The
Lithuanian press ban was a ban on all
Lithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
publications printed in the
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
within the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, which controlled
LithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
at the time. Lithuanian-language publications that used the
Cyrillic alphabetThe Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
were allowed and even encouraged. The concept arose after the failed
January UprisingThe January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
of 1863, taking the form of an administrative order in 1864, and was not lifted until April 24, 1904. The Russian courts reversed two convictions in press ban cases in 1902 and 1903, and the setbacks of the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
in early 1904 brought about a loosened Russian policy towards minorities.
It was illegal to print, import, distribute, or possess any publications in the Latin alphabet.
TsarTsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
ist authorities hoped that this measure, part of a larger
RussificationRussification is an adoption of the Russian language or some other Russian attributes by non-Russian communities...
plan, would decrease Polish influence on Lithuanians and would return them to what were considered their ancient historical ties with Russia. However, Lithuanians organized printing outside the Empire, largely in the
Lithuania MinorLithuania Minor or Prussian Lithuania is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, later East Prussia in Germany, where Prussian Lithuanians or Lietuvininkai lived. Lithuania Minor enclosed the northern part of this province and got its name due to the territory's substantial...
(
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
), and in the United States.
KnygnešiaiBook smugglers were people who transported Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1866 to 1904...
smuggled illegal books and periodicals through the border. The number of such publications kept increasing despite strict sanctions and persecutions against the activists. The ban created a well-defined and organized opposition to Russian rule and culture - the opposite of its original intent. The Lithuanian historian
Edvardas GudavičiusEdvardas Gudavičius is one of the best known historians in modern Lithuania specializing in early history of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1953 he graduated from Kaunas Polytechnic Institute with a degree in engineering. Gudavičius started his career as a mechanic at one of the factories in Kaunas,...
has described the ban as a test of the concept of Lithuania: Had there been no resistance, the language would have become a historical footnote, and the modern nation would never have been created.
Background
The first book published in the Lithuanian language was
Martynas MažvydasMartynas Mažvydas Martynas Mažvydas Martynas Mažvydas (1510 near Žemaičių Naumiestis (now in Šilutė district municipality) - May 21, 1563 in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) was the author and the editor of the first printed book in the Lithuanian language....
's 1547 Lutheran
CatechismA catechism , i.e. to indoctrinate) is a summary or exposition of doctrine, traditionally used in Christian religious teaching from New Testament times to the present...
. Other milestone publications included Daniel Klein's
Grammar in 1653, a publication of the
BibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in 1735, and the first work of imaginative literature,
Kristijonas DonelaitisKristijonas Donelaitis was a Prussian Lithuanian Lutheran pastor and poet. He lived and worked in Lithuania Minor, a territory in the Kingdom of Prussia, that had a sizable minority of ethnic Lithuanians...
'
Metai (The Seasons), in 1818. During the years of the
Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...
, which lasted from 1569 to 1781, the
Polish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
gained ground as the written
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
of greater Lithuania, although the Prussian areas of
Lithuania MinorLithuania Minor or Prussian Lithuania is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, later East Prussia in Germany, where Prussian Lithuanians or Lietuvininkai lived. Lithuania Minor enclosed the northern part of this province and got its name due to the territory's substantial...
continued to issue publications in Lithuanian.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, use of the
Lithuanian languageLithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas, apart from its use in Prussia; it was, however, retained by some members of the minor nobility, especially in the
SamogitiaSamogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai/Šiaulē. The region has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect...
n region. Several factors contributed to its subsequent revival: the language drew attention from scholars of the emerging science of
comparative linguisticsComparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness....
; after the
abolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire in 1861The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia. The reform, together with a related reform in 1861, amounted to the liquidation of serf dependence previously suffered by peasants of the Russian Empire...
,
social mobilitySocial mobility refers to the movement of people in a population from one social class or economic level to another. It typically refers to vertical mobility -- movement of individuals or groups up from one socio-economic level to another, often by changing jobs or marrying; but can also refer to...
increased, and Lithuanian intellectuals arose from the ranks of the rural populace; and language became associated with identity in Lithuania, as elsewhere across Europe. Within the Catholic Church, the barriers that had earlier prevented commoners from entering the priesthood were eased. A closer relationship developed between the educated clergy, who were increasingly of ethnic Lithuanian stock, and their parishioners, including a sympathy with their wish to use the Lithuanian language. The emerging national movement sought to distance itself from both Polish and Russian influences, and the use of the Lithuanian language was seen as an important aspect of this movement.
According to the
bibliographer"A bibliographer is a person who describes and lists books and other publications, with particular attention to such characteristics as authorship, publication date, edition, typography, etc. The result of this endeavor is a bibliography...
