Lithuania in retrospect and prospect

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7583

LITHUANIA

RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT

John Szlupas, M. D.

Member of the Lithuanian Society of Science.

3?

NEW YORK

Published by the Lithaanian Press Association of America.

1915.

Cornell University
Library

The original of tiiis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
the United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028382962

LITHUANIA

IN

Retrospect and Prospect

BY

John Szlupas, M. D.

NEW YORK

The Lithuanian Press Associatl<flA>f America.

1915.

K^bK^io

THE LITHUANIAN AUTONOMY FUND.

Dr. John Szlupas, Pres., Mr. Thomas Pauxtis, Treas.,

1419 N. Main Ave., 13 Mill St.,

Scranton, Pa. Pittston, Pa.

To Mr. J. O. Sirvydas, Sec'y, of the Lithuanian Autonomy

Fund, Nos. 120-124 Grand St., Brooklyn, N. Y.
Dear Sir:

I desire to contribute to the Lithuanian Autonomy Fund

and enclose herewith I do this

with the understanding that the Lithuanian Autonomy
Fund shall in no way compromise the neutrality of the
United States of America.

Name

(If lady state whether Mrs. or Miss)

Address

Date

A contributor who does not wish to have his or her name
published can add here the initials or pseudonym under
which the contribution is to be acknowledged.

Initials or Pseudonym

PUBLISHER'S NOTE.

In this, the first complete, though brief, account of the
history of Lithuania in the English language, the story of
the struggle for existence of a small nation cannot help but
grip the interest of the reader.

No one is better fitted to relate the story than Dr. John
Szlupas who is distinguished as a historian and lecturer
among the Lithuanians, and who has himself been in large
measure responsible for the reawakening of the nation which
occurred in the early eighties.

A word about the pronunciation of a few of the letters
used in the text and map may not be amiss :

C is pronounced like ch in chat;

§ is pronounced like sh in show;

7i and %h are pronounced like g in the French word
argent.

E is pronounced like e in effort.

For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,

Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would
be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails.

Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly
bales ;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain'd a
ghastly dew

From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue ;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing
warm,

With the standards of the peoples plunging thro' the thun-
derstorm ;

Till the war-drum throbb'd no longer, and the battle-flags
were furl'd

In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm

in awe.
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law.

— Alfred Lord Tennyson.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction 9

I. The Lithuanians of Antiquity 12

II. The Lithu-Letts of the Middle Ages 18

III. The Rise and Decline of Lithuania 23

IV. The Hardships of Protestantism in Lithuania 38

V. The Decline and the Partitions of Poland. . 43
VI. Lithuania During the Reigns of Catherine II.

and Paul 63

VII. Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alex-
ander I 65

VIII. Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Nicholas

I 69

IX. Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alex-
ander II 77

X. Four Decades of Contention and Suffering. 83

XL The Outlook 91

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect.

INTRODUCTION

There is something wrong with most of the world be-
cause might is right. In the past, great and greedy nations
were created, and, by the use of cunning in addition to their
strength, these nations were able, with but a small expendi-
ture of effort, to dominate or subjugate smaller nationalities.
Hence blood-shed, persecution, the poverty and spiritual
stagnation of the weaker races; hence bloody wars of ex-
termination between the states in their competition for
world supremacy. The great powers, then, have been guilty
not of oppression alone, but also of trampling upon the fun-
damental rights of humanity.

And yet all races are "equally worthy though they do
not possess an equal degree of civilization. The differences
amongst them can be characterized as being those of age
and opportunity. In vain the great nations strove to annihi-
late the individuality of smaller races ; since the French Rev-
olution which awakened the peoples to democracy, Europe
presents scores of revived races, but no example of a dead
one." "Not all of the smaller races," as Luigi Villari beau-
tifully puts it, "have behind them the splendid record of
great achievements in literature, in art, in government,
which in France, Spain, Germany, Italy and England in-
spires national feeling. But they have the recollection of
a tenacious adherence to their faith and language through
centuries of grievous oppression, mingled with the traditions
of their ancient days of independence, and brightened by
the hope of a national life in the future."

How can the present deplorable state of affairs be rem-
edied?

The writer believes that a revision of the principles of
conduct is necessary. Might must be supplanted by justice

10 Introduction.

not only in theory, but in practice also. Instead of free-
dom for a few greedy states alone, there should be freedom
for aU races and nationalities. Should not every race enjoy
liberty so that, through moral elevation, it might become a
worthy member of hvunanity?

A few basic principles of law should be recognized by
every nation.

Every nation should provide for the protection of life,
liberty and property; every nation should encourage the
pursuit of happiness. And the application of such principles
of law is what the writer calls justice.

After all, races or nations consist of human beings more
or less artificially grouped. If the principles of justice can
obtain in one nation between its individuals, there seems to
be no reason why the principles of justice could not be ap-
plied between races and between nations, thus rendering op-
pression and war unnecessary.

Dr. James Brown Scott, the great authority on interna-
tional law, says in substance that

The protection of life, in terms of international
law, should mean the right of a nation to exist.

In terms of international law the protection of
liberty should mean the right of each race and na-
tion to be independent, to grow and develop with-
out interference or control from without.

And in terms of international law protection of
property should mean the right of a race and na-
tion to own property and have jurisdiction within
its own boundaries.

To this should be added equality before the law,
for races and nations should be equal members of
the society of nations.
For the application of the basic principles nations have
already established courts of justice. Cannot nations estab-
lish an international tribunal with competent judges ap-
pointed by agreement for the interpretation and the appli-
cation of international law in all disputes between races and
nations?

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 11

The existence and successful operation of courts of law
have created an orderly and regulated course of conduct
even in those transactions of life which are not controlled
by law. Can we not reasonably expect races and nations to
agree to the development of a system of law to regulate the
conduct of races and their states as members of the society
of nations on the basis of the fundamental principles?

The existent nations have already agreed to the forma-
tion of some fifty public unions. One of the best examples
of such unions is the Universal Postal Union. Cases of dis-
pute among its members are referred for arbitration by this
Postal Union to a board consisting of three members. There
is a permanent bureau connected with the union to provide
for the execution of certain formal duties.

Is it unreasonable, then, to assume that races and nations
should agree to form a union of justice? By means of, say,
the Hague Conferences, races and nations could certainly
agree upon the principles of law applied by such a tribunal,
and the law of this tribunal would be the law of races and
nations, for the reason that they would be made by and for
all the races and nations.

And to preclude the possibility of a war between races
and nations in the future, all nations, by mutual agreement,
should disarm, and hand the control of the production of
arms to the international tribunal itself. The production
of engines of destruction should be made an international
monopoly.

For the enforcement of its decrees, the international tri-
bunal should have an international police force on land and
sea at its disposal. For the maintenance of such a police
force each nation should be subject to a levy, payable in
proportion to the number of its population.

In the following pages the reader will find an exposi-
tion of the causes which have led the Lithuanians of Europe
and America to embrace the principles here succinctly laid
down.

12 The Lithuanians of Antiquity.

I. THE LITHUANIANS OF ANTIQUITY.

Philologists are agreed that the Lithuanian language is
very closely related to the Sanskrit and the ancient Greek
in vocabulary, forms and structure. But why the language
of a people living along the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea —
far from India or Greece — should possess so much in com-
mon with the other languages of antiquity, is a problem
which has baffled men of science even to this day.

In order to arrive at a satisfactory solution of this prob-
lem, it is not sufficient to have studied the Lithuanian lan-
guage and its relations to the other languages of antiquity
alone, as most philologists have done, but it is equally im-
portant to have something more than a superficial knowl-
edge of the folk-lore, the customs and the traditions, and the
history of the Lithuanian people as well.

In times before our present era, the Lithu-Lett family
of the Indo-European race inhabited considerable territory
in Asia Minor and southeastern and eastern Europe, al-
though it was not known under a comprehensive name. The
ancient Lithu-Lett people were known as Geta, Kheta, Hit
or Chittim, and they came in contact with Nineveh, Baby-
lonia, and Egypt. They formed the powerful nation of the
Hittites whose inscriptions were discovered in Asia Minor
by Wright, Sayce, and others. These people exerted their
influence from the mountains of Taurus westward to the
Aegaean Sea. Later we hear of them as the Massa-getae,
the Thyssa-getae and as the Getae from along the banks
of the Danube river and among whom the Roman poet
Ovidius Naso spent his days of exile.

The Getae were not only warlike, but extremely relig-
ious. Lucian was a witness to their gorgeous ceremonies in
the Temple of the Sun at Mabog. Their religious ideas
were pictured in the bas-reliefs at Eyuk and Bohazkoei.
The Amazons who were a militant caste of priestesses suc-
ceeded in spreading their religious ecstasies as far as
Ephesus.

Herodotus tells us* that there is an ethnical relationship
between the Getae and the Thracians, Kappadokians, Bithy-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 13

nians, Phrygians (Bryges), Lydians, Kaunians, Lycians,
Trojans, etc. When the Getae represented an essentially
pastoral race, the Thracians, inhabiting what is now known

* The testimony of Herodotus is very important, and can, in tiie writer's
opinion, be corroborated by the Lithuanian language. Anyone who knows the
Lithuanian language can explain without difficulty the meaning of the names of
numerous ancient races, people or places which are dealt with in this work; e. g.
Kappadokians (kapas -j- doka) means the interpreters of the life after death,
Geta — a herdsman, Thracian — one who lives upon cleared land, Bithynian — bee-
keeper, Sarmatians (the Sauromatae of Herodotus) — the narrow-sighted
(minded), Laomedon — the lion-hunter, Euxine Sea — the golden sea, Aegaean Sea
— the navigable sea, etc.

Every philologist and historian must be struck by the fact that many of the
names of the ancient peoples or places of Asia Minor are duplicated in the dis-
tant Lithuania of to-day — more than 2,000 years later. The writer appends here
a short list of names selected at random with their modern Lithuanian equiva-
lents :

Ancient Ancient

Gyges Sipyles

Kroizos Ilion

Zipoites Sardes

Seuthes Ister or Inster

Boteiros Hyllos

Lykia Priene

Kaunos Myrkinos

Lida Modern

Modern Sipyliai

Gugis Yliuona

Kraziai, Krazys Sartininkai

^ibaitis Insrute (Ystrute)

Siautys Gilius

Botyrius Prienai

Luke or Luoke Merkine,

Kaunas Etc.

Lida
as the Balkan Peninsula, were tilling the soil as they had
done from time immemorial. Herodotus, Thucydides,
Pliny, Strabo and other authors of antiquity mention about
fifty names of tribes which, taken together, constituted the
race known as the Thracian. But few of the tribes organ-
ized themselves into a state as did the Odrysae. The Da-
cians, struggling for their homes and liberty under the lead-

14 The Lithuanians of Antiquity.

ership of Decebalus, became well known to the Romans.
Other races of the same family, such as the Aisti, Gytones,
Kassini (the present Polonized Kaszuby), Scyrri, Heruli,
Geloni, Agathyrsae, Pagirytae, Krivicii (Krobydzoi),
Getvingi (Jatviagi), Boroussi, Samogetae, Semigalli, Selii,
Letgalli, etc., occupied the plains stretching from the Laba
(now known as the Elbe) eastward to the river Tanais (the
present Don), and from the Euxine Sea northward as far
as Lake Peipus and the Baltic Sea.

The ancient Greeks were a maritime and colonizing na-
tion. Their earliest colonies were established on the shores
of the Aegaean Sea both in Europe (Byzantion, Abderos,
Mesembria, etc.) and in Asia Minor (Miletus, Kyme, Ad-
ramyttion, etc.) among the friendly Lithu-Lett races, and
a vigorous trade was carried on between them for centuries.
Even intermarriages with the various tribes must have been
not uncommon when such men like Themistocles and Thu-
cydides were "tainted" by having some Thracian blood
course through their veins. Those intimate relationships be-
tween the Greeks and the aborigines explain not only the
similarities in language, but especially the influences at work
in religion, poetry and music, for which the Greeks are
greatly indebted to the early inhabitants of Asia Minor and
that part of Europe now known as the Balkan Peninsula.
Not only is Ares, the Greek god of war, supposed to have
dwelt in Thrace, but types of musical instruments, mys-
teries, and especially, exciting ceremonies such as the Lamp-
adophoria, were borrowed from the song-loving peoples of
Asia Minor. Orpheus and Musaeus are said to have been
born in Thrace, while Dionysos, Semele, and the Oracle of
Dodona, etc., are undoubtedly of Lithu-Lett origin.

Some races in Asia Minor were reduced to slavery by
the Persians, the kings of Pontus, the kings of Pergamus,
or the successors of Alexander the Great, etc., while others
lost their language and individuality by becoming Helle-
nized. In the times of the Apostle Paul one could still hear
the old idioms spoken in Lykaonia. In Europe the Thra-
cians came under the sway of the Romans (168 B.C.), and

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 15

in later centuries their abode was frequently preyed upon
by the Goths, Sarmatians and other intruders. The Getae
crossed the Danube and by joining with the Dacians formed
a mighty state which was able to carry on many exhausting
wars with the Roman Empire until the year 104 A.D., when
their principal city, Sarmisegethusa, was stormed and the
strength of the nation thereby broken. Later we find the
Dacians living on both banks of the upper and central Nie-
men, where they are at present known as the Dzukai, while
the Getae who settled on the right bank of the lower Vis-
tula gave birth to the celebrated race of the Boroussi or
Prutteni — the Old Prussians. The Krobydzoi, who in the
second century B.C., lived in the vicinity of Varna on the
Black Sea, are later found in what is now White Russia, and
where they eventually lost their national traits and became
Russianized (VIII — X century).

In short, the great migration of nations, started from the
north by the Teutonic tribes (Ostrogoths, Visigoths), and
from the east by the Hunno- Slavic races, completed the
work of extermination. That which remained unabsorbed
by the Romans, the new invaders either annihilated or com-
pelled to join their own forces, and we see the Lithu-Lett
race gradually dwindling away to such an extent that only
mere fragments remained in the confines between the Vis-
tula, the Dnieper, and the Duna. The Bulgars and other
Slavs, the Magyars, and the Germans, settled in countries
previously occupied by the Lithu-Lett tribes, and having
assimilated the former inhabitants, left only a reminiscence
of their nationality in the names of seas (Euxine, Aegaean) ;
mountains (Ida, Skombros, Balkans, Carpathians, etc.) ;
rivers (Danube or Ister, Vistula, etc.) ; towns (Ilion,
Priene, Myrkinos, Warsaw, Cracow, etc.) ; deities (Dzie-
wanna and Dzidzielia of the Poles, Vanda, Perun or Per-
kun, etc. ) , and in the sounds q and ^ in the Polish and the
ancient Bulgarian languages, and in the sounds c and dz
in the Polish tongue as well as in several other characteristics
of the Slavs.

18 The Lithu-Letts of the Middle Ages.

II. THE LITHU-LETTS OF THE MIDDLE

AGES.

In the Middle Ages we find the Lithu-Lett race sur-
rounded by Germans in the West, by Poles and the Russian
duchies in the south and east. The struggle for existence
continued without cessation, and the brunt of the racial
defence had to be borne by those races which came directly
in contact with the invaders.

The first to feel the sting of inroads and destruction were
the Get-vingi whom V. Kadlubek calls a branch of the Getae
{Gete dicti fuere Jaswenze) ; they were a rich and warlike
race, eager to die for their country, knowing that in so doing
they would be glorified in their Damo* (Ballads). Vladimir
the Saint devastated their country in 983, and, from that
time on, either the Russian dukes (Jaroslav, Daniel, Lev,
etc), or the Polish rulers (Boleslav the Bold, Casimir the
Righteous, etc.) committed ceaseless incursions and depre-
dations upon them until the year 1264 when Boleslav the
Bashful killed so many people that even the name of the
Get-vingi disappears from history; the siu-vivors fled into
Sudavia where the Teutonic Knights utterly destroyed them
in the year 1283.

Not less tragic was the fate of the Letts who dwelt on
both banks of the Duna — the Semigallia on the left bank,
the Letgallia on the right. In 1159 German merchants in
company with armed men came from Bremen, and "not long
after followed missionaries who began the work of convert-
ing the natives to Catholicism. Eventually this led to the
conquest of the Letts. Bishop Albert built the city of Riga
in 1201, and immediately made it the headquarters for the
Knights of the Sword. German fortresses were erected all

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 19

over Lettland, and the Knights of the Sword defeated and
subjugated the inhabitants, one part of whom were exterm-
inated by the Germans, another fled to Lithuania, while the
remainder were forced to bear the yoke of a terrible eco-
nomic exploitation. The final resistance of the people was
broken in 1276, since which time Livland and Courland
shared in the fortunes of the Knights of the Sword. A
feudal system was set up, and the Letts, being mercilessly
exploited by the feudal lords, grudgingly bore the yoke of
their conquerors. And yet the Letts, this state of slavery
notwithstanding, have survived to this day and have attained
a high state of culture.

