Communism in Lithuania on This Day in History

 

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This day in history: A Communist government was installed in Lithuania on this day in 1940. This form of government was rejected in 1990. Why? Because Communism (Socialism) always fails. 

"While there has been extensive study of the reasons for communism's failure, researchers have pinpointed a couple of common factors that contributed to its demise.

The first is an absence of incentives among citizens to produce for profit. The profit incentive leads to competition and innovation in society. But an ideal citizen in a communist society was selflessly devoted to societal causes and rarely stopped to think about their own welfare.

The second reason for communism's failure was the system's inherent inefficiencies, such as centralized planning. This form of planning requires aggregation and synthesis of enormous amounts of data at a granular level. Because all projects were planned centrally, this form of planning was also complex. In several instances, growth data was fudged or error-prone in order to make facts fit into planned statistics and create an illusion of progress.

The concentration of power in the hands of a select few also bred inefficiency and, paradoxically enough, provided them with incentives to game the system for their benefit and retain their hold on power. Corruption and laziness became endemic features of this system and surveillance, such as characterized East German and Soviet societies, was common. It also disincentivized industrious and hard-working people. In the end, the economy suffered." Source

"Thirty years later, Lithuania is very different: more free, more prosperous, and more secure than it has ever been in the past 300 years. It shed the hammer and sickle and the planned economy, melted statues of Lenin into cans for Coca-Cola, and things could not be better." Source

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Scorched Earth Policy on This Day in History

This Day in History: Four thousand defenders of Pilenai commit mass suicide rather than be taken captive by the Teutonic Knights on this day in 1336.

Pilenai was a hill fort in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Its location is unknown and is subject to academic debates, but it is well known in the history of Lithuania due to its heroic defense against the Teutonic Order in 1336. Attacked by a large Teutonic force, the fortress, commanded by Duke Margiris, tried in vain to organize a defense against the larger and stronger invader. Losing hope, the defenders decided to burn their property and commit mass suicide to deprive the Order from prisoners and loot. 

This was an early example of scorched-earth policy. A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, which usually includes obvious weapons, transport vehicles, communication sites, and industrial resources. However, anything useful to the advancing enemy may be targeted, including food stores and agricultural areas, water sources, and even the local people themselves.

One recent vivid example of such a policy was when the Iraqi military forces set fire to a 700 oil wells in Kuwait in 1991.

This policy was often used in ancient times.

The Scythians used scorched-earth methods against the Persian Achaemenid Empire, led by King Darius the Great, during his European Scythian campaign. The Scythians, who were nomadic herders, evaded the Persian invaders and retreated into the depths of the steppes after they had destroyed food supplies and poisoned wells.

The Greek general Xenophon recorded in his Anabasis that the Armenians, as they withdrew, burned their crops and food supplies before the Ten Thousand could advance.

The Greek mercenary general Memnon of Rhodes unsuccessfully suggested to the Persian satraps to use a scorched-earth policy against Alexander the Great, who was moving into Asia Minor.

During the great Viking invasion of England, the Viking chieftain Hastein in 893 marched his men to Chester to occupy the ruined Roman fortress there. The refortified fortress would have made an excellent base for raiding northern Mercia, but the Mercians destroyed all the crops and livestock in the surrounding countryside to starve the Vikings out. 

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