Lituanistica

Title

2023-12-20T16:19:12+02:00

2023-12-20T16:20:40+02:00

Attorneys-at-Law in the Land Courts of the Kaunas District at the Beginning of the Seventeenth Century

2023-12-21T22:12:44+02:00

The article discusses attorneys-at-law in the land courts of the Kaunas district at the beginning of the seventeenth century, whose names were found in six surviving manuscript land court books. This is a significantly smaller amount of information than in the court books of Žemaitija (Samogitia) of that time, which are discussed in the author’s earlier article. A total of 235 case examination records are discussed. The disputants litigated either verbally (appearing at the court with the litigants) or in writing (in the litigants’ absence). During this period, there were about 10–12 such permanent attorneys-at-law in Kaunas. Approximately 5–7 individuals worked most intensively as attorneys-at-law, while the names of others appeared in court books episodically, they worked briefly, or were from other regions of the state. Unlike in Samogitia, the residents of the neighbouring territories (Upytė, Ukmergė, Trakai districts, Samogitia) and representatives from more distant places (Grodno or Vilnius) worked as attorneys-at-law at the land court of Kaunas. This can be explained by the fact that Kaunas was an important crossroads of trade routes within the country and abroad, to Prussia and Livonia.

All groups of nobility, from magnates to the petty nobility, had attorneys-at-law. Merchants, the clergy, and townspeople also often used their services, usually of the same individuals who took part in the disputes of ‘pure’ nobility. The interests of subordinates were represented by their lord or his servant, who also had attorneys-at-law. More influential nobles or magnates had ‘permanent’ attorneys-at-law who represented them, just like the Tatars of Lithuania, whose status was close to nobility and they could litigate in courts.

The most active attorneys-at-law would represent several cases in one session. It would happen that the same pairs of attorneys-at-law defended different clients in several cases on the same day. Work intensity of attorneys-at-law suggests that they must have had assistants to help them navigate the multitude of cases, but due to the lack of sources this statement cannot be proved yet.

Reflections of Ideological and Party Polemic on Social Issues in the Lithuanian Oberost Press, 1917–1918

2023-12-21T22:12:30+02:00

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a production structure based on a new form of property and a new form of labour – capital and wage labour, respectively – were evolving in the economies of Western European countries. Societies began to exhibit divisions and oppositions based on this conflict between labour and capital. Pope Leo XIII referred to this conflict, which had become particularly acute in Western countries, as ‘social question’. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the discussion of this issue became topical in Lithuania as well and was active primarily in Catholic circles. Although the period of the German occupation in Lithuania during World War I became a crucial starting point on the path to the social security policy of an independent state, it has been very poorly researched in this regard until now. It is therefore important to clarify how social problems were reflected in the environment of Lithuanians under the German occupation and what the tendencies of the pre-war social discourse were under the new circumstances. The essence and features of such discourse are most promisingly revealed not through the simple broadcast of certain attitudes and postulates by specific social groups, which, incidentally, was a common practice, but through polemic on an ideological, party basis. Therefore, in this study, we attempt to look at the perception of the ‘social question’ through this particular prism.

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In the autumn of 1917, as the political process leading to greater independence for Lithuania was developing, the Germans allowed the establishment not only ofLietuvos aidas [Echo of Lithuania], the official organ of the Lithuanian Council, but also of two other Lithuanian periodicals, organised on the party principle and representing the two largest Lithuanian political-ideological currents: the Social Democrats and the Christian Democrats. From then on, it becomes possible to talk about the columns, themes, their differences and tendencies of the Lithuanian periodical Oberost press, including the sphere of social issues. It is important to note that both Christian and social democrats viewed ideological and party polemic, which were essentially a continuation of the pre-war polemic, as a natural and self-evident phenomenon with a positive foundation. However, a systematic constructive polemic between these different forces did not develop, and the reason for this should be sought in different strategic visions of the future: while the Christian movement desired only to improve and reform the existing social order, the leftists sought to fundamentally transform it into a socialist one, in other words, to change the rules of the game as such. This also applied to the discussion of social issues, but it was only in the discussion of the socially relevant issue of land reform that manifestations of a constructive dialogue could be observed. As the socialists sought to expand their support base among Lithuanian peasants, they seemed to listen to their wishes and created an impression of flexibility.

In early October 1918, as Germany approached the brink of military defeat and began to liberalise its policies, changes also swept through Oberost. One of them was the complete abolition of press censorship on 15 October. From then on, party polemic in the Lithuanian press became significantly sharper and more straightforward, but did not gain constructiveness. It was more like a political struggle taken to rhetorical extremes, with disinformation and demagoguery. The Darbo balsas [The Voice of Labour], the mouthpiece of the left wing, poured criticism on the right-dominated Lithuanian State Council, which was still freeing itself from the grip of the occupation administration and trying to become an actual governing institution. In this situation, the nationalist-dominated Lietuvos aidas, the official organ of the Council, which until then was trying to maintain the role of a unifier or a mediator of political forces, also engaged in the polemic. From now on, the nationalist current, united with the Christian Democrats, stood against the socialists on the ideological front. Yet again, we find only meagre manifestations of social content in that sharp polemic. Individual publications of social content would occasionally appear in the right-wing press, and a tendency towards a decisive role of the state in solving social problems emerged in late autumn of 1918. Meanwhile, the echoes of the revolution in Germany gave the leftists the illusion that the time had come for a decisive transformation of society in Lithuania, so they did not attach great importance to narrow social polemic with opponents at that time. With a small layer of industrial workers in Lithuania, the attention of both the left-wing and right-wing press concentrated on the situation and problems of manor workers as a social group whose attitude was imagined to be decisive in the development of events in the upcoming revolutionary upheavals.

Migration of German Children from East Prussia and of Russian-speaking Children to Post-War Lithuania

2023-12-21T22:12:17+02:00

The wave of famine-caused migration to Soviet Lithuania (1946–1948) has been a subject of historiographical analysis, focusing selectively on one of the migrant groups: either the East Prussian German children (widely recognised in the cultural memory as the wolf children) or those arriving from famine-affected republics of the Soviet Union. By employing the methodology of oral history, using the interviews collected alongside materials sourced from Lithuanian and German archives, research institutes, and memory institutions, this article aims to uncover the reasons behind the arrival of both groups of migrant children in Soviet Lithuania. It also investigates the attempts made by the bureaucratic apparatus to control and halt migration, as well as the efforts of the wolf children in seeking social justice in Germany after 1990. The study reveals that the Soviet system perceived migrants from East Prussia and other Soviet republics primarily as a potential threat due to the risk of a typhus outbreak in Lithuania.

Children in the Fifteenth-to-Eighteenth-Century Lithuanian Village: Analysis of Historical and Ethnographic Sources

2023-12-21T22:13:26+02:00

Based on historical and ethnographic material in the collection of the sources of Baltic religion and mythology edited by Norbertas Vėlius, this article analyses a topic that is rarely addressed: the status of children in fifteenth-eighteenth-century Lithuanian rural communities.

It shows that as Lithuania (both the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Lithuania Minor) went through the processes of peasant servitude, a peasant child crossed the threshold into adult life with all its financial, matrimonial, and labour responsibilities at a much younger age than a child would today. The minimum age limit at which a child was expected to perform adult duties could be as young as twelve years of age. However, even children younger than twelve were obliged to participate in household chores, to be economically beneficial, and to take care of other family members. These were considered natural duties for a child.

Since the majority of peasant children were outside of any official schooling system, most of them were illiterate. However, the above-mentioned sources reveal that the education of a child which entailed the teaching of farming activities as well as the striving to pass down a worldview expressed in archetypical imagery, was of great importance to the family and community. This kind of child guidance was a never-ending part of all family activities.

Although rural children of the time frequently suffered from various diseases and high rates of child mortality, this should not be linked to parental negligence but rather to the lack of medicine and health care. The well-being of the child was a priority for rural families and communities, who put great effort into keeping their children as healthy as possible.

