Question of the millennium : what is common between the old and the new Lithuania?

Reikšminiai žodžiai: Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); Bajorai; Istorija; Lietuviai; Lietuvių tapatumas; Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės piliečiai; Lietuvos Respublika; Lietuvos Tūkstantmetis; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Savimonė; Tapatumas; Citizens of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; Consciuousness; History; Identity; Lithuania; Lithuanians; Lithuanians identity; Millenium of Lithuania; Nobility (boiars); Republic of Lithuania; The Grand Duchy of Lithuania; The Republic of Two Nation

Challenges of globalization for Lithuanian diaspora education

What challenges does globalization pose for Lithuanian education in the diaspora communities – especially in relation to a diversity of conceptions of Lithuanian identity and the way these conceptions have historically changed both in the diaspora and in Lithuania itself? It is the thesis of this paper that in meeting these challenges Lithuania should create a history that would fortify the national resilience of Lithuanians dispersed throughout the world. This resilience is impossible without a conscious resuscitation of historical and cultural memory and without the strengthening of ethno political identity, two tasks that should decisively augment the content of Lithuanian education too often limited to the preservation of the Lithuanian language. When Lithuanians emigrating abroad take the principles of civic and cultural participation that they've brought with them and harmonize these with the traditions of cultural and political expression they find in the receiving country, they can conquer that country not only by not losing their own identity but also by expanding the latter into a more complex construction combining the identities of several countries. Today the tasks of Lithuanian education abroad are not to be separated from the tasks of changing the educational content of schools in Lithuania. Hopes for the longevity of the diaspora cannot be exclusively exhausted by the goals of getting people to return and returning. Therefore the existing arsenal of teaching the Lithuanian language must be renewed and enriched by the results of better efforts at collective memory and (self) knowledge of the Lithuanian national character

Craftsmanship of Argentina’s Lithuanians in Henrikas Lukaševičius’s novel “Likimo žaismas”

Šio teksto tikslas nėra literatūrologinis: per Henriko Lukaševičiaus romano „Likimo žaismas“ (1953) pasakojimą ir Argentinos lietuvio Victoro Barzdziaus metalo meistrystės istoriją siekiama išryškinti Argentinos lietuvių ūkinio ir socialinio gyvenimo ypatumus. H. Lukaševičiaus romanas yra patrauklus istorikui, nerimstančiam dėl Pietų Amerikos lietuvystės lemties. Rašytojas veda savo herojų – iš DP stovyklos Vokietijoje į Argentiną savo tėvo ieškoti atplaukusį Vytautą Normantą per dar palyginti neseniai įsikūrusių lietuvių išeivių buities ir visuomeninio veikimo scenas. Autorius nesigilina į Argentinos ekonominės prigimties ypatumus, o pasitenkina tuo, ką lietuvių imigrantai patyrė ir kaip savo patirtimis atspindėjo bendruosius ūkio raidos ir socialinės padėties dalykus. Ir H. Lukaševičiaus romanas, ir V. Barzdziaus (gim. 1946) metalo meistrystės istorija, tarp savęs persipindami, suskamba labai prasmingai. Skirtybės ir įvairovė padeda atmintin sugrąžinti esminius gyvų žmonių patyrimus, kurie kartais pasako daugiau nei metodų deklaracijomis išpuošti akademiniai tekstai. Raktažodžiai: Argentinos lietuvių istorija, Henrikas Lukaševičius, Victoras Barzdzius, verslas, literatūra.The purpose of this text is not literary analysis. It is an attempt to bring out the characteristic features of the economic and social life of Argentina’s Lithuanians as revealed in the story of Henrikas Lukaševičius’s novel “Likimo žaismas” (“Destiny’s Play”) about the craft of metalworking as practiced by the Lithuanian immigrant Victor Barzdzius. The novel is of interest to a historian concerned about the fate of Lithuanians who ended up in Latin America. The writer leads his hero Vytautas Normantas from the DP camps in Germany all the way to Argentina, to which the latter had travelled by boat in search of his father. After arriving there he experiences first-hand the ordinary life and social activities of the post-World War II refugees who had recently settled in Argentina. Henrikas Lukaševičius does not delve into the nature of that country’s economy but just recounts the Lithuanian immigrants’ experiences and how these reflected the general situation of economic development and social conditions in the local Lithuanian-Argentine community. Henrikas Lukaševičius’s novel and the story of the metalworking craft of Victor Barzdzius (born in 1946) meaningfully reinforce each other and by their differences and variety help to recall the memory of what real people went through. Their experiences sometimes tell more than do methodologically sophisticated academic texts. Keywords: history of Argentina’s Lithuanians, Henrikas Lukaševičius, Victor Barzdzius, arts and crafts, literature

