1935 Suvalkija farmers' strike
Germany (the largest trading partner) ceased Lithuanian imports due to the worsening political situation (territorial claims to the Klaipėda Region and specifically the trial of Neumann and Sass), while England (the second largest export market) enacted protectionist policies due to the Great Depression.
As a result, farmers could not pay their loans or taxes and their discontent was fanned by the outlawed Communist Party of Lithuania.
They began organizing in May 1935 and started a general strike (refusal to pay taxes or sell their products) on 20 August 1935.
Mass protest rallies soon turned into violent clashes with the police (most notably in Veiveriai on 27 August), which left five strikers dead.
It was a rapidly developing sector as farmers took out loans to expand and improve their farms, acquire fertilizers and machinery, etc.
However, they were isolated incidents of farmers refusing to pay taxes, disrupting foreclosure auctions, attacking bailiffs or police officers, etc.
[12] The region was also better educated and was closer to the border with East Prussia (Germany) which allowed strikers to print various proclamations and smuggle weapons.
[11] Meetings about a coordinated farmers' strike (refusal to pay taxes and sell their products) occurred in summer 1935.
[1] A key meeting took place in Gustaičiai [lt] attended by 25 representatives from the districts of Marijampolė, Vilkaviškis, Šakiai, Alytus.
[15] This meeting elected a committee that issued a proclamation calling for a general strike to start on 20 August 1935 and continue for a month.
[1][15] To ensure that farmers did not deliver their products to sell to city residents, strikers organized road blocks.
[16] The farmers demanded to lower taxes, suspend repayment of loans, cancel foreclosure auctions, and increase in the purchase price of agricultural goods.
[18] On 27 August, in Veiveriai, strikers attempted to intimidate and expel from the town's marketplace farmers who did not join the strike.
[23] Mass protests were replaced by terrorist incidents, including attacks on administrative offices and officials, damage to telephone wires, reprisals against those who refused to join the strike, etc.
[24] According to a report by the State Security Department from 1939, in total, 133 telephone posts were cut, 32 farms were set on fire, and 20 dairy collections points were destroyed.
[1] Attorneys Antanas Tumėnas, Mykolas Sleževičius, Liuda Purėnienė [lt] represented some of the defendants pro bono.
[31] Four people (Petras Šarkauskas,[c] Bronius Pratasevičius,[d] Kazys Narkevičius,[e] and Alfonsas Petrauskas[f]) were executed by a firing squad at the VI Fort of Kaunas Fortress at 3:33 am on 23 May 1935.
[32] They organized a group of men who transported anti-government proclamations from Germany (police confiscated 25,680 copies), kept a cache of weapons and bullets, and attacked a farmer returning from a market.
[33] ELTA, the Lithuanian news agency, disseminated a press release about their execution which included and unsigned explanation that these men maintained contacts with foreign anti-government agents (i.e. Germany) and thus could not be pardoned.
[20][25] Among other crimes, Maurušaitis was accused of murder, arson at the farm of Jonas Pranas Aleksa (former Minister of Agriculture), shootout with the police while resisting arrest.
[36] On 13 September 1935, police arrested Jonas Lapėnas, former director of Maistas and former chairman of the Nationalist Union, and accused him of corruption.
[4] The exports to Germany rebounded, but Lithuania pardoned most of the defendants in the trial of Neumann and Sass and could not take more decisive actions to curb pro-Nazi propaganda in the Klaipėda Region.
[27] The government and its official newspaper Lietuvos aidas variously blamed the communists, foreign forces (i.e. Nazi Germany), or local troublemakers (i.e. landless peasants, seasonal farm workers, criminals).
[43][44] On 12 October 1935, former presidents and ministers from opposition parties (Lithuanian Christian Democratic Party members Aleksandras Stulginskis, Pranas Dovydaitis, Antanas Tumėnas and Lithuanian Popular Peasants' Union members Kazys Grinius, Mykolas Sleževičius, and Ernestas Galvanauskas) sent a memorandum to President Smetona.
While elections to the Fourth Seimas of Lithuania were held in June 1936, the Nationalist Union ensured its full control of the legislature.
