Modern Lithuania Research Articles

Moderniosios Lietuvos želmenų XIX amžiuje beieškant: Aleksandro Burbos „Senybinis aukuras“ – 1881 metų patriotinės eilės broliams lietuviams

[straipsnis ir santrauka lietuvių kalba; santrauka anglų kalba]
 Straipsnyje kaip poezijos kūrinys ir istorinis šaltinis publikuojamas Aleksandro Burbos 1881 m. parašyto eilėraščio „Senybinis aukuras“ tekstas, atskleidžiama jo modernaus lietuviško patriotizmo esmė. Daroma išvada, kad šis eilėraštis, pirmą kartą paskelbtas 1885 m., yra svarbus istoriniam pažinimui kaip pirminis istorijos šaltinis, o žanrine prasme jis gali būti laikomas literatūrine balade, tipologiškai priskirtina nacionalinės baladės tipui. Atkreipiamas dėmesys ir į 1893 m. paskelbtą naujos redakcijos eilėraščio versiją, kuri buvo šiek tiek išplėsta atsižvelgus į pakitusias laikotarpio sąlygas, sociopolitines permainas ir jų asmeninę refleksiją pereinant nuo aušrininkų prie varpininkų etapo. Aptariamas A. Burbos poetinėse eilėse išaukštintas „senybinis aukuras“ yra išlikęs iki mūsų dienų – dabartiniame Ignalinos rajone, prie Antakmenės (Untakminio) kaimo kapinių. Jis yra paskelbtas archeologiniu paminklu ir valstybės saugomu geologiniu gamtos paveldo objektu. Siūloma jį toliau propaguoti pažintinio turizmo tikslais, susiejant su Aleksandro Burbos poetinio kūrinio prasmėmis, kurios straipsnyje nagrinėjamos įvairiais aspektais.

Four cases of beheading from 14th-17th century Lithuania.

Skeletal evidence of beheading in early modern Lithuania has been scarce, despite historical documentation indicating it as a popular practice. This study presents the first bioarchaeological cases of decapitation in early modern Lithuania, with four adult male individuals from the 14th-17th centuries A.D. that reveal evidence of perimortem lesions in the cervical and thoracic vertebrae. The osteological and radiological study of the affected bones suggests that the individuals might have been victims of episodes of interpersonal violence, rather than subjected to capital punishment.

The most significant date in Lithuania’s history

The 16 February is the most significant date in Lithuania’s history. In 1918, an independent democratically-run modern civic state was established, together with the restoration of the statehood tradition cherished in the ancient Lithuania (1253-1795). On 16 February 2018, we celebrated the birth of a modern Lithuania. This date is like a bridge between the old Lithuania born on 6 July 1253 and the new independent Lithuania restored on 11 March 1990. Had it not been for the 16 February, there would have been no events of 11 of March, nor the subsequent success story. In the lead-up to the Centennial of the Restoration of the State (hereinafter – the Centennial), the past is seen not only as a reason to celebrate the important anniversary but also as an inspiration to reflect the historical significance of the past for today and the relevance of the issues of today for the past, i.e. the centennial achievements of the state and its people, and our ambitions for the next centennial which is fast approaching. The Centennial of the new Lithuania is a success story. The main achievements are as follows: Lithuania has become a player of the European and world history, with its modern civil society aware of the importance of freedom and the responsibility that goes with it, and with new emerging vistas for action for the Lithuanian state and its people. Building of the modern Lithuanian state in 1918 was based on the principles of the equality of all, as well as the freedom and prosperity, and this is why all freedom loving people of the country and Lithuanians living abroad, for the first time in the history of Lithuania, became the creators of their state, and later on, during the years of the occupation – the guardians of its tradition. The heroes of the restored Lithuania are thousands of those of different nationalities, religions and social groups having built and safeguarded the tradition of the Lithuanian statehood and national identity. They include volunteers, farmers, teachers, architects and engineers, athletes, aviators, clergy of various denominations, Righteous among the Nations, freedom fighters, dissidents that challenged the Soviet regime, people that created the liberation movement Sąjūdis, and the Lithuanians living abroad that preserved the idea of statehood and fostered the Lithuanian traditions. The hero of today is each individual living in Lithuania and each Lithuanian living abroad, who actively contributes to the building of Lithuania of the twenty-first century and knows that his daily efforts have an impact not only on the present but also on the future of the history of the Lithuanian state and the nation. Apart from the most important symbol of the Centennial, the national flag, we have our state symbol Vytis, bridging the two Lithuanias – the old and the new. The Centennial has revealed our capacity to draw the best from the depths of the past for the needs of the present; we are always ready to give our responsible and often times hard efforts for the bettering of our state and the people; we stand for our freedom, when this fundamental value is threatened; we have the vigour to build not only our own but also the European and world history. These things serve as the basis for us being proud of the achievements of the restored Lithuania, while inspiring us to work for the present and be hopeful about the future.

