Lithuanian History

SOCIOCULTURAL LITHUANIZATION
(BECOMING LITHUANIANS)
IN KAUNAS CITY PRIMARY
SCHOOLS IN 1918–1940

The article analyses the processes of sociocultural
Lithuanization (becoming Lithuanians). The dissemination of the Lithuanian
language and culture was a typical feature of these processes in Kaunas city primary
schools in 1918–1940.
The research has revealed that in 1918–1940 the composition of classes changed
in Kaunas primary schools according to the language of instruction. The number of
classes taught in Lithuanian increased drastically from 6 (13,98 %) in 1918 to 197
(62,54 %) in 1938. The number of classes where the language of instruction was Polish
decreased from 25 (58,14 %) in 1918 to 5 (1,59 %) in 1938. From the beginning of the
1930s, a part of Kaunas primary classes where the languages of instruction were Polish
and German were reformed to the classes where the language of instruction was Lithuanian,
and the Polish and the German languages were elective courses.
Most teachers of Kaunas city primary schools adapted to the new requirements
of the state education system, i.e. teaching in Lithuanian (the state language) and disseminating
the Lithuanian national culture. In 1925, “Law Amendment of Primary
Schools” was passed, which regulated an obligatory test of the Lithuanian language for
primary school teachers. Until 1940, the older generation of teachers in Kaunas city
primary schools learned Lithuanian, while the younger generation of teachers, who finished
the institutions of teacher preparation in Lithuania, knew Lithuanian sufficiently
well.
The dissemination of sociocultural Lithuanization (becoming Lithuanians) in
Kaunas city primary schools was especially typical of the subjects of the Lithuanian
language, history, geography, and environment and homeland cognition. During the
Lithuanian language lessons, pupils acquired the main skills of the state language, such
as reading, writing, or speaking (non-Lithuanian pupils), and were introduced to the
Lithuanian folklore, literature, etc. During the lessons of environment and homeland
cognition, the pupils acquired the main knowledge about the state institutions, state
symbols (the hymn, the coat of arms, or the flag), etc. During the lessons of history, the
pupils were introduced to a romanticized Lithuanian-centered historical narrative of
Lithuania. During the lessons of geography, they found out about the historical places
in Lithuania, homelands of famous people, etc.
Keywords: Kaunas, Primary Schools, Interwar Period, Sociocultural Lithuanization,
Education.

Engravings Depicting the Polotsk Campaign in 1579 as a Homogeneous Cartographic Composition Th e paper presents seven plans of fortresses (Polotsk, Sokil, Kazyany, Krasne, Turovla, Susza and Sitno) and a map of the principality of Polotsk by Stanisław Pachołowiecki. Th e analysis indicates that plans of fortifi cations and hydrogeologic conditions were integrated into a previously existing operational map of the principality of Polotsk. Th erefore, eight printed maps and plans constitute a joint work that was uniformly fi nished by one author (Stanisław Pachołowiecki or Giovanni Battista Cavalieri). Th e map of the principality of Polotsk features Russian fortifi ca-tions in the form of two-dimensional projections. Th e strongholds were depicted in a reliable manner, both in terms of shape and the number of towers. Such a representation of settlement symbols was an innovative solution in Renaissance carto g-raphy. Not until the 17 th century were such means known and they did not appear on a broader scale until the 1730s.

