Historical and Literary Contexts of the Establishment of the Lithuanian Nation-State in the First Half of 20th Century

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the developments in Lithuanian literature and history that led to the establishment of an independent modern state in the 20th century. The article analyses the historical context of Lithuanian literature in the 19th and early 20th centuries; the path of Lithuanian nationalism towards maturity, the panorama of literature and literary life at the end of the 19th century and on the eve of the Great War (WWI); the potential visions of the state emerging at the time of war in the political and power centres; and the new impetus within the literature in the aftermath of the war and through the fight for independence. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between contemporary collective memory and the perceptions of the significance of the Great War and the fight for independence (1914–1920). The Lithuanian nation-state was established in 1918–1920 and went down in history as the First Republic.1 On the other hand, Poles refer to inter-war Poland as the Second Republic, the first one being the Rzeczpospolita. There is the logic behind it: never before 1918 had there been a nation-state, i.e., a state with a Lithuanian-language governmental structure, educational system, and Lithuanian culture. Thus, for Lithuanians, unlike for Poles, the independence achieved after the Great War was not a return to a former statehood, but a more significant step: the first ever establishment of a nation-state.