With high infant and child mortality rates, the loss of a child was a probability. Children were therefore considered to be ‘not-quite-a-human-being’ but rather some sort of a mediator between humans and mythical creatures. The sources upon which the article is based reveal that this concept does not inevitably indicate the neglect of children. On the contrary, such a belief elevated the status of children, granting them magical powers of the kind that adult humans no longer possess.

To conclude, the status of the child from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries in rural Lithuania was analogical compared to other gerontocratic societies, as outlined by the childhood researcher David Lancy. Children did not have a right to a long and careless childhood, or time dedicated to purely educational activities. Their lives were always endangered by various diseases. Nevertheless, the examined material proves that despite a short and often precarious childhood, children in rural Lithuania received a considerable amount of parental care, attention, and acknowledgement.

The Distinction and Connections between Dzūkija/Dainava and Suvalkija/Sūduva as a Problem of Ethno-Regional Classification: Contradictions and Evolution of Concepts and Images

2023-12-21T22:13:13+02:00

The article deals with the problem of controversies and changes of concepts of the ethnographic regions of Lithuania and the importance of public discourse in this process. The author discusses the intertwining of the concepts, identities, connections, and differences of the historical and folkloric names of the lands inhabited by dzūkai and suvalkiečiai – Dzūkija/Dainava and Suvalkija/Sūduva (English: Sudovia),

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respectively – and their geographical space in the ethnographic regionalisation and ethno-regional classification. The concept of the Lithuanian ethnographic groups of dzūkai and suvalkiečiai and the lands they inhabit has been changing significantly over the last centuries. Therefore, in order to reveal the dilemmas and controversies of the concept and classification of Suvalkija and Dzūkija and their ethnonyms in the early development, not only ethnological but also historical, bibliographic, cartographic, and geographical data are relevant for a more thorough and careful clarification of the primary sources of the origin of these ethnonyms and toponyms and their concepts, the diversity and confusion of names, and the evolution and consolidation of the definitions and concepts of the sub-ethnic groups and their lands under study in research and society and their relation to the current perception. The current names and concept of the ethnographic regions of Lithuania were formed only in the last two centuries. Sub-ethnic regionalisation is closer to the early tradition of the division of Lithuania into sub-ethnically named tribal lands. The development of the concept of the ethnographic regions of Suvalkija and Dzūkija shows that their evolution was partly based on the tradition of state administrative division but mostly determined by the interaction of folklore traditions, journalistic and literary creativity, and scholarly thought.

The conception of the geographical space of Lithuanian and ethnographic regionalisation associated with the naming of local ethnographic groups that determine the cultural uniqueness of Lithuania was especially promoted by journalism, while the scholars in folk art, folklore, architecture, and customs started to classify the marking of the territories of ethnographic groups related to their names as a systemic whole.

The analysis of the iconography of old maps shows that their depiction as a wooded and sparsely populated area of the Trans-Nemunas region corresponds to the conclusions of historians about the gradual settlement and colonisation of this region and the importance of forestry industry after the Peace of Melno (1422).

The concept of Suvalkija as a synonym of Užnemunė (the Trans-Nemunas region) and historical Sūduva (Sudovia) has been changing. At present, the territorial scope of Suvalkija is not identical to either the former Sūduva or Užnemunė as it is now related only to the northern part of Užnemunė, where Suvalkija, the land of suval kiečiai, is defined. From the mid-nineteenth century, dzūkai were localised precisely in southern Užnemunė. They were first mentioned in 1856. Initially, Suvalkija was called the land of suvalkiečiai (who subdivide into kapsai and zanavykai) and dzūkai of Užnemunė. It is not clear enough when the dzūkai stopped being called suvalkie čiai (e.g., Rev. Jonas Žilinskas defined kapsai and zanavykai as suvalkiečiai nedzūkai, i.e., suvalkiečiai who are not dzūkai). On the other hand, the simultaneous distinction between dzūkai, kapsai, and zanavykai and the greater kinship of the dialects between the latter two than with dzūkai suggests that the inhabitants of the northern Užnemunė were more often called suvalkiečiai. As a scientific term based on original folk names, the subdialect of dzūkai (as a subdialect of the Aukštaitish dialect) was described by the linguists Antanas Baranauskas (1875) and Antanas Salys (1933). The area inhabited by dzūkai in the eastern part of Lithuania was similarly mentioned by Jonas Basanavičius (1928) and Antanas Smetona (1914, 1930). Later, the narrower original land of dzūkai of Užnemunė, associated with the subdialect and cultural area of dzūkai, was named Dzūkija and expanded considerably to the east. At the same time, Suvalkija came to be identified with the area of suvalkie čiai (kapsai and zanavykai).

