The immense political scandal that erupted over Lithuania at the end of October dealt a shocking blow to the cohesion and civic solidarity of Lithuanian society. The country is divided over its president--should he stay or should he go? Is he open to the charge of treason?

Great uncertainty hangs over Lithuania’s future. As the presidential scandal shows, there are still all too many temptations to talk of two Lithuanias. On one hand, there is the Westward-looking and dynamic Lithuania, waiting its turn to join the European Union and NATO; a “Baltic tiger,” as Poland’s Leszek Balcerowicz recently described it.

On the other, there is the elite-abandoned, long-suffering, divided and depressed Lithuania, longing for something like the equality-in-misery it knew in the Soviet Union.

To cut a convoluted tale short, the scandal emerged from a report by Lithuanian State Security. It linked one of President Rolandas Paksas’s close advisors to a Russian businessman with suspected ties to organized crime. Others in the president’s inner circle were also alleged to have met with the Russian, Anzor Aksentyev-Kikalishvili, who is thought to be interested in buying Lithuanian assets.

The report also found evidence that Paksas promised a job to a second Russian businessman (also his major campaign contributor), who is surrounded by allegations of illegal arms trading.

On 3 November, the Seimas, Lithuania’s parliament, met in closed session to decide what to do next. Formally, the Seimas has the authority and power to impeach the president in the event of treason or violation of his oath of office. A special commission was set up to look into the affair.

On 2 December, the commission released its findings, and its chairman Aloyzas Sakalas presented a summary. Paksas had placed himself in a “vulnerable position”--and taking into account the president’s role in domestic and foreign policy, the affair “represents a threat to Lithuania’s national security.” The next day Prime Minister Algirdas Brazauskas and Seimas Speaker Arturas Paulauskas both urged the president to resign.

These events hardly came as a surprise to dozens of politicians and political observers. Many had long had grave doubts, concerning the transparency of the activities of Paksas’s supporters and donors--both in Lithuania and in Russia.

TELLING SYMBOLS

These misgivings heightened after the presidential election in January, which Paksas won a landslide victory over the incumbent, Valdas Adamkus. The emigre environmentalist Adamkus returned to Lithuania and became its president in January 1998--and had, ever since, enjoyed the reputation of the most highly esteemed and regarded politician in Lithuania ever.

Paksas’s victory over Adamkus in January 2003 was marked by some ugly details, as well. The symbols used by Paksas’s Liberal Democratic Party (LD) caused great unease--especially their eagle logo, stunningly (and hardly accidentally) similar to the Luftwaffe eagle, and their torchlit rallies where speakers called for an “iron order” to be introduced in Lithuania.

The nasty rhetoric and populist dash of Paksas were accompanied by an aggressive and cynical PR strategy, which appealed to the lowest instincts of the masses. They described Adamkus as representing the interests of the West and the rotten political and intellectual elite in Lituania. In brief, the presidential campaign of Paksas shamelessly exploited the immoral logic of populism.

During the election campaign Paksas consulted the Russian public relations firms Nicollo M and Almax (the latter having been instrumental in Vladimir Putin’s victorious run for the Russian presidency).

Paksas’s most generous campaign contributor was a helicopter sales-and-rental company called Avia Baltika, which Lithuanian law-enforcement agencies had investigated in connection with illegal arms sales to Sudan. Immediately after the election, company chief Yuri Borisov applied to President Paksas for Lithuanian citizenship and received it--in addition to his original Russian citizenship.

During the campaign, Paksas hopped across Lithuania in an Avia Baltika helicoper, delivering fiery speeches about the better life to come, to audiences in one depressed rural stopover after another.

WHO'S FLYING THIS PLANE?

A few more words about Rolandas Paksas: However unpredictable and sinister, he is by no means a freshman in politics. Having served twice as mayor of Vilnius (while still a member of the Conservative Union), Paksas twice reached the office of prime minister. Frequently associated with the vigorous and forward-looking part of the Conservative Union, he enjoyed much popularity in the country, and was thought of as the future light of Lithuanian politics.

But it was not to be. During intense negotiations with the American oil company Williams in 1999 over privatization of the Mazeikiai oil refinery, Paksas, in a highly charged political atmospere, suddenly resigned his office. His theatrical argument was that he did so over his strong disagreement with an unreasonable and politically motivated decision to choose an expensive American company--over the far more affordable and favorable Russian Lukoil.

This ex-prime minister, a willful and stubborn air pilot (Paksas worked as a professional flying instructor in Soviet Lithuania, and was the all-Soviet cup winner in acrobatic flying) changed political coats, becoming chairman of the Liberal Union Party. By choosing the political hero and nay-sayer to head them, the Liberals gained plenty of political points--and won many seats in the 2000 parliamentary election, returning Paksas to the premiership.

In the end they bitterly regretted it. Paksas proved to be a dictatorial party leader rather than political team worker. The split of the party would not be long in coming. What resulted from the divorce of Paksas and the Liberals was the emergence of Paksas’s new political entity, the LD: an infamous analog of Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s identically-named party in Russia. (Incidentally, Zhirinovsky warmly greeted both the Lithuanian Liberal Democratic Party and Paksas on his presidential victory.) Small wonder, then, that Paksas was christened “the pilot of political parties."

AN UNSTABLE CIVILIZATION

We can draw several conclusions from what has happened in Lithuania--or rather, how it has happened.

First, we should not mock Belarus, nor explain away the tragedy that has befallen it merely by referencing the low political culture of society, or the prevalence of a Soviet-type mentality among the nation. Alas, as we see, our political culture is very similar to that of our eastern neighbors, and we thus have no grounds for a naive belief in either our superiority, or our larger degree of “Westernness.”

