Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

One of the greatest income items of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were customs – ‘myta’. Initially customs played the role of compensation for using of the real estate such as bridges, dams etc. On the other hand customs were a form of payment for the right of trade license, ownership of the pot-houses (inn), and also for production and sale of the alcoholic drinks. The purpose of the given work is to reflect the activity of the Jewish customs officials as collectors of the customs duties and to show the incomes which were brought by this activity (on the example of the richest Jewish tax-farmer).

The present article treats the manuscript sources as a sort of archive for researches into mentality. It offers an insight into the intellectual heritage of the culture Polish-Lithuanian nobility. Diaries, manuscript books – silva rerum collected news, own notes, excerpts of letters, newspapers etc. At present this kind of private sources can describe a Lost Word of average noblemen. They describe his mental horizons preserving and internalizing system of traditional values and beliefs. Author presented this kind of sources for mentality’s researches at the background of similar notes and manuscript sources in Europe, showing dynamic progress of the European culture of manuscripts.

This article aims to examine the geographical extent of Lithuania in the early 19th century. In the 19th century – from the partitions of the Republic of the Two Nations to the independence of the Republic of Lithuania – the concept of Lithuania drastically changed. Along with it the geographical extent of Lithuania also changed. Current studies of modern Lithuanian history, however, tend to consider 19th-century Lithuania from present viewpoints. The purpose of this article is to show the geographical extent of Lithuania perceived by early 19th-century intellectuals in Vilnius as an example of its geographical and spatial perceptions, which are an important element of the 19th-century understanding of Lithuania.

The Polish-Lithuanian relations in the 20-year-long interval period between the World Wars were extremely difficult and controversial. The reasons behind this were of historical and legal nature. The politics of the independent Republic of Lithuania (1918-1940) were mainly aimed at restricting the position of the Polish minority. Under these circumstances the Poles were struggling to sustain their national identity by means of, for example, establishing various organizations of cultural and educational profile. Such initiatives were undertaken within the students’ society at the University of Kovno (Kaunas). Polish students participated vigorously in the university’s activities. Throughout the years, starting with 1927, they were elected to Students’ Representative body and from the 1st of April 1927 they issued their own periodical by the title of “Iskry” (“Žiežirbos”, “The Sparks”).

This paper, extensively employs articles and studies by Lithuanian historians of the period that are regarded as a heritage of Lithuanian historiography, examines the national ideas and concepts of Lithuanian historians and concentrates on Lithuanian-Polish discussion on questions such as: How they understood nationalism? How they analysed and evaluated political programs for the re-establishment of statehood of Lithuania, i.e. for political autonomy of Lithuania and for Polish-Lithuanian federal state? What kind of arguments they used against the Polish territorial claims toward Vilnius and its district? What are the main features of Klimas’ concept of nationalism?

The article is devoted to the history of Vilnius evangelics in the 20th Century. The Vilnius evangelics played a significant role on the Polish protestant map in the interwar period. For the Lutherans inhabiting the North-Eastern area of Poland, Vilnius was the capital of their diocese. In turn, the Calvinists had their own Vilnius Church. It steadily developed throughout the interwar period founding its branches in central Poland. The Vilnius Calvinists never forgot about the tradition of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, keeping contact with the church in the Lithuanian Republic. The custom of Polish and Lithuanian Evangelics’ cooperation was returned to after regaining independence in 1989, which is exemplified by the cooperation of Lutheran Polish and Lithuanian churches.

The article is devoted to the problem of time value in the context of contemporary Western culture and societies. This problem is put into context of whole contemporary culture and civilization. The main attention author gives to the general studies of social norms, values, stereotypes and traditions, known in contemporary Western societies. He points the raising importance of rational time organization of daily needs here. The actualities of real differentiation of daily time allocation are described here as well. The personal abilities to organize the actual time are named as high values in industrialized Western societies, year by year leaving less and less time for the same needs. The everyday stresses, unstable emotions became as the results of such process for a great number of individuals of Western culture. This situation is not so relevant just for less industrialized Eastern World cultures and societies.

The article is devoted to the studies of the birth of the Lithuanian myth in Polish Culture. Author points the importance of Lithuania in Polish intellectual life increased since the beginning of the 19th century. The role of Vilnius as one of the most influential research and artistic centers particularly improved. Vilnius University (Uniwersytet Wileński 1803-1832), which influence and achievements spread beyond Lithuanian border for a long time after it had been closed down, played an especially significant role. A lot of interest in Lithuanian history and culture, its languages and folklore developed among Vilnius intellectuals. The tendency was steady: in next decades numerous musical works, scientific research and literary works were created. They were inspired by widely understood Lithuanian culture. Vilnius started living its own life of a legendary capital of romanticism and a town of glorious but tragic history. Owing to a romantic tradition Lithuanian issues became one of the typical features of Polish culture.

In the last decades of the 19th century in several Warsaw journals were published (in reviews, chronicles and letters) critical opinions about lifestyle and hierarchy of values represented by rich Lithuanian gentry, spending winter months and carnival in the capital of the Kingdom of Poland. In the whole journal critics especially visible was argument concerning the absurdity of the system of value well-known by Lithuanian gentry. My article does not decide veracity and first of all facts concerning mocked and ridiculed by journalists style of behaviour of created by Lithuanian gentry system of value. Accepting however negative image as possible for some part of gentry, I raise a question (for the long time interesting for the social historians) about mechanisms of modernization of the social structures.