A blazing flag

Flags afire

Burning a country's flag is seen as a hostile action, displaying disrespect to the country.  It is often at demonstrations that this is done, giving the occasion a dramatic show.

In 1972, Adelaide Lithuanians burnt a Russian flag on the steps of Lithuanian House.  As the flames three feet high engulfed the flag, Lithuanians sang the Lithuanian National Anthem.   The flag burning came at the end of a city demonstration by Lithuanians in tribute to Romas Kalanta who burnt himself to death in Kaunas in opposition to Russian occupation. 

About 600 people packed into 150 cars for the motorcade demonstration through the city streets. Most cars carried banners decrying Russian opposition.

On the steps of Lithuanian House, Zita Bielskis, Rasa Kubilius and Jura Vitkunas poured petrol over the flag while Linas Varnas set fire to it.

Australia recognises Soviet Union occupation of Lithuania 1974

Australian Lithuanian demonstrator in Canberra

 

On August 3, 1974, with no forewarning, it was announced that the Government had recognized, de jure, the annexation of the Baltic States by the Soviet Union. It was soon revealed that it was Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam Whitlam’s own decision, taken without cabinet or caucus debate, to give legitimacy to the forced annexations by the Soviet Union of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, carried out in 1940 by a mixture of military force, terror and political fraud under the secret terms of the Nazi Soviet Pact of August, 1939.

Balts in Australia were horrified and began to campaign against the decision.  Recorded in a Lithuanian newspaper in Boston was a poem coined by an Australian Lithuanian.

I’m glad I’m a Lithuanian,
I’m happy I am free
I wish I was a big dog,
And Whitlam was a tree.

Vienybe 1974.IX.27