The embryo of Lithuanian civil society has just suffered a bitter defeat by the Soviet people. Although we have an intellectual culture of Western orientation, it is still isolated, and poorly institutionalized on a national level. Its role in our fragmented and further-disintegrating society is less than minimal. Further, the moral authority of the educated part of society has been reduced to zero.

The second point, perhaps, is a consequence of the first. The larger part of Lithuanian society has totally lost its immunity to political manipulation. The low level of political culture (and absence of any political awareness of the powers and functions of the country’s president) paved the way for a victory, by means of simply telling the voters what pleases their ear or by rewarding them. Well, our susceptibility to manipulations is good news to our large eastern neighbor. The task of destabilizing Lithuania and redirecting its political orientation--even that of its whole civilization--is not only possible, but, apparently, far easier than anyone would ever have believed.

Third, we have no real political left, let alone leftist values. The fidelity of the Lithuanian political left to social-democratic values is nothing but a lamentable fiction. In any democracy of Western Europe, social democrats would have marched their electorate through the streets, and would have been the first to stand against a presidential candidate who employed quasi-Nazi symbols. In Lithuania, a part of the left showed its open support for such a candidate, while the most powerful and best-organized left-wing party, the Social Democrats, played a double game; declaring its favor for Valdas Adamkus while secretly blessing Paksas’s road to victory.

I could feel only sadness when I heard our left-wing politicians earnestly disputing what they saw as the more-or-less identical mistakes and sins of Adamkus and Paksas. Application of this kind of symmetrical reasoning was not only silly, it was morally repugnant. With this kind of morality among the political left, we are surely not immune against the establishment of autocracy.

ORDINARY PAKSISM

Finally, recalling Mikhail Romm’s masterly documentary about the “ordinary fascism” of the Browns (and their striking, almost morphological resemblance to the Reds), the so-called “phenomenon” of Rolandas Paksas as a whole, could be described as ordinary “paksism.” There is nothing remarkable in it, only a masterfully modeled political game, which needed a small fortune and professional image-makers and propaganda masters--as well as a cohort of local revenge-seekers and cynics.

Paksism is not just a political amalgam of incompatible and mutually exclusive things. In general, it is the absence of political convictions; rejection of any coherent world outlook; unleashing of political fighting methods that disregard the rules of morality; and most importantly, an effective use of something the American writer Alan Harrington once called a mobile truth. The truth is what serves my interests.

If my interests remain the same--but to pursue them I need to present alien (and maybe not fully understood) phrases and images as a real thing to convince others--then today, my interests may become the greatest truth of my life; which I will accept and profess in every possible way. Tomorrow, the greatest truth of my life may become other things--called “political ideology” and “views” by old-fashioned simpletons.

Ordinary paksism is there right in front of us. I do not believe that Paksas will push Lithuania into dictatorship; for he has neither the powers nor the willpower. What’s more, whatever problems and deformations Lithuania may have, it will never let him do this. It is sad, though, to see that such methods are the means to win the favor of Lithuania’s electorate and become the country’s president.

Lithuania stands at a crossroads. The pivotal question is, can Lithuania pass this examination of Western democracy, and get rid of the regrettable populism it suffers now--or is it on the way to a new status as a European Union member de jure, yet a protectorate of Russia de facto?

We will soon know whether this autumn is to become the autumn of our discontent.

Dr. Leonidas Donskis is Professor of Philosophy at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. He is presently a fellow at Collegium Budapest/Institute for Advanced Study. He is the author of several books, most recently Forms of Hatred: The Troubled Imagination in Modern Philosophy and Literature.

Related:
News: Lithuania: President and Friend of the Mafia?
President Rolandas Paksas fighting for his presidency after secret-service report indicates close ties to suspected Russian criminals.
10 November 2003

Opinions: Not a Scandal Too Many
Lithuania’s season of scandals is a good thing: It has put the spotlight on the country’s intrusive laws and Soviet-era agents, and should force Lithuanians to question their trust in the media more.
by Rokas M. Tracevskis
14 March 2003

Our Take: A Shock to the System
Lithuanian voters defy all predictions and exchange the staid current president, who successfully pushed for inclusion in the West, for a better-campaigning populist.
6 January 2003

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Four years ago, devout high school basketball fans knew that Dion Harris was an outstanding eighth-grader. The same could be said of Brandon Cotton. Both had reputations that preceded them into high school, and today no one is surprised that Harris is a standout at Detroit Redford and Cotton is a star at Detroit DePorres.

But Birmingham Groves' Vladimiras Severovas?

Four years ago he was the best basketball player in the country. That country, however, wasn't the United States. It was Lithuania.

" We have a big trophy, as big as Vova," said his mother, Teresa, using the name by which Vladimiras is known. "It is a toy lion. It is our symbol. He was the country's MVP when he was 13."

Severovas was the star of the Sarunas Marciulionis basketball school, founded in the capital city of Vilnius by the former NBA player for whom the school is named. Severovas then moved to the Detroit area and enrolled at Groves as a freshman after his mother married local businessman Jack Kuzmanovski. Vova's sister, Jekaterina, is a sophomore at the University of Michigan. But Severovas did not come into Groves with a lot of fanfare. No one at the school realized Lithuania's best young player was walking the halls, and that is the way Severovas wanted it.

" He told me to shut up about basketball," Teresa said. "He forbid me to talk about it. He said: 'Don't even mention it. It doesn't count. I have to prove myself here. If I am a good player I will be found if I am playing in my driveway.'

" I told him it doesn't happen that way in America. You have to brag, you have to sell yourself."

Severovas doesn't brag and he didn't have to sell himself. Groves coach Bill Norton found him.
Norton realized he had a budding star on his hands when he first saw him shooting around in the gym during a lunch hour early in his freshman year.

