Moderniojo lietuvių parlamentarizmo istorija Lietuvos mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių bibliotekos dokumentuose

Abstract

The object of the research presented in this article is the history (development) of modern Lithuanian parliamentarism in 1920–2020, i. e. a century from its emergence to this time. The sources for the research are documents and iconography related to modern Lithuanian parliamentarism kept in the Manuscripts and the Rare Books Departments of the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences as well as on publications of relevant documents and scholarly research. The article aims to draw attention to less-researched issues of modern Lithuanian parliamentarism based on the documents kept in the Wroblewski Library. Documents on parliamentarism in 1920–1940 reveal the key stages of this period: initial efficacy, later problems, and eventual crisis. The interwar Lithuanian “sejmocracies” and the period of the voiceless Seimas is represented by various documents from the holdings of the Library: three photographs of the Founding Seimas, election proclamations and posters, socio-political texts by Kazys Grinius, invitations, certificates, etc. The iconography of Soviet “imitational” parliamentarism (election materials, photographs) is still awaiting researchers. Documents of various convocations of the Supreme Council of Soviet Lithuania can be found in the collection of one of the most prominent Soviet ideologists, Juozas Žiugžda (F275). The documentary heritage for the post-1990 period is more fragmentary and is just beginning to be collected. The documents on the modern parliamentarism in the three latest decades (1990–2020) can at present be found only in the Ona Voverienė collection (F397), while the election publications are kept in the ephemera collection of the Rare Books Department. Keywords: Founding Seimas; “sejmocracy”; voiceless Seimas; “period of the non-existent parliament”; the second stage of the modern parliamentarism.