Vilius Ivanauskas, The Centenary of Lithuania’s Independence: National Mobilization and Democracy Development Throughout Modern Lithuanian History

Modern Lithuania developed consistently in response to external and internal challenges. During the rebirth of the modern nation in the 19th century several vectors emerged that constantly influenced intellectual discourses, politics, and resistance. First, there was the development of national ideology, which aimed at guaranteeing the rights of the Lithuanian nation to establish an independent state. Secondly, the direction of democracy became increasingly evident in the projection and development of the independent state. This article seeks to show the development and overlap of national ideology and democracy, highlighting the main challenges faced in the history of modern Lithuania, discussing the periods of interwar Lithuania, World War II, the Soviet occupation, and contemporary Lithuania, and describing the country’s political and ideological trajectories, including the local politics of history. By taking the concept of the nation as a “category of practice” one notices that nationalism became an important factor not only in the liberation from the occupying empires (Russia and the USSR), but also in justifying the new order in the new state or even when challenging democracy.

GEOPOLITICS AND GEOPOETICS IN STANISŁAW KOLBUSZEWSKI’S BALTIC ESSAYS

The paper discusses Stanislaw Kolbuszewski’s essays devoted to the capitals of the Baltic states (W stolicach państw bałtyckich, Poznań 1939; (In the Capitals of the Baltic States).) the author visited in the 1930s. Kolbuszewski’s aim was to familiarize the Polish reader with modern Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as seen through the eyes of a (friendly) stranger. His book clearly transcends the conventional limits of its genre (travel writing, journalism, reportage). The three capitals function there as extended conceptual metaphors of the Baltic states, their history, architecture, urban layout, and local color being viewed by the Polish “tourist” as symbolic manifestations of their inhabitants’ national mentality. The paper focuses on the geopolitical and geopoetic ideas implicit in Kolbuszewski’s account, exploring the connections between “imagined” geographical space and the nation’s collective memory. Curiously enough, though a Polish nationalist at heart, Kolbuszewski does not make any territorial claims on what was once “Polish Livonia”. Instead, he enthusiastically endorses Baltic nationalisms, dismissing the German and Russian cultural contributions as hostile foreign intrusions. The tropes of ethnic “purity” and folk cultures viewed as pillars of national identity, recurrent in Kolbuszewski’s Baltic essays, bring to mind the anti-German propaganda employed by Polish National Democrats after WW1 and Polish communists after WW2 in their attempt to justify Poland’s annexation of German Silesia, Pomerania, and Masuria, symbolically redefined in the Polish political discourse as the so-called Regained Territories. The connection between Kolbuszewski’s Baltic essays and his affinities with the Regained Territories narrative, as developed by Polish Western Thought and the Piast historiography, is our focus in this article.

GEOPOLITICS AND GEOPOETICS IN STANISŁAW KOLBUSZEWSKI’S BALTIC ESSAYS

The paper discusses Stanislaw Kolbuszewski’s essays devoted to the capitals of the Baltic States (W stolicach państw bałtyckich, Poznań 1939) that the author visited in the 1930s. Kolbuszewski’s aim was to familiarize the Polish reader with modern Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia as seen through the eyes of a (friendly) stranger. The authors of the paper focus on the geopolitical and geopoetic ideas implicit in Kolbuszewski’s account of his travels to Riga, Tallinn and Kaunas, searching for the connections between geographic space, culture, civilization, history, traditions and the collective memory. What seems particularly intriguing about Kolbuszewski’s report is the dynamic interplay between the personal perspective of “the Other” and the numerous historical affinities between Poland and the Baltic states modifying that “otherness.”