" I knew Vova was going to be good because of his skills, his athleticism, his demeanor, his presence," Norton said. "And I knew because I've had Jokisch and Shasky and Franklin and Andree and Kevin Smith at similar ages."

Norton, who coached Birmingham Brother Rice to the 1974 Class A state championship, has coached all-staters like Paul Jokisch, John Shasky, Will Franklin, Tim Andree and Smith in his 28-year career. And now he has an all-state candidate in Severovas, a 6-foot-6, 215-pounder who has signed with Wright State.

Despite suffering a concussion in a preseason scrimmage at Davison, Severovas is averaging 22.4 points and 13.6 rebounds in five games. He has become a three-point threat as well as a dominating post man.

" Vova has the ability to take instruction without taking correction as condemnation," Norton said. "Now he takes correction as a path to productive change.

" It's hard to get him to take threes because he can go by anyone at any time."

Severovas led Groves' freshman team to a 17-2 record and turned down an opportunity to move up to the varsity late in the season, saying it wouldn't be fair to the seniors. He started on the varsity his sophomore season and grabbed 11 rebounds in the opener. He averaged 11 points and 11 rebounds for the season. As a junior he averaged 22 points and 14 rebounds and hit 65 percent of his shots.

Severovas first ventured into the United States in March 1999, when his club team competed in an AAU tournament in Chicago, winning six of eight games.

" There is a huge Lithuanian community in Chicago," he said. "Chicago was very different. It was a good first city to see. Everything is bigger. Chicago itself is bigger than Lithuania. Even though we are a Third World country, it is not 50 years back, if you know what I mean. The average quality of life is a little bit lower because people are not as rich."

Severovas discovered basketball when he was 7 and devoted himself to the sport at the Marciulionis school, which was different from the academic school he attended during the day.

" There is no comparison with basketball here -- over there it is more like AAU basketball here," he said. "You go to school from 8 to 3 and go to practice at a so-called basketball school from 4 to 6. On Saturday and Sunday you play in tournaments. Here, you play 28 games, maximum. There, you play 50, at least.

" Here, in high school, you play only four months. In Lithuania you can go 40 straight days without a day off. But it's not cutthroat. No one will kill you if you take a day off."

Although he left friends behind, Severovas welcomed the move to the United States. He realized it could be the best thing for him academically and athletically.

" I was pretty excited about it," he said. "I know I wouldn't be viewed as large as I am there because college scouts don't go over there much. Education is more respected here. It's not like education there is bad, but if you tried to get a job somewhere else in the country people don't look at you the same."

Academics are important to Severovas, a 3.5 student who scored 35 out of a possible 36 on the math portion of the ACT. He speaks Lithuanian, Russian, Polish and English -- which he began studying in the fifth grade. Had he not chosen basketball, Severovas might have been his country's top chess player.

" When he was 7 years old, I just knew I had to put him somewhere in something," his mother said. "I put him in chess club and basketball club. The people said he was so good at chess, he could think so many steps forward. But it's not for him. He can't sit in chair for five minutes."

Because of his size, speed and agility, Severovas also could have been an excellent football player, and the Groves coaches approached him about it. He declined.

" They brought it up a couple of times, but I really didn't know too much about it," he said. "It's very unpopular at home. We didn't even have it as a sport. I like the game a lot, but I never felt like I wanted to play."
Basketball was his game of choice, and eventually college recruiters began to notice. He turned down offers from Eastern Michigan, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Oakland University and Detroit Mercy, among others, to sign with Wright State, where he will major in computer science or computer engineering.

Severovas liked everything about Wright State -- which like UDM belongs to the Horizon League -- particularly its excellence in engineering. However, he was most impressed when players there talked about going to the gym at midnight to work on their games.

" First of all, I really liked the coaching staff," he said. "I even talked to players who weren't playing. Players one-through-12 had great things to say about the coaches. The players have a sense of purpose.

" I'm real impressed with the opportunity to work on your game whenever you want. I'm really looking forward to being able to do that."

It will almost be like being back home in Lithuania for Dalia, who must qualify at the national level and have her green card in place before she can pull for the U.S. team.


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"The new product labeled 'Sinful' is the first Lithuanian sauce which
increases sexual attraction, sexuality and encourages secretion of
hormones," the Vesiga company said in a statement.

According to the company, the ketchup is flavored with Mexican peppers and
some unidentified herbs, which together with zinc should help unleash
passions.

Zinc has been shown by studies to affect levels of the male sex hormone
testosterone, and its deficiency can cause a low sex drive, low sperm count
and even impotence.

"Many nations in the world are known for their dishes increasing mens'
potency and inducing desire, but this was not true in our cuisine to date,"
the company's production director, Robertas Neimontas, said in the
statement.

"To our knowledge this is the first such product in Lithuania and we hope it
will be appreciated not only by men, but also women," he said.

Vesiga produced 5 498 tons of different sauces last year, generating 22.2
million litas ($6.4-million/US$5.9-million) in turnover.

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Algis Ratnikas

First permit me to note that as hard as it is to believe Russia has a Lithuanian saint. In general, at least
some participants in this forum, would agree that Lithuanians can be considered to incorporate more of the "saintly" virtues than the rooskies. The latter would, no doubt disagree - yet the fact remains that whereas the russkies have a Lithuanian saint - the Lithuanians, to my knowledge, have no russkie saint. Oh yes - the name of the saint was Daumantas.

This story concerns his attainment of sainthood - with many accounts of assassination, kidnaping, romance, ambition, battles, betrayal, revenge etc.etc. which makes it quite worthy of a saga or, perhaps, an opera. (Taken liberally from Omni - a Lithuanian newspaper.) The title they used:

"Lithuanian saint showed the way to the Pskov region and indicated the surname of the future president".