Modernizmo link arba prie šiuolaikinio Kauno meninės kultūros lopšio (1918-1940 metai)

The publication presents the review of the book by J.Mulevičiūtė “Towards modernism: life of fine arts in the republic of Lithuania in 1918-1940” (2001). According to the reviewer, the author seeks to reveal the process of modernization of Lithuanian art, the analysed subject – the formation of modernistic creative principles, the object – the drama of society, artist and art critic relations. The author shows the connection of this complicated process with other arts in Lithuania and phenomenon of artistic life in Europe. It is underlined; that for the first time in the historiography of fine arts so much attention is paid to the society life and the diagnosis of art process ambivalence. Parallel daily life, society taste and art development processes are shown here although in unequal proportions. According to the author, J. Mulevičiūtė writes about Lithuanian fine arts, but she is mainly revolving in the environment of Kaunas people which anyhow made up almost the whole Lithuania. Unfortunately, the expression of town‘s consciousness and town‘s polycentrism in Lithuanian culture was and still is very weak. Then the cultural initiative was monopolized by the capital more than modern-day Vilnius. On the one hand this phenomenon tells about the signs of regression of Lithuanian society, on the other hand the reviewer is allowed to evaluate the book as an object of Kaunas‘history chronicle. J. Mulevičiūtė showed consistently how the seeds of modernism felt into the environment of the fine arts of the first years of independency transforming becoming official didactic national landmarks which are closer to modern creator into individualistic, mobile, controversial in respect of tradition relationship of an artist with the world and society

The diaspora at the crossroads of thought and action: the history of a dispute

Šiame straipsnyje keliama užduotis aprašyti vieną itin įdomų išeivijos intelektualinį ginčą, kuris plėtojosi liberaliosios „Santaros-Šviesos“ ir centristinės krypties akademinių skautų spaudoje. Polemika nusipelno būti pripažinta simboliškai svarbiu anuometinės išeivijos akademinės jaunuomenės mąstysenos ir pasaulėžiūros raidos epizodu. Tai dviejų socialinės srities mokslininkų – Vytauto Kavolio ir Tomo Remeikio ginčas, užtrukęs keliolika mėnesių ir atskleidęs, kaip klostėsi dviejų giminingų intelektualinių bei visuomeninių srovių laikysena. V. Kavolis buvo „Santaros-Šviesos“ idėjinis vedlys. Kiek švelniau pasakytina apie T. Remeikį – politinių mokslų profesorių ir nenuilstantį XX a. vidurio Lietuvos politinės raidos tyrinėtoją. Jis nebuvo labai aiškiai reiškęsis Akademinių skautų sąjūdžio (ASS) lyderis, tačiau buvo neabejotinai autoritetingas filisteris, ypač tuo metu, kai ėmėsi redaguoti žurnalą „Mūsų Vytis“. Panašiai kaip ir kitas redaktorius, bendražygis Algirdas Avižienis, jie siekė kilstelėti akademinių skautų periodinio leidinio intelektualinį lygį, įrodinėjo savo puoselėjamų idėjų universalią reikšmę, pakėlė santariečių mestą pirštinę. Diskusija ne tik kilstelėjo akademinės skautijos minties lygį, bet ir parodė besiginčijančiųjų draugystės prasmingus vaisiusThe task of this paper is to describe a uniquely interesting dispute among émigré Lithuanian intellectuals that played itself out in the publications of the liberal “Santara-Šviesa” and the centrist Academic Scouts. This controversy deserves to be regarded as a symbolically important episode in the development of the younger academic generation’s mentality and ideology. It involves two social scientists – Vytautas Kavolis and Thomas Remeikis – who for a period of several months publicly expressed their differences on issues dividing the attitudes of otherwise closely related intellectual and social currents of thought. Kavolis was the acknowledged leader of thinkers who joined in the “Santara-Šviesa” movement. Remeikis, a professor of political science and a tireless investigator of mid-twentieth century developments in Lithuanian politics, was an authoritative senior in the Academic Scout Movement, especially when he began to edit the journal “Mūsų Vytis”. He and his co-editor and colleague Algirdas Avižienis both picked up the gauntlet thrown down by “Santara-Šviesa” and sought to elevate the intellectual level of the Academic Scouts’ periodical as well as to prove the universal significance of the ideas they advanced. Their discussion not only raised the quality of Academic Scouts’ thought but also showed the productivity of friendship among the disputantsIstorijos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta