Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

The rebellion that broke out in the Northwest Province (Severo-Zapadnyi Krai) of the Russian Empire in January 1863 and spread over the former lands of the Commonwealth of the Two Nations is not a new topic for historians. The involvement of women in the insurrection of 1863 has also been studied for a long time, with the first research appearing even before the Second World War. So far, Polish, Belarusian, and to some extent Lithuanian, researchers have raised questions about the forms and methods of women’s protests in this insurrection, and the changes in their social role, and analysed women’s memories and images of women. This article is the first to address memoirs of the January insurrection written by women from the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania who observed the events of the insurrection in these lands. The women’s memoirs are analysed here as a whole, in order to reveal some common features. In contrast to previous studies that have looked at women’s memoirs of the rebellion in order to answer questions about the course of the rebellion, the theme of deportations, or women’s ability to balance social activities and family responsibilities during the insurrection, this paper raises the more general question of what women did and did not write about in their memoirs about the insurrection between 1863 and 1864, and why.

This article surveys evidence of Lithuanian social and religious life during the long fifteenth century as revealed by consistory court records from the sees of Płock, Gniezno, Lutsk and Cracow. The dynamics of church court evidence coincide with those of other aspects of Catholic life in the Grand Duchy. Building churches, chantry chapels, funding mansionary priests, selecting particular Masses to be celebrated by your chantry priest (Salve sancta Parens, the Five Wounds of Christ, the Seven Joys of Our Lady), going on pilgrimage, taking part in a procession, venerating the Blessed Sacrament, sending supplications to Rome to obtain permission to own a portable altar or choose a confessor all become much more common in the later decades of the fifteenth century. Cases before the consistory courts in Płock, Gniezno, Vilnius and Lutsk involve a wide social group and deal with a broad range of issues (not just matrimonial disputes or the hiring out of benefices between priests). What we do not find is any obsession with paganism, no use of pagan as an insult, no account of ‘pagan’ practices (or even folk customs, which later become tarred with an ideological brush). Lithuanian dioceses are clearly integrated into the Polish metropolitan sees (Gniezno and also to a lesser degree, Lwów).

This article discussed the effect of the theological thought of Duns Scotus on the outlook and activities of Lithuanian Franciscans. In Franciscan theology the Creation, the Incarnation, and the Resurrection of Our Lord are linked closely together. The idea of the Divine Omnipotence is essential for understanding Godʼs actions. After describing Scotusʼ life we examine his works and insights in theology and philosophy. His teaching was based on the spirit of the Orderʼs founder, St Francis. Scotism found disciples in Lithuania who fostered the Franciscan spirit in the country and sponsored the spread of Scotist heritage there.

The article is devoted to the new historical and political investigations on the Poland in regard to Lithuania’s admission into European structures during last decades. The Polish state authorities took part at generation of actual political events of independence receiving in Baltic States in memorable 1991 year. As an important part of the background for the States strategic partnership it is possible to admit the collaboration in the developments of economical and industrial units, which reached the high point of its intensity in the middle 1990, having the possibility to use the positive results of free market since January 1, 1997. The important element in the positive process in normalizing relations between Poland and Lithuania was the forthcoming political support to join NATO for all Baltic States from the Polish State side. The Polish support for Lithuania to join NATO as well as EU was consistent, principled, and made non-conjuncture way.

A serious argument against the reach of Hamburgian Culture to the eastern Vistula is the position of material from areas to the east of the Vistula, the lack of any radiocarbon dates and the unclear geochronological context.