Even more horrible is the story of the Old Prussians
whose country was divided into eleven provinces. The mis-
sionaries Adalbert of Prague, who was kiUed in the year 997,
Bonifacius, and Bruno of Magdeburg (1009) came early,
but they labored in vain for the conversion of the heathen.
Christian of Oliva eventually succeeded in converting sev-
eral of the nobles and was rewarded by being ordained as
the bishop of the Prussians by the Pope in 1215. But the
Mazovians looked upon the Prussian lands with longing
eyes, and not infrequently pillaged Prussian villages. The
Prussians in their turn ravaged Mazovia and killed the
Catholic priests. The Pope thereupon issued a proclama-
tion to all parts of Europe for crusades against the Prus-
sians. These crusades were only temporary, however, and
afforded but meager protection to the Poles against Prus-
sian severity. Christian then conceived the idea of estab-
lishing an order of knights whose sole aim and end was to
be the pacification and the conversion of the Prussians. Con-
rad of Mazovia donated a stretch of land together with the
fortress Dobryn to this new organization and invited Her-
mann Salza to take possession of it. This is the way the
Order of the Teutonic Knights was started. But it was
not long before the Teutonic Knights began to erect one
fortress after another (Vogelsang, Thorn, Althaus, etc.),
and the Prussians soon became aware of their dangerous
new enemy. The provinces of Kulm and Pomesania were

20 The Lithu-Letts of the Middle Ages.

soon in their possession. Their greatest support came from
the Pope who damned the Prussians and urged people in
all parts of Europe to join the crusaders, assuring them that
in so doing they could attain eternal life for their souls.
People flocked to the assistance of the Teutonic Knights
who now began to hinder even the evangelical work of
Bishop Christian. Pogesania was conquered in 1237, and
hunger and pestilence swept over the devastated land of the
heathens. The province of Varmia, defended by Piopsys
and Glottiner and their men, was the next to fall, and many
new fortresses (Braunsberg, Heilsberg, Kreutzburg, Bar-
tenstein, etc.) were erected.

The Prussians revolted. Mindove of Lithuania and
Svatopolk of Pomerania came to their assistance. But the
Pope of Rome sent new armies of crusaders, while the Teu-
tonic Knights stirred up Svatopolk's brothers Sambor and
Racibor to revolt, and so the revolutionists had to sue for
peace. Four bishoprics, the smallest of which was allotted
to Bishop Christian who died of grief in the year 1241, were
already established.

War broke out anew when the Teutonic Knights kept
Svatopolk's son Mestvin as hostage. But new hordes of
crusaders came along, and Natangia together with a part of
Barthenia submitted to the German yoke : the Prussians had
to pay tithe, erect twenty-two churches, and, in case they
died childless, will their property to the Order of the Teu-
tonic Knights. Under threat of excommunication by the
Pope, Svatopolk was obliged to make peace.

Sambia was next to be conquered. Otto of Bohemia led
an army of 70,000 crusaders against it; Romove, the sacred
center of paganism, fell in ruins, and in Otto's honor the
fortress of Konigsberg was erected in the year 1255. The
submission of Nadrevia, where Duke Tirskus became a
traitor to his people and voluntarily handed over the for-
tresses Velove, Kapostete, Gundava, etc., soon followed
(1256). In the meantime the spirit of the crusades began
to diminish, and the Pope not only made access to the ranks

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 21

of the Teutonic Knights easier, but also added to the privi-
leges of its members.

The subjugated people complained bitterly of the heavy
tribute in grain, but their leaders were treacherously incin-
erated at a banquet given in their honor. A revolt followed.
Henry Monte, a brave Natangian, defeated the Knights
and the crusaders at Pokarvis in the year 1262, but the Sam-
ians were routed with a loss of 3,000 men. Yet under
Nalube's leadership they laid siege to Konigsberg, until, be-
ing caught unawares, they lost 5,000 men; among the slain
were Glande, Svaynis and other leading men. The Sam-
ians, overpowered, were transported to remote regions.

In Barthenia Divone tried to exterminate the Christians,
and at first was quite successful; the fortress Vystote, Val-
levona and Kreutzburg were overpowered, and the Teutonic
Knights suffered a bitter defeat near Loebau. The crusaders
from Bartenstein sought refuge in Elbing or Konigsberg.
But the Samians were defeated near Schoenwik, while the
Sudavians were repulsed at Wehlau. Pope Urban, as well
as his successor Clemens IV., again came to the rescue by
urging a crusade. Yet Glappas stormed the fortress of
Brandenburg, while Divone and Linkas devastated the land
of Kulm; but Divone soon lost his life at the siege of the
fortress Schoensee. The Teutonic Knights then formed a
federation with Boleslav of Poland and Mestvin of Pomer-
ania; Pope Gregory X. once more urged a crusade against
the Prussians and increased the privileges of the Order. No
wonder Linkas was soon defeated and cruelly murdered,
while Henry Monte, losing 12,000 men, hid himself in the
forests, where he was discovered and cruelly murdered;
Glappas was captured by means of trickery and hanged.
Auktumas alone remained active. The crusaders and the
Teutonic Knights had converted the country into a desert:
most of the men were killed, while the women and children
were removed to other parts. The fortress of Marienburg
was now built. Nadrevia was wiped out in the year 1276.
The efforts of Stenegaudis and Soreka in Scalovia were ex-
pended in vain; some of the population escaped to Lithu-

22 The Lithu-Letts of the Middle Ages.

ania, while their native soil became the abode of wild beasts.
The Sudavians offered but feeble resistance to the en-
croachments made upon them by the Teutonic Knights;
wherever the Knights were unable to overcome them by
means of the sword, they resorted to the so-called Strutters,
who secretly set fire to dwellings or the crops in the fields.
Skomant, a leader of the people, emigrated to Lithuania,
but returned in the year 1284 and accepted baptism. Vadole,
another leader, fell in battle. Kantegerdis capitulated with
1,600 men. At the conclusion of several unsuccessful cam-
paigns, Gedetis also surrendered. Skurdas made ready to
leave the country, and Sudavia, a rich province heretofore,
remained a desolate land for many years. The haughty
Knights made the air resound with their shouts of merriment
as they traversed the fields, overstrewn with cemeteries, and
haunted only by the cursing spirits of an extinguished na-
tion. Even the name of the unfortunate country was stolen
by the Teutons.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 23

III. THE RISE AND DECLINE OF
LITHUANIA.

Being in danger of destruction, the Samogetians and
the Lithuanians were stirred up to such an extent that they
organized into a state to resist the invaders. Bingaudas was
the first man to advocate the unification of the race, and soon
not only were the Ruthenians subdued at Mohilno (1234),
but the Knights of the Sword also were so thoroughly
defeated (1236), that they were forced to seek for their
safety in a union with the Teutonic Knights. Mindove ex-
erted his energy against the Slavs in the south, and against
the Germans in the west, and, having to contend with various
factions at home, he accepted Christianity and the king's
crown in the year 1252. During his struggles with the Rus-
sian princes, the Teutonic Knights, and the domestic fac-
tions, the great king found his death at the hand of an as-
sassin in the year 1263.

The sequel to this was a veritable turmoil in the land,
until Lutavaras succeeded in establishing his claim to the
throne of the Grand Dukes. The House of Lutavaras
brought a period of splendor and expansion to the country.
His son Vytenis established many fortresses and a standing
army, and only by deceit were his enemies occasionally able
to make incursions into the interior of the country (1301-
1307). Gedyminas, a brother of Vytenis, not only proved
himself to be a great warrior by keeping the Teutons in
check, but showed himself to be a great statesman also by
founding such cities as Trakai and Vilnius, and by establish-
ing diplomatic relations with western Europe. The Lithu-
anian State was extended to the south almost as far as Kiev
and to the east as far as Smolensk. His policies prevailed

24 .The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

in the great city of Novgorod, in Riga, and in Poland where
his daughter, Aldona, was given in marriage to Casimir with
the release of 24,000 slaves — truly one of the grandest dow-
ries the world has ever seen. Following his death (1340),
the youthful Jaunutis was unable to cope with the Teutonic
enemies, and so the great Olgerd and Kynstut established
a dual government for the benefit of the country : Kynstut —
to fight against the Teutonic Order; Olgerd — against the
Ruthenians and Poles. Many of the undertakings of Kyn-
stut — some successful, some disastrous, as at Strava (1348)
and Rudava (1370) — were truly amazing. The Teutons
made several raids almost every year, leaving the country
behind them a desolate waste — yet they were always held at
bay by the mighty and righteous Kynstut who, though made
prisoner several times, was each time successful in eluding
his captors. Cool-headed Olgerd fought successfully against
Pskov, Smolensk, Briansk, and even Moscow, which was
obliged several times to accept Olgerd's terms of peace at
its very gates. The provinces of Kiev and Podolia also had
to submit to Lithuanian supremacy. Prior to his death in
the year 1377, Olgerd victoriously carried on long, strength-
sapping wars with Poland for Volynia as the prize. Hav-
ing acquired many Russian lands in this manner, Lithuania
became a vast country.

Unfortunately for Lithuania, however, the great Olgerd
was succeeded by the treacherous Jagiello who, by fiendish
machinations, soon overpowered, imprisoned, and finally
strangled the aged hero Kynstut in the fortress of Kreva.
Being Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1382 to 1392, Jagiello
did little else than persecute the adherents of Kynstut dur-
ing this decade. But Kynstut's son, Vijtautas, escaped and
found refuge with the Teutonic Order. After numerous
vicissitudes and reconciliations, Jagiello finally married the
Polish Princess Hedvig in 1386, promising to deliver Lithu-
ania to Poland and to convert the country to Catholicism.
The Ruthenians, being Orthodox Greeks, were naturally ex-
cluded from equal rights. The bishopric of Vilnius was in-
stituted, and even a college for Lithuanian proselytes was

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 25

established in Prague. Vytautas was slighted by the hand-
ing over of Lithuania to the Pole Nicolas Moskorzevski, and
he again had to seek safety in a flight to the Teutonic Order.
In the year 1392, however, Vytautas took possession of the
Grand Duchy by a display of force, whereas his two sons
at the same time were poisoned at Konigsberg.