Well, we will get to that later - first a historical setting - they start out with:

Everyone knows that Mindaugas was assassinated in 1263 (writing for a Lithuanian readership obviously). Everyone also knows that the reason for this assassination was the dissatisfaction of the pagan majority in having a baptized (Christian) king. However, not everyone knows just how this happened. It all started with the death of Mindaugas' wife - Morta. Among those traveling to
attend the funeral was her sister and the wife of prince Daumantas.

It seems that Mindaugas took quite a liking to her and held her back by force and, indeed, married her with time (now you might ask how a good Christian could marry a woman married to someone else? I suspect the answer is simple. Some clever bishop, when forcefully presented with this problem, probably came up with: "But of course, my lord, a pagan marriage carries no validity in "His" eyes." Waal, after all ya know what happened in England when someone objected to a King's marital plans.)

And thus Daumantas lost his wife. Historical facts indicate that Daumantas had been a loyal supporter of Mindaugas not betraying him even during the most difficult of times. Indeed, when Mindaugas found it necessary to retreat to his castle in Voruta it was Daumantas who led a determined battle against the Germans chasing them back to the north.

The kidnaping/seduction of his wife by the king, no doubt, deeply offended Daumantas. But he patiently waited for his opportunity for revenge (for he was an experienced war leader well versed in tactics and strategy). This opportunity came in 1263.

In 1263, wanting to disrupt the wedding of the son of the ruler of Veluine, Mindaugas sent an army toward that place (this is not as petty as it sounds - alliances were formed or sealed by marriages). Daumantas, at the head of his own contingent, was a part thereof. After some travel Daumantas pleaded illness and returned (keep in mind the army was now well on their way and there were
no cell phones available. In fact the reason for his return was the planned assassination of Mindaugas and two, of his three, sons.

Soon subsequent to his assassination an older son of Mindaugas (Vaisvilkas) returned to Lithuania. He was also a rather unusual character in his own right. He had converted to the
Orthodox church (as opposed to the Catholic for Mindaugas) and had become a monk and a hermit. Upon hearing about the murder of his father and brothers he returned with revenge in mind - he chased out or killed the perpetrators (monks, it seems, were an energetic lot in those days), handed the reign over to Svarmas and again disappeared into his monastery. Not for long though - for he was soon poisoned.

So then, with the return of Vaisvilkas, Daumantas understood that he had to choose one - die or flee. He chose the latter. Thus about 1265-1266 he took off with a troop of 300 men and eventually ended up in Pskov - where he received a friendly welcome from prince(?) Sviatoslav. He had himself baptized and thus became "Timofej". Soon, however, he showed less than Christian virtue. After assuring himself of local support, he unceremoniously chased Sviatoslav and hangers-on out of the city and became the ruler. So we can note that Daumantas was questionable material for sainthood - betrayal (admittedly with some justification), assassination (provocation?), betrayal again. So how did the man end up a saint? Waal, to put it simply - by his repeated and valiant defense of Pskov from the Livonian order. It is noted that even at an advanced age he was able to lead his troops and thus in 1299, after the city had almost fallen, he rallied the troops and once again and defeated the invading army. He died (a natural death?) later in that year.

**A few additional notes**

This article focuses on Daumantas and the loss of his wife as the cause of this assassination. Yet, there were more people involved than just Daumantas and his retinue and more reasons involved than just the loss of a wife.

Indeed, perhaps Daumantas was used as a political tool by someone else - by Treniota. Treniota was the son of prince Vikantas of Samogitia and (probably) the nephew of Mindaugas. As a result of his geographic location, no doubt, Treniota was much more focused on battling the Germans rather than acquiring Rus lands. He was also in favor of recapturing all Baltic lands and unifying the clans. Mindaugas was in favor of holding to a non-aggression policy toward the Germanic orders and Treniota (with good reason) deeply resented it. In addition, Treniota (being a convinced pagan) considered that Mindaugas had sold out to the running-dogs of Christianity by converting to their faith.

Eventually Treniota did get Mindaugas to more actively fight the Livonian order but the Treniota-Mindaugas relations had completely deteriorated. Eventually Treniota felt that he controlled enough power to take over as ruler of Lithuania. Thus he conspired with prince Daumantas, ruler of Nalsia, to assassinate Mindaugas and his two sons. Treniota did rule Lithuania for a short time but was then in turn, as we already know, assassinated by Vaisvilkas.

***********
Returning to the adventures of Daumantas: Even after his death the man remained active.
Thus he provided help to Pskov in 1332, 1341, and 1343 in various miraculous ways in
the continuing Pskovian battles with the Livonian order. In 1480, after the city had been invaded
by that same lot he provided advice (which seemed to work) about how to get rid of the murderous,
but saintly, lot. In 1538 he appears yet again first healing a blind woman, then a blind man
and later a man with a crippled arm.

OK - so let us move on. Just recently a group called "Society for the salvation of the country"
(formed to prevent the elimination of the Pskov administrative district by making it a part of the
Leningrad one) held a theater performance/seance dedicated to St. Daumantas/Timofej. Daumantas
did, I gather, appear in a way and indicated that he did not agree with the planned "fusion"
Instead he counseled the region to "look toward the west" and predicted that Russia
would see a new president.

When I think of native fruits, vegetables and the traditional dishes of
Lithuania, I think of potatoes, tomatoes and onions, apples and berries and
of course, mushrooms. Lithuania is rich in mushrooms with more than four hundred edible
varieties found in the forests. The most popular are boletes, (buttons) the
Kings of all mushrooms. Also collected are chanterelles, blevits, morels and
many others. Mushroom season begins in early spring and continues until late
autumn, autumn being the season for the most abundant harvest. Then entire
families go mushrooming and return with overflowing baskets of those natural
precious gems.