Vaclovas BiržiškaVaclovas Biržiška was a Lithuanian attorney, bibliographer, and educator.He was a member of a notable Lithuanian family; his great-grandfather Mykolas Biržiška was a representative in the Sejm when the Constitution of 3 May was accepted in 1791; his grandfather Leonardas Biržiška was an active...
, between 1800 and 1864, when the press ban was enacted, 926 book titles were published in the Lithuanian language using its Latin alphabet. The
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
of the language was not standardized; this problem was used by the Russian authorities as a rationale for the change to Cyrillic.
Origins and legal basis
After the
partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthThe Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...
in the late 18th century, Lithuania and Poland were incorporated into the
Russian EmpireThe Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. The uprising of 1863, seeking to re-establish the Commonwealth, convinced many Russian politicians that Polish cultural and political influence was the main obstacle hindering the Russification of Lithuania. They believed that if the Lithuanian peasantry were distanced from the
Polonized nobilityThe szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
and the Catholic Church, Lithuanians would naturally come under Russian cultural influence, as they had allegedly been during previous eras. The Russian politician Nikolai Miliutin wrote that "Russian letters will finish that which was begun with the Russian sword."
On May 13, 1863 Tsar
Alexander II of RussiaAlexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
appointed
Mikhail Nikolayevich MuravyovCount Mikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov was one of the most reactionary Russian imperial statesmen of the 19th century...
as the Governor General of the
Vilna GovernorateThe Vilna Governorate or Government of Vilna was a governorate of the Russian Empire created after the Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795...
. His duties included suppression of the uprising and implementation of the Russification policy. Because the situation was perceived as critical, Muravyov was temporarily granted extremely wide powers. Muravyov and Ivan Petrovich Kornilov, the newly appointed director of the
VilniusVilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County...
educational district, prepared a radical long-term Russification program that became known as the
Program of Restoration of Russian Beginnings (Lithuanian:
Rusų pradų atkūrimo programa). Its stated goals were to:
- Eliminate the Polish langugage from public life
- Prevent the employment of Catholics in government institutions
- Control and restrict the Catholic Church
- Create favorable conditions for the spread of Eastern Orthodoxy
- Replace Lithuanian parish schools with Russian grammar schools
- Encourage ethnic Russians to resettle in Lithuanian lands
- Replace the Latin alphabet with the Cyrillic alphabet
- Ban any Lithuanian-language publications in the Latin alphabet
On May 22, 1864 Tsar Alexander II approved this program. A few days later Muravyov issued an administrative order that forbade printing Lithuanian language textbooks written in the Latin alphabet. This order was developed into a comprehensive ban on September 6, 1865 by
Konstantin Petrovich von KaufmanKonstantin Petrovich von Kaufman was the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan.-Early life:His family was Austrian in origin, but had been in the service of the Tsars for over 100 years, and had long since converted to Orthodoxy...
, Muravyov's successor. Kaufman issued an order to six neighboring governorates declaring a full ban on all publications and demanding that censorship committees enforce it without hesitation. A week later the order was extended to the entire Empire by
Pyotr ValuevCount Pyotr Aleksandrovich Valuev , was a Russian statesman and writer.-Political career:...
, Minister of the Interior. In 1866 the ban was further extended to include all academic books.
Despite its strict and widespread enforcement, none of the ban's supporting measures were ever actually codified into law. The ban was enforced based solely on administrative orders and the tsar's approval. When the special temporary powers of the Governor General were revoked in 1871, these administrative orders lost any legal value. From that point on the ban had no legal basis, but it was still strictly enforced.
Enforcement
At first the Russian authorities encouraged and sponsored the publication of Lithuanian-language works in the Cyrillic alphabet. The idea of replacing the Latin alphabet with Cyrillic was first elaborated by the well-known
Pan-SlavistPan-Slavism was a movement in the mid-19th century aimed at unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires, Byzantine Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Venice...
Alexander Hilferding in his 1863 book
Lithuania and Samogitia.
The first experiments with the conversion of Lithuanian writings into Cyrillic were conducted by a Lithuanian linguist, Jonas Juška. He showed some samples of adapted texts to both Muravyov and Kornilov in February 1864. However, Juška discontinued his work and Kornilov formed a committee to work on publishing Lithuanian books in Cyrillic. The committee had four members: the Polish librarian Stanisław Mikucki from
WarsawWarsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, Russian Jonas Kerčinskis, a Lithuanian
CatholicThe word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest who had converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, Antanas Petkevičius, and the well-known Lithuanian educator and publisher
Laurynas IvinskisLaurynas Ivinskis was a Lithuanian teacher, publisher, translator and lexicographer, from a Samogitian noble family. He is notable for a series of annual calendars published between 1847 and 1877, in which he summarized the daily life of Samogitian peasantry, Laurynas Ivinski also published...