Vytautas (1392-1430), being the equal of Gedyminas
and Olgerdas in wisdom and in action, was soon able to
pacify the whole country. But in 1399 he led an army of
crusaders against the Tartars and he was utterly defeated on
the river Vorskla. This defeat placed Lithuania in a pre-
carious situation, and Vytautas was obliged to enter into a
humiliating treaty with Jagiello and the Poles at Vilnius in
the year 1401 ; even Samogetia was given over to the Teu-
tonic Knights.

Misunderstandings with the Teutons soon loomed up.
The Poles had an unsuccessful war with them, and Vytautas
was drawn into it. Leading a composite army of Lithuan-
ians, Poles, Ruthenians, Czechs and Tartars, he met the
Teutons at Grunwald and Tannenberg where he routed
them utterly (1410) with a slaughter of at least 50,000 of
the enemy. Failing to receive adequate support Vytautas
forsook the Poles with whom, however, the Teutons had to
make peace at Thorn in 1411, The German Drang nach
Osten had now been effectually halted, while the peace at
Lake Meln in 1422 broke the power of the Germans.

Through the efforts of Vytautas, Samogetia was con-
verted to Christianity in 1413, and a bishopric of seven par-
ishes was established at Medininkai (Varniai). In the very
same year, however Vytautas entered into another highly
unsatisfactory treaty with Jagiello at Horodlo: Lithuania
was to remain in union with Poland. In order to bring
about greater uniformity among his subjects, Vytautas
strove to unite the Western and the Eastern churches
(1418), but he did not live long enough to see the fruits of
his labor. But this was not all. He conferred great privi-
leges upon the Jews trading in town and country; he wielded
his enormous influence upon the Tartar hordes with sue-

26 The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

cess, often giving them Chans, and settling many of them on
the lands in Lithuania; and he established numerous cities,
ports (Ocakov, Odessa, Tjagin) on the Black Sea, and
many fortresses which stopped the Tartars from overrun-
ning Europe. His realm stretched from the shores of the
Baltic Sea to those of the Black, and from the vi^estern Bug
to the river Oka. In 1422 he commissioned Sigismund Kary-
but with 5,000 men to aid the Hussites in a campaign against
the Poles, who were putting into practice the policy of col-
onizing various tracts of Lithuania for which reason the dif-
ferences between the two races gradually grew in magni-
tude. To insure the future independence of Lithuania,
Vytautas conceived the idea of becoming King of Lithuania,
and he was supported in this endeavor by Sigismund, Em-
peror of the Holy Roman Empire. At Luzk, in 1429, there
was a splendid gathering of the nobility and of representa-
tives from abroad, but to the consternation of all, the Poles
had intercepted the royal sceptre, and the coronation had to
be postponed. Soon after Vytautas suddenly fell ill and, to
the jubilation of the Poles, died in Trakai, Oct. 27, 1430,
not, however, without suspicion of foul play by Jagiello.

Svytrigela, the successor of Vytautas, immediately came
into conflict with the Poles concerning the possession of Po-
dolia. A war was imminent, but Jagiello succeeded in estab-
lishing a conspiracy whereby Svytrigela was overthrown
(1432). Svytrigela escaped to Polotzk, while his throne
was occupied by Kynstut's son, Sigismund, who not only
swore allegiance to Jagiello, but even ceded the provinces of
Volynia and Podolia to Poland. In an effort to regain the
throne, Svytrigela suffered defeat as well as desertion from
his allies — the Teutonic Knights. Not long after, early in
the year of 1434, Jagiello died, and Svytrigela tried once
more to regain his crown, but again he was defeated with a
great loss of men; whereupon be fled to foreign countries
never to regain the coveted throne. He died at Luzk in the
year 1452. Sigismund was willing to harness the power of
the aristocracy and to better the conditions of the peasantry.
The magnates, however, being staunch adversaries to such

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 27

reforms, fomented a successful plot against the life of the
Grand Duke, who fell a victim to an assassin's hand in the
city of Trakai, March 20, 1440,

Contrary to the wishes of the Poles, Andrew Casimir
Jagiellon (1440-1492) was elevated to the throne of Lithu-
ania. A civil war ensued, and Sigismund's son, Michael, be-
ing defeated, fled for safety to Muscovy, where he was
poisoned in the year 1452. When Vladislas III., King of
Poland, fell in the battle of Varna, the Poles tendered An-
drew Casimir an invitation to mount their throne, and to
affect a union between Poland and Lithuania. The Lithu-
anians objected to the incorporation of Lithuania into
Poland and to the alienation of Podolia and Volynia. The
Diet convened very frequently to discuss the proposed union,
but its efforts were expended in vain — the Lithuanians had
reason to remain loyal to their cause, the more so when later
the king upheld under oath the privileges of the Polish gen-
try. A war with the Teutonic Knights (1454-1466), in
which the Lithuanians gave substantial aid to Poland, broke
out, yet the Poles showed themselves to be as relentless as
ever in their demand that Lithuania be merged into Poland.
Peasants in the vicinity of Merkine revolted, but were
forcibly subdued (1483). In 1457 the Ruthenian nobles
were the recipients of substantial grants of land, and a code
of laws — Sudebnik — was promulgated. Lithuanian cities
were given the Magdeburgian legal code in addition to
numerous concessions. Not even the Jews were forgotten
(1441). On account of its quarrels with Poland, however,
Lithuania was not able to offer adequate protection to its
southern provinces against the Tartars who made frequent
raids there. The Teutonic Order becoming greatly en-
feebled. Western Prussia was ceded to Poland, which thus
became a power in Europe, while Lithuania was slighted.
In the meantime the Muscovites had exterminated the
Golden Horde of the Tartars and had proclaimed their in-
dependence (1480). In the year 1478 great Novgorod fell
into the talons of the Muscovites who thereby became very
dangerous to the Lithuanians among whom the Feudal Sys-

28 The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

tem already bore evidences of decay. Many of the dukes
left their native land and emigrated into Muscovy. Andrew
Casimir separated the metropoly of Kiev from that of Mos-
cow in an endeavor to protect his realm from the influences
emanating from Moscow. Upon his demise, the union with
Poland was severed and his son, Alexander, became the
ruler of Lithuania, while John Olbracht was chosen to sit on
the throne of the Poles.

But Alexander (1492-1506) proved to be an incapable
monarch. Through his marital relation with the Grand
Duke of Moscow the commerce between the two nations was
increased, yet, when Ivan broke off commercial relations
with the Hanseatic League, the trade in raw materials with
Novgorod ceased altogether. The year 1498 was one of
famine, and lues venerea was transplanted from Poland into
Lithuania about this time. Some Lithuanian dukes seceded
and joined Moscow, thus causing an inevitable war in which
the Tartars of Mengli Girey aided the Muscovites. The
enemy gained a victory at Viedrosa, Smolensk and Mstislav
were besieged, and Lithuania's ally Sich- Ahmed was left to
his fate.

John Olbracht who, in 1496, performed the double task
of depriving the cities of Poland of their right to possess
landed estates and of imposing a condition of servitude upon
the peasantry, died in the year 1501, whereupon Alexander
was elected King of Poland.

Walter von Plettenberg, in alliance with Lithuania, suc-
cessfully continued the war against Moscow, but the Poles
gave Lithuania no assistance. Cessation of hostilities fol-
lowed for six years from the year 1503.

The nobility received new privileges at Piotrkov in
1504, and from the year 1505 the Diet became the organ of
legislation. In the meantime the Muscovites incited the
Crimean Tartars to rise up in arms against the Lithuanians
whose nobility took no interest in the affairs of the state and
whose fortresses lay in ruins; they laid waste the country,
burned down towns and villages, and plunged thousands of
people into slavery. M. Glinsky alone fought valiantly

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 29

against the Tartars and succeeded in liberating 40,000 pris-
oners at Klezk in the year 1506.

The Grand Duke prescribed the best men — Zabrzezinski,
Glebovic' and Goztovt, kept Sich- Ahmed in captivity, and,
in 1495 and 1506, tried to expel the Jews from Lithuania,
whereas M, Glinsky, being a favorite of his, did as he
pleased.

Sigismundus {II.) the Old (1506-1544) now occupied
the thrones of Lithuania and Poland, and at once directed his
attention to the shattered condition of the finances of the
country. He elevated the Jew, Abraham Ezofovicz, to the
portfolio of the Minister of Finance. M. Glinsky killed
Zabrzezinski, the Palatine of Trakai, and went to Moscow.
Many of the magnates followed him thither. But Sigismun-
dus was successful in a war with Moscow, and peace was
finally restored.

On hearing the rumor that Alexander's widow, Helen,
had died in seclusion, the Muscovites decided to declare war
and to occupy Smolensk and Polotzk. Smolensk fell through
bribery, and M. Glinsky, not being made its palatine, turned
traitor to the Muscovites. He was apprehended, however,
shackled and brought to Moscow where he died in the year
1534. At Orsa the Lithuanians defeated an army of 80,000
men. In 1518 the Muscovites suffered defeat at Polotzk.
Finally, in 1521, a peace for five years was agreed upon, and
later this was extended for six additional years.

In 1529, Sigismundus, at the Diet of Vilnius, willed his
crown to his son, Sigismundus Augustus, who thus became
co-regent and who not long after was crowned King of Po-
land. In 1534, during the reign of Telepnev-Obolenski, and
at the time when S. Bielski and J. Lacki sought refuge in
Lithuania from Muscovite terrorism, a war with the Mus-
covites again broke out. It was in this war that the Lithu-
anians used gunpowder for the first time. The Poles gave
the Lithuanians no assistance. In 1537 an armistice to last
five years was agreed upon, and this was extended for seven
additional years at its expiration.

In 1544 Sigismundus II. retired from active participa-

30 The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

tion in the government with the title of Supremus Dux Lithu-
aniae. The young Sigismundus Augustus married the beau-
tiful Barbara Radzivill, to the consternation of the Poles,
who demand that he divorce the Lithuanian princess. The
aged King Sigismundus II. who boasted that he could rest
peacefully on the lap of any of his subjects — a boast which
but few, if any, of the present-day monarchs could lay claim
to — died in the year 1548. There was now no opposition in
Lithuania to the marriage of the Grand Duke to Barbara
Radzivill.

In the time of Sigismundus II. we meet, for the first
time, the Cossacks of the Dnieper. They lived by hunting,
fishing and the depredation of neighboring lands. They
were often used in the wars against the Tartars whose ex-
peditions of devastation became disagreeably frequent. The
Cossack Attaman, E. Daszkevicz, attained renown as a
leader.

Following the treaty of Thorn, the Teutonic Knights,
being shorn of considerable power, strove to intrigue with
Moscow against Lithuania and Poland. For this they were
punished by John Radzivill, and a truce for four years re-
sulted. The Germans, being busy with the Reformation,
were unable to render any substantial aid. Albrecht pro-
claimed himself Duke of Prussia under the suzerainty of
Sigismundus II. While the Order disappeared as such in
Prussia, the Knights of the Sword continued to exist in
Livonia. Owing to the fact that numerous German artisans
and merchants lived in Lithuania and the fact that many
of the inhabitants were already acquainted with the teach-
ings of John Huss, the Reformation found easy access into
the country. Even the Jews and the Ruthenians felt the
throb of religious unrest. Evangelists like Knopken, Teget-
mejer, Hoffman and others soon took up their work in
Livonia. The Lithuanian magnates sent their children
abroad to be educated. Lithuanian translations of the
literature of the Reformation began to circulate from Kon-
igsberg where St. Rapelagen and Ab. Kulva taught phi-
lology and theology at the new university (1544) . Sigismun-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 31

dus Augustus was a patron of the Reformation in the city
of Vilnius where, in 1539, Ab. Kulva had established a
school. Neither the censorship of the clergy, raids upon the
homes of the heretics, nor the ban placed on study in foreign
universities availed, for the court of Sigismundus Augustus
lent a willing ear to the teachings of Luther, Melanchton,
Buzer, Calvin and others.

Sigismundus II. rendered another service to the coun-
try: he assigned M. Goztovt to incorporate the civil and the
criminal laws into one book which came to be known as the
Lithuanian Statute (1529). According to this code only
nobles could participate in the Diet, the gentry was given
civil liberty, while the peasantry was left to the mercy of
the ruling class. By means of the second and the third edi-
tions of the Statute slavery and cabbala were stricken out
and the constituents of both placed in a single category —
that of subjects. The third edition of the Lithuanian
Statute remained in force until the year 1840. The upper
classes now began to imitate the Poles even in their speech,
while the lower classes were obliged to go without any edu-
cation. Only seldom was a school (such as the one in Taur-
age by J. Bartasinas, or by the priest M. Lanckis in Jon-
iske, or like that instituted by V. Goztovt at Trabai in 1534)
erected for the benefit of the people. The inhabitants, espe-
cially those of Samogetia, continued to worship their Pagan
gods as of old. The Polonization of the Lithuanians
estranged them from the Ukrainians, and the Catholic clergy
did its utmost to abridge the rights of the Greek Catholic
Church. The Polonized magnates, together with the Polish
aristocracy, began to persecute the Ukrainian nationality.
Hence the Ukrainians turned their eyes eastward to Mus-
covy for help. Such were the fruits of the Jagiellonian
policies, the most important of which was the Polonization
of the Lithuanian nobility. Many Poles, especially the
Polish clergy, came into the land and disseminated the Po-
lish language, spirit and nationalism. They were none other
than the clandestine enemy which proved to be the true ex-
terminator of Lithuania. Besides, large numbers of Jews

32 The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

came from Poland, and the Lithuanian townsmen, under the
direction of the nobility, became Polonized or were crowded
out. The Lithuanian nation was on the wane: Smolensk
was lost, and no small part of Ukraina was never recovered.
While the magnates grew in wealth, the gentry became stub-
born and did not hesitate to disobey the government when
the boundaries of the country were threatened.

Sigismundus Augustus (1544-1572) was the last Grand
Duke of Lithuania to receive the crown of Gediminas. He
was an indolent ruler, and though thrice married, he left no
offspring.

In 1551 the Diet of Vilnius passed a decree calling for
a standing army in regular uniform and in which only the
members of the nobility could serve as officers. From the
year 1553 a regular tax of sixty Lithuanian grasiai was
levied for the maintenance of this army. A Jewish bour-
geoisie arose in the cities. Foreign industry, handicraft and
trade were protected. Exports in grain rose. The com-
merce of the country, especially of the cities Kaunas and Vil-
nius, showed a decided increase. But the condition of servi-
tude grew more irksome among the peasantry. Printing
establishments were opened in Vilnius, Brest, and Nesviezh,
the two latter by Protestants. The number of schools was
increased; public schools were established in Kaunas, Vil-
nius, Vitebsk and Merkine; a school of surveying was in-
stituted at Tykocin, while a school of law was opened in
Vilnius. And at this time Mat. Stryjkovski wrote a history
of Lithuania.

When Ivan IV. during the reign of Sigismundus
Augustus, renewed his pretensions to Lithuanian lands, the
whole Lithu-Lett race became united. In Livonia, FUr-
stenberg not only accepted the teachings of the Reforma-
tion, but even carried on a war against Bishop Wilhelm
whom he later imprisoned. Sigismundus Augustus made
ready for war and assembled an army of 100,000 men. This
act frightened Fiirstenberg into paying all the expenses and
damages incurred. Moreover, he swore allegiance to the
Grand Duke and promised to help in case of war with Mus-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 33

coyy. When D. Visnioviecki promised the aid of the Uk-
rainian Cossacks to the Czar of Muscovy, in case he wished
to conquer Lithuanian Ukraina, the latter sought and found
a pretext to declare war on Livonia, which country he laid
waste in the year 1558. Through the intervention of Sigis-
mundus Augustus, an armistice of brief duration was agreed
upon. Kettler of Livonia then turned to Lithuania for aid,
and, having received financial assistance from the German
emperor in addition, renewed the war. Sweden occupied
Esthonia. The Muscovites found it expedient to raise the
siege of Wenden on the approach of the Lithuanian army.
But Livonia was again devastated. Then Kettler signed
the pacta subjectionis to Sigismundus Augustus: the re-
ligion of the Protestants was to be safeguarded, the title
of Duke of Courland and of Semigallia was bestowed upon
Kettler, and Livonia was incorporated into Lithuania (Nov.
28, 1561) . The Knights of the Sword ceased to exist. The
war with Muscovy continued with indifferent success, ex-
cepting that Polotzk was taken by the Czar (1563). The
Muscovites suffered a great loss at Orsa. Many magnates
(D. Visnioviecki, the Czerkaski brothers. And. Kurbskij,
and others), forsook the Czar and fled into Lithuania. The
war lasted till the year 1569. Livonia and the eastern parts
of Lithuania suffered terrible devastation. People in Lithu-
ania and in Muscovy died by the thousands from hunger and
disease; it is claimed that even the bodies of the dead were
used as a means of subsistence. Following an armistice,
peace was concluded. Lithuania retained possession of
Livonia but lost Polotzk to the Czar. Thus the Czar failed
in an attempt to obtain access to the Baltic Sea. The Letts
and the Lithuanians were united. But the Polonized Lithu-
anian nobility took no interest whatever in the revival of the
Letts, while Sigismundus Augustus confirmed German rule
in Lettland as laid down in Privilegium Sigismundi Augusti,
so that Lithuania did not profit by the unification of the
whole Lithu-Lett race.

The Poles insisted upon the removal of boundaries be-
tween Lithuania and Poland. They wished to open the road

34 The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

leading to Lithuanian estates and offices. They did not hesi-
tate to utilize religion and the Catholic clergy as they pleased
in their efforts to fulfill their purpose.

Sigismundus Augustus favored the reformation of the
church, was inclined to introduce the national language into
the services, and planned a national synod; his lack of
energy, however, led him to forget these necessary reforms.
In his stead, Lithuania had a staunch leader of the Reforma-
tion in the person of the Palatine of the city of Vilnius
Nicholas Radzivill (the Black) , who built a church in Vilnius
(1561), and placed it in charge of the learned And. Volan.
Radzivill induced Kryskovski to come to Nesviezh, Fal-
conius to Klezk, Vendrychovski and Czechovicz to Vilnius,
etc. At his behest, the country folk flocked to the Reformed
church by the thousands, so that only seven Roman Catho-
lic priests remained in the diocese of Samogetia under the
jurisdiction of Bishop Melchior Giedraitis. Calvinism was
soon embraced by the families of the magnates (Kiska,
Chodkievicz, Sapiega, Voina, Pac, Oginski, etc). Only the
Greek Catholics remained loyal to their old faith. Churches
were soon erected or Catholic churches were transformed
into Calvinistic places of worship, and a Synod was held in
Vilnius in the year 1557. And Lutheranism, too, became the
vogue, especially in Vilnius where John Winkler and Mor-
styn labored with devotion for the cause.

The Catholics strove to stem the tide by means of the
Holy Inquisition, but the Papal delegate was helpless. V.
Protasevic, the Catholic bishop of Vilnius, however, was
an energetic worker. Stankar, Blandratha and Gonesius, in
spreading heresies concerning the Holy Trinity, rendered
a most welcome service for the cause of Catholicism since
their labors were rewarded by the formation of a schism in
the ranks of the Calvinists. Sigismundus Augustus, how-
ever, set aside the statute of Jagiello by which heretics could
be deprived of office or honor (1563) .

Not long after, Nicolas Radzivill Rufus became the
leader of the Calvinists in Lithuania, while John Kiska of
Ciechanoviec was acclaimed the leading patron of Unitar-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 35

ianism, disseminated by the Socinus brothers in Lithuania
and by Th. Kosoi in Ukraina. Quarrels between the various
sects grew in pitch and frequency and synods were con-
vened several times in an effort to allay the discord.

The Reformation brought a new life into the country.
The Calvinists erected many schools, as in Vilnius, Brest,
Nesviezh, Sidlava, Birzei, Kedainei, Sluzk, etc.; the Socin-
ians had several schools also, of which the one at Rakov at-
tained no mean reputation. In 1570, Simon Budnis pub-
lished a translation of the Bible at Nesviezh. The following
religious writers are also worthy of mention: A. Volan, St.
Kosutski, Kr. Krainski and Bienias.

The Reformation rendered a patriotic service to Lithu-
ania, and, with a continuation of its aid, its inhabitants would
have undoubtedly been able to withstand the onslaughts of
Polish machination. But Jesuits came to the aid of the
Poles, and the waves of Polonization swamped the religious
fervor. Notwithstanding the fact that, in the year 1572,
Sigismundus Augustus had acknowledged equal rights to
all denominations, the Jagiellon policy of Polonization
proved to be the stronger.

The aristocracy of Lithuania was rich and influential.
The Poles strove to sow discord among the Lithuanians.
The aristocracy wielded considerable power throughout the
land since they alone made up the membership of the Diet.
In 1559, however, the gentry was also allowed to participate
in the deliberations of the Lower House of the Diet. But
the magnates, by their political education and by their wealth,
were able to overwhelm the gentry. The Poles, therefore,
suggested that equality was feasible only through a union
with Poland, whereupon the gentry became a strong sup-
porter of the political union. The Diet was frequently
called together for the discussion and the formation of this
union, without which the Poles declined to support the Lithu-
anians in their wars with Muscovy or the Tartars.

In the years 1564 and 1565, respectively, the gentry was
granted many new privileges. But the aristocracy, fearing
an immigration of Poles with the consequent occupation of

86 The Rise and Decline of Lithuania.

dignities and estates, was adverse to the union. Nicolas
Radzivill Rufus, a leader among the aristocracy, proved to
be a tireless foe of the union until his death in 1565. While
such vigorous leaders as J. Chodkievicz and Eust. Volovicz
still remained, the schism between the various Protestant de-
nominations weakened the aristocracy at home and tempered
their relations with the Russian magnates abroad.

After numerous futile efforts, Sigismundus Augustus
finally convened the Diet at the City of Lublin in December,
1568. The Lithuanians being unwilling to participate, held
their meetings separately. At these meetings they drafted
their own conditions of the union and recalled with solemn
emphasis the fact that Sigismundus Augustus at his corona-
tion had sworn not to diminish the dignity, prerogatives or
the boundaries of the Lithuanian nation. The discussion of
both the Poles and the Lithuanians took on a vehement
character; especially so when the Poles sought to dictate
not only the conditions of the union, but demanded even the
incorporation of Podolia, the Ukraine, and the duchies of
Kiev and Volynia into Poland. On March first, 1569, in
the expectation that the Diet would be abrogated, the Lithu-
anians suddenly left Lublin. Since they were unwilling to
go to war with the Poles, their hopes were flung to the winds.
By his own authority, the king sundered Volynia and Pod-
lasia from Lithuania and incorporated them into Poland.
Furthermore, he threatened to deprive the Lithuanians of
their offices and estates, if they refused to participate in the
Diet. On the fifth of April, 1569, the delegates from the
Lithuanian Senate arrived and told the Poles that they were
not empowered to negotiate for a "brotherly" union which
was to deprive them of their privileges and their lands. In
an effort to intimidate the Lithuanians, the king deprived
some of the dignitaries of their offices. On the twentieth
of May the Volynians returned and were sworn in together
with the Podlasians. On the first of June the king pro-
claimed the province of Braclav a part of Poland. Kiev suf-
fered the same fate on the fifth day of the same month. In
this way "the wings of Lithuania had been cut off." The

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 87

Lithuanians returned to the Diet and demanded equality
with Poland, but, on the twenty-seventh of June, they knelt
before the king and begged him, with tears streaming from
their eyes, to preserve their good name. Catholicism and
Polish policy had throttled their valor. Yet the king de-
manded of them by the very power of his crown that they
accept the conditions of the union as laid down by the Poles,
which were these:

1. Poland and Lithuania form one indivisible body.

2. Both live under one sovereign.

3. There shall be no separate coronation for the Grand

Duchy of Lithuania.

4. The right of the Jagiellons to succession is abrogated.

5. After the coronation, all privileges shall be sanc-

tioned by the king.

6. Diets shall be convened in common.

7. Treaties shall be made in common.

8. Moneys shall be common and of the same denomi-

nations.

9. All tariffs between both peoples are abrogated.

10 The Poles are at liberty to settle freely in Lithuania ;
the Lithuanians are accorded the same privilege in
Poland.

11. Lithuania's dignities and offices shall be conserved.

12. Volynia, Podlasia and Kiev belong to Poland, while

"Inflanty" becomes the common property of both

Lithuania and Poland.
On July first, 1569, both the Lithuanians and the Poles
confirmed this union under oath, and therewith the history
of independent Lithuania came to a close. Lithuania was
flung open to the ambitions of the Poles. The patriotism of
the aristocracy of Lithuania vanished, and petty partisan-
ship began to prosper. Yet Poland, contrary as it may
seem, did not gain in strength, but gradually began to
weaken. Poland had not even the most fundamental laws
for the existence of a constitutional government.

88 The Hardships of Protestantism in Lithuania.

IV. THE HARDSHIPS OF PROTESTANTISM
IN LITHUANIA.

Finding that the Catholic Church was unable to cope
with the growing of heresy, Bishop Protasevic enlisted the
aid of the Jesuits, who, after a secret journey, arrived safely
at Vilnius where in 1570, they opened a school. The Jesuits
arranged public debates, visited the homes of the gentry and
the magnates under various pretexts, and, by their eloquence
and elegance, were able to win over many of the dissenters.
Aroused by the impending danger, Volan and others
planned for a political union with the Polish Protestants.

Following the death of Sigismundus Augustus, the dis-
senters launched the Confederation of Warsaw for the pro-
tection of their privileges and liberties. In the reign of
Stephen Batory, (1574-1586), while a war with Moscow
was in progress, the dissenter's places of worship were set
afire while their pastors were compelled to suffer many in-
dignities at the hands of a mob made up of students and
hoodlums. The king elevated the Jesuit school at Vilnius
to the grade of an academy and was instrumental in the es-
tablishment of other Jesuit academies at Polotzk, Riga, Dor-
pat, and Grodno. Peter Skarga was successful in convert-
ing Christopher Radzivill ("the Orphan") to Catholicism.
The Calvinistic pastors had to flee from Nesviezh, Klezk,
Olyka, etc., and the printing establishment at Brest was
confiscated. Funeral processions of the Protestants were
not permitted to pass before any Catholic church, and when
the dissenters paid no heed to such stupid orders, they were
stoned by mobs made up of Jesuit students and rowdies.
In the year 1584, Nicolas Radzivill died at Vilnius where
his armed bodyguard kept the Jesuits at bay. George

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 39

Cardinal Radzivill burned heretical books in public, while, in
various meetings, he endeavored to make a laughing stock
of the dissenters and their leaders. The houses of Pac, Wolo-
wicz, L. Sapiega, and Radzivill of Nesviezh had renounced
Calvinism prior to the death of Stephen Batory in 1586.

Sigimundus III. (1587-1632) , a pupil of the Jesuits who
received him in Vilnius with unprecedented pomp and ac-
claim, conceived a plan wherewith to exterminate the dis-
senters. The king at once forbade the opening of the Cal-
vinist's higher schools in Vilnius and rewarded apostates
with offices and favors.

The Jesuits now began discussions with the adherents
of the Greek Orthodox Church also. They attracted the
youth of the Dis-Uniates into their schools, and conceived
a plan to unite the Eastern and the Western Churches
(1594). Dissenting bishops were excommunicated, and a
most unjust persecution of the Dis-Uniates ensued. While
Constantine Ostrogski established new schools and printing
houses and entered into more intimate relationship with
Christopher Radzivill, Palatine of Vilnius, and with Abra-
hamovicz. Palatine of Smolensk, his efforts proved futile. In
an effort to escape persecution and intimidation, the gentry
flocked to the standards of Catholicism by the thousands.
The Dis-Uniates stirred up the Cossacks to defend Greek
Orthodoxy, but their leader, Nalevaiko, was defeated and
killed. An attempt to unite the Dis-Uniates and the dis-
senters in the year 1599 met with failure. The Calvinistic
Senators who were the pillars in their church, died one after
another, while their seats were given to the Catholics. The
learned men who were capable of withstanding the on-
slaughts of Jesuit eloquence and logic, also passed away
without leaving equally capable successors. Was it any won-
der, then, that Janusz Radzivill joined the revolt of
Zebrzydowski? But his joining this revolt furnished a pre-
text for the persecution of the dissenters. Because of an
alleged insult to Bishop Voina, Francus di Franco had his
tongue torn from his mouth and his body hacked to pieces
in the year 1611. Not long after, Jesuit students attacked
the Calvinistic congregation, and, applying the torch, con-

40 The Hardships of Protestantism in Lithuania.

verted the church and the sehoolhouse into a heap of smoul-
dering ruins. The Jesuits justified the acts of their students
in their writings. Instead of punishing the criminals, the
king forbade the Calvinists to rebuilding their church, school,
and the dwellings of their ministers and teachers. Since the
lives of the dissenting ministers were at the mercy of the
frenzied mob, made up of ruffians and Jesuit students, they
began to fall off in numbers and experienced a dearth of
polemic literature as well. A large number of their churches
were forcibly restored to the Catholics under cover of the de-
cree of the Tribunal dating 1588, which prohibited the
alienation of church property. Janusz Radzivill, who had
erected a higher grade school, died in 1620. An assault upon
the Metropolitan Pociey and the assassination of Bishop
Kuncevicz — retaliatory measures, both of them — failed to
help the cause of the Calvinists. So the dissenters turned
their attention to their internal affairs. They reprinted
books, renewed their affiliations with the Calvinists of Po-
land, aided their exiles, and presented their grievances be-
fore the Diet, all of which proved of no avail. In 1632 Sig-
ismundus III. died with the conviction that he had stamped
heresy out of the country, whereas in truth he but compelled
the dissenters to seek aid abroad.

During the interregnum which prevailed, the dissenters
demanded that freedom of conscience be guaranteed and that
their rights and property be restored. Bloodshed was averted
with difficulty, and under pressure, concessions were affirmed
— salvis juribus Ecclesiae Romanae — in the Electoral Diet.
Moreover, the situation did not change much under Vlad-
islav IV (1632-1648). The Jesuits rendered all the con-
cessions to the dissenters null and void, and soon found a
pretext to inflict a severe blow upon them. The Jesuit stu-
dents accompanied an infuriated mob once more in an at-
tack upon the Calvinistic church and its pastors. An in-
vestigation by the judiciary followed. The Catholic clergy
protested loudly against sacrilege perpetrated by the Cal-
vinists; (boys shooting arrows at birds perched on the steeple
of St. Michael's Church constituted the sacrilege) ; they held
that the accusations of the dissenters were pure fiction and

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 41

nothing else. In 1640, the Diet, basing its judgment on
evidence given by nuns, decreed that the Calvinists had for-
feited their right to hold services in the city of Vilnius for-
ever. Furthermore, permission to establish schools and hos-
pitals were withdrawn, and an order was issued to execute
the pastors of the church. The pastors Labencki, Jurski,
and Hartlib fled for their lives to the Elector of Branden-
burg, while Christopher RadziviU, Palatine of Vilnius, on
whom they had pinned their uttermost hope, died from
grief.

In order to put an end to this domestic discord, and to
prevent the dissenters from seeking aid abroad, King Vladis-
lav IV invited the Lithuanian and the Polish dissenters to
attend an amicable colloquy with the Catholics at Thorn.
Unwilling to insult their king, the dissenters agreed to do so,
not, however, with any hope of success. Indeed, the friendly
conference at Thorn succeeded only in aggravating the
existent tense situation between the religious denominations.
The king failed also to reconcile even the Uniates and the
Dis-Uniates.

In the reign of John Casimir (1648-1668) the dissenters
at first tried to strengthen their organization at home. They
restored some of their schools, and, with Minor Poland, they
accepted the Sandomir Concensus. But, when the Swedes
overran both Lithuania and Poland in the year 1656, Het-
man Janusz Radzivill together with his cousin Boguslav
Radzivill joined the ranks of King Charles Gustavus and
fought against their own country. The dissenters had to
seek shelter at Konigsberg. The treaty of Oliva (1660)
brought the Lithuanians no relief since their country re-
mained in the hands of the Muscovites who vexed the Unia-
tes and the dissenters in no uncertain manner. Through this
war the Calvinists lost more churches than heretofore.
Janusz Radzivill, the last of the dissenting senators of Lith-
uania, died during the siege of Tykocin. Marie Anna, his
only daughter, was espoused by Boguslav Radzivill, now the
Grand-regent of Eastern Prussia, under whose protection

42 The Hardships of Protestantism in Lithuania.

the dissenters restored several churches and prepared a trans-
lation of the Bible into the Lithuanian language.

When John Casimir abdicated the throne in 1668, the
predicament of the Calvinists was sad indeed. They were
excluded from offices, both high and low; they were prose-
cuted before the consistories for alleged blasphemy of the
Catholic saints; their ministers were not permitted to offi-
ciate at services; their dead were not infrequently exhumed
and mutilated ; their churches were set afire, and their dwell-
ings were attacked and robbed. To all of which were added
the additional horrors of wars with the Muscovites, the Cos-
sacks and the Swedes, with pestilence trailing in their wake,
and the survivors wallowing in the dregs of misery and
destitution.

In the Diet convened for the election of a new king, the
dissenters tried to secure a statute which would insure them
civil equality and peace at home. When, in 1670, Boguslav
Radzivill died, leaving his only daughter, Caroline Louisa,
the heiress of his immense estates in Lithuania, the dissenters
endeavored to renew their previous intimate relations with
the Lutherans. Boguslav Radzivill was the last of the dis-
senting magnates of great influence. In 1682 the dissenters
procured funds for the support of twelve Lithuanian stu-
dents of theology at the German Academies of Konigsberg,
Frankfort on the Oder, and Berlin; in addition, Caroline
Louisa provided scholarships at Oxford.

In 1682 the dean of the Academy of Vilnius instigated
a riot against the dissenters. The Calvinists' church was
raised to the ground, and even graves were mutilated; the
pastors, however, escaped. The work of destruction lasted
two days. The Calvinists were terror-stricken. They now
strove to interest the Protestant courts abroad and suc-
ceeded in having King John Sobieski III. (1674-1696) ap-
point a commission of investigation. The Jesuits helped
the criminals to escape save one — the leader — who was
placed on the proscription list. Although the Calvinists were
given permission to rebuild their churches and other struc-
tures, yet the Catholics now, more openly than ever before,

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 48

used force in the conversion of the populace to their faith.
They added the converts and their churches to their own
parishes. CaroKne Louisa, the last heiress of the Calvinist
Radzivills at Birzei, died in 1695.

V. THE DECLINE AND THE PARTITIONS OF

POLAND.

The ambition of Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony
(1697-1733) was to make Poland over into a monarchy and
an heirloom of his family. He therefore paid heed to what
John R. Patkul had to say against the policy of Charles
XII. of Sweden. At this time a civil war, which culminated
with the expulsion of the Sapiega family, was raging in
Lithuania, wherefore the Sapiegas supported the deposi-
tion of the Saxon king. When, in 1704, Leszczynski was
proclaimed king of Poland, Frederick Augustus offered to
divide Poland among his allies. Everything hinged on the
success of Charles XII. But Charles was defeated at Pol-
tava (1709), and fled to Turkey. In 1710, Peter the Great,
Czar of Russia, obtained the title to the guardianship of the
Dis-Uniates in Poland. The Poles demanded the with-
drawal of the Saxon army from Poland, and Peter the Great
made a compact with the King of Prussia in Berlin in the
year 1719 wherewith he hoped to thwart the selfish plans of
Frederick Augustus, to find a means of attaining better
treatment of the dissenters, and to maintain the republican
form of government in Poland.