The most abundant forests are located in Dzukija, the south eastern
region of Lithuania. Traditionally the inhabitants of this part of the
country are the most prolific mushroom gatherers and this region's cooks are
known for their most creative mushroom recipes.
All over Lithuania, mushrooms are used in many dishes to add special
flavor to meat, fish, vegetable and especially potato dishes. Mushrooms are
used fresh, dried, salted or marinated.

FRIED MUSHROOMS WITH ONIONS
Kepti grybai su svogûnais
1 lb fresh boletus or white or brown, mushroom caps
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 onions, diced
several bay leaves
pinch of salt and pepper
Drop dry mushroom caps into hot oil and fry on low heat, about 20
minutes. Add onions, seasonings and fry for 5 more minutes.
Serve warm fried mushroom caps with hot potatoes and cold caps with
toasted black bread.

MUSHROOMS SIMMERED IN SOUR CREAM OR MILK
Grybai troðkinti grietinëje ar piene
1 lb fresh mushrooms
6 tablespoons butter
2 onions, finely chopped
4 tablespoons sour cream or 1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
Brush mushrooms clean. Slice and cook in a frying pan, in their own
juices. Cook until all liquid evaporates. Add butter and onion to mushrooms,
bake for 15 minutes. Pour in sour cream or milk and simmer for 5 minutes
longer.
Serve for lunch with hot potatoes or bread.

MUSHROOMS IN A BLANKET
Kepti grybai teðloje
1 lb fresh mushrooms
3 oz butter or vegetable oil
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons bread crumbs
pinch of salt
Brush mushrooms clean, cut in halves and dust with salted flour. Dip
mushroom halves into egg and roll in bread crumbs. Fry breaded mushrooms in
hot oil or butter.
Place fried mushrooms on a baking sheet and bake in preheated oven at
250F/120C, for about 10 minutes.
Serve with bread or hot potatoes for breakfast, lunch or as a late
afternoon snack.

CHANTERELLES WITH BACON
Voveruðkos su laðiniukais
1 lb fresh chanterelles
1/4 lb bacon, finely cut
2 onions, finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste
Wash chanterelles and drop into salted, boiling water. Cook about 15
minutes. Fry bacon and onion. Add cooked chanterelles and a pinch of salt
and pepper. Cover frying pan and continue baking for 10 minutes, stirring
several times.
Serve for lunch with hot potatoes.

BRAISED MUSHROOMS WITH POTATOES
Troðkinti grybai su bulvëmis
10 potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 lbs fresh mushrooms
1/4 lb bacon, finely cut
2 onions, chopped
1 cup sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
Cook potatoes until soft, drain and save potato cooking water. Fry bacon
and onion. Cook mushrooms in salted water for about 20 minutes. Drain and
cut mushrooms into halves. Add mushrooms to fried bacon and onion mixture.
Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add 1/4
cup potato water and simmer for 5 minutes more.
Pour simmered mushrooms over boiled potatoes and mix well. Pour sour
cream on top just before serving for lunch.

MUSHROOM PATTIES
Grybø maltinukai
2 lbs fresh mushrooms
3 eggs
2 onions, chopped
2 tablespoons sour cream
3/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup bread crumbs
salt and pepper to taste
Cook mushrooms, drain and chop finely. Fry onion in 2 tablespoons butter.
Add beaten eggs to sour cream and mix well. Add fried onion, salt, pepper,
mushrooms and bread crumbs. Blend well and let stand for 1/2 hour. Then form
mixture into medium patties. Roll patties in flour and fry in hot butter,
both sides for about 25-30 minutes.
Serve hot for lunch with hot potatoes and dill pickles.

MUSHROOM EARS
Ausytës su grybø ádaru
3 cups flour
3 eggs
water
2 cups cooked mushrooms, finely chopped
1 onion, chopped and fried
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons sour cream
salt and pepper to taste
Make dough with first 3 ingredients. Roll out dough thinly and cut into
squares. To make filling: add 1 beaten egg, fried onion, pinch of salt and
pepper to mushrooms. Blend well. Place a spoonful of mushroom mixture on
dough square and fold over into a triangle. Pinch edges with fork and seal
tightly.
Cook mushroom ears in salted water 5-7 minutes. Drain and place mushroom
ears into a bowl and cover with butter cooked with sour cream.
Serve hot.

MUSHROOM STUFFED EGGS
Grybai kiauðiniuose
8 eggs
5 mushroom caps
1 cup cooked, chopped mushrooms
1 cup sour cream
6 tablespoons butter
onion greens or scallions fresh dill
salt and pepper to taste
Hard boil 7 eggs. Peel 5 eggs and cut off tops, scoop out yolks. Fry
mushroom caps in butter. Add 2 finely chopped, hard-boiled eggs, 5 scooped
out yolks and 1 beaten egg to chopped mushrooms. Mix well and fry mixture in
butter for 10 minutes.
Fill 5 eggs with mushroom mixture, cap filled eggs with fried mushroom
caps.
Stand eggs in a serving platter, cover with sour cream, seasoned with
salt and pepper. Sprinkle with chopped scallions and dill.
This is eaten as a snack or light lunch with toasted white or black
bread.

Crepes filled with mushrooms
NALESNIKAI

*CREPE BATTER:
2-3 tablespoons of melted butter or oil
3/4 cups of milk
3/4 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
3 large eggs
Beat melted butter with milk, water, flour, salt and eggs in a bowl,
using a wire whisk. Put in the fridge for about 2 hours so that the flour
will absorb the liquid.
Brush a small non-stick frying pan or a crepe pan (about 7" thereabouts)
with oil and heat over medium heat. Pour about 1/4 of a cup of batter into
the center of the pan, tilting it in all directions so that the batter will
evenly spread out.
Cooks for about 1 minute or even less then that, until the top is set.
Then turn and cook until the other side is very very lightly browned. Stack
crepes between sheets of waxed paper. Repeat. If not using crepes
immediately, dry crepes on cake rack (not more than 5 minutes).

