Journal:Tiltai
Volume 68, Issue 3 (2014), pp. 159–174
Abstract
125 years ago, the mission of the Lithuanian literary, political, and scientific newspaper Varpas (The Bell) published under the Czarist occupation was to interpret the issues of the national life, to raise the nation’s spirit, and to awaken and strengthen the national self-consciousness. Among other issues, the publishers devoted great attention to a fundamental human need, i.e. the maintenance of identity and its relationship to faith (Catholicism). Religion and language were interpreted as closely related phenomena and as the nation’s values of utmost significance for the maintenance of the national identity. Religion, language, and customs were so closely related that the destruction of one could undermine the fundaments of the other elements. People who had learnt their native language from their mothers, and later had disowned it, could have also questioned another legacy of the mother, i.e. faith. As demonstrated in the paper, the henchmen of the czarist government tended to simultaneously destroy both Catholicism and Lithuanianness in different ways, especially during the reign of Mikhail Muravjov. The authors of Varpas considered the Orthodox church to be the main factor of Lithuanians’ assimilation which tried to attract Lithuanians in different ways; another important factor of influence was school which taught children different subjects, even religious studies, in a non-native language. In the implementation of that kind of Muravjov’s strategy, some clergy collaborated with the invaders
Der Artikel ist vorbereitet auf Grund der in den letzten Jahren erschienener und leicht erreichbarer fülle der verschiedenen Erinnerungen die sind geschrieben von der ehemaligen Einwohnern des Memellandes – genau litauischen wie deutschen Herkunft. Das Ziel dieser Forschung ist erkennen wie durch die Entwicklung des regionalen Selbstbewusstseins verwirklichten sich die Ideen und Modellen des nationalen und konfessionellen Bewusstseins die waren entwickelt von den Stellvertretern der selber Nation aber in den Verschiedenen historischen und konfessionellen umständen.
Journal:Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis
Volume 23 (2011): Daugiareikšmės tapatybės tarpuerdvėse: Rytų Prūsijos atvejis XIX–XX amžiais = Ambiguous Identities in the Interspaces: The Case of East Prussia in the 19th and 20th Centuries = Die vieldeutigen Identitäten in den Zwischenräumen: Der Fall Ostpreußen…, pp. 158–178
Abstract
The paper aims to analyse various aspects of interdependence between the nationality and the citizenship of the residents of Klaipėda region by restricting the analysis to the political and economic factors of the 20th c. The analysis was carried out on the basis of little known archival materials. The article seeks to prove that nationality and citizenship, as the principal forms of the identity expression, have not always been a matter of free self-determination; they would frequently change depending on the external political and ideological pressure.