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The People's Seimas ((リトアニア語:Liaudies Seimas)) was a puppet legislature organized in order to give legal sanction the occupation and annexation of Lithuania by the Soviet Union.〔 After the Soviet ultimatum in June 1940, a new pro-Soviet government was formed, known as the People's Government. The new government dismissed the Fourth Seimas and announced elections to the People's Seimas. The elections were heavily rigged, and resulted in a chamber composed entirely of Communists and Communist sympathizers. The new parliament unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic and petitioned for admission to the Soviet Union as a constituent republic. The Supreme Soviet of the USSR accepted the Lithuanian petition on August 3, 1940. The People's Seimas adopted a new constitution, a close copy of the 1936 Soviet Constitution, on August 25 and renamed itself to the Supreme Soviet of the Lithuanian SSR. According to Lithuanian and Western sources, these events were merely a cover to create an illusion of constitutional legitimacy of the forcible Soviet occupation. When Lithuania declared its independence in 1990, it argued that it did not need to follow the process of secession from the Soviet Union outlined in the Soviet constitution. It took the line that the actions of the People's Seimas—and indeed, the entire process of annexation—violated both Lithuanian and international law, and it was merely reasserting an independence that legally still existed. According to Soviet and Russian sources, the election of the People's Seimas marked the culmination of a socialist revolution that the Lithuanian people had carried out independent of Moscow's influence. Thus, according to the Soviet line, the People's Seimas--as did legislatures elected under similar circumstances in Estonia and Latvia--represented the legitimate will of the Lithuanian people to join the Soviet Union. ==Background== According to the German–Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty, Lithuania was assigned to the Soviet sphere of influence. Almost immediately Lithuanian diplomats were invited to Moscow for negotiations. The Soviets proposed the Soviet–Lithuanian Mutual Assistance Treaty: Lithuania would receive a portion of Vilnius Region in exchange for Soviet bases within Lithuania. Similar pacts were already signed with Latvia and Estonia. Finland rejected a similar proposal and the Soviets started the Winter War which delayed the occupation of the Baltic States. After the Winter War was over and Germany was winning the Battle of France, the Soviets heightened their propaganda, accusing Lithuania of abducting its soldiers from the bases in Lithuania and conspiring with Latvia and Estonia against the Soviet Union. On June 14, 1940 the Soviet Union issued an ultimatum to Lithuania, demanding to form a new pro-Soviet government and to allow an unspecified number of the Red Army soldiers to enter Lithuanian territory. Lithuania accepted the ultimatum and on June 15 the Red Army entered Lithuania unopposed. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vladimir Dekanozov arrived to supervise the process of the annexation of Lithuania. President Antanas Smetona opposed the occupation, and fled the country in protest. Before his departure, he turned over his powers on an interim basis to Prime Minister Antanas Merkys, who stood next in the line of succession under the 1938 Constitution. On 16 June, Merkys announced on a national radio broadcast that he had deposed Smetona and was now president in his own right. Lithuania's official position since 1990 has been that Merkys' usurpation of the presidency was illegal and unconstitutional, since Smetona never resigned. Therefore, Lithuania contends that all subsequent actions leading up to the Soviet annexation were ''ipso facto'' void. Merkys appointed a new pro-Soviet government, headed by left-wing journalist Justas Paleckis, which later became known as the People's Government. Merkys resigned two days later at the behest of the Soviets, leaving Paleckis as acting president. Writer Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius became the new Prime Minister. For all intents and purposes, Lithuania had lost its independence. On June 27, Paleckis dissolved the Fourth Seimas of Lithuania, citing the Constitution of 1938. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「People's Seimas」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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