*MUSHROOM FILLING for savory Nalesnikai:
1 can (about 8-oz.) mushrooms, drained............OR
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms, cleaned and chopped well
1 large finely chopped onion
3 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
Sauté mushrooms and onions in butter in a heavy skillet until onion is
tender. Stir in remaining ingredients.
Fill each crepe and roll up, keeping warm until all are done. Serve with
sour cream.

Labai skanu!

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Addresses of the foundantion and Centres:
Vaiþganto g. 30 Kaunas,
LITHUANIA
Phones: +370 7 423277,+ 370 7 332881,+370 7 331902
e’mail: sugihara@takas.lt
Account No.:2700185

Kaunas Branch of Vilnius Bank. The Code of the Bank: 260101766
The Supperiors of the Foundation: Ramûnas Garbaravièius (The Chairman of the Board), Egidijus Aleksandravièius (The Director of the Foundation), Arvydas Garbaravièius, Freddi Opsomer, Alfred Erich Senn, Nabuki Sugihara, Julius Ðmulkðtys, Liudas Truska, Irena Veisaitë
VMU Center for the Study of Assisntance to Victoms of Genicide VMU Center for Japanese Studies
The Chairman of Centre Assistant Professor P. Janauskas

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Baltic Amber, or succinite as it is referred to by mineralogists, is the best quality fossil resin and was the first to have been discovered. Its organic origins are no longer a mystery to anyone.
Succinite is characterised by an amber acid content of between 3% and 8%. This amount of amber acid is the feature which elevates Baltic amber above all remaining fossil resins. Worldwide, over one hundred other fossil resins have been identified to date. All of these, however, contain either less than 3% amber acid or none at all. Other properties of succinite are its elementary composition: C – 61-81%, H – 8.5-11%, O – c. 15% and S – up to 0.5%; hardness: 199-290 megapascals or 2.0-2.5 on Mohs scale; density: 0.96-1.096 g/cm3; melting temperature: 287-300 °C; light refraction coefficient: 1.539-1.542, as well as its clean, resinous fragrance and the presence within it of plant and animal inclusions, mostly insects, spiders and myriapods. Despite the fact that many of its parameters are known, the most accurate method at present for identifying Baltic amber is infrared absorption spectroscopy.

Amber (=succinite) in nature occurs in the form of dripstones, such as stalactites, stalactites-like forms or drops, or as fillings of fissures in the wood of amber-producing trees. Amber moulds, formed in fissures – in the bark, under bark or in wood (or even between annual growth rings) represent a particular type of fossil, a trace of the presence of trees, sometimes of huge dimensions – the largest lump weighing 9.75 kg. Amber that underwent long transport or was naturally polished by the action of sea waves, occurs in the form of pebbles polished to various degree.


A unique piece of amber (1120 g). (Collection of the Museum of the Earth, MZ 15917).
Photo: L. Dwornik.

AMBER IN NATURE

Amber (succinite) deposits and their origin
The resin of coniferous trees from at least 40 mln years ago was transported by rivers from the area of Scandinavia and the present Baltic region, and deposited in a Teriary formation called blue earth, in the Ch³apowo-Sambian estuary on the northern coast of the Eocene sea. Since the 17th century, the amber has been almost incessantly excavated directly from the beds in the Sambian Peninsula (Russia). In the Polish part, in the vicinity of Ch³apowo, the deposit is located at a depth of ca. 120 m, which at present precludes its exploitation.

Open-cast amber mine in Sambia (Kaliningrad region, Russia).

A succinite as suitable for processing as the one from the Baltic area was also deposited in Tertiary beds along the southern coast of the Eocene sea. At least two Tertiary deltas are known: in Poland the delta of Parczew, and in Ukraine the delta of Klesov.

Besides, succinite is present in central Germany, though there it is found in deposits younger (Upper Oligocene – Lower Miocene) than those in the Baltic region and Ukraine. In a mine of Tertiary brown coal in Goitsche amber was discovered in 1974.

In the Quaternary, amber from the Tertiary deposits was transported over long distances through glacial, fluvioglacial or fluvial processes, to reach various places in Poland, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Germany; it traveled as far as eastern shores of the British Isles, to Jutland and southern shores of Scandinavia.
Finding of amber in Quaternary deposits with geological prospecting is practically possible only in certain regions, e.g. on the youngest Holocene beaches of the Baltic or in outwash deposits of the Kurpie region. However, during preparation of the map of amber distribution in Poland, it could be ascertained that amber had been found at least 600 times.

Recent and fossil beaches of the Baltic Sea (several thousand years old), with which we often erroneously associate the origin of amber (the Baltic is only 10,000 years old), are the last stage of the amber's travels. Today the youngest Holocene deposits are exploited along the Polish coast.


Amber localities and old amber mines in Poland.

Other fossil resins

As a rule, succinite deposits are accompanied by other fossil resins occurring in low quantities (2 – 3%). Their origin is associated with particular tree species (also deciduous), or geochemical conditions. These resins are: yellow transparent gedanite, brown beckerite, black stantienite, variously coloured forms of glessite and gedano-succinite, very similar to amber; white, opaque goitschite, dirty white siegburgite and the so called black amber. Besides, search for amber on Baltic beaches or fishing for it in the sea provide collectors with lumps of subfossil resins such as colophony, and recent resins.

Besides the Baltic amber (=succinite) the best known are: Dominican amber, simetite (Sicilian amber), rumanite (a fossil resin from Romania, but also from Sakhalin), birmite found in Upper Burma, and processed in China, a Hungarian fossil resin – ajkaite, and valchovite from Moravia. In Sarawak there is large-scale exploitation of a glessite-like resin called Borneo amber by its discoverers.

Plant inclusions in amber

Whole lichens, liverworts or mosses that make it possible to identify the species or genus are rarely found. Larger plant fragments, such as flowers, fruits, seeds, needles, leaves or twigs, are also rarities. The most often encountered inclusions are small fragments of plant tissues and organs, but such remnants are usually impossible to identify. The most common traces of Eocene angiosperms in the Baltic amber are stellate hairs from scales that protect oak buds.

Morphological studies made it possible for palaeobotanists to identify over 200 plant species from the amber forest. This Eocene plant community is regarded as a mixed pine-oak forest. Also thujas, cypresses, glyptostrobus, palms, magnolias, maple-trees, cinnamon trees, laurels and tea shrubs grew there. Among the undergrowth and herb layer junipers, evonymus, grasses and ericaceous plants were identified.

The amber forests are comparable to the present-day subtropical communities of mountain regions of south-eastern Asia. Rivers flowing through the forested areas transported, among others, small and larger dripstone forms of resin, as well as whole coniferous tree trunks with resin accumulated in various cracks. All this resin material, hidden in estuary sea deposits, underwent gradual physical and chemical transformations, resulting in amber lumps found today.


Lichen inclusion (Usnea sp.) in amber. (Collection of the Museum of the Earth, MZ 22286).
Photo: A. Pieliñska.

Animal inclusions in amber

Animals embedded in amber are mostly small arthropods; over 2,600 species were identified. Ants, arachnids walking or hunting on trunks of resin-producing trees, dipterans flying nearby, hymenopterans, caddis flies or millipedes foraging on the forest floor were embedded in these mortal traps. Their tissues were mumified in dehydrating environment, or they were impregnated with resin; sometimes only a detailed print of the body surface was preserved. Large animals, or those repelled by the resin smell, are not present in amber lumps.

Vertebrates from the amber forest also left their mark in amber. Four lizards (one in a Polish private collection) of the genus Nucras, at present inhabiting southern Africa, were found. Surface of some amber lumps bears prints of mammal paws. Their presence in the amber forest is also indicated by their parasites - fleas, ticks and blood-sucking insects (e.g. mosquitoes), or mammal hairs, embedded in amber lumps. The hair was classified as belonging to a squirrel which would indicate its presence in the amber forest. Of birds, passerines and woodpeckers lived in the amber forest; they were identified on the basis of rare feather inclusions.


Termite inclusion (Reticuliternes antiquus) in amber.
(Collection of the Museum of the Earth, TG 5603).
Photo: J. Kupryjanowicz.


Myriapoda inclusion (Classis Symphyla) in amber.
(Collection of the Museum of the Earth, MZ 5609).
Photo: J. Kupryjanowicz.

Primary and secondary varieties of Baltic amber

The varieties of Baltic amber can be divided into primary and secondary. The main basis for further division in the group of primary varieties is the internal structure of amber which determines its transparency and colour. The transparency and colour of amber depend on the number and arrangement of gas bubbles in the lump.
The group of primary varieties, depending on the internal structure, includes: (1) transparent amber, (2) translucent amber, (3) opaque yellow amber, (4) opaque white amber, in which the internal structure is that of a solid foam, while the colour is white, sometimes bluish.

Another group of primary varieties includes amber polluted with organic substance and wood chips. These variety is called "earth" though they have nothing to do with soil. The “earth” amber often contains numerous gas bubbles formed during decomposition; it may also contain plant and animal inclusions.
The primary varieties of amber are not durable and under the effect of air, light, humidity fluctuations and temperature changes they change their colour and internal structure, getting transformed into secondary varieties. The yellow colour changes into red or orange; the change in the internal structure consists in formation of e.g. numerous cracks inside the lump, which leads to the so called "sugar" structure. Besides, eroded amber becomes covered with a layer of "cortex" or “sheepskin”, its surface becomes rough and uneven. The most eroded are the amber lumps that stayed in the soil, above ground water level, for a long time. Also specimens from old collections or for a long time exposed to air and light, as is often the case with exhibits, change their colour from yellow to red and orange, or from white to yellowish.

AMBER IN CULTURE AND ART

Polish amber artifacts from excavations

In the stone age (Palaeolithic and Mesolithic), amber was used as material for production of amulets and ornaments.

In the Neolithic, with increasing knowledge of amber properties and its processing, new characteristic designs of ornaments appeared, such as nodular beads or beads in the shape of a double axe. In the late Neolithic, in the region of Cracow, amber ornaments were among the main objects of burial endowment. The process of production of amber ornaments in the Neolithic has been reconstructed in a workshop in the vicinity of Gdañsk and included in the exhibition.

In the early period of the Bronze Age, amber handicraft developed wherever Neolithic groups had survived. In the forming, new cultures the knowledge of amber processing disappeared gradually. Only few ornaments have been preserved from the Bronze Age. They are most often small round plates of a diameter up to 1.5 cm - a form known from the late Neolithic till present.

In an early period of the Iron Age, there appeared amber beads, found together with faience beads in ears of facial urns.

In the Roman period, the amber handicraft developed again. The ornament production still followed traditional methods, using earlier known tools. Only the use of turning machine changed the production process. New amber ornaments appeared, such as 8-shaped beads. Likewise, new shapes and ornaments of beads appeared (oval or round). Archaeological findings suggest a widespread amber fashion in that period.

In early Middle Ages the knowledge of amber was initially slight. Amber shops were often combined with those of horn craftsmen. Amber was processed manually, turning machine started to be used for bead production. One of the characteristic features of these ancient ornaments, besides ornamentation being specific for each period, was the absence of polish.


