Lietuvių sporto draugija „Viltis“ (1928–1931)
The Lithuanian Sport Society Viltis (1928-1931)

Summary/Abstract: This article analyzes an attempt of the Lithuanian social democrats to create a sport movement, which would be separated from the “bourgeois” sport – the history of the Lithuanian Sport Society Viltis. Established in 1928, the society began to participate in Lithuanian sport life. In 1930, the society became more active and began to search for international relations, which developed mostly with the Latvian Workers’ Sport Organization. In 1931, one representative of Viltis travelled to Austria to participate in the Workers’ Olympiad organized by the Socialist Workers’ Sport International. Sport was not the only field of activity of the society: it had a chorus, members were taught languages, including Esperanto, various lectures were organized, etc. According to the members’ list of Viltis, the club consisted of more than 300 members, predominantly workers. However, it also comprised students, famous writers, painters, and actors. Many of them were leftist, belonged to the Party of Lithuanian Social Democrats and participated in the activity of social democratic youth organizations, such as Žiežirba and Žaizdras. Communists did not have a possibility to legally establish a political party in Lithuania, so they tried to attend the activity of other organizations, infiltrate into them and take over their leadership. In the spring of 1931, the Lithuanian communists decided to begin their “work” in Viltis. According to them, social democrats distracted youth from class warfare and were even bigger enemies than the bourgeois. Some social democrats (later they were excluded from the party) and the writers of Trečias frontas (the Third Front) inclined (or contributed) to communism lead the club to the split in the autumn of 1931, when social democrats left the general meeting of members and created a sport section of Žiežirba in Kaunas. The national security forces observed the illegal communist activity of the club, which lead to the arrest of eight members of Viltis and its dissolution at the end of 1931.

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