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Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

We have invited you here to an exhibition that bears a rather ambitious title: Understanding Lithuanian. Please don’t worry – we don’t mean for you to take a class in Lithuanian.

However, to quote the great Nobel-Prize-winning author Czeslaw Milosz, who was born a hundred years ago this year: “…language is the only homeland”. It is primarily through language that every nation makes known all its historical experience, its character, its spirit.

This exhibition is an introduction to our country through its language.

By presenting the language, its place among the languages of the world, its literary tradition in a historical context, and the role it plays in present day society, the exhibition reveals some of the crucial moments in Lithuanian history and gives a deeper insight into the country, its people, and their fundamental values.

The Lithuanian language, which has evolved from a tongue spoken by ordinary country people into the full-fledged State language of modern Lithuania, has garnered worldwide academic interest owing to its closeness to Sanskrit.

The unique story of Lithuanian, including such phenomena as book-smuggling in the nineteenth  century, during the ban on publication in the Lithuanian language by the tsarist empire, and decades of underground press activity, exposes the very roots of the Lithuanian identity. It explains why Lithuanians attach so much importance to their language—in both the spoken and the written form—while at the same time respecting and cherishing the multilingual tradition inherited by generations during the course of Lithuanian history. Freedom of the press in one’s own tongue, which is highly valued by every Lithuanian, also constitutes a foundation for free thought and fosters respect for diverse linguistic groups throughout society.

Today, it has been widely accepted that, to quote James William Fullbright, “In the long course of history, having people understand your thought is much greater security than another submarine”.  Ladies and gentlemen, following these words, it is my exceptional privilege today to voice a wish on behalf of all of us: let’s communicate and understand each other, no matter which language we speak. Let’s work together to increase the security in the OSCE region!