Savickis, Algirdas Julius Greimas. In 1944 the Lithuanian Relief Society was founded, reorganized into the Lithuanian Community of France in 1947. Joseph Kessel, Emmanuel Levinas, Romain Gary, Oscar Milosz, who had previously left Lithuania, also worked in France. Since 1950 the Polish-Lithuanian writer Czesław Miłosz has lived in France, where he wrote one of his most famous works, Pavergtą protą.
During the Soviet period, the teaching of French language and literature continued at Vilnius University and some other higher and secondary schools. Although French literature continued to be translated, the absolute majority of the writers translated were classics or authors conforming to the canons of socialist realism. Among the translators, Aleksys Churginas stood out, while Juozas Miltinis in 1979 staged the play Requiem for a Nun based on V. Faulkner and Camus. According to Thierry Laurent, a scholar who has studied Lithuanian-French relations, "during the thirty years of post-war Soviet occupation, Lithuanian-French relations significantly diminished, became completely accidental or went underground".
Although France did not de jure recognize the Soviet occupation, at least two French citizens considered to be loyal to the Soviet government had visited Lithuania. This happened in 1965 when French philosophers Jean-Paul Sartre and Simona de Beauvoir (more details Jean-Paul_Sartre#Ž._Sartre_and_Lithuania) visited Soviet Lithuania for five days. During their trip to Neringa, photographer Antanas Sutkus took Lithuania's best-known photo of Ž. P. Sartre, "Sartre fights the wind in the Curonian Spit".
Relations after 1991