George Matulaitis Journal

311 The priests were here to wish me a happy Easter. At eight in the evening I celebrated the Resurrection Mass at the Cathedral. March 27 I celebrated Mass at the Cathedral. Then I paid formal visits to the more prominent government officials: Mr. Raczkiewicz, Representative of the Republic of Poland; General ÷ eligowski, Commander-in-Chief and highest authority; General Mokrzecki, President of Central Lithuania; Mr. Ba < kowski, Mayor of Vilnius; Dr. Siedlecki, Rector of the University—and others. March 28 I visited the sisters’ convents. Just as I was coming home, Count Stanis = aw de Moriez arrived to see me. He started speaking Polish, but very badly. I asked him if he were French, and he answered that he was. We then conversed in French. I gathered that he was a staunch supporter of the Poles. He asked me to be an honorary member or chairman of a committee to honor Napoleon here in Vilnius. 1 I consented. He inquired about the situation in the country, and I explained many things to him. He was looking at the situation as the Poles had presented it to him in Warsaw and here in Vilnius. He accused the Lithuanians of being Bolsheviks or, at least, of sympathizing with the Bolsheviks. “Where is this Bolshevism found in Lithuania?” I asked him. “There is no sign of it in the army. That is clear from the occasions the Lithuanian troops fought the Bolshevik army in Vilnius and at the front. 2 The peasants cannot be Communists because 1 On his way to Moscow, Napoleon passed through Vilnius in June 1812 and stayed three weeks at the former bishop’s residence. He also stopped in Vilnius with his army on the way back from his disastrous Russian campaign. The Poles were planning to rename the building in Napoleon’s honor and put up a memo- rial plaque. 2 The Lithuanian army and the people opposed the Bolshevik takeover of Vilnius. They fought against the Red Army until it was forced to retreat from Lithuanian soil on August 25, 1919.