ЯЗЫКИ, КОТОРЫЕ МЫ ВЫБИРАЕМ: ОПЫТ ЛИТВЫ

The paper discusses the situation of Russian language in Lithuania. The current educational system, attitude of the Lithuanian society towards local cultural and linguistic pluralism, historical and present geopolitical problems - all these factors have a direct influence on modern Lithuania’s Russian-speaking population’s awareness of their ethnic language as either native, heritage or foreign, as well as on the selection of the language of school instruction for children from Russian-speaking families.Nowadays, it is becoming increasingly clear that the politics on language and education of the last two decades, aimed at strengthening the positions of the state language and at assimilating national minorities, needs amending. To achieve change, it is necessary to thoroughly study the possibilities of modern family and state language policy and to educate the society about these possibilities. The paper makes use of data from official statistics and sociolinguistic research.

THE EVOLUTION OF STANDARD SINGLE FAMILY HOUSES IN SOVIET LITHUANIA / TIPINIŲ VIENBUČIŲ GYVENAMŲJŲ NAMŲ RAIDA SOVIETINĖJE LIETUVOJE

In soviet Lithuania standard single-family housing projects have been actively developed and constantly improved. It was possible to identify about 40 different standard housing projects in Lithuania’s rural areas in the early eighties. However, it was not an easy task for a family to build their own house. The construction was hampered by the lack of permanent materials and priority queues, according to which plots were distributed. Also one must take notice that the construction of single-family homes was totally prohibited in major cities. Before setting in the prohibition in the 60s, one could recognize standard housing exploiting traditional materials – brick, wood, as well as adapting architectural features of interwar housing. Meanwhile, the rural areas started to experiment with the design of industrially prefabricated homes. These attributes of, so far poorly, investigated typology are one of the components forming a standard single- family house in modern day Lithuania. The objective of the paper is to define the peculiarities of standard single-family housing development in the soviet era, with a focus on socio-political factors which determined the direction and attributes of a typical design. Tipiniai vienbučių gyvenamųjų namų projektai sovietinėje Lietuvoje buvo aktyviai rengiami ir tobulinami. Devintojo dešimtmečio pradžioje Lietuvos kaimo vietovėse buvo galima identifikuoti apie 40 skirtingų tipinių namų projektų. Tačiau ne kiekvienas pilietis galėjo namą pagal tokį projektą pasistatyti. Statybas varžė nuolatinis medžiagų trūkumas, prioritetinės eilės, pagal kurią buvo dalijami sklypai, sudarymo sąlygos, galiausiai draudimas statyti vienbučius namus didžiuosiuose miestuose. Miestuose iki įsigaliojant statybos draudimui vyravo tradicinės statybos namai – mūriniai, mediniai, o jų raiška turėjo tarpukario architektūros bruožų. Tuo tarpu kaimo vietovėse imta eksperimentuoti projektuojant industrinius surenkamus namus. Šios, iki šiol menkai nagrinėtos, tipologijos bruožai yra viena iš dedamųjų, formuojančių šiuolaikinį tipinį gyvenamąjį namą Lietuvoje. Tiriamojo darbo tikslas – nustatyti tipinių vienbučių raidos savitumus sovietmečiu, atkreipiant dėmesį į kertinius socio-politinius veiksnius, nulėmusius tipinio projektavimo kryptis ir bruožus.

Modern Lithuanian Architecture in Soviet Time: Self-Reflections by Architects

Modern architecture in Soviet Lithuania (1944-1990) is outstanding in the context of former Soviet Union. İt is distinguished for its contextual approach, link with the local tradition and regard to the natural environment. The paper discusses the premises under which modern Lithuania architecture was founded after World War II. The study is based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with the most influential architects, active at that time. The paper reveals: how the architects active at that time understand the phenomenon of architecture; their basic principles of architectural design; and the position of an architect in the society.

