Ban on Lithuanian language publications in the Russian Empire
Two issues of the same popular Lithuanian prayer book, Auksa altorius (Golden Altar). The one on the left was illegal because it was printed in the Lithuanians' preferred Latin alphabet. The one on the right, printed in Russian-style Cyrillic script, was legal and paid for by the government.
The concept arose after the failed January Uprising of 1863, taking the form of an administrative order in 1864, and was not lifted until 24 April 1904. The Russian courts reversed two convictions in press ban cases in 1902 and 1903, and the setbacks of the Russo-Japanese War in early 1904 brought about a loosened Russian policy towards minorities.[1]
Under the ban, it was illegal to print, import, distribute, or possess any publications in the Latin alphabet.[2]Tsarist authorities hoped that this measure, part of a larger Russification plan, would decrease Polish influence on Lithuanians and would return them to what were considered their ancient historical ties with Russia.[3] However, Lithuanians organized printing outside the Empire, largely in Lithuania Minor (East Prussia), and in the United States.
Knygnešiai (Lithuanian book smugglers) smuggled illegal books and periodicals across the border. The number of such publications kept increasing despite strict sanctions and persecution of the activists. The ban created a well-defined and organized opposition to Russian rule and culture—the opposite of its original intent. The Lithuanian historian Edvardas Gudavičius has described the ban as a test of the concept of Lithuania: had there been no resistance, the language would have become a historical footnote.[4]
At the beginning of the 19th century, use of the Lithuanian language was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas, apart from its use in Prussia; it was, however, retained by some members of the minor nobility, especially in the Samogitian region. Several factors contributed to its subsequent revival: the language drew attention from scholars of the emerging science of comparative linguistics; after the abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire in 1861, social mobility increased, and Lithuanian intellectuals arose from the ranks of the rural populace; and language became associated with identity in Lithuania, as elsewhere across Europe.[6] Within the Catholic Church, the barriers that had earlier prevented commoners from entering the priesthood were eased. A closer relationship developed between the educated clergy, who were increasingly of ethnic Lithuanian stock, and their parishioners, including a sympathy with their wish to use the Lithuanian language.[7] The emerging national movement sought to distance itself from both Polish and Russian influences, and the use of the Lithuanian language was seen as an important aspect of this movement.[8]
According to the bibliographerVaclovas Biržiška, between 1800 and 1864, when the press ban was enacted, 926 book titles were published in the Lithuanian language using its Latin alphabet.[9] The orthography of the language was not standardized; this problem was used by the Russian authorities as a rationale for the change to Cyrillic.[10]
Origins and legal basis
The Program of Restoration of Russian Beginnings at work: Catholic Church of St. Joseph the Betrothed in Vilnius before and during its demolition in 1877.
The Program of Restoration of Russian Beginnings at work: Orthodox Church of St. Nikolai in Vilnius before and after its reconstruction in 1864.
After the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century, significant portions of Lithuania and Poland were incorporated into the Russian Empire. The uprising of 1863, seeking to re-establish the Commonwealth, convinced many Russian politicians that Polish cultural and political influence was the main obstacle hindering the Russification of Lithuania. They believed that if the Lithuanian peasantry were distanced from the Polonized nobility and the Catholic Church, Lithuanians would naturally come under Russian cultural influence, as they had allegedly been during previous eras.[11] The Russian politician Nikolai Miliutin wrote that "Russian letters will finish that which was begun with the Russian sword."[12]
On 13 May 1863, Tsar Alexander II of Russia appointed Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov as the governor general of the Vilna Governorate.[13] His duties included both suppression of the uprising, and implementation of the Russification policy. Because the situation was perceived as critical, Muravyov was temporarily granted extremely wide powers.[14] Muravyov and Ivan Petrovich Kornilov, the newly appointed director of the Vilnius educational district, prepared a radical long-term Russification program that became known as the Program of Restoration of Russian Beginnings (Lithuanian: Rusų pradų atkūrimo programa). Its stated goals were to:[15]
Eliminate the Polish language from public life
Prevent the employment of Catholics in government institutions
Replace Lithuanian parish schools with Russian grammar schools
Encourage ethnic Russians to resettle in Lithuanian lands
Replace the Latin alphabet with the Cyrillic alphabet
Ban any Lithuanian-language publications in the Latin alphabet.
