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 p246  Chapter XXV
Political Rebirth of Lithuania

(The numbers link directly to the sections.)

The coming of respite for the Lithuanians from systematized Russification and repression occurred almost simultaneously with other events within the Russian Empire. Soon after his accession, Tsar Nicholas II (1894‑1917) announced his intentions of continuing the autocratic policy of his father, Alexander III (1881‑1894), and refused to grant the mass of the people any opportunity of participating in governmental affairs. But a revolutionary movement had long since been sweeping through Russian domains and was directed against the dictatorial Tsarist regime. It had influenced the reigns of Alexander I and Nicholas I. In the days of Alexander II, it was expressed by the party known as The People's Will and by the doctrine known as Populism. It had threatened the security of Alexander III and provoked an intensified persecution of all elements not acceptable to the absolutist rule. Consequently, in 1896, a strike involving some thirty thousand workers broke out in St. Petersburg. Two years later the party of Social Revolutionaries, quite willing to resort to violent use of arms as a means of introdu­cing changes in the existing order, made its appearance. The Union for Liberation was formed in 1902, embra­cing many liberal elements and groupings. In 1903, at London, Lenin succeeded in organizing the so‑called Bolshevist forces which favored the employment of the proposed revolutionary tactics of Marxism. Finally, to multiply further the various difficulties  p247 besetting the autocratic Tsarist government, the Russo-Japanese war began in February, 1904, and ended with the Russian defeat in August, 1905.

1. Restoration of the Lithuanian Press

Unquestionably, this state of affairs was of favorable import to the Lithuanians, who for almost four decades had been actively resisting the severe repressive measures of the Russian administration in Lithuania. On May 7, 1904, by decree of Tsar Nicholas II, the restoration of the rights of the Lithuanian press was proclaimed. The Lithuanians were thereby once again permitted to publish Lithuanian literature with the proper Latin characters. Both Mirsky, the Governor-General of Vilnius, and Veriovkin, Governor of Kaunas, recommended this action to the Tsar, having recognized the utter futility of all efforts to suppress Lithuanian national desires.

Naturally, the very fact that they had been deprived of the proper use of their language had produced inevitable effects upon the Lithuanian people. First of all, these tactics had only succeeded in Polonizing another, although small portion of the Lithuanian nation, simply because some Lithuanians, in order to protect the Catholic religion for their children, had in many instances turned to the use of the Polish language and Polish manuals; these had not been proscribed to such extent as the Lithuanian. But secondly, the contraband Lithuanian press had in the meanwhile gradually developed very definite political notions of liberty for the Lithuanian nation. And these ideas were brought into external action very soon after the Tsar's decree of May 7th. The general unrest in Russia provided the necessary opportunity.

2. The Revolt of 1905

In November, 1904, formal petitions were presented to Tsar Nicholas by Russian subjects demanding representation in the government and freedom of speech, press, conscience, association.  p248 Nicholas showed himself unwilling to yield to such requests, in spite of the constant occurrence of various disturbances. Consequently, a general strike, which spread throughout the Russian Empire, ensued in October, 1905, involving railway, postal and telegraph communications, business, factories, schools and even the medical profession. Its spirit also embraced the Lithuanian territories, where agitators of all sorts sought to arouse the population to a revolt against the Tsarist regime. It was then that the Lithuanian people, who had previously petitioned the Tsar on numerous occasions, demonstrated that they had not lost their ability to participate in political affairs, even after 110 years of foreign domination, and revealed that their main interest was the separation of Lithuania from the Russian Empire.

A National Lithuanian Diet (Seimas) was summoned at Vilnius the Lithuanian capital, on December 4, 1905. John Basanavicius acted as the chairman of the assembly, which was constituted of approximately 2,000 individuals, representing all the social strata and all the political views of Lithuanian life. This most varied Diet, expressing the will of the Lithuanian nation, demanded a clearly defined and wide autonomy for all of ethnographic Lithuania, with a Diet or House of Representatives at Vilnius, elected by universal ballot. It issued an appeal to the Lithuanian people to revolt, to discontinue the payment of taxes, to seize Russian governed monopolies, to oppose the induction of the Lithuanian youth into the Russian army, to disband all Russian administrative centers, to replace the Russian language with the Lithuanian in all schools and all departments of state. In fine, it was a proclamation of insurrection, not exactly against the Tsarist regime, but against the foreign Russian rule.