The role of linguists in metalinguistic discourse in modern Lithuania

ABSTRACTThe role of linguists in Lithuanian society is quite different from that in western countries. It is still broadly assumed that they not only describe the language use and codify the norms of standard variety, but that they also possess the status of moral authorities having access to the mysteries of language. In the tradition of Lithuanian language cultivation, the competence of the educated linguists is seen as the only genuine academic basis for norm setting compared to the linguistic and communicative competence of ordinary users. This tradition still stresses the exceptional nature, uniqueness and vulnerability of the Lithuanian language. That means that ordinary users cannot be trusted with its survival as they lack a linguistic education and sense of responsibility. It is considered important that these provisions are supported by the institutional authority of the State Language Commission and the State Language Inspectorate. It also draws on a consensus concerning the education system and society, all of which are inextricable from the Neo-Romantic ideology. This could be one of the reasons why language policies in Lithuania rest on obligatory prescriptions, not just on recommendations.

The problem of the authorship of the Greek Odarion to Saint Casimirus (1604)

The present article focuses on the question of the authorship of the Greek Odarion to St. Casimirus, one of the most outstanding pieces of Greek poetry in Early Modern Lithuania, recently famed for its dual versification. This amusing piece of work, located in the collection of the panegyrical texts to the same saint, carrying the title THEATRVM S. CASIMIRI, IN QVO IPSIVS PROSAPIA, VITA, MIRACVLA, & illustris pompa in solemni eiusdem apotheoseos instauratione, Vilnae Lithuaniae Metropoli V. Id. Maij, Anno D[omi]ni M. DC. IV. instituta graphice proponuntur. […] Editum ibidem [sc. Vilnae], eodem anno [sc. 1604], operis Typographicis Academiae SOCIETATIS IESV, was performed orally during the solemnities that took place 10–12 May in 1604 in Vilnius due to the recent canonization of this saint. The true author of this collection is actually unknown and the same is applicable to the Odarion. Gregorius Swięcicki, the member of Vilnius chapter, whose name appears in several parts of the convolute (especially, under the short introductory letter Author Lectori), is generally being taken as an author’s name for the whole printed collection (including Odarion). This position was recently questioned due to the detection of one more important part of the convolute, the so-called Pompa Casimiriana written by certain Quirinus Cnoglerus Austrius. The main idea of this article is to reveal the complicated cultural, educational and confessional surroundings of such a litterary composition as Odarion and give several suggestions concerning the personalities who might be called its authors. First of them is Austrian “philhelenic” humanist and probably convertite Quirinus Cnogler, the author of the panegyrical oration (sermo panegyricus) Pompa Casimiriana (s. l., s. a. [=Vilnae 1604?]) and a number of occasional, publicistical, polemical writings of different scope. Another “candidate” is Swedish poet Laurentius Boierus (1561–1619), the author of Carolomachia (Vilnae, 1606) and meanwhile unknown, not-extant poem Pompa Casimiriana (Brunsbergae, 1604), mentioned by various Jesuit bibliographies. Finally, the third of the „candidates“ is Ioannes Kraykowski of Polish/Lithuanian origin, the student of rhetoric at Vilnius Jesuit college, the author of various occasional Latin and Greek verses and one larger poem, Epos de S. Casimiro (Vilnae, 1604), composed for the mentioned solemnities of S. Casimirus and dedicated to his patron Fabian Plemięcki. The article doesn’t solve the problem of the authorship of Odarion completely and leaves the question open. Nevertheless, a certain strand of tentative conclusions is to be drawn. First of all, the authorship of Gregorius Swięcicki is to be reduced, reserving him only the name of the organizer or co-author of the whole collection (Theatrum S. Casimiri). The role of all the professors and students (especially the members of pious congregations and rhetorical/poetical ‘academies’) of Vilnius Jesuit academy is to be stated more firmly, too. Certain lexical and methodological affinities between Odarion and a couple of Greek compositions of Ioannes Kraykowski (including his Greek Odarion, written in dactylic tetrameters) enable us to state the hypothesis that he was its actual author. Nevertheless, the outstanding “philhelenism” of Quirinus Cnoglerus and the intricate manner of the self-camouflage (writing suppresso nomine) of Laurentius Boierus still remain as a serious claim for the name of the author of Odarion.

Pagans, Saints, and War Criminals: Direct Speech as a Sign of Liminal Interchanges in Latin Chronicles of the Baltic Crusades

In the later Middle Ages, the crusades where most European knights fought were initiated first by the Sword Brothers and then the Teutonic Knights in the lands east and south of the Baltic Sea - Livonia, Prussia, and Lithuania (modern day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, western Russia, Kaliningrad Oblast, and Poland). This article deals with a hitherto unexplored way in which three Latin chronicles produced for the Sword Brethern and the Teutonic Order use direct speech mostly for communication by or to three groups: pagans or recent converts, supernatural beings, and those who commit crimes. As in other frontier areas, here infidel and Christian, the pious and the transgressor, heavenly voices and demons battled but also communicated. The unusual nature of their exchanges is perhaps indicated through the frequent use of direct speech as a signifier of liminal interactions in the chronicles of Peter of Dusburg, Wigand of Marburg, and Henry of Livonia.

Multiculturalism trends in modern Lithuania: Problems and perspectives

Multiculturalism has significantly progressed over the last decade in Lithuania after the country joined European union. The authors analyze the literature and country's situation of multiculturalism and intercultural communication topics; examine the challenges posed by the phenomenon to Lithuanian society. The survey was conducted to find out the opinion of the citizens of modern multicultural environment peculiarities in the country. The research made in Lithuania on this topic is short in order to fully assess the current situation, so the authors want to find out the general multiculturalism concept and its development trends in recent time. Main respondents were the young and middle-aged residents of the city, of which more than 40 percent have higher education. The survey results reflect the respondents' attitudes towards multiculturalism, demonstrates the limits of their tolerance to foreigners, the challenges they face in communicating with each other with different cultures. Conclusions provide insights and recommendations on what measures can be used for promoting tolerance to other cultures in the Lithuanian society and achieving most effective integration of representatives of different cultures into the public life of the country.

Rasa Čepaitienė, Memory Politis in a Multiethnic City: the case of Vilnius

In the article, the concepts that have influenced (and are still influencing) the appreciation, assimilation and usage of the collective memory, evidenced in historic Lithuanian towns, especially Vilnius, are analysed, and some possible solutions to the questions arising are proposed. It is emphasized that the recognition, usage and interpretation of cultural values, accumulated in the public spaces of historic towns, which are, as a rule, multiethnic, multiconfessional and multicultural, is a complex undertaking requiring competence,creativity and responsibility. The relationship between this multipartite problem and the cultural politics of modern Lithuania is examined. Two attitudes, monoperspective (imperial, Soviet, nationalistic) and multi-perspective (postmodern), towards the relationship between ethnic communities and the prevailing culture are distinguished. The clearest cases of public space appropriation/ interpretation which provoked inter-ethnic or intersectional conflicts in recent times are analysed. These are related to the sensitivity of the collective memory, which is linked to the traumas and wrongs of the recent past.

Michel Kikoine and Rezekne

Michel (Mikhaпl) Kikoпne (1892-1968) is one of the artists of the School of Paris, the school, represented by the great number of names of Jewish emigration from Russia. The creative manner of Kikoпne formed in Paris under the influence of P. Cezanne’s and P. Bonnard’s painting. Kikoпne is most often mentioned (in the past and actually) as one of the famous Parisian trio of artists issued from Vilna school of drawing and painting of I. P. Trutnev: Ch. Soutine, P. Krйmиgne, M. Kikoпne. Krйmиgne and Kikoпne for many years rested in the shadow of the creativity of Soutine, and only in the last decade, the interest to them, referred to the second row of the famous representatives of the School of Paris, has increased significantly. Early biographies of all members of this trio reveal a great deal of similarities and notable parallels. In reference biographical articles of European publications they often called “Litvak”, call them the “French painters of the Lithuanian origin” (more correctly, “Litvak-born French painters”). “Litvak”, as it is well known, is the name of a territorial and linguistic subgroup of Ashkenazi Jews widespread on the territory of the provinces of the Russian Empire, actually parts of modern Lithuania, Latvia and Belarus. The information about the birth of M. Kikoпne in various publications is quite confused and contains a lot of contradictions. The testimony of the artist himself and of the members of his family could be estimated critically. Among the authors of his biographies there is no consensus about his origin, and it convinces of the importance of archival research. In an early biography of Kikoпne, in reports of his family tree is constantly mentioned the town of Rezekne. A statement of a genealogical problem, a more detailed study of early biography of the artist involves many questions about his connection with Rezekne. In view of insufficient level of study of the archive’s material, author attempts in the present article only to plan some questions those arise during the reading of the Michel Kikoпne’s biography. The experience of biographical studies of other well-known Jewish artists affirmed themselves in the European art centers at the beginning of the 20th century, such as M. Chagall, O. Zadkine, and Ch. Soutine, shows and proves that clarification and documental proof of whole the complex of biographical data of the artist is necessary. Trying to gain a foothold in the Paris artistic beau monde, the natives from the Russian Jewish shtetl of the Pale often “altered” their biographies, creating the improved versions, in seeking to raise their social status. In certain cases, the documents of birth, issued by local community rabbis, were forged. Often, the year of birth was changed in order to avoid the conscription. Thus, in the case of the biography of Michel Kikoпne, as, indeed, of many other immigrants, residents of Paris’ “The Hive” (“La Ruche”), to be confirmed at least the most important, basic biographical facts. The article examines the disputable questions about the date and place of birth of Michel Kikoпne, about the origin and professional activities of his father, about relations of the artist with the town of Rezekne.

The Transformation of an Education Institute in Modern Lithuania

The modernity theories of western-type societies are understood as a process, when a developing society approaches developed societies, reaching a certain level of economic growth, a certain level of public participation or a certain phase of democratic development, giving access for more individuals to the physical, social and economic mobility. In modern societies, the educational institution has become one of the key factors to ensure the stimulating and securing mobility of individuals. The modern world gives the education prominence in modern societies. Education has become a major means to climb up the ladder of social classes. Therefore, education has to be compulsory so that it prevents people from creating social groups that could turn into ones non - integral, excluded from society. The aim of modern society is to provide equal opportunities to everyone to learn and meet the needs of the times. According to the modernity theory the Institution of Education should become the basis of social security protecting the individual from various social risks in the future. According to functionalists, each social element of a society as a whole, including the educational institution, contributes to the stability of society.
 Summarizing various descriptions of the concepts of a social institution in the literature one can conclude that social institution is organized associations of people, who perform certain socially important functions through their social roles, or have common goals, values, norms and behavior patterns. Social institutions can be strong or weak, regardless of people‘s trust in them, nor the requirements of social life.
 It has been noted that in the scientific literature usually four major social institutions are identified: family, education, religion and politics. The importance of the institutions in society depends upon the times, the country’s political and economic context. The process of Institution-building in social life, acquisition of the well-established values is known as institutionalization. It takes place at all levels of social life, in small groups and large organizations. A greater part of ordinary societal life occurs in specialized institutional situations. Today’s social institutions are quite independent, though they are connected by people, who link themselves to a number of social institutions. Social institutions often compete among each other, for each of them aims at managing the main social functions of society. Family, education, church, and government often compete amid each other openly attempting to influence various groups of society.

The Ethic Values of 13-to 16-year-old Lithuanian Adolescents

SummaryAs stated by the science of educology, at the tage of adolescence, education can make the greatest impact on the formation of a personality and the contextualization of one’s own value. The article deals with the 13-to 16-year-old adolescents’ perception of national values and its expression in the context of modern Lithuanianness. The research instrument – an essay – helps to determine younger teens’ national values, analysis of young people’s experience of values, feelings, and attitudes. The context of modern Lithuanianness is understood as a totality of cultural values created by the nation, handed on from generation to generation via education and the regularly updated cultural whole – the common language, common past and destiny, national mentality, traditions, landscape – by the patriotic love of homeland, its preservation and survival point of view. The scientific problem of research is formulating by questions: what are the moral values of Lithuanians aged 13 to 16 years and what factors affect the formation of national self-value in modern Lithuania? The aim of the research was to reveal the values of a young man as the representative of the nation, on the basis his its own national concept of culture. The analysis of the scientific literature found that the adoration of national values in modern state is giving way to civic, often formal, commitment to the nation. However, it is a theoretical assumption that the citizenship, its political base being composed of human rights and freedoms, is able to create an environment that patriotism would become a quiet and of course human and civil status by internalising the spiritual primer. An empirical analysis of the data has revealed that external factors militate young people unpatrioticly: distrust of government decisions, problems of economics and emigration, countrymens’ selfish behaviour. On the other hand, young people express very mature thoughts about the value of human life in the homeland. Patriotic love is characterized by emotions, personal experience with romantic elements. It may be that the feeling of love is the missing conection between knowing and acting in the interests of the homeland. But pragmatism is already rooted in adolescents. young people are often pondering whether it is worth to be attached to the endangered national values; they understand that more benefits are affered to a person by owning than by being. When the spirituality of a nation goes down the collective idealism disappears.Key words: adolescence, national values, modern Lithuanianness, self-value.

The Making of Modern Lithuania by Tomas Balkelis

The Making of Modern Lithuania by Tomas Balkelis

The making of modern Lithuania

Preface -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- Imperial periphery: Lithuanian provinces in late nineteenth century -- Social and economic conditions -- Russification -- The temperance movement and the rise of literacy -- The 'patriotic movement' of the Lithuanian gentry -- Provincials in the empire: the birth of the intelligentsia -- Question of origins -- Demographic and occupational features of the intelligentsia -- Generational conflict: sons versus parents -- The intelligentsia as a student movement -- Geographical displacement, centres of patriotic activity and 'the lost intelligentsia' -- Ausra and Varpas: first communities of the literati -- Political fragmentation before 1905 -- The making of the urban elite -- The Lithuanian intelligentsia between the city and the country -- In search of the city: the emergence of the intelligentsia's community in Vilna -- The impact of Vilniaus zinios -- In search of the people: the intelligentsia in the 1905 revolution -- Revolution: nationalist or social? -- Social unrest and the patriotic elite prior to the All-Lithuanian assembly -- The Lithuanian intelligentsia and non-Lithuanian elites in 1905 -- The intelligentsia and peasants in the All-Lithuanian assembly -- In the wake of the assembly -- In search of national brides: the intelligentsia and the women's issue -- The origin of the women's debate -- Theory versus practice: experimental marriages, politics of bachelorhood and gentry salons -- From the making of nation-mothers to patriotic friendships -- Women's politics after 1905 -- The making of national culture: the intelligentsia and politics of culture, 1906-1914 -- Cultural nationalism and nation-making -- The period of 'cultural work': general features and the issue of leadership -- The intelligentsia and writing -- Disciplinary cultural strategies -- War, displacement and nation-building --

Constructing Lithuania: Ethnic Mapping in Tsarist Russia, ca. 1800–1914 by Vytautas Petronis (review)