The paper offers analysis of the discourses on the Great War (World War I) and of the practices of the culture of remembrance in interwar Lithuania. The research addresses the scope and the nature of literary fiction dealing with the theme of the Great War in interwar Lithuania (with the focus on the literary merits of translated works by foreign authors and of those by local authors, the ‘upsurge’ of and changes in the fiction on war), and the significance of the war to the public at large; the research also expands on the practices of the commemoration of the Great War and on the maintenance of military cemeteries in interwar Lithuania. On the one hand, literature on war in interwar Lithuania was an object of analysis, while, on the other hand, it represented a field of publishing industry with the works by foreign authors translated and local authors published. The Great War was a landmark event for a whole generation. It changed people’s lives and attitudes to war, and opened up new horizons for war fiction. Multitudes of young gifted people had to spend several years at the front because of universal conscription. Later they wrote books often based on their own experience, or even their diaries, that became literary classics. In Lithuania translated works came first: the publication of the novel
All Quiet on the Western Front can be considered a turning point that was followed by the works of Lithuanian authors. In a sense, the 1930s were a time of a breakthrough for the literature on the subject of the Great War in Lithuania. Certain episodes of the Great War, such as its outbreak and causes, the German occupation, and the military actions reflecting the war experience of the Lithuanians (1914 in East Prussia, the battle of Augustów in 1915, and the fall of Kaunas Fortress)
were actualised in interwar Lithuania. Such a situation stemmed from geographical and national reasons: the said operations took place on the ‘Lithuanian lands’ with numerous involvement of the Lithuanians. There were controversial judgements on the war: on the one hand, it had caused heavy casualties and immense material losses leading to moral decay and changes in the heretofore familiar mode of life and mindset. On the other hand, the war ‘woke up’ the Lithuanian nation and created
conditions for the restoration of the Lithuanian state, which was straightforwardly referred to as a true miracle and was thought impossible were it not for the Great War (followed by the fall of three European empires). The casualties of the Great War therefore came to be seen as a sacrifice on the ‘altar of freedom’ of Lithuania and this
claim was further reinforced by the fact that a great number of Lithuanian soldiers took part in the Great War serving in the armies of other countries (in particular those of Russia, Germany, and the United States) and many of them perished on various fronts.

Eyn vogn shikh…… "The activism and the desperation in the poems of Avraham Sutzkever" Sutzkever was one the most Yiddish Poet, maybe the biggest as some critics reported and he had also many other qualities: a hero of the Vilna ghetto, a witness at the Nurnberg's Trial and the voice of Yiddish literature in Israel. He was a great artistic, political and human personality and a ardent fighter of the poetic words. He was able to transform the experience of the Shoah into poetry. He was a defender of the Jewish/ Yiddish culture in Europe and then in Israel. His works retraced the events of which he was the victim and protagonist, seeking a poetic register in which he could return to life and justice the assassinated Jews. He worked with and to the words, he formed them in his willing, he exploited them in a expressive research. The poems of the war's years reveal the search for value of words a really unique poetic style. His deep consciousness of the "saving" power of poem of those educational years will be disrupt brutally by the outbreak of WWII. In 1939 with the Nazis invasion of Poland and the Lithuania will be under the Red Army, Sutzkever will be "unpleased" to the Soviet authorities cause his too esthetic poetry. He will try to obtain a visa for Palestine but in 1941 Nazis invaded Lithuania and every effort failed. In the first months the Nazis killed almost ¾ of the Jewish population in about 800.000 and the survived 20.000 were closed in the ghetto which were oppressed and were victims of the German Aktionen. In no other European places the Nazis killed so many Jews in a short time: about the 95% , 760.000 Jews were eliminated in three years. The Shoah of the Lithuanian Jews took place in the forest of Ponary [Ponar in Yiddish], very close to the city. From this time we have the first connection between the poems and the history of Shoah. In the same woods in which S. was inspired in his verses of poetic romanticism, now the victims have to dig huge graves. In that same admired and poetic nature, the Jews are then killed with bursts of machine-gun. In this wood on April 6 th 1943 were assassinated about 4000 Jews and 10 Jews were ordinate to dig graves for them. There about 500 persons to grave and other were along the river or in the forest. The same natural forest of the Sutzkever's poetic was the place of the Lithuanian Jewish Destruction. Among the victims also the mother and the newborn son of poet. He will wrote two masterpieces poems for them: "Eyn vogn shikh" and "Tsum kind". The poet was forced to hid in chimney where he could lie down only and where he did a small hole in the sheet metal for having some rays of light for composing verses. He run the risk to die many times by German weapons but even if in very harsh conditions he never gave up to write and compose verses either in hiding places or in the forest with the partisans. He hid the manuscripts to some trusted friends or somewhere. He dated every poem as need to testimony, giving in this way a very important and precious historical report of the ghetto's conditions.

Rokas Sinkevičius. Death-predicting Dreams in the Memoirs of Freedom Fighters and Their Relatives

Original source: http://www.istorijoszurnalas.lt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=535&Itemid=510

This work focuses on the stories about death-predicting dreams in the memoirs of freedom fighters and their relatives. A historically specific group of memoirs was selected for this study – i.e. memoirs related to the liberation movement of the 1940s-50s in Lithuania or, more exactly, related to the people who participated in this movement – freedom fighters, their liaison assistants, supporters, and relatives. Dream images that are considered ominous are compared with their counterparts in the wider tradition of dream interpretation. The studied individuals’ dreams are interpreted in the context of these people’s biographies and psychological condition. Death-predicting dreams are analyzed by applying the descriptive, interpretive, and comparative techniques.

The majority of dream interpretations are closely associated with a long-standing folk tradition based on beliefs and customs. A number of these interpretations use images associated with funeral rites and symbolism of black and white colours.

The deceased individuals seen in a dream may have wound marks, and yet they behave and communicate as if they were alive. The interpretations of the deceased people’s behaviour usually correspond to traditional meanings. The dead may call the persons who dream about them to themselves, to lie down beside them – but may also push them away.

Various dream narratives are characterized by a relationship between the contents of the dream and the dreamer’s psychological and physical condition and feelings.

    Key words: death, prognostic dreams, dream narratives, dream interpretations, freedom fighters.

The article introduces the biographic notes of the countess Klementyna Tyszkiewicz (born Potocka, 1856 1921), the owner of an impressive city residence near the river Neris, known today as the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. Neither the building nor the countess have been studied by researchers before. The article aims to present this aristocratic personality, the early influences on her character formation and explicate how her personal traits and taste shaped Vilnius cultural life during 1882–1913. The countess was born in Lviv into the influential Galician family of Alfred Józef Marian Potocki (1817– 1889) and Maria Klementyna Sanguszko (1830–1903). Most of her youth was spent in Vienna due to her father’s employment. Growing up in Vienna meant that she was introduced to the highest circles of society and maintained a close relationship with the children of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. She married a Lithuanian nobleman Jan Leon Tyszkiewicz (1852–1901) in 1878 and moved to Paris, spending approximately 4 years there. The couple came back to Vilnius in about 1882 where she gave birth to a son Alfred (1882–1930). Initially they resided in luxury apartments decorated by the famous architect Friedrich Gustaw von Schacht. In 1884, the construction of a new residence began following the project of Cyprian Maculewicz. The need for a personal residence was grown out of the countess’ desire to become an influential person in local society replicating her mother’s successful example back in Lviv. Klementyna Tyszkiewicz also wished to recreate a similar environment to the one she experienced in earlier days while living in Vienna and Paris. A big Renaissance style residence in the central part of Vilnius was completed in 1888. A new type of lifestyle typical of Europe’s richest aristocratic circles was introduced. It included endless receptions, visitations, luxurious banquets followed by dances, amateur theatre performances, billiard games and discussions. All feasts and gatherings were intended for a close circle of people, mainly the polish speaking aristocracy, as a way of discerning their identity and rejecting the regulations of the dictating tsarist government. A few important changes took place in the early 20th century. Having buried her daughter and husband in 1901, the countess closed the residence and left for Paris. Visiting only briefly, Klementyna Tyszkiewicz finally returned in 1905 upon hearing that Tsar Nicholas II had published a manifesto proclaiming “the civil liberty to the people based on individual inviolability, freedom of faith, speech, and social gatherings and associations”.
The Tyszkiewicz residence was reopened and gained a significantly wider social and cultural importance. It housed a Warsaw Art School students’ exhibition in 1907, an exhibition of Polish artists living locally and in Poland in 1908. The residence lodged Vilnius Science and Art Museum Association chaired by Władysław and Antoni Tyszkiewcz in 1907–1914, and organised many other charitable events. The public life of Klementyna Tyszkiewicz was not restricted to the palace as she was also a member of the Music Association and the main initiator of the Polish Theatre in Vilnius. The countess was regarded as a cultural patron of Vilnius until 1913 when she left the city for the last time. She died in Paris in 1921. The residential property was inherited by her son Alfred Tyszkiewicz who sold the palace to the Ministry of Polish Religion and Public Education, which later established the Wróblewski Library there.
Despite the contributions to Polish culture, Klementyna Tyszkiewicz was criticised by her contemporaries for leading a hedonistic lifestyle. This was claimed to be inappropriate in Vilnius at the times of resistance to the dictating tsarist government. Many years later history proved that the western lifestyle introduced by Klementyna Tyszkiewicz had significantly influenced the aristocratic and local culture at the turn of 19th and 20th centuries.

