Klaipėdos universitetas

At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Lithuanians who had left for Western Europe and the United States were confronted with a new, modern world, where numerous diaspora centres with a press and organisations formed, and everyday life went on, relations with foreigners developed, and social activities evolved. Conflicts of a religious nature also arose, and the search for a national identity, political differentiation and other processes developed. These aspects of the new life were reflected in various forms in Lithuania as well, one of which was correspondence in the public sphere, in the press. The correspondence not only provided knowledge about Lithuanians in various countries, but also painted a picture of the diaspora and the environment in which they lived. The purpose of this paper is to find out what kind and content of correspondence by Lithuanians who emigrated to the West is found in the illegal Lithuanian press published in Lithuania Minor until 1904, and what trends in the new modern life are revealed in the content of communication from the USA, Great Britain and France.

Šio straipsnio tikslas – išanalizuoti tradicinių gyvenamųjų pastatų pavadinimus, jų įvairovę, kilmę ir paplitimą latvių kalbos plote Lietuvos ir Latvijos pajūrio teritorijoje. Šį pasirinkimą lėmė ne tik istorinės kalbų sąveikos (latviškai kalbančios diasporos dab. Lietuvos teritorijoje) veiksnys, bet ir panašus gyvenimo būdas, susijęs su žvejyba. Tyrime taikyti aprašomasis, iš dalies istorinis ir kartografinis metodai. Analizuojama latviška medžiaga iš įvairių rašytinių šaltinių (iš viso 21). Gyvenamojo namo pavadinimai (nams, istaba, māja) ir jų reikšmės keitėsi kartu su paties objekto raida. Nors dalyje tiriamos teritorijos ekonominiai, socialiniai ir kultūriniai kontaktai tarp lietuviškai ir latviškai kalbančių bendruomenių buvo svarbūs, ne visais atvejais lietuvių kalbos leksika perimta latviškai kalbančios bendruomenės (nebuvo perimti tokie gyvenamojo namo pavadinimai kaip butas ir troba).

Works of art that visualise historical events are very specific. The artists who create them are constantly faced with the dilemma of how far they can move from a realistic image in the work, and how to interpret a historical event so that it will be recognisable to the viewer, but at the same time maintain the innovativeness of the form and the pulse of the times. Artists were pushed into this dilemma by the era of Modernism and its principled desire to deny the importance of the storyline and the illustrative image. They had the choice of staying within the framework of conservative realism, or finding a way out. Therefore, this article seeks to reveal the solutions discovered by Modernist artists visualising events in Lithuanian history. The wide period (the 1930s and the 1990s) chosen for the study obliges us to single out the most outstanding examples, which do not adhere to a realistic view and the illustrative presentation of the event.

Straipsnyje lyginamas krikščioniškojo voto amato vaidmuo ikisovietinėje ir posovietinėje Ukrainoje. Voto tradicija Ukrainoje sovietmečiu apmirė ir atgimė tik iš dalies, o ne ypatingo amato lygmeniu, anksčiau paplitusiu įvairaus lygio juvelyrikos dirbtuvėse tiek miesto, tiek kaimo gyvenvietėse. Todėl šios tradicijos transformacija sovietų valdžios laikotarpiu reikalauja tolesnio giluminio tyrimo, atsižvelgiant į laipsnišką Ukrainos teritorijos įstojimą į SSRS.

The collective memory of people in the post-Soviet space preserves some stereotypes, and they have a certain influence on the cognitive process. For example, the focus on interfaith conflict, as well as silencing issues of constructive interaction, was a deliberate manipulation. The author set the goal of analysing intercultural contact between different ethnic groups in the religious practice of votive offerings in Ukrainian lands. The attribution of votive offerings preserved in museums in Ukraine shows that the tradition was widespread, but waned during the Soviet era.

Fr Jurgis Pabrėža (1771-1849), who was born 250 years ago, gave suggestive and memorable, timely and modern, and professionally written and delivered sermons to believers. Pabrėža himself compiled collections of sermons (a total of ten sets of sermons), and divided them by topic. The subject of this article is one of the surviving collections of sermons, ‘Sermons on Various Matters’. In his sermons, Pabrėža adheres to the Church tradition by referring to the Bible, the documents of the Ecumenical Councils of the Church, and the teachings of the Church Fathers, popes and saints. While thinking and deliberating in his heart, taking up theological studies, reading and studying the Holy Scriptures, and practising spiritual exercises, the preacher examines the current affairs of the time, and applies traditional teaching to them. Pabrėža’s goal was to preach the Word of God, keeping science and faith in close unity, in order ‘to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ’ (1 Thessalonians 5:9), the Incarnate Word of God. The Word preached by the priest, i.e. Jesus Christ, is God Himself, and all words refer to the Word, which is never only the past, but always both the present and the future.

The article presents theological thoughts on eschatological themes of Sergei Bulgakov, one of the most prominent theologians and priests in the Russian Orthodox Church in the late 19th and early 20th century. These themes touch on theological concepts of God’s last judgment, heaven and hell. Bulgakov interprets God’s last judgment in a very modern way, as a confrontation of the truth with its own primordial image in the idea of God. To the extent that the ‘final’ life of the person who has lived it differs from the best version of what it could have been if God’s will had been followed, so does the pain of unrealised happiness. The outcome of such a confrontation with truth is either heaven or hell. For Bulgakov, hell is not infinitely eternal. He believes that at the very end, when time and space no longer exist, those in hell can still experience God’s mercy. Hell is a lost God, heaven is a found God. Such thoughts are made all the more dramatic by the fact that Bulgakov’s work took place at a difficult political, economic and cultural time, both in Russia and in Europe, with the Bolshevik October Revolution, the First World War, and the Second World War. The influence of these processes on theology is also a focus of the article.

In the article, using authentic Lithuanian material, the celebration of St Martin’s Day in Lithuania Minor is analysed from a chronological point of view (from the first mention to the present day), in order to show the general stages in the development of the festival, and the modern changes to the customs. The paper analyses the St Martin’s Day feast from the late 19th to the 20th century, showing the structural and functional changes in the calendar feast. It also aims to analyse modern customs in the festival (since 2002), and to discuss the prospects for the continuity of the ethnic tradition in today’s festival.