On 22 May 1864, Tsar Alexander II approved this program.[13] A few days later Muravyov issued an administrative order that forbade printing Lithuanian language textbooks written in the Latin alphabet. This order was developed into a comprehensive ban on September 6, 1865, by Konstantin Petrovich von Kaufman, Muravyov's successor.[11] Kaufman issued an order to six neighboring governorates declaring a full ban on all publications and demanding that censorship committees enforce it without hesitation. A week later the order was extended to the entire Empire by Pyotr Valuev, Minister of the Interior. In 1866, the ban was further extended to include all academic books.[14]
Despite its strict and widespread enforcement, none of the ban's supporting measures were ever actually codified into law. The ban was enforced based solely on administrative orders and the tsar's approval.[14] When the special temporary powers of the governor general were revoked in 1871, these administrative orders lost any legal value. From that point on the ban had no legal basis, but it was still strictly enforced.[14]
Enforcement
Russian sign proclaiming that speaking Lithuanian is strictly forbidden
At first the Russian authorities encouraged and sponsored the publication of Lithuanian-language works in the Cyrillic alphabet. The idea of replacing the Latin alphabet with Cyrillic was first elaborated by the well-known Pan-SlavistAlexander Hilferding in his 1863 book Lithuania and Samogitia.[11]
The first experiments with the conversion of Lithuanian writings into Cyrillic were conducted by a Lithuanian linguist, Jonas Juška. He showed some samples of adapted texts to both Muravyov and Kornilov in February 1864.[11] However, Juška discontinued his work and Kornilov formed a committee to work on publishing Lithuanian books in Cyrillic. The committee had four members: the Polish librarian Stanisław Mikucki from Warsaw, Russian Jonas Kerčinskis, a Lithuanian Catholic priest who had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, Antanas Petkevičius, and the well-known Lithuanian educator and publisher Laurynas Ivinskis.[14] Ivinskis soon withdrew from the committee. The first such book was a primer intended for use in the new Russian schools that were replacing the Lithuanian parish schools. It appeared during the summer of 1864. The committee also published a prayer book, a calendar, and other religious literature.
About 55 Lithuanian-Cyrillic titles were published during the 40 years of the ban; about half of these were published during its first decade.[14] Seeing that the Lithuanian people were unwilling to accept these books, even when they were offered for free, the Russian government shifted its attention to eliminating the illegal publications.[citation needed]
The Russian Ministry of Education issued a report in May 1898 recommending that the press ban be repealed. The report stated that the ban had produced adverse and unforeseen results, including the development of Lithuanian nationalism. Other Russian officials had opined that the interests of the Russian state would be better served by the presence of a legal Lithuanian press that could be censored.[1]
During the years of the ban, 3,047 people (829 smugglers, 859 distributors, and 1,359 persons possessing banned books) were arrested in connection with the ban.[3]
Anti-Russian sentiment and distrust of the tsarist authorities had arisen after the 1863 revolt. The ban was also perceived as a threat to the Catholic Church; the Eastern Orthodox Church used the Cyrillic alphabet, and loyalty to the Latin alphabet was also a symbolic loyalty to Catholicism.[14] Attempts were made to circumvent the ban by using Gothic script. However, that was also banned in 1872. A number of problems arose with the various Lithuanian-Cyrillic orthographies, which were all criticized as ill-adapted to the Lithuanian language. Within Russia, the ban was opposed by scholarly, liberal, and pro-democratic groups, which served to mitigate the punishments.[2]
The organized resistance to the ban, both legal and illegal, was largely initiated by bishop Motiejus Valančius, who petitioned the government to exempt prayer books from the ban. He then moved towards sponsoring the illegal flow of books from outside Lithuania. The period from Valančius's death in 1875 to 1883 saw the establishment of the Lithuanian-language newspaper Auszra (The Dawn), and the resistance at this time is associated with bishop Antanas Baranauskas. The resistance intensified towards the end of the 19th century, after another major newspaper, Varpas (The Bell), edited by Vincas Kudirka, was established in 1889. Between 1891 and 1893, 31,718 publications were confiscated and destroyed; between 1900 and 1902 this number increased to 56,182, reflecting their increased flow.[17]
The period from 1890 to 1904 saw the publication of about 2,500 book titles in the Lithuanian Latin alphabet. The majority of these were published in Tilsit, a city in East Prussia, although some publications reached Lithuania from the United States. A largely standardized written version of the language was achieved by the turn of the twentieth century, based on historical and Aukštaitijan (highland) usages;[18] the letters č and š were taken from Czech orthography.[19] The widely accepted Lithuanian Grammar, by Jonas Jablonskis, appeared in 1901.[19]
A number of challenges to the ban's legal basis were made, and the use of this venue intensified at the end of the 19th century, along with an increasing number of letters, petitions, and protests from Lithuanians. In 1902 and 1903, the Russian Supreme Court reversed two press ban convictions that had been brought against Antanas Macijauskas and Povilas Višinskis.[20] The court's decisions stated that the original executive decree creating the ban was illegal. The outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in February 1904 contributed to the Russian government's perception that its minorities needed to be accommodated.[1] The ban was officially lifted on 24 April 1904.[21]
Effect on education
Sculpture by Petras Rimša depicting a mother teaching her child to read
Public and private education in Lithuanian was adversely affected by the press ban. The level of pent-up demand for schooling in the 19th century is illustrated by the increase in literacy in the Rietavas area; between 1853 and 1863, just before the ban, the number of literate persons rose from 11,296 to 24,330.[2] The subsequent ban is thought to have contributed to illiteracy in 19th-century Lithuania.[22]
In the wake of the ruling, parish schools were closed. A shortage of teachers led to the closure of a number of state schools as well, in spite of population growth. Parents began to withdraw their children from the state schools, since they were associated with the policy of Russification; students were not allowed to speak Lithuanian among themselves, and a discouraging atmosphere was created by the system of searches, inspections, and spying. Many students were schooled at home or in small secret groups instead, although this practice also resulted in sanctions.[2]
A census of the Kovno Governorate in 1897 showed that a higher proportion of older people than younger had received formal education: of persons age 30 to 39, 61.87% had experienced some level of formal education, compared to only 54.68% of persons aged 10 to 19.[2]
Aftermath
After the ban was lifted, printing presses and their supporting social and cultural infrastructure needed to be established. The first issue of a Lithuanian newspaper after the ban, Vilniaus žinios, appeared on December 23, 1904; the Great Seimas of Vilnius, which took place in November 1905, was now able to issue its announcements and publications in Lithuanian.