Considering the complex historical and geographical circumstances of the development of the concept of these regions, along with the placenames of Užnemunė and Suvalkija, the names of Sūduvos Suvalkija (Sudovian Suvalkija), Sūduvos Dzūkija (Sudovian Dzūkija), or Užnemunės Dzūkija (Trans-Nemunas Dzūkija) could also be used for referring to the Trans-Nemunas region, for the sake of accuracy. Meanwhile, it is becoming clear that the name of historical Dainava, which was made famous by the country’s prominent writers, is by no means the only possible allusion to the names of historical lands that existed in the region of Dzūkija: for example, the names of jotvingiai (Yotvingians) and Jotva have become very popular in recent decades. Admittedly, the names of Dainava inhabited by the dzūkai and Sūduva inhabited by the suvalkiečiai, which are spreading in society, are more symbolic both in terms of geographical and historical terminology; they are very inaccurate in terms of historical geography and ethnically, and are therefore insufficiently correct. Their close connection with the societal imagery and the search for the iconicity of the historical depth of the local roots for the image of the regions testifies to the application of the paradigm of the invention of traditions and social imagination.

The Lithuanians’ concept of the ethnographic groups and their lands becomes significant in the forming of the concepts of physical geography, in which the images of the dzūkai, Dzūkija, Dainava, and Sūduva (Sudovia) are most established.
It is a common practice in museology, art history, folklore, ethnology, and history to associate the realities of cultural heritage older than the nineteenth century with the current concept of the sub-ethnic groups of Lithuania and the concept of ethnographic regionalisation. The integral association of Dzūkija and Suvalkija and of Sūduva, Dainava, and Jotva with the current traditional culture has already become part of everyday cultural life. The image of place-specific culture with deep historical roots has become characteristic of regional and sub-ethnic cultural identity.

In order to preserve and popularise the old names of the historical lands of Lithuania and continue the newer tradition of the names of ethnographic regions that emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, in the ideal case and from the scholarly point of view, it would be more correct to refer to the ethnographic regions by their dual names, with the current ethnographic name followed by the older historical name in brackets: Suvalkija (Northern Sūduva, Northern Užnemunė), Dzūkija (Southern Sūduva, Southern Užnemunė, Dainava, Jotva). Yet such a description would be cumbersome and inconvenient to use. Therefore, for the sake of scholarly accuracy and public harmony, I think it would be appropriate to abandon the regulation of the mention of historical lands altogether at the official level (documents, laws, acts, etc.), leaving such historical symbolic interpretations to the field of public creativity, and using only the most common terms of Dzūkija and Suvalkija in official references to the ethnographic regions discussed.

Klaipėda – the Seaport of Lithuania!

2023-12-21T22:11:44+02:00

2023-iuosius metus Lietuvos Respublikos Seimas paskelbė Klaipėdos krašto metais. Jie buvo paminėti rengiant parodas, konferencijas, publikuojant istorinius šaltinius, istorikų atliktus tyrimus. Lietuvos istoriografija pasipildė labai įdomia Severino Vaitiekaus parašyta knyga, atskleidžiančia tikruosius Klaipėdos krašto prijungimo prie Lietuvos iniciatorius, organizatorius ir vykdytojus, įamžinančia jų gerai dokumentuotai užmaskuotą žygdarbį. Tam skirta knygos pirmoji dalis. Iš jos aiškėja, kad iki šiol lietuvių istoriografijoje Ernestui Galvanauskui priskiriami nuopelnai gerokai pervertinti. Be Lietuvos žvalgybos pastangų ir iniciatyvos Klaipėda nebūtų tapusi Lietuvos uostu.