Early Medieval ornaments were made from amber. (Collection of the Museum of the Earth).
Photo: L. Dwornik.

Old and present amber handicraft in Poland

Amber has played an important role in the history of cities and the region of the southern Baltic coast. On the Polish coast amber craft is among the oldest handicrafts. The first guild of amber craftsmen was founded in Gdañsk in 1477, and their workshops were among the most valued. In the past the development of this sophisticated craft was favored by the interest on the part of emperors and nobility. They invited gifted artists to their courts, and provided them with shops, in order to be able to watch their work and select the most attractive pieces. The pieces of artwork of amber craftsmen from Gdañsk, Elbl¹g and S³upsk were real treasures and have been preserved till now in treasuries and museums of the world. Crosses, reliquaries, portable altars, amber tankards, jugs, fancy boxes, picture frames, little cabinets – are among the most interesting objects.
In the period of regression in the 19th and the first half of the 20th c. the Polish amber handicraft by no means disappeared. The amber tradition survived in folk handicraft of Kaszuby and Kurpie regions.

The techniques of amber processing changed repeatedly. At present, the requirements of customers and the high demand for modern designs of jewellery are met, among others, due to the use of pantographs – automatic devices which repeat the given shape.

Amber fascination has survived ages; because of the natural beauty of amber, multicolor compositions within a single lump, and the high quality of the ornaments for many people possessing an amber jewellery is a must. Creative imagination of Polish artists, as perhaps the only ones in the world, preserves a natural shape of amber, enhancing its beauty and mysterious charms through adding a discrete setting of gold or silver.
At present the Polish amber craftsmen are building an amber altar of about 120 m2 area in St. Bridget church in Gdañsk, as a votive for regained independence of the country.


“ The Ball” pendant, made by M. Lewicka-Wala, 1983. (Collection of the Museum of the Earth).
Photo: L. Dwornik.

Amber manufacture of the world

In China since the 18th c. Buddha's figures, animals or mandarin necklaces have been carved first in birmite, and then also in succinite which was more difficult to obtain but easier to process. The history was later repeated: in present-day times, on the island of Bali, sculptures were first made of the dark "Borneo amber" (discovered in 1990), but now also of Baltic amber from Sambia.

Dominican amber, known for its numerous inclusions, is used to make small pendants – animal figurines, or necklaces typical of the island of Haiti.

Among the most interesting exhibits are heishi – the world's smallest beads (ca. 2 mm diameter). They are made by Mexican Indians Zuni tribe.

Ornaments of Lithuanian male dress, included in the so called patriotic jewellery, are also exhibited. The Lithuanians wore those ornaments during Soviet occupation, as a token of their national identity.
The products of the Königsberg National Amber Manufacture are also regarded as patriotic jewellery (considering the fact that amber is legally regarded as a national material in Germany). The Staatliche Bernstein-Manufaktur Königsberg was founded in 1926, as a result of fusion of several firms, also from Gdañsk. After World War II, the amber handicraft in Germany did not develop on a scale comparable to that of the Königsberg Manufacture.

Amber in medicine

A low hardness, low heath conductivity, mysterious electrostatic attraction, and also its combustibility, from the very beginning placed amber among magical stones.
It is difficult to draw a line between the omnipotent role of amulets, and the role of amber in health protection, which gave origin to folk medicine. Already very early the experiment-based belief in the healing power of amber coexisted with magical lore, and in the absence of scientific studies on the subject, just as in the time of superstition it keeps existing in the times of conquest of universe.

Amber was applied to cure all diseases, just like aspirin was till not long ago. For example, according to Pliny the Elder – amber of gold variety, worn around the neck: against fever and other ailments; – ground with honey: against unclear vision; – powdered: against stomach ailments. According to St. Hildegard (12th c.) – during 14 days put amber for an hour in beer, wine or water: only against stomach ache, drink small quantities after meals. According to Agricola (16th c.) – amber in liquid: against bleeding, vomiting, head ailments, tonsils. According to Culpeper (17th c.) – 10-12 grans (0.06 g): against urination difficulties. According to Freyer (19th c.) – succinic acid dissolved in water and then distilled again again helps for skin contractions, asthenic fever, nervous apoplexy and amaurosis.

Today homeopathic pharmacies in Poland sell amber ointment and amber spirit: against rheumatic or neuralgic pains or arthritis; – amber drops in spirit at a homeopathic dilution D6: as a stimulant (10 drops 3 times a day half an hour before meals).

For many generations, the application of fossil resins in medicine was more or less consciously based on their producing an excess of negative electric charges. Components or derivatives of amber, especially succinic acid and succinic oil, produced since the 17th c. with dry distillation method, are used even today.

Amber Imitations

The problem of amber imitations, and thus forgery, is today acute and much wider-reaching than the mere inclusion forgery known since the 17th c. Not only imitation products are common today, but also forgery of allegedly natural lumps of raw amber.

Before artificial resins became available, imitation amber was made of copal – a natural subfossil resin, which in many varieties is abundantly found in nature on the Southern Hemisphere (e.g. Brasilian, African or Colombian copal). Though copal often contains natural organic inclusions, additional inclusions are often artificially embedded in it.

The collection of artificial resins in the Museum of the Earth of the 50s includes ca. 80 specimens and is one of the largest in Polish museums. It is especially valuable as comparative material, and has a great exhibition value. The most common and sometimes very beautiful imitations, identified by infrared absorption spectroscopy, include celluloid, polystyrene, polyesters, phenoplastics (bakelite, novolac, rosele resin) and aminoplastic resin (galalite).

B. Kosmowska-Ceranowicz, K. Leciejewicz, K. Kwiatkowska és A. Pieliñska