From Ideas to Personal History

Abstract

Review Olga Mastianica, Bajorija lietuvių tautiniame projekte (XIX a. pabaiga – XX a. pradžia) [The Nobility in the Lithuanian National Project (Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries)], Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos institutas, 2016, 198 pp. Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis, Dienoraštis: 1904–1912 [Diary, 1904–1912], Bibliotheca Archivi Lituanici 11, ed. Olga Mastianica-Stankevič, Jurgita Venckienė, Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos institutas, 2020, 287 pp. This review presents two books that are closely related. The study by Olga Mastianica entitled Bajorija lietuvių tautiniame projekte (XIX a. pabaiga – XX a. pradžia) [Nobility in the Lithuanian National Project (Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries)] analyses the projects of including the nobility into the vision of modern Lithuania that were proposed from the publication of the first Lithuanian newspaper, Aušra [Dawn] (1883–1886), until the beginning of the First World War. The other book under discussion is the diary of Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis, edited by Olga Mastianica-Stankevič and Jurgita Venckienė. Davainis-Silvestraitis (1849–1919), who was engaged in the Lithuanian national movement in the second half of the nineteenth century, wanted to display by his own example that it was possible to “re-Lithuanise” the Polish-speaking nobility. He was the editor of the magazine Litwa [Lithuania] (1908–1914), which was published in Polish and the main audience of which was the Polish-speaking nobility of Lithuania.