Death penalty in Lithuania 1918–1940: critical study of historiography and historical sources

In Lithuania, the death penalty was used throughout the Interwar period with brief exceptions until 15 June 1940. Two methods of execution were used. In the first period, from 1918-1937, executions were carried out by hanging, but mostly by firing squads. While the second period, from 1937-1940, employed gas chambers instead. The exact number of executed death sentences is not known. Approximate data in the ongoing research of the author is not less than 127 executions with a tendency to increase. Death sentence was carried out for criminal offences and political crimes. The historiography of the death penalty in Lithuania from 1918-1940 is problematic because it is fragmented, written without a full set of sources. Moreover, it lacks adequate external and internal criticisms of the sources and neglects the most problematic aspects of the subject. Taking these problems into account, this article's primary objective is to critically evaluate the historiography and historical sources of the aforementioned topic. The historiography of capital punishment in Lithuania from 1918-1940 is divided into two parts: thematic and contextual. Thematic historiography focuses on the legal aspects of the death penalty. In the interwar period, capital punishment was researched mostly by lawyers, who were slanted in favour of the death penalty. In Soviet historiography, these following problems arise: lack of historical sources, expurgation, and ideologisation. Hence,their literature is used sparingly by contemporary historians. After evaluating the aforementioned, studies following Lithuanian Independence in 1990 found the following: the Interwar period death penalty topic is discussed fragmentarily in the context of legal - historical reviews. These studies cited the interwar governmental newspaper Vyriausybės žinios (where all changes to laws were published) and other typical literature of the era. However, few historians today are using the readily available, unpublished documents found in archives, museums, and interwar periodicals. Contextual historiography for Interwar period research is essential in order to gain a deeper understanding of the death penalty. Most information about capital punishment can be found in the Soviet historiography, usually about the Communists who were sentenced to death. In the historiography post- 1990, more attention is given to punishments for deviant phenomena, especially the stories of the criminals sentenced to death. The sources of this research topic may be divided into two groups: unpublished sources and published sources. Both of which may be split into subgroups. Unpublished sources have four subgroups. (1) Criminal or prison cases where it is important to evaluate if the sentenced criminal really committed the crime he or she is convicted of, what the circumstances were when the penalty was imposed, and how was the sentenced executed. (2) Bulletins from Valstybės saugumo departamentas (Governmental Security Department) are considered a second-rate source, however, they are used if there are no other valuable documents. Finally, (3) official internal reports and (4) photographs help historians recreate the vivid reality that was capital punishment. Published sources have six subgroups. (1) Legal acts and their comments, (2) reviews of interwar institutions' actions, and (3) interwar periodicals, all of which are problematic because they are censored and rife with political propaganda and disinformation. Amongst these subgroups, the most problematic is (4) Soviet time documents which are expurgated. To better understand the conception of the death penalty, consider (5) works assessing the death penalty published in Interwar Lithuania. (6) Finally: memoirs, which are a separate subgroup because of their ideological values. The memoirs published in the Interwar period provide the most information about the death penalty during the Lithuanian Wars of Independence. In the Soviet era, published memoirs were strongly ideologised, expurgated, and usually the authors' imaginations improved upon facts to render a more vivid text. The memoirs published in exile are subjective, some individuals exaggerate their role or conceal the negative aspects of their lives. One of the most important aspects of sources on the death penalty during the interwar period were published after 1990. The memoirs of A. Sabaliauskas, a priest, after evaluating subjectivity, memory limitations, and other problems, reveal executions by firing squad openly and lively