Lietuviškų organizacijų ir partijų Rusijoje 1917–1918 m. politinės veiklos reikšmę atskleidžiantys dokumentai LMA Vrublevskių bibliotekoje / Documents from the Holdings of the Wroblewski Library Reveal the Significance of Political Activity of Lithuanian Organizations and Parties in Russia (1917–1918)

Abstract

After the start of the February Revolution, Lithuanian refugees, exiles, and soldiers in Russia developed a wide spectrum of organizations and political parties ranging from the extreme left to conservative Christian democracy. Despite major ideological disagreements, the Petrograd Seimas succeeded in adopting a resolution proposed by the right wing, which advocated a neutral and independent Lithuanian state. The Lithuanian community in Russia contributed to the creation of a new, independent, Lithuanian state by coordinating activities, forming new political structures, and cooperating with other nations, and became even more involved in this work after returning. Documents kept in the Wroblewski Library reveal the dynamics of the political activities of Lithuanians in Russia in 1917-1918. The Lithuanian Society for Aid to War Victims was involved in relief efforts, education, and mobilization of war refugees and exiles towards national activism and state-building. These activities are reflected in the documents kept in Collection F70 of the Manuscript Department which still has a Soviet-age disguise name of Societies of the Vilnius Region and other Lithuanian Societies, since the Lithuanian Society for Aid to War Victims continued operating in the Vilnius region in the interwar period under the name of Vilnius Lithuanian Charity Society. Numerous documents from the period of the Russian revolution are kept in the personal archives of the founder of the Santara party, Petras Leonas, (F117) and the Social Democrats Vladas Požela (F237) and Česlovas Petraškevičius (F238). Individual documents from that periods are dispersed across numerous personal collections, as well as collections of various societies and parties from the holdings of the Manuscripts Department of the Wroblewski Library. Keywords: February Revolution; Lithuanian Society for Aid to War Victims; Lithuanian Care to Provide Assistance to Our Captive Lithuanian Brothers from Prussian Lithuania; “Grūdas” (“The Grain”); Ateitininkai; Aušrininkai; civic activists; Lithuanian Christian Democrat Party; Party of National Progress; Democratic National Freedom League (Santara party); Lithuanian Popular Socialist Democratic Party; Social Democratic Party of Lithuania; Bolsheviks (communists); Council of the Lithuanian Nation; Petrograd Seimas; Supreme Council of Lithuanians in Russia.