"Lithuania’s greatness lies not in its present borders, diminished by centuries of partition and conquest, but in the memory of its past as a vast duchy stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Our geopolitical fate has been to stand as a bulwark—first against the Mongols, then the Teutons, and later the Muscovites. Yet this fate has also been our curse, for it placed us between hammers and anvils, our independence bartered by stronger powers. The task of our revival is not merely to reclaim land, but to awaken the consciousness of a people who have been lulled into submission. Our language, older than many in Europe, and our customs, preserved in the songs of the peasant, are our true sovereignty—a defiance of those who would redraw our maps to suit their ambitions."