. Ivinskis soon withdrew from the committee. The first such book was a primer intended for use in the new Russian schools that were replacing the Lithuanian parish schools. It appeared during the summer of 1864. The committee also published a
prayer bookA breviary is a liturgical book of the Latin liturgical rites of the Catholic Church containing the public or canonical prayers, hymns, the Psalms, readings, and notations for everyday use, especially by bishops, priests, and deacons in the Divine Office...
, a calendar, and other religious literature.
About 55 Lithuanian-Cyrillic titles were published during the 40 years of the ban; about half of these were published during its first decade. Seeing that the Lithuanian people were unwilling to accept these books, even when they were offered for free, the Russian government shifted its attention to eliminating the illegal publications.
The Russian Ministry of Education issued a report in May 1898 recommending that the press ban be repealed. The report stated that the ban had produced adverse and unforeseen results, including the development of Lithuanian nationalism. Other Russian officials had opined that the interests of the Russian state would be better served by the presence of a legal Lithuanian press that could be censored.
During the years of the ban, 3,047 people (829
smugglersBook smugglers were people who transported Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1866 to 1904...
, 859 distributors, and 1,359 persons possessing banned books) were arrested in connection with the ban.
Resistance
Illegal non-periodical publications
| Period | Number of titles |
| 1865–1874 |
345 |
| 1875–1884 |
501 |
| 1885–1894 |
1,076 |
| 1895–1904 |
2,031 |
| Total | 3,953 |
Anti-Russian sentiment and distrust of the tsarist authorities had arisen after the 1863 revolt. The ban was also perceived as a threat to the Catholic Church; the Eastern Orthodox Church used the Cyrillic alphabet, and loyalty to the Latin alphabet was also a symbolic loyalty to Catholicism. Attempts were made to circumvent the ban by using
Gothic scriptGothic script may refer to:* Blackletter* Gothic alphabet* Schwabacher...
. However, that was also banned in 1872. A number of problems arose with the various Lithuanian-Cyrillic orthographies, which were all criticized as ill-adapted to the Lithuanian language. Within Russia, the ban was opposed by scholarly, liberal, and pro-democratic groups, which served to mitigate the punishments.
The organized resistance to the ban, both legal and illegal, was largely initiated by bishop
Motiejus ValančiusMotiejus Valančius was a Catholic bishop of Samogitia, historian and one of the best known Lithuanian writers of the 19th century.-Biography:...
, who petitioned the government to exempt prayer books from the ban. He then moved towards sponsoring the
illegal flow of books from outside LithuaniaBook smugglers were people who transported Lithuanian language books printed in the Latin alphabet into Lithuanian-speaking areas of the Russian Empire, defying a ban on such materials in force from 1866 to 1904...
. Valančius died in 1875. The period from 1875 to 1883 saw the establishment of the Lithuanian-language newspaper
Auszra (The Dawn), and the resistance at this time is associated with bishop
Antanas BaranauskasAntanas Baranauskas was a Lithuanian poet, mathematician and a catholic bishop of Polish town Sejny. Baranauskas is best known as the author of the Lithuanian language poem Anykščių šilelis. He used various pseudonyms, including A.B., Bangputys, Jurksztas Smalaūsis, Jurkštas Smalaūsis, and Baronas...
. The resistance intensified towards the end of the 19th century, after another major newspaper,
VarpasVarpas was a monthly Lithuanian-language newspaper published during the Lithuanian press ban from January 1889 to December 1905...
(The Bell), edited by
Vincas KudirkaVincas Kudirka was a Lithuanian poet and physician, and the author of both the music and lyrics of the Lithuanian National Anthem, Tautiška giesmė. He is regarded in Lithuania as a National Hero. Kudirka used pen names - V...
, was established in 1889. Between 1891 and 1893, 31,718 publications were confiscated and destroyed; between 1900 and 1902 this number increased to 56,182, reflecting their increased flow.
The period from 1890 to 1904 saw the publication of about 2,500 book titles in the Lithuanian Latin alphabet. The majority of these were published in Tilsit, a city in
East PrussiaEast Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
, although some publications reached Lithuania from the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A largely standardized written version of the language was achieved by the turn of the twentieth century, based on historical and
AukštaitijaAukštaitija is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from the relatively high elevation of the region, particularly the eastern parts.-Geography:...
n (highland) usages; the letters -č- and -š- were taken from
CzechCzech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
orthography. The widely-accepted
Lithuanian Grammar, by
Jonas JablonskisJonas Jablonskis was a distinguished Lithuanian linguist and one of the founders of the standard Lithuanian language...
, appeared in 1901.