399 Ab Imperio, 3/2010 “Грозный”), и публикации источ- ников (запись Василия Шуйского 1606 г. и русско-польский договор августа 1610 г., опубликованные в английском переводе по русской публикации начала XIX в. Р. Хел- ли), и гендерные исследования (очерк Даниэля Кайзера (Daniel H. Kaiser) о завещаниях москвичек “третьего сословия” XVIII века) и т.д. Взятые вместе, они если и не меняют радикально наших представлений о русской истории (большинство авторов, что впол- не естественно, выбрало темы, к которым уже обращались в фундаментальных монографиях), то, по крайней мере, показывают перспективность и многообразие подходов, существующих в со- временной славистике, важность междисциплинарных исследова- ний, потенциал культуральных штудий, а также еще раз убеди- тельно демонстрируют уникаль- ность исследовательской манеры Флайера и его продолжающееся плодотворное влияние на исследо- вания средневековой Московской Руси. Daniel RODRIGUES Vytautas Petronis, Constructing Lithuania: Ethnic Mapping in Tsarist Russia, ca. 1800-1914 (Stockholm: Stockholm University, 2007). 309 pp. (=Stockholm Studies in History, 91; Södertörn Doctoral Dissertations, 21). ISBN: 9-789185445 -79-0.1 During the end of the nineteenth century, the Western Provinces constituted the area of the most intense Polish–Russian rivalry, presenting two different nation-building projects (“Russianness” and “Polishness ”). At that time, what is now modern Lithuania, was a borderland of the Russian Empire. The struggle of Russian authorities to curb the Polish elite’s influence and, at the same time, to integrate this periphery within the territorial core of the Empire dictated a multiplicity of approaches to reshape the ethnic and confessional borders used by both the central and local administration . Vytautas Petronis’s book is a published dissertation that analyses the construction of Lithuania as an “imagined community” through ethnic mapping. His approach pretends to be interdisciplinary (combining history, cartography, and symbolic geography); the stated purpose of 1 See also the review of this title by Steven Seegel, earlier published in: Ab Imperio. 2008. No. 1. Pp. 289-293. 400 Рецензии/Reviews are very helpful for those who intend to analyze ethnic or other kinds of mapping in Russia, and must be at the top of the reading list. The same applies to Kivelson’s book Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and Its Meanings in SeventeenthCentury Russia (2006),4 published only a year before Petronis’s study, as well as her article Cartography, Autocracy and State Powerlessness (1999).5 Within the field of studies on cartography in conjunction with political and ethnic discourses, another scholar, Jeremy Black, is worth mentioning as the author of some very inspiring books such as Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past (1997) and Maps and Politics (1997).6 Furthermore, the link between cartography (in this case, ethnic mapping), power and nationalism(s) should be highlighted . Quoting Nailya Tagirova, Existence in a constantly expanding territory dictated the need to find an effective mode of administration for the state and its population. The results to a large his doctoral thesis is to observe the evolution of the ethnic Lithuanian territory on imperial and nationalist maps, and thus to understand the extent to which their appearance and meaning change. In order to achieve this, he based his methodology on archival sources, the historiographical corpus, and, naturally, cartographical analysis. Even a brief overview of the historiography of cartography shows the importance of this topic, in particular , in the dimension of a case study and important references to what is known now as a (new) field of imperial history.2 It should be noted (and Petronis acknowledges this in his work) that several authors, such as Alexei V. Postnikov, Leo Bagrow, Mark Bassin, Rostislav I. Sossa and Valerie Kivelson, among many others, have produced significant work in this field of research. Thus, Bagrow’s A History of the Cartography of Russia (1975) or Postnikov’s Russia in Maps: A History of the Geographical Study and Cartography of the Country (1996)3 2 Novaia imperskaia istoriia postsovetskogo prostranstva / Pod red. S. Glebova, I. Gerasimova , A. Kaplunovskogo. Kazan, 2004. 3 Leo Bagrow. A History of the Cartography of Russia up to 1600. Wolfe Island, Ont., 1975; Alexei Postnikov. Russia in Maps: A History of the Geographical Study and Cartography of the Country. Moscow, 1996. 4 Valerie Kivelson. Cartographies of Tsardom: The Land and its Meanings in Seventeenthcentury Russia. Ithaca, 2006. 5 Valerie Kivelson. Cartography, Autocracy and State Powerlessness: The Uses of Maps in Early Modern Russia // Imago Mundi. 1999. Vol. 55. No. 11. Pp. 83-105. 6 Jeremy Black. Maps and History: Constructing Images of the Past. New Haven, 1997; Idem. Maps and Politics. Chicago, 1997. 401 Ab Imperio, 3/2010 as a whole and the position of Lithuanian lands within it. Consequently, they develop Petronis’s main idea by presenting maps as instruments of national construction independently of their scientific or political orientation. Since the integration of previous Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth lands into the Russian Empire, the Polish question had been a major problem for Russian rulers. As a...