Lituanistica

Title

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0300

Appeal of the Commission of the USSR MVD and the USSR General Prosecutor’s Office to the Insurgent Prisoners of the Kengir Camp

Mindaugas Pocius — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0300

The armed uprising in Kengir in Steplag (16 May – 26 June 1954) was one of the most prominent and dramatic uprisings of political prisoners in the Gulag and represented the culmination of the crisis in the camp administration system. Ukrainians and Lithuanians played the most significant role in the Kengir uprising as initiators, organisers, and active participants (former members of anti-Soviet resistance predominated: partisans, couriers, and supporters), most of whom had been sentenced to long prison terms. The Lithuanian lawyer Juozas Kondratas was one of the principal leaders of the uprising. According to incomplete data, six Lithuanians were killed and fourteen wounded during the suppression of the uprising.
The document published here – a previously unpublished record of the repressive structures (an appeal of the commission of the USSR MVD and the USSR General Prosecutor’s Office to the insurgent prisoners of the Kengir camp) – is an informative and significant source that will help specialists study the Steplag uprising. The document was compiled on 20 June 1954 [not earlier], when negotiations between the government commission and the prisoners’ representatives had reached a deadlock. The compilers of the source (Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR Sergei Yegorov, Head of the Gulag Ivan Dolgikh, his deputy Viktor Bochkov, and Deputy Prosecutor General of the USSR Afanasy Vavilov) were the principal members of the Soviet government commission authorised to conduct negotiations with the Kengir rebels and the organisers of the suppression of the uprising.
The document reveals not only how the leaders of the USSR MVD and the Gulag interpreted the uprising and what they focused their attention on, but also the arsenal of psychological and mental influence (manipulation of facts, prisoners’ emotions, the instinct of survival, etc.) they used in their attempt to end the prisoners’ ‘mass disobedience’.

Orthographic Representation of Lithuanian Personal Names with the Endings -as, -a, and -is in Fourteenth-Century German Historical Sources

Darius Ivoška — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0300

The recording of Lithuanian personal names in historical sources and their adaptation into foreign languages have been widely investigated. However, the scope and depth of existing research remain uneven across historical periods and the empirical material analysed. Lithuanian proper names, especially personal names documented in German and Latin sources, have received comparatively less systematic attention. Lithuanian names recorded in German historiography and in the documents of the Teutonic Order in the fourteenth century represent some of the earliest attestations of the Lithuanian anthroponymic corpus. This article seeks to contribute to the study of historical Lithuanian personal names by introducing previously unanalysed material, thereby expanding our understanding of how the spoken Lithuanian name inventory was adapted in fourteenth-century foreign-language written sources.
The analysis demonstrates that in German and Latin records of the period, contemporary Lithuanian personal names ending in -as were consistently altered, with the original ending replaced by -e. The endings -a and -is, by contrast, were either preserved or similarly modified to -e. These patterns reveal systematic tendencies in the orthographic and morphological adaptation of Lithuanian names in medieval German and Latin texts.

Lithuanians in Twentieth-Century Latvia: Their Representation in Oral History Sources

Irēna Saleniece — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0300

The article examines some aspects of the self-awareness of the Lithuanians born in the 1920s and the 1930s and living in Latvia, which are reflected in their life stories. The interviews were recorded during field research by the Daugavpils University Oral History Centre in south-eastern Latvia. These oral history sources reflect some features of the narrators’ identity: Lithuanian ethnicity (Lithuanian language skills, everyday life habits, Catholicism, etc.) and connection with Latvia (understanding of Latvian history and some characteristics of historical consciousness, attitude towards Latvians). The analysis of the sources reveals that Lithuanian ethnicity is not the determining feature of the self-awareness of the studied group. Certain common value orientations and features of Latvian national identity are observed, which are characteristic of the majority of Latvian residents of the said generation. Despite a certain degree of ‘otherness’, Lithuanians in south-eastern Latvia perceived themselves as members of the local society.

Transformation of Attitudes Toward Male (Non-) Participation in the Childbirth Process in Lithuania During the Late Twentieth and the Early Twenty-First Centuries

Raimonda Rauluševičienė — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0300

The article examines the transformation of male (non)participation in the childbirth process. The scarcity of ethnological research analysing men’s (non-)involvement in childbirth in Lithuania prompted an ethnographic field study, which was conducted from the late twentieth to the early twenty-first century. The aim was to investigate how male (non-)participation in childbirth evolved and what roles men assumed during the birth process. Historical sources and findings from ethnological, sociological, psychological, biomedical, and gender studies indicate that both male (non-)participation and men’s actions during childbirth shifted in accordance with cultural, historical, and social contexts. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the topic of men’s involvement in the birth of a child (i.e., participation in childbirth) was receiving increasing scholarly attention. An ethnographic study conducted between 2023 and 2025 revealed that men are becoming more active participants in the childbirth process. Within a broader historical context, a gradual shift can be observed: from culturally constrained (non-)involvement, when men were physically absent from childbirth or participated only in exceptional cases and still played significant roles in ensuring protection, caregiving, and maintaining the domestic environment, to more active, institutionally encouraged engagement. This engagement increasingly includes direct participation in childbirth and reflects a broader transition toward shared parental responsibilities. Male involvement in childbirth is negotiated at the family level, where decision-making is shaped by the expectations and mutual agreement of both partners.

Polarisation of Authenticity in the Search for Individuality Among Contemporary Women in Western and Central Lithuania

Rasa Balsevičienė — Tue, 14 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0300

The article analyses how women in western and central Lithuania in the twenty-first century construct their individuality through the concept of authenticity and everyday practices of body and beauty. Authenticity is understood as a dynamic process that takes place between the inner sense of self and external social norms and as a requirement of contemporary culture to constantly work on oneself. The study shows that the experiences of women in western and central Lithuania are shaped in a polarised cultural context. On the one hand, there is an emphasis on self-acceptance, body diversity, and the right to be oneself. On the other hand, the beauty industry, social networks, and visual culture create clear aesthetic and behavioural standards that limit this declared freedom. As a result, women’s identity is shaped by a constant tension between free choice and structural constraints imposed by the media, family expectations, the professional environment, and cultural stereotypes. Empirical survey data reveal that the discourse of authenticity has an ambiguous effect: it empowers women by promoting self-esteem and individuality on the one hand but disciplines them by determining what a ‘proper’ woman should be like – psychologically stable, aesthetically moderate, tidy, and socially acceptable – on the other hand. These two aspects usually do not operate separately; rather, they function simultaneously and form a subtle control mechanism. In the given context, the search for individuality by contemporary women is a consistent process comprised of several related phases, which is never completely finished. Here authenticity functions not only as a personal value but also as a cultural norm that shapes women’s self-awareness and the logic of beauty practices. The study shows that the polarisation between authenticity as liberation and authenticity as a norm is one of the essential features of contemporary culture that shapes the self-perception and beauty practices of women in western and central Lithuania.

The Court Book of the Subcamerarius of the Kaunas District (1619–1624)