Karaite Self-Perception: A Study of Two Vilnius Periodicals Karaimskoye Slovo and Myśl Karaimska

Abstract

This study aims to reconstruct the self-perception of the Karaite community in Vilnius during 1913–1939. The research is based on a review of two Karaite periodicals, Караимскоеcлово(Karaite Word), published in Russian from 1913–1914, and Myśl Karaimska (Karaite Thought), published in Polish from 1924–1939. Both periodicals served to develop national selfawareness and a spiritual revival of the whole Karaite nation by covering history, politics and literature. In Karaimskoye Slovo, Karaites identified themselves as Israelites; in Myśl Karaimska, some high-level representatives openly emphasized their Turkic origins. State and institutional discrimination against the Jewish population had become a major issue over the years, creating a volatile platform for change while breaking with the eternal sense of Karaite identity as people of Israel. This paper contributes to the literature on the history of the Karaite community in Vilnius in the early decades of the twentieth century.