Long Journey Home: Great Discovery

If ever there was a collection of documents that were surrounded by intrigue, the Gylys document collection fits the bill.  The object of much speculation for over 80 years, the collection of bilateral treaties negotiated during Lithuania‘s brief period of independence (1918-1940), was first sent to the Lithuanian Embassy in Sweden for safe keeping in 1939.  The Second World War was looming and the diplomatic Head of the Mission in Sweden, Minister Vytautas Gylys received a number of boxes containing documents from the Ministry of Foreign Relations headquartered in the provisional capital city of Kaunas, Lithuania. From this point on, mulitple twists and turns surround the documents.  There was speculation about the actual content of the boxes, no clear evidence that the documents were transported to Canada when Vytautas Gylys and his wife, Vanda immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1949.  Subsequent attempts to verify their existence and value failed, and finally, the conclusion was reached that the documents were lost or never reached Canada and their fate would remain a mystery.

All of this changed with one phone call to the Lithuanian Museum Archives of Canada (LMAC) in the spring, 2021 and a conversation with Canadian Charles Hopkins.  We learned for the first time that the documents had reached Canada afterall, and through the efforts of the Gylys‘ neighbour, Charles Hopkins, were saved from permanent destruction.   Lithuania’s Consul-General Vytautas Gylys died suddently in 1959 without passing on his collection of documents. Upon the death of his wife, Vanda Gylys in 1979, her residence was being prepared for sale by a commercial company and boxes of documents were placed by the roadside as refuse.   Some documents were damaged from exposure to rain that had fallen that night. Knowing the story and the value of the documents, Mr. Hopkins, when he saw them on the street, managed to salvage a large number of them and stored them at his home. Previous efforts to donate them to the Lithuanian community were unsuccessful until Mr. Hopkins and his wife contacted LMAC with the intention of donating the collection to an organization tasked with the preservation of Lithuanian artefacts in Canada and who had knowledge of the historical significance of the material.

Charles Hopkins
UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education towards Sustainability
York University, Toronto

Charles Hopkins Biography

An inventory of the collection revealed that it contained 30 bilateral treaties, 14 folders containing Lithuania‘s Ministry of Foreign Relations working documents, 8 single documents and a small number of damaged documents covering the time period from 1920 to 1939.  The historical significance cannot be understated.  After 123 years of rule by Imperial Russia, Lithuania declared independence on February 16, 1918.  The newly formed government was establishing itself within Lithuania and was anxious to show a presence internationally.  Among the first treaties the Republic of Lithuania negotiated was the Peace Treaty with Soviet Russia establishing clear borders and responsibilities of two sovereign nations (signed in Moscow, July 12, 1920). Another important bilateral treaty with Latvia gave Lithuania direct access to the Baltic Sea (signed in Riga, January 25, 1931).

The photographs of the treaties below reflect Lithuania‘s journey through 20 short years of independence.  They demonstrate its dealings with political issues that it, as a sovereign nation negotiated and concerning which it reached bilateral agreements that were then signed by leaders of nations, many of whom are recognizeable, major historical figures.

Through the efforts of Lithuania‘s Ambassador to Canada, Darius Skusevičius, working with LMAC and the Lithuanian Canadian Community Executive, and Charles Hopkins, the document collection has finally reached its rightful place – Lithuania.  All speculations, twists and turns surrounding the documents can now be put to rest and we will leave it to historians to uncover the treasures that have returned to Lithuania.