Klaipėdos universitetas

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 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.

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 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 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 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.

The article presents a research study on fashion, social rivalry and identity of nobility in Polish-Lithuanian Republic in the 18th Century. Research is based on the data obtained from widely drawn up inventories of movables allows us to give a social depth to the view constructed upon iconography and literature. The number of inventories, their social representation, connection to specified social group and period enable us to look at the history of fashion and other aspects of material culture considering different social, economic and cultural realities. Registers from the 18th century draw our greatest interest because of their number, reliability and quite equal spread over time.

The article is devoted to enlighten the relative and politic contacts on Radzivills towards the heritage of the Sobieskis. All events concerning this theme began with the marriage of Katarzyna Sobieska. She got married with Władysław Dominik Zasławski-Ostrogski in 1650. They had two children Aleksander Janusz who died young and with no children and Teofila Ludwika. We have no information about a dowry which Katarzyna should have got. Soon she was widowed by her twenty years older husband and in 1658 she got married to Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł. His brother-in-law Jan Sobieski became the voivode of Vilnius and high-standing person of the Great Duchy of Lithuania.

The article presents historical and economic study of Volhynia–Gdańsk regional trade end economic zones during the period from the beginning of the 16th to the middle of the 17th centuries. Change of a dominating role of the Mediterranean economic region, decline of the territories concerned with it, and also processes of economic growth of the countries concerned with Baltic, considerably has affected commodity structure of Volhynia at that time. By these tendencies increases value of Volhynia in geography of the European trade. It was one of barter centres among the East and the West of the Europe. However, already from the middle of the 16th century occurred an active inclusion of the representatives of narrow-mindedness, clergy and gentry to the trade. During this period significantly increases the export to the international market through the Baltic trade and economic region.