The publishing houses of Martynas Kukta, Saliamonas Banaitis, and the Society of Saint Casimir in Kaunas were responsible for many of the publications issued between the end of the ban in 1904 and the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1918. The businessman Petras Vileišis installed a printing press at his palace, commissioned in 1904. During this period 4,734 Lithuanian-language titles in the Latin alphabet were published in Lithuania and abroad. After Lithuanian independence was established, the rate of publication increased steadily; 16,721 book titles were printed from 1918 to 1939. Between 1925 and 1939, about 800 to 900 book titles were printed annually.[9]
A standard Lithuanian orthography and grammar were established during the ban, despite the fact that the co-ordination of this process, involving competing dialects, was forced to take place in several countries. The ban is widely felt to have stimulated the Lithuanian national movement, rather than discouraging it.[23] In 2004, the 100th anniversary of the ban's end was noted in UNESCO's events calendar, and the Lithuanian Seimas declared the "Year of the Lithuanian Language and Book."[24]
Lithuanian is an Eastern Baltic language belonging to the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the official language of Lithuania and one of the official languages of the European Union. There are approximately 2.8 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 1,000,000 speakers elsewhere. Around half a million inhabitants of Lithuania of non-Lithuanian background speak Lithuanian daily as a second language.
Russification, or Russianization, is a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian culture and the Russian language.
Aušra or Auszra was the first national Lithuanian newspaper. The first issue was published in 1883, in Ragnit, East Prussia, Germany East Prussia's ethnolinguistic part - Lithuania Minor. Later it was published monthly in Tilsit. Even though only forty issues were published and the circulation did not exceed 1,000, it was a significant event as it marked the beginnings of the Lithuanian national rebirth that eventually resulted in an independent Lithuanian State (1918–1940). This period, between 1883 and 1904, when the Lithuanian press ban was enforced by Tsarist authorities, has been referred to as the Aušros gadynė. The printing ceased in 1886 as a result of financial issues.
The Ukrainian alphabet is the set of letters used to write Ukrainian, which is the official language of Ukraine. It is one of several national variations of the Cyrillic script. It comes from the Cyrillic script, which was devised in the 9th century for the first Slavic literary language, called Old Slavonic. In the 10th century, it became used in Kievan Rus' to write Old East Slavic, from which the Belarusian, Russian, Rusyn, and Ukrainian alphabets later evolved. The modern Ukrainian alphabet has 33 letters in total: 20 consonants, 2 semivowels, 10 vowels and 1 palatalization sign. Sometimes the apostrophe (') is also included, which has a phonetic meaning and is a mandatory sign in writing, but is not considered as a letter and is not included in the alphabet.
Lithuanian book smugglers or Lithuanian book carriers smuggled Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1864 to 1904. In Lithuanian knygnešys literally means "the one who carries books". Opposing imperial Russian authorities' efforts to replace the traditional Latin orthography with Cyrillic, and transporting printed matter from as far away as the United States to do so, the book smugglers became a symbol of Lithuanians' resistance to Russification.
The Ukrainian Latin alphabet is the form of the Latin script used for writing, transliteration and retransliteration of Ukrainian.
Count Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov was a Russian imperial statesman of the 19th century, most known for his putting down Polish uprisings, and subsequent cultural and social depolonization of Northwestern Krai. He should not be confused with his grandson, Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov, who served as Russian Foreign Minister between 1897 and 1900.