Under the rule of the gentry and the clergy, the coun-
try suffered great loss in territory. Livland was ceded to
Sweden, and, in 1701, the Elector of Brandenburg pro-
claimed himself king of Prussia, receiving the crown in Kon-
igsberg. The dim intellectual atmosphere created by the
Catholic reaction veiled the origin of the existent evil. Un-
der the leadership of the clergy and the monks, society was
thrust into religious fanaticism and into the horrors of witch-

44 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

craft. The literature was pre-eminently theological, and was
made up largely of panegyrics, the lives of saints and ser-'
mons. Western Europe's contributions to philosophy, as-
tronomy and physics were unheard of in Lithuania. Men
of learning did not dare to voice their views, for the coun-
try seemed as if haunted with the apparitions of the mar-
tyred heretics of days gone by. Public education — the au-
thor wonders if it existed at all 1 Darkness reigned supreme.
Is it any wonder, then, that the persecution of the heretics
should be continued during such a state of affairs? In 1698,
Calvinistic churches were burned down in Gruzdzei and
Krosnogaliske. Lisiecki, the pastor at Salamiestis, was
abused and then killed by Lipauskis, a priest of the Catholic
Church. The churches at Gelava, Linkuva, Venusova, and
Zamelis were taken away from the Calvinists, while that of
Pamusis was plundered. When complaints made to the
Senate of Lithuania availed nothing, the Calvinists asked
the king of Prussia for protection. Some even joined the
regiments of the Sapiegas, although Charles XII. displaj^ed
no compassion on them. Even the Kalmucks and the Cos-
jsacks plundered their property and assaulted their women.
At Kedainei the Carmelites erected a church and a convent
in the midst of the dissenters whose protests were unheeded.
The synods drafted many projects. The Senior Bythner, who
died in the year 1710, and pastor Rekutis made appeals to
the court at Berlin. When, contrary to the desires of Fred-
erick Augustus and the Saxon army, the Confederation of
Tarnogrod was formed, dissenters Volkas and Estka joined
them. But the condition of the dissenters remained un-
changed, and the Confederates plundered their estates.
Then the Calvinists eagerly supported the Czar of Russia
and were confident that his guarantees were genuine. In
the year 1717, however, their rights were abridged; they
were prohibited from erecting new churches and even the
holding of private services was denied them under penalty
of fine or imprisonment. With the removal from office of
their deputies to the Lithuanian Tribunal, the Calvinists had
lost all their privileges. The dissenters became so despond-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 45

ent that they decided to emigrate en masse to Eastern Prus-
sia or to Muscovy. But they again came to an understand-
ing with the Polish dissenters whereupon they presented
their grievances before the Diet of Grodno in the year 1718.
Thanks to the agitation carried on by Bishop Brzostowski,
even this effort bore no fruit; the dissenters were not per-
mitted to baptize, bury their dead, or marry without the
consent of the Catholic priest (as at Vengrovo), while their
pastors were not permitted to wear their customary garb.
But the dissenters were not the sole denomination to suffer.
The Catholics persecuted the Dis-Uniates, whose adherents
had to waive their right of holding office. In 1722, two of
the churches of the Dis-Uniates were confiscated in Pinsk.

In 1724, the dissenters presented a petition to the king
and the Diet at Warsaw. In this document they enumerated
the damages they had sustained and called attention to their
truly wretched plight under forty-nine different headings.
The Diet paid no attention to this. The Catholic church
kept up its work of persecution with undiminished ardor,
so, in 1725, the dissenters avenged themselves by demolish-
ing the monastery at Thorn, wherefore the Catholics con-
demned the burgomaster and ten other citizens to death and
demanded an idemnity of 22,000 silver coins from the town
itself. Had Peter the Great not died soon after, the neigh-
boring states would undoubtedly have gone to war as they
had already begun their preparation for one. Nor did the
Diet, convened at Grodno in the year 1726, alter the status
of the dissenters. In 1729, the Catholics of Salamiestis, led
by their priest, Gruzdis, looted the Calvinist rectory and
church, and hacked the people, who strove to stop their
sacrilegious work, with swords. In 1730, the Calvinist church
at Lubefi was set afire while the faithful, assembled for serv-
ices in a neighboring manor-house, were attacked in the fol-
lowing year.

Very frequently, dissenters from all over Lithuania were
impeached before the clerical Tribunal {forum compositi
judicii). It is hardly necessary to state that the verdicts
were most unjust. The case of Oskierka, Castellane of

46 The Decline and the Partitiona of Poland.

Novogrodek, became especially famous. Oskierka, himself
a Catholic, married Anna Grabauskas, an adherent of the
Calvinist faith. Their son was raised in the Helvetic con-
fession. The Jesuits endeavored to get possession of the
child, but his mother, scenting danger, sent him to Konigs-
berg. For this the father was condemned by the Tribunal
to lose his office, estates, and head. The son, fortunately,
returned prior to the fulfillment of the execution: by re-
nouncing Calvinism, the son saved the life of his parent. The
boy later went to Berlin where he joined the Prussian serv-
ice and published a pamphlet on the sufferings of his family.

But the dissenters persisted in petitioning foreign courts
for intervention. In 1730, they sent Senior Jacob Gordon
to England and to Berlin, but he met with no success. In
the meantime Frederick Augustus died (1733). Having
lost their political rights and being leveled down to the status
of the lower classes, the dissenters now became a mass of
malcontents who continually sought aid abroad in a vain
endeavor to win back their prerogatives.

In 1733, the General Confederation interdicted the dis-
senters from making complaints to foreign monarchs. A
tax of 60,000 silver coins were levied upon the non-Catholic
clergy of Lithuania. On his being chosen King of Poland,
Augustus III. convened the Diet of Warsaw with the idea
of pacifying the contending factions; the dissenters, how-
ever, gained nothing thereby.

Emissaries were again sent to foreign courts. The en-
voys pastor Sartorius, Ulevicius of the Dis-Uniates, and
Senior Gordon, presented to Czarina Anna at St. Peters-
burg, a most humble petition wherein they descanted on the
previous rights of the dissenters and of which they had been
so unjustly deprived, as well as the hardships from which
they were at that very moment suffering. They also out-
lined the means by which it would be possible to restore to
them their previous status. The Czarina threatened to sta-
tion her armies in Lithuania and Poland until the rights of
the dissenters shall have been restored, but the Diet paid

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 47

no heed to the commands emanating from foreign court cir-
cles. The Czarina did not carry out her threat.

The persecutions continued. In 1734, the pastor of Lu-
bec was dragged before the forum compositi judicii for
wearing his ministerial garb. The repairing of churches was
prohibited by the Bishop of Vilnius. In 1739, the Bishop of
Samogetia seized Protestant girls and cast them into a nun-
nery. From the year 1731, the pastors of the Neuburg es-
tates were denied their income, yet they had to keep on pay-
ing their taxes just as if nothing had happened. The dis-
senters intrigued at the foreign courts without cessation,
paying no heed whatsoever to the impending misfortunes of
the country.

The country was in a state of turmoil. The gentry
brandished the sabre. The Jesuits oppressed the men of
arts and science. The common people, being treated like so
many beasts, left the fields untilled. The country's com-
merce fell into the hands of the Jews who exploited the vil-
lagers. The magnates did their buying abroad. Everyone
was looking out only for himself. No attention whatsoever
was paid to the Russian armies which passed through Polish
territory in 1739 on their way to meet the Turks, or to the
Seven- Years' War with Austria. The bishops fumed
against the order of Freemasons, prohibited the sale of
heretical books, and denied any one the right to work for
Jews or to be treated by Jewish physicians.

Because of the incessant persecutions of the dissenters,
Russia became involved in the affairs of Courland. Duke
Biron spent his time in St. Petersburg or in Siberia, until
Catherine II. of Russia again installed him at Mitau. As
a matter of fact, Courland was lost to Poland. Prussia and
Russia agreed that henceforth a Pole shall sit upon the
Polish throne but that the dissenters shall remain under the
protection of both Prussia and Russia. In the meantime Po-
land was rent with the gamut of human passions; courage
and despondency, heroism and cowardliness, impudence and
shame, arrogance and ambition, credulousness and timidity,
hypocrisy and cunning, loyalty and treason, virtues and

48 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

vices which dragged her to the head of the incline upon
which she began her slow but certain journey downward.

When St. Konarski proposed his school reforms, an in-
tellectual movement seemed to have sprung up in Warsaw,
Th. ^ebrauskas taught astronomy at the Academy at Vil-
nius and his observatory was equipped with newer instru-
ments. Rev. Luskinas derided astrology. St. Leszczynski
demanded freedom for the peasantry. Others advocated
the starting of a home industry and expanding the commer-
cial relations, and condemned the election of the king and
the liberum veto of the Diet. The Czartoryskies endeavored
to place the reforms on a practicable basis ; they hoped, with
the aid of Russia, to form a confederation and to dethrone
