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On 15 March, a solemn handover ceremony of the archive of the Lithuanian and Swedish writer, diplomat of Independent Lithuanian Ignas Šeinius will be held and the exhibition “Ignas Šeinius: between Lithuania and Sweden” will be opened at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Prime Minister of Sweden Fredrik Reinfeldt will hand over the archive of I.Šeinius to Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius. The handover ceremony of the archive will be attended by I.Šeinius’s grandson Ignas Šeinius. The event will be moderated by Ambassador of Lithuania to Sweden Remigijus Motuzas.

Among the documents that are returned to Lithuania there are especially important resolutions, which were adopted at Lithuanian political conferences abroad on the eve of the restoration of Lithuania’s Independence (the resolution of the second Lithuanian Conference in Stockholm, adopted on 19-22 September 1917 and the resolution of the Lithuanian Conference in Bern, adopted on 2-10 October 1917), and other important documents of the beginning of the Independence period.

The archive also contains 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 I.Šeinius’s books, manuscripts and articles.

I.Šeinius became an unofficial Lithuanian diplomat in Sweden after he was sent to work as a representative at the Stockholm Division of the Lithuanian Society to Aid War Victims in 1915.  The Division in the capital of Sweden quickly expanded its functions, joined political activities and became Lithuania’s first mission abroad.

I.Šeinius juggled between his direct mission and social and cultural activities. At his initiative, the Lithuanian press office was established in Stockholm in 1917, which informed the Swedish press about Lithuania, and, through telegraphic news agencies, reached Danish and Norwegian newspapers. His first book in Swedish “The Lithuanian Culture” was published in 1917 in Stockholm.

In 1920-1921, the diplomat worked at the press office that was moved to Copenhagen, and at Lithuania’s representation in Helsinki in 1921-1923. He was appointed as head of the representation in Stockholm in 1923.

Later I.Šeinius came back to Lithuania and worked here. In 1940, when Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, he returned to Sweden where his family lived. In 1954, at the request of the Lithuanian diplomacy chief S.Lozoraitis, I.Šeinius agreed to take office as Lithuania’s representative to the Scandinavian countries.

The handover of the archive and the opening of the exhibition are held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Lithuania and Sweden.

Relics from the Lithuanian Embassy in Stockholm and paraphernalia of the family of I.Šeinius will be displayed at the exhibition.

President of the Millennium Media Group AB I.Šeinius will receive the Lithuanian Foreign Ministry’s award of honour – the Lithuanian Diplomacy Star – for his active work developing relations between Lithuania and Sweden.