Jonas Jablonskis was a distinguished Lithuanian linguist and one of the founders of the standard Lithuanian language. He used the pseudonym Rygiškių Jonas, taken from the small town named Rygiškiai where he spent his childhood.
Lithuanian encyclopedias are encyclopedias published in the Lithuanian language or encyclopedias about Lithuania and Lithuania-related topics. The first known attempt to create a Lithuanian encyclopedia was in 1883, when Jonas Jacevičius failed to get permission from the Tsarist authorities for such a publication during the Lithuanian press ban (1866–1904). Several general Lithuanian encyclopedias were published afterwards: one in independent Lithuania in the 1930s, two in the United States, three in the Lithuanian SSR, and one that was published in 2001–2015 in independent Lithuania. The content of the 25-volume Visuotinė lietuvių enciklopedija or VLE has been made available online.
The languages of the Soviet Union are hundreds of different languages and dialects from several different language groups.
The Lithuanian National Revival, alternatively the Lithuanian National Awakening or Lithuanian nationalism, was a period of the history of Lithuania in the 19th century at the time when a major part of Lithuanian-inhabited areas belonged to the Russian Empire. It was expressed by the rise of self-determination of the Lithuanians that led to the formation of the modern Lithuanian nation and culminated in the re-establishment of an independent Lithuanian state. The most active participants of the national revival included Vincas Kudirka and Jonas Basanavičius. The period largely corresponded to the rise of romantic nationalism and other national revivals of 19th-century Europe.
Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary was a seminary in Veiveriai, Suwałki Governorate, Congress Poland. It was established as teachers' courses in 1866 and reorganized into a seminary in 1872. It prepared teachers for elementary schools in the Suwałki Governorate. During World War I, the seminary was evacuated into Russia and subsequently disbanded. During its existence, the seminary prepared 1,025 teachers, some of which later became prominent figures in Lithuanian education, politics, and culture.
Liudas Vaineikis was a physician and notable member of the Knygnešiai book smuggling movement during the Lithuanian press ban (1864–1904), when the printing and distribution of Lithuanian language materials using the Latin alphabet was illegal in the Russian-controlled parts of the region.
Antanas Juška was a Lithuanian Roman Catholic priest known for his lifelong study of Lithuanian folk traditions. For about three decades, he observed the Lithuanian people, their traditions, and recorded their songs and vocabulary. Juška recorded about 7,000 Lithuanian folk songs, including about 2,000 songs with melodies, and wrote a 70,000-word Lithuanian–Polish dictionary. These works provide a wealth of information of the 19th-century Lithuanian life. His works were partially published with the help of his elder brother Jonas Juška.
The Russification of Poland was an intense process, especially under Partitioned Poland, when the Russian state aimed to denationalise Poles via incremental enforcement of language, culture, the arts, the Orthodox religion and Russian practices. The most forceful Russification was enforced onto children, due to their poor knowledge of Polish culture and language.
Tėvynės sargas was a Lithuanian-language periodical first established in 1896 in Tilsit, East Prussia during the Lithuanian press ban and the Lithuanian National Revival. It was published by the clergy and later by the Christian Democrats, thus it reflected and advocated for Roman Catholic ideals and values. Its motto was "All for Lithuania, Lithuania for Christ". With interruptions, it was published until 2000.
The Józef Zawadzki printing shop was a family-owned printing shop operating in Vilnius from 1805 to 1939. It was established by Józef Zawadzki who took over the failing printing press of Vilnius University established in 1575. It was one of the largest and most prominent printing presses in Vilnius. Until 1828, it had the exclusive rights to publish university publications. It published numerous books and periodicals in Polish, Latin, Lithuanian. It suffered difficulties due to Russification policies that closed Vilnius University in 1832 and banned Lithuanian press in 1864, but recovered after the restrictions were lifted due to the Russian Revolution of 1905. After World War I, it had difficulty competing with the larger printing presses in Poland. The press was sold to a Lithuanian company Spindulys in 1939 and nationalized by the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1940. After World War II, the press was transferred to the communist daily Tiesa.
Petras Kriaučiūnas (1850–1916) was an activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. Educated as a priest, he taught at the Marijampolė Gymnasium in 1881–1887 and 1906–1914 and was active as an amateur linguist.
Jonas Juška was a Lithuanian teacher and linguist. He studied the Lithuanian language and worked on publishing works by his brother the Catholic priest Antanas Juška.
U with ring above is a letter of the Cyrillic script, used in the Shughni language and formerly in 19th century Lithuanian Cyrillic.
1 2 Jakštas, Juozas (1984). "Lithuania to World War I". In Ed. Albertas Gerutis (ed.). Lithuania: 700 Years. translated by Algirdas Budreckis (6thed.). New York: Manyland Books. pp.130–135. ISBN0-87141-028-1. LCCN75-80057.
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