While the Diet was still sitting, the Governor-General of Vilnius, Freze, attempted to restrain the activities of the Lithuanians. Through a public announcement, in both the Lithuanian and the Russian languages, he sought to assure the Lithuanians that the Lithuanian language would be restored in primary schools, that Lithuanians would become eligible for teaching posts, that village communities would be granted the right of electing their officials. A similar statement was issued by the Governor of Kaunas. But the  p249 resolutions of the Vilnius Diet proved to be far more effective.

A general uprising against all Russian offices, institutions and police forces throughout Lithuania followed. The Diet had decreed that the Suvalkai area, which had been annexed to the Polish provinces, was to be reunited as part and parcel of ethnographic and autonomous Lithuania. In this area the spirit of the Lithuanian revolt spread rapidly and the Suvalkai insurgents immediately announced their willingness to reunite themselves with the rest of Lithuania on the opposite side of the Nemunas River.

But as elsewhere within the Russian Empire, so in Lithuania the revolt was quelled quite ruthlessly and quickly by Russian military force. Some villages and towns were even bombarded, such as Zagare and Akmene. Arrests and exile followed.

3. The Russian Duma

Although still insisting upon the maintenance of a strictly autocratic government, Nicholas II granted at least some of the concessions he had promised in his manifesto of October, 1905, during the general strike. These concessions had called for the creation of a Russian Duma, which provided a limited representation of all the peoples of the Empire in the government, as well as the guarantee of the freedom of speech, conscience, association, press and person. Theoretically, the Duma possessed the power to legislate and control the budget. The electoral laws, however, assured a preponderance of the gentry and wealthy upper classes.

For Lithuania, of course, the Russian Duma was but a faint echo of the national autonomy sought by the Vilnius Diet. Seven Lithuanians were elected to the first (1906) and second (1907) Dumas, four to the third (1907‑1912) and fourth (1912‑1917). In reality, the Lithuanian element could form only an insignificant minority. Already during the elections of electors and delegates to the first Duma, the Polonized gentry gave conclusive evidence of their complete Polonization and openly refused to cooperate with the Lithuanian-speaking element. The Lithuanian representatives sought to win what advantages they could for their country. Thus  p250 during the short period of the second Duma's existence, Peter Leonas attempted to introduce a special project of a much needed assign reform for Lithuania. Likewise, repeated efforts were made to obtain a more general use of the Lithuanian language in the governmental institutions of Lithuania. It was through the services of Anthony Bulota that the Duma decreed to substitute Lithuanian for Polish as the official language in the major portion of the Suvalkai area. And in 1914, Martin Ycas was already waiting for the opportunity to present to the Duma a proposal that the Russian government grant the Lithuanian people an autonomous status within the empire and unite Prussian-occupied Lithuania Minor and the Suvalkai district with Lithuania Major.

4. Lithuanian Literature and Societies

After the events of 1905, when a forced recognition of human rights had been wrested from the Tsarist regime, both the literary and social life of the Lithuanian people manifested a fresh and renewed activity.

The sole condition required by Russian authorities for the publication of a news­paper was the presenting of a written note to this effect at the governor's office. Consequently, four news­papers made their appearance, even during the year 1905, within the borders of the Russian Empire. Lietuviu Laikrastis (Lithuanian News­paper) was published at St. Petersburg, where a number of Lithuanians were employed, while Lietuvos Bitininkas (The Lithuanian Apiarist), Lietuvos Ukininkas (The Lithuanian Farmer) and Vilniaus Zinios (Vilnius News), a daily edited by Peter Vileisis, were centered at Vilnius. In 1906, there appeared Naujoji Gadyne (The New Era) at Vilnius, Saltinis (The Fountain) at Seinai, Nedeldienio Skaitymai (Sunday Readings) and Draugija (Society), a scholar­ly monthly, at Kaunas. In 1914, no less than 25 Lithuanian publications were being issued regularly, 10 at Kaunas, 8 at Vilnius, 3 at Seinai, 3 at Riga, 1 at Naumiestis. This count, of course, does not include those papers which survived only a short time.

 p251  Similarly, numerous organizations of various sorts were formed by the Lithuanian people. In 1906, at Kaunas, the St. Casimir's Society, dedicated to the publication of books and news­papers, was created. In 1907, at Vilnius, Lietuviu Mokslo Draugija (Lithuanian Educational Society) and Lietuvius Dailes Draugija (Lithuanian Art Society) began their existence. Such organizations as Rytas (Morning) at Vilnius, Saule (Sun) at Kaunas, Ziburys (Flicker) at Marijampole had for their aims the establishment of primary schools, libraries, pedagogical courses and cooperatives.

