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Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs actively seeks to return archives of interwar diplomats to Lithuania from abroad, because they are significant heritage items of the State of Lithuania and its diplomatic service,” Foreign Minister Audronius Ažubalis said.On 13 May, Minister participated in the ceremony during which personal archives and paraphernalia of the Lozoraitis family and of Ignas Šeinius were handed over to the Lithuanian National Museum and Lithuanian Central State Archives.

Lithuanian Central State Archives received personal archives of such interwar diplomats, as Stasys Lozoraitis, Stasys Lozoraitis Jr. and his wife Daniela, writer and diplomat Ignas Jurkūnas-Šeinius. Funds of the Lithuanian National Museum will get memorabilia of diplomatic missions and diplomats, awards of Stasys Lozoraitis.

“Today we witness yet another ‘success story’. Part of the handed-over documents will be preserved at Lithuanian Central State Archives, which will be very useful to researchers of the history of Lithuanian diplomacy. Another part of the exhibits will remain at the Lithuanian National Museum and everyone will have an opportunity to become acquainted with everyday life of Lithuanian diplomats during the interwar period,” A.Ažubalis said.

In 2006 at the initiative of Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, documents of the chief of Lithuanian diplomacy S.Lozoraitis were returned and archives of S.Lozoraitis Jr. came back to Lithuania piece by piece from 2008 to 2011. Lithuania also received documents related to activities of its diplomatic missions in the U.S. the Holy See, Italy, France and Germany.

The Minister thanked Marinella D’Ercole who is the sister of Daniela Lozoraitienė, the widow of S.Lozoraitis Jr., nephew Andrea Pinzauti and Program Director of Seton Hall University Danutė Vaičiulaitytė-Nourse.

During the ceremony, personal documents and family photos of S.Lozoraitis and his wife Vincenta Matulaitytė-Lozoraitienė, also documents from the time period 1918-1922 that are so rare in Lithuanian archives were handed over as well. Among them there are documents of the State Council of Lithuania, the Cabinet of Ministers, Ministry of the Interior, Lithuania’s representatives in Siberia and Grodno, and other documents.

Among the documents of the archive of I.Šeinius, there were documents of particular relevance – resolutions passed on the eve of the restoration of Lithuania’s independence at Lithuanian political conferences abroad (Resolution of the Second Lithuanian Conference in Stockholm of 18-22 September 1917 and the Resolution of the Lithuanian Conference in Bern of 2-10 October 1917) and other important documents from the beginning of the Independence period.

Lithuania also received notes of the meetings that were held at the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry in 1921-1927, Foreign Ministry’s instructions to its missions abroad, documents from the missions in Stockholm and Helsinki dating from 1921 to 1927, and documents reflecting activities of the Lithuanian diplomatic service during the period of occupation, also manuscripts and articles by I.Šeinius.

Since 2006, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with Lithuanian Central State Archives and other institutions, archives of interwar Director of Economic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Jonas Norkaitis, and diplomats Antanas Liutkus and Jurgis Baltrušaitis were also returned to Lithuania. Moreover, authentic documents describing the circumstances of birth of the State in 1917-1920 and its first steps in the international arena were transported to Vilnius from France in April 2010.