A number of challenges to the ban's legal basis were made, and the use of this venue intensified at the end of the 19th century, along with an increasing number of letters, petitions, and protests from Lithuanians. In 1902 and 1903 the Russian Supreme Court reversed two press ban convictions that had been brought against Antanas Macijauskas and
Povilas VišinskisPovilas Višinskis was a Lithuanian writer, journalist, theatre director, and politician. His pen names include A. – s, Blinda, P – V, P. A., Apaštalas, P. Šiaulietis. He was one of the founders of the Lithuanian Democratic Party...
. The court's decisions stated that the original executive decree creating the ban was illegal. The outbreak of the
Russo-Japanese WarThe Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
in February 1904 contributed to the Russian government's perception that its minorities needed to be accommodated. The ban was officially lifted on April 24, 1904.
Effect on education
Public and private education in Lithuanian was adversely affected by the press ban. The level of pent-up demand for schooling in the 19th century is illustrated by the increase in literacy in the
RietavasRietavas is a city in Lithuania on the Jūra River. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 3,979. It is the capital of Rietavas municipality.The city is famous for building the first power station to produce electricity in Lithuania in 1892...
area; between 1853 and 1863, just before the ban, the number of literate persons rose from 11,296 to 24,330. The subsequent ban is thought to have contributed to illiteracy in 19th-century Lithuania.
In the wake of the ruling, parish schools were closed. A shortage of teachers led to the closure of a number of state schools as well, in spite of population growth. Parents began to withdraw their children from the state schools, since they were associated with the policy of Russification; students were not allowed to speak Lithuanian among themselves, and a discouraging atmosphere was created by the system of searches, inspections, and spying. Many students were schooled at home or in small secret groups instead, although this practice also resulted in sanctions.
A census of the
Kovno GovernorateThe Kovno Governorate or Government of Kovno was a governorate of the Russian Empire. Its capital was Kovno . It was formed on 18 December 1842 by tsar Nicholas I from the western part of the Vilna Governorate, and the order was carried out on 1 July 1843. It used to be a part of Northwestern Krai...
in 1897 showed that a higher proportion of older people than younger had received formal education: of persons age 30 to 39, 61.87% had experienced some level of formal education, compared to only 54.68% of persons aged 10 to 19.
Aftermath
After the ban was lifted, printing presses and their supporting social and cultural infrastructure needed to be established. The first issue of a Lithuanian newspaper after the ban,
Vilniaus žiniosVilniaus žinios was a short-lived newspaper published in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was the first legal Lithuanian-language daily newspaper to appear after the Lithuanian press ban was lifted on May 7, 1904.-History:...
, appeared on December 23, 1904; the
Great Seimas of VilniusThe Great Seimas of Vilnius , was a major assembly held on December 4 and 5, 1905 in Vilnius, Lithuania, then part of the Russian Empire, largely inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1905. It was the first modern national congress in Lithuania and dealt primarily not with the social issues that...
, which took place in November 1905, was now able to issue its announcements and publications in Lithuanian.
The publishing houses of Martynas Kukta,
Saliamonas BanaitisSaliamonas Banaitis was a Lithuanian printer, educator, and banker. He was one of the twenty signatories of the Act of Independence of Lithuania in 1918....
, and the Society of St. Casimir in
KaunasKaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
were responsible for many of the publications issued between the end of the ban in 1904 and the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1918. The businessman
Petras VileišisPetras Vileišis was a prominent Lithuanian engineer, political activist, and philanthropist.His early schooling took place in Panevežys. He then completed his secondary education at the Šiauliai Gymnasium, graduating with honors. In 1874, he completed his studies at St. Petersburg University, with...
installed a printing press at his
palaceVileišis Palace is a Neo-baroque style architectural ensemble in Vilnius, Lithuania, built for Petras Vileišis. Vileišis was a prominent Lithuanian engineer, political activist, publisher, and philanthropist who commissioned the palace in 1904 and supervised its construction. The ensemble consists...
, commissioned in 1904. During this period 4,734 Lithuanian-language titles in the Latin alphabet were published in Lithuania and abroad. After Lithuanian independence was established, the rate of publication increased steadily; 16,721 book titles were printed from 1918 to 1939. Between 1925 and 1939 about 800 to 900 book titles were printed annually.
A standard Lithuanian othography and grammar were established during the ban, despite the fact that the co-ordination of this process, involving competing dialects, was forced to take place in several countries. The ban is widely felt to have stimulated the Lithuanian national movement, rather than discouraging it. In 2004, the 100th anniversary of the ban's end was noted in
UNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
's events calendar, and the Lithuanian
SeimasThe Seimas is the unicameral Lithuanian parliament. It has 141 members that are elected for a four-year term. About half of the members of this legislative body are elected in individual constituencies , and the other half are elected by nationwide vote according to proportional representation...
declared the "Year of the Lithuanian Language and Book."