Klaipėdos universitetas

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

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.