After World War II the victorious United States and Great Britain sought to demobilize their armed forces but soon realized they had too little manpower left not only to do important jobs but also to guard prisoners of war and war criminals. For this reason service units made up of soldiers of Polish descent were formed to carry out precisely these tasks. But soon after the army ran out of Polish-origin soldiers attention turned to refugees from the Baltic States. Former officers of the Lithuanian Army began to command these services; in this way they could apply their professional knowledge, partially rehabilitate themselves for having left their homeland, and improve their own and their men’s material conditions. Service in these units allowed them both to preserve their Lithuanianness and to gain familiarity with Anglo-Saxon culture. This helped them with their social and professional integration when later most of these service members and their commanding officers emigrated to the United States and other English-speaking countries. Although there were plans to reconstitute these units into a Lithuanian army in exile, they never became reality. Still, the Lithuanians who served in them left a favorable impression and thereby contributed to defeating negative stereotypes about the Balts. High-ranking U. S. and British officers described these Lithuanian soldiers in the best of terms; and the trust of the former in the latter is reflected in the fact that the Lithuanians were entrusted with such important duties as guarding Nazi criminals at Nuremberg and serving during the Berlin blockade, a service which earned them the accolade of “a job well done”.

Mstislavas Dobužinskis (1875-1957) almost became the author of the official Lithuanian state coat of arms and the flag. Despite his considerable heraldic and vexillological legacy, today, undeservedly, he is forgotten. Dobužinskis is known now only to a small group of experts and those interested in the activities of the artist. The analysis of Dobužinskis’s heraldic and vexillological heritage, its scale and quality, demonstrates that he is one of the most prominent figures in the history of Lithuanian heraldry. Looking from today’s perspective, in many cases, the artist’s works (both state symbols and the works of applied heraldry) are not exemplary from the heraldic point of view. Nevertheless one can argue that in the context of the interwar period, they are probably the best attempts. One cannot overestimate Dobužinskis perfectionist striving to improve the designs, his relentless enthusiasm to dig deep into the history of the Lithuanian heraldry, to publish the results of the research, to seek additional knowledge, and to work diligently. His efforts appear even more significant given his multicultural origin and self-awareness. Today we can rejoice at the fact that we have a significant heraldic treasure of the interwar period, most of which is composed of Dobužinskis’s works, characterized by historical substantiation, originality, and interesting solutions.

The article provides the analysis of utilisation of sports for the purpose of military training of riflemen in Lithuania in the interwar period by highlighting the idea of significance of athletics and practical activities of riflemen. Athletics was considered a part of military training in the interwar years; therefore, the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union actively promoted sporting activities by integrating athletics into military instruction programmes and choosing relevant sporting activities for that purpose. The idea of training the body and mind through sports was brought forward emphasizing that a conscious Lithuanian nation, physically and mentally strong, would be capable of resisting any external threats. A person engaged in sports would not only develop a physical strength but also acquire certain skills necessary for armed defence and, consequently, determination and self-confidence. Sports were seen as a form of representation and a field for competition of nations and states.

Santrauka. Nuo XIX a. antros pusės Latvijos pramoniniai miestai – Ryga, Liepoja, taip pat Jelgava – tapo svarbiais lietuvių bendruomeninio gyvenimo centrais, nes juose įsikūrė gana daug lietuvių tautybės gy­ ventojų. Dauguma jų dirbo pramonės įmonėse bei kitus paprastus darbus ir buvo katalikai. Lietuvių taip pat gyveno kai kuriuose miesteliuose ir kaimo parapijose. Po Pirmojo pasaulinio karo nemenkai lietuvių daliai persikėlus į etninę tėvynę, Latvijoje liko nemažai lietuvių, kurie sudarė palyginti didelę lietuvių ma­ žumą. Lietuvių tautybės kunigų veikla Latvijoje buvo labai reikšminga ne tik Katalikų bažnyčios, bet ir lietuvių mažumos ir visos Latvijos valstybės istorijoje. Čia ypač svarbus laikotarpis iki 1918 m., kai lietuvių kunigai ne tik veikė lietuvių visuomeniniame sąjūdyje Rygoje bei kitose vietose, bet ir įsitraukė į latvių tautinio atgimimo procesus Latgaloje. Atsižvelgiant į tą reikšmę, kokią parapijos ganytojas ir jo pažiūros aptariamu laiku turėjo katalikų parapijose, kunigų vaidmuo buvo labai svarbus. Tarpukariu jie taip pat vaidino esminį vaidmenį užtikrinant ir plėtojant lietuvių mažumos kultūros, švietimo ir visuomeninių or­ ganizacijų sistemos veiklą. Reikšminiai žodžiai: Latvijos lietuviai, lietuviai katalikų kunigai, katalikybė Latvijoje, latvių tautinis at­ gimimas Latgaloje. Summary: Lithuanian National Minority in Latvia (Late XIX Century – 1940): The Role of Lithuanian Priests

Temčinas S., Języki kultury ruskiej w Pierwszej Przeczypospolitej, in Kuczyńska M. (ed.), Między Wschodem a Zachodem: Prawosławie i unia, Warszawa, 2017 (Kultura Pierwszej Przeczypospolitej w dialogu z Europą: hermeneutyka wartości, t. 11), s. 81–120.

During the Russification of Lithuania (1863-1905) a tool of assimilation was language. Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet were introduced in Lithuania. Books in Latin alphabet were banned in 1864. This way, Latin alphabet became a symbol of national identity and of national awakening in Poland and Lithuania. Books were smuggled into Lithuania by the knygnešiai or book-carriers. The two best-known smugglers are Motiejus Valancius, a bishop, and Jurgis Bielinis.
The ban of Latin alphabet and the smuggling led to the flourishing of Lithuanian written language.

This article presents the attempts at worker‘s education Kaunas in 1920‘s and 1930‘s, that is people‘s universities, evening courses and gymnasiums for adults which were founded and maintained by public organisations. The most active were: Vincas Kudirka Education Society which held
people‘s university and evening courses and „Pavasaris“ Society which also held Motiejus Valančius People‘s university and evening gymnasium for adults.
These educational institutions were designated to be used by working adults, who were taught Lithuanian language and other school disciplines; they also got some practical knowledge for everyday life from hygiene to law and  economics. Some of societies included world-view and religious education in their programmes.
After the coup of December 17, 1926, the adult education became institutionalized and turned into the tools for indoctrination. The most active in these changes was
the Teacher‘s Union of Lithuanian Tautininkai and its Jonas Basanavičius People‘s University. Because of such turn, other decentralised forms of informal adult education became complicated, weakened and deteriorated.

The article examines the political relations between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, especially Žemaitija as a constituent part, and Žemgala (Semigallia), from the beginning of the 1279 Žemgalian uprising against the Teutonic Order until the rule of Grand Duke Gediminas of Lithuania. The author tries to explain why Gediminas used the title of Duke of Žemgala in his letters of 1323, although in other cases, the title of the Lithuanian rulers does not include the name of Žemgala, and neither do other sources describing the territorial structure of the grand duchy mention Žemgala as part of it. Some historians have already argued that Žemgala was joined to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1279. The article re-examines this argument, and tries to validate it. The cooperation of Lithuania (especially Žemaitija) with the Žemgalians during the war of 1279–1290 shows that the integration of Žemgala into the Lithuanian state was in fact its integration into Žemaitija during the war. The author concludes that this integration was not denied by the time Gediminas took power, despite the fact that the Teutonic Order had already initiated a new phase in the invasion of Žemgala. Gediminas used the title of Duke of Žemgala because he actually controlled most of Žemgala. A substantial part of it remained permanently within the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

Straipsnyje apžvelgiami 45 viduramžių Lietuvos mūšiai, įvykę 1203–1435 metais. Taikant lemtingumo kriterijų, siekiama įvertinti jų mastą ir reikšmę Lietuvos istorijoje. Išskiriama 10 lemtingų mūšių. Aptariamos mūšio ir lemtingo mūšio sąvokos, Lietuvos viduramžių mūšių vaizdavimas istoriografijos sintezėse ir žinynuose, jų sąrašo sudarymo ir hierarchizavimo problema. Atskleidžiamos pagrindinės viduramžių Lietuvos kovų kryptys, tuo metu vykusių mūšių įvairovė.

Произошедшая после распада СССР «архивная революция» в России и других странах постсоветского пространства открыла для историков возможность использовать в своих исследованиях следственные показания, полученных органами ОГПУ-НКВД. Несмотря на это, методика проверки достоверности информации, содержащейся в данном виде источников, до сих пор остается весьма слабо разработанной. Целью настоящей статьи является применение базовой методики проверки достоверности следственных показаний к конкретному кейсу-показаниям, данным бывшим шефом госбезопасности Литвы А. Повилайтисом в ходе следствия 1940-1941 гг. Содержание данных показаний существенно корректирует представления современных историков о событиях 1939-1940 гг. в странах Прибалтики и мотивации действий Кремля летом 1940 г. Таким образом, вопрос о достоверности этих показаний является чрезвычайно важной научной проблемой. В статья используются документы, извлеченные из фондов шести зарубежных архивов: филиала Государственного архива Эстонии (Eesti Riigiarhiivi filiaal), Государственного архива Латвии (Latvijas Valsts Arhīvs), Государственного исторического архива Литвы (Lietuvos centrinis valstybes archyvas), Особого архива Литвы (Lietuvos yapatingas archyvas), Поли-тического архива МИД Германии (Politische Archiv des Auswärtigen Amts) и архива Центрального ведомства земель ФРГ по расследованию национал-социалистических преступлений в Людвигсбурге (Zentrale Stelle der Landesjustizver-waltungen zur Verfolgung von NS-Gewaltverbrechen in Ludwigsburg). Используемая в исследовании базовая методика проверки достоверности следственных показаний НКВД была сформулирована в 2004 г. С. В. Журавлевым и в 2018 г. уточнена автором настоящей статьи в специальной публикации. Данная методика предполагает двухэтапный анализ достоверности следственных показаний. В рамках первого (предварительного) этапа исследователю не-обходимо установить, планировалось ли дело к рассмотрению в качестве публичного; существуют ли данные о применении следователем пыток; сосредотачивал ли следователь внимание исключительно на фиксации компрометирующих подследственного материалов; не носят ли показания шаблонный и расплывчатый характер; не происходило ли во время следствия резкой смены поведения обвиняемого. Ответы на эти вопросы дают возможность исследователю выдвинуть предположения о наличии или отсутствии фальсификаций в показаниях репрессированного. В рамках второго (окончательного) этапа анализа осуществляется проверка показаний с привлечением независимых источников. Данная статья содержит результаты первого (предварительного) этапа анализа следственных показаний А. Повилайтиса; результаты второго этапа анализа будут опубликованы отдельно.

В статье рассматривается малоизученная тема закономерностей изображения литовцев и событий и деятелей истории ВКЛ в драматических, поэтических и прозаических произведениях русских писаетелей, также связь литовской темы в русской литературе с доминирующей в царской России идеологией, официальной историографией и эстетикой романтизма.

Résumé: La Prusse-Orientale est souvent présentée comme unilatéralement conservatrice et arriérée. Pourtant, ce serait trop vite oublier qu’elle fut aussi le berceau d’un courant libéral et démocrate radical dès la première moitié du XIXe siècle. Celui-ci rejoignit d’ailleurs la social-démocratie allemande au début des années 1870, et lui donna ses premiers cadres. Les difficultés liées à la politique bismarckienne ne réussirent pas à empêcher l’éclosion d’un puissant mouvement socialiste, particulièrement à Königsberg. Or, la capitale provinciale avait une réelle influence sur la province, surtout au Nord peuplé de germanophones et de lituanophones. Toutefois, c’est surtout dans les villes que s’implanta la social-démocratie, malgré les tentatives récurrentes en direction les campagnes, rendues vaines après 1907 par les décisions de la tête du parti.

Abstract: East-Prussia is often presented as unilaterally conservative and backward. Yet, it is often forgotten that East-Prussia was also the home of a radical liberal and democratic movement from the start of the nineteenth century. This movement actually joined with German social-democracy in the early 1870s and provided its first leaders. The difficulties related to Bismarckian politics did not succeed in preventing the birth of a powerful socialist movement, particularly in Königsberg. However, this provincial capital had considerable influence throughout the province, mostly upon the northern districts, inhabited by German and Lithuanian speaking peoples. Nevertheless, social-democracy was primarily established in the cities, despite the repeated attempts to increase its influence in rural areas, which were rendered useless after 1907 due to the decisions by the party’s leaders.

Straipsnyje analizuojamos Žemaitijos žydų dokumentinio paveldo
išlikimo 1914–1918 m. ir karo nuostolių problemos. Esminiai dokumentinio paveldo praradimai dėl žydų trėmimų į Rusijos gilumą ir aktyvių Rusijos ir Vokietijos karo veiksmų regione vyko 1915 metais. Labiausiai nukentėjo pasienio ir pafrontės teritorijos: Paprūsė, Pakuršė ir Šiaulių apskrities miestai. Tyrimo metu išsamiai aptariami archyviniuose dokumentuose užfiksuoti 92 dokumentinio paveldo praradimo atvejai.

In 1914, the Samogitian Jews were exposed to the first adverse consequences of World War I. Thus, the town centre of Žemaičių Naumiestis was burnt down; more than 50 local Jewish libraries were destroyed from fire. In 1915, deportations of the Jewish population into the depths of Russia began. More intense activities by the German troops on the borderline re¬sulted in huge material and human losses. The period in question was marked by cases of thefts and wilful destruction of Jewish documentary heritage. However, in most cases Jews’ belongings and assets perished in the fire together with their houses that had been set fire to. More signifi¬cant losses incurred as a result of military actions were experienced in the spring of 1915 by the Jews living in Paprūsė (Podlesi region), Šiauliai country and the Courland border. During the research, 92 cases of losing the Jewish documentary heritage were established. Relevant data were collected on the essential aspects of preserving and losing documentary heritage in the period of 1914–1918. More in-depth analysis was conducted on the losses of Jewish documentary heritage in Gruzdžiai, Jurbarkas, Kelmė, Kuršėnai, Raseiniai, Leckava, Seredžius, Švėkšna, Tirkšliai, Tauragė ir Žemaičių Naumiestis. The total value of these losses amounts to 96 thousand roubles. Among the most valuable were the manuscript libraries collected by Torah and Jewish communities as well as archival collections. The Jews were known to have established a great number of libraries; even the illiterate Jews had personal collections of books. Quite a few Jewish libraries stored a 1000 and more volumes of books. Due to the significant losses of both archival documents and human demography, the author could not further develop the reconstruction of this heritage on a larger scale. However, the material collected made it possible to identify and evaluate the common problems of preserving and losing Samogitian Jews’ documentary heritage during World War I.

2020 m. rugpjūčio 28 d. ir rugsėjo 2–8 d. Pakruojo rajono savivaldybės administracijos užsakymu buvo atlikti geofizikiniai žvalgymai ir archeologiniai žvalgomieji tyrimai (VšĮ Archeologijos centras) Pakruojo buvusių žydų paveldo objektų (žieminės sinagogos ir štiblo) vietoje, Kranto g. 8 (patenka į Pakruojo sinagogos (UK 955) apsaugos zoną). Iškasti 9 šurfai, ištirtas bendras 33,65 m2 plotas, georadaru žvalgytas 720 m2 plotas. Įžemis – rudas molis su dolomito priemaišomis pasiektas įvairiame gylyje (nuo 12 cm iki 1,32 m).
In 2020, a geophysical (georadar) survey (720 m2) and a field evaluation (9 test pits totalling 33.65 m2) were conducted at the site of former Jewish heritage objects (the Winter Synagogue and the Shtibl (Tailors’ Synagogue)) at Kranto St. 8 in the city of Pakruojis (Figs. 1, 2). Sterile soil: brown clay with dolomite detritus was reached at various depths of 12–134 cm.

This article deals with the identification of the so-called krajowcy – a relatively small group of Polish-speaking activists in Lithuania and Belarus in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who promoted an idea of the re-establishement of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. This article claims that the krajowcy democrats (Michał Römer, Tadeusz Wróblewski, Konstancja Skirmuntt and others) were not nationally indifferent. On the contrary, they promoted a clearly formulated national identity ideology, different to the dominant (ethno-linguistic) one. First of all, the krajowcy were nationalists in a civic sense: they were Lithuanians, citizens of Lithuania within its historical boundaries. In addition, some of them, for example Wróblewski, suggested strengthening ethno-linguistic nationalism as well, otherwise his national personal autonomy concept would simply not have worked. Others, such as Konstancja Skirmuntt, Juozapas Albinas Herbačiauskas and Michał Römer, expressed a hybrid identification with several national cultures, and sometimes their self-identification was even reminiscent of identity ideologies that had dominated in earlier historical periods.

В статье анализируется функционирование земянского сообщества Копыльского княжества – наследства князей Олельковичей, в XVII–XVIII вв. находившегося во владении разных ветвей рода Радзивиллов. Очерчивается первоначальный состав земянского (военно-служилого) населения, выделяются роды, державшие земли и несшие службу на Копыльщине еще во второй половине XVI в. Оговариваются и характеризуются пути пополнения земянского сообщества, особое внимание обращено на случаи перехода крестьян на земянские повинности, механизм их закрепления в рядах земян. Определяются роды, принадлежавшие к земянской элите – державшие наибольшие земельные наделы, постоянно несшие непосредственную военную («казацкую») службу, входившие в офицерский корпус копыльской хоругви частных войск Радзивиллов.

This article focuses on the specific features of ideological control and censorship in Lithuania’s musical culture of the late Soviet period. There is a prevalent view in post-Soviet cultural studies that after 1960 the influence of political authorities on the Soviet Lithuanian musical culture was insignificant and ideological restrictions were of little consequence. Such attitude is supported by the musicians who opposed the official Soviet cultural doctrine, while the documentation of repressive authorities that is accessible to researchers contains few documents associated with the sphere of music. Within this context, the wave of ideological tensions and music censorship phenomena that arose in Soviet Lithuania in the 1980s (prior to Perestroika) shall be regarded as a sociocultural dissonance that requires further exhaustive analysis. The author discusses current theoretical approaches to relationships between music and politics through analysis of four cases that illustrate ideological and administrative regulations of the time: the denunciation of music critics organised by the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party (1980); the ideological critique of Feliksas Bajoras’s opera Dievo avinėlis (The Lamb of God, 1981–1982) during an official audition and the ensuing ban on its production (1983);the disapproval expressed at the party meeting of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union concerning the promotion of modern mainstream composers in the media (1984); and public condemnation of four young Lithuanian composers for being interviewed by a Polish magazine, which took place at the Rector’s Office of the Lithuanian State Conservatory (1984).
Published in: Sociocultural Crossings and Borders: Musical Microhistories. Eds. Rima Povilionienė, Rūta Stanevičiūtė-Kelmickienė. Vilnius: VDA, 2015, pp. 231–250.

This paper maps out the theories informing my PhD research into open-world role-playing games (OW-RPGs) as tools for individual learning and transmission of cultural knowledge. Three hypotheses and the methods used to explore them are outlined. 1. OW-RPGs are particularly well suited for cultural learning due to their complexity. 2. OW-RPGs foster deep player engagement outside of play. 3. An OW-RPG would be effective in transmitting Australian Aboriginal culture. To better illustrate this in a European context, the paper also examines the use of RPGs for Polish-Lithuanian cultural heritage.