The Problem of International Recognition Granted to Lithuania by the USA in 1922

Abstract

The statement drafted by the Diplomatic Service of the USA on the 28th day of July 1922 specified in the concealed form temporariness of self-dependence of the state system of Lithuania and, at the same time, Latvia and Estonia, as long as the Bolshevist Russia exists, as well as conditionality of the states by acknowledging their governments only, and not the states themselves. In principle, it was in line with the vision favored by the westerners: the vision of national governments of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the composition of the democratic Russia. It was approved by governments of the USA, France, the Great Britain, and by leaders of the White Russians as well. The expression "complete recognition" contained in the statement of recognition meant de jure and de facto recognition that was not named directly by the Americans in the statement of recognition because of the planned in future relations with the future democratic Russia. Before the official, yet peculiar, diplomatic act, the Americans used to maintain informal relations with the Baltic States on the basis of indirect de facto recognition leaning upon the note of the 26th day of May 1919 addressed to admiral A. Kolchak, the official proclamation of which was avoided by the diplomacy of the USA (contrary to the grand states in Europe) until 1922.