It was not long, however, before the Russian government sought to return to the measures of repression (1908), limiting the activities of these organizations, inflicting various fines upon news­paper editors for real or imaginary violations, imposing various restrictions on the different societies. Nevertheless, publications continued to make their appearance, and secret societies were in turn formed. And in 1911, a student organization of vast proportions, known as Ateitis (The Future), was founded.

5. The Polish Problem

Unquestionably the most unpleasant problem faced by the Lithuanian nation in its struggle to preserve its linguistic, cultural and national characteristics was the antagonism manifested by the Polonized Lithuanian gentry and its former allies, the Poles. As we have previously noted, the Lithuanian gentry had succumbed to strong Polish influence during the centuries of the Polish-Lithuanian union. They considered themselves of Lithuanian nationality, spoke the Polish language, and favored the restoration of the ancient traditions of the Polish-Lithuanian Republic, constituted as it was of two political entities, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland. Meanwhile, the bulk of the Lithuanian nation which spoke Lithuanian, had escaped the influence of Polonization and had resisted the campaign of intense Russification after its liberation from serfdom, was interested solely in the reorganization of a Lithuania, unaffected by and not dominated by any foreign element. Inevitably, these two views clashed.

 p252  The Lithuanians had from time to time appealed to their Polonized nobles to participate in the Lithuanian national movement, which had begun shortly before the disastrous revolt of 1863. In 1902, Adam Jakstas published a pamphlet entitled Glos Litwinow (The Voice of the Lithuanians) in Polish, to which he attempted to induce the Polonized gentry to return to the nation and the language of their blood. This publication of Jakstas' evoked a strong response from Polish sources, the keynote of which was set by another pamphlet issued at Cracow; namely, Przenigdy (Never, Never). As a result, only a small portion of the Lithuanian gentry took part in the work of the national rebirth. The rest dedicated their energies to the restoration of the Polish nation.

Perhaps the severest struggle waged by the Lithuanians against Polish pretensions was in the religious sphere. From the very introduction of Christianity into Lithuania, ecclesiastical affairs had been intimately linked with the propagation of the Polish spirit. The first clergy­men necessarily were Poles. Lithuanians were trained for the ministry in Polish institutions. The result was that very few were the men of God who could or were permitted to use the Lithuanian language for their work. During the Reformation in the 16th century, some attempts were made to increase the number of Lithuanian-speaking clergy, but not too effectively. And the situation changed little, until the sons of peasants and lesser gentry found it possible to study theology in the 19th century.

Such a state of affairs produced the queerest jargons, mixtures of Lithuanian, Polish, White Ruthenian languages, from the different set forms of prayer. It furthermore implicitly required that the Lithuanian-speaking element in many instances, especially in the eastern areas, either learn Polish or remain ignorant of religious teachings. When Lithuanian clergy­men, conscious of their Lithuanian nationality and conscious of the needs of the people appeared in larger numbers, and attempted to introduce sermons and instructions in the Lithuanian language as well as Lithuanian hymns in church services, the Polonized and the Polish elements looked upon these acts as sacrilegious violations of sacred traditions. Even the requests of the population itself for Lithuanian- p253 speaking ministers were denied, as for example, at Kalviai, near Trakai, in 1897.

Much more difficult were the circumstances in the diocese of Vilnius than in those of Samogitia (Kaunas) and Seinai. As a matter of fact, the Lithuanians were allowed the use of their own language only in the one church of St. Nicholas in the entire city of Vilnius (1901). The commotions and riots caused by the Polish element, unwilling to yield to the demands of the numerically larger Lithuanian population for some religious services in the Lithuanian language, were numerous. The news­paper Viltis, sponsored by Anthony Smetona and the Reverend J. Turnas in 1907, at Vilnius, was especially influential in supporting the Lithuanians in their battle against Polonization through religious channels. The struggle had not come to an end, when the World War of 1914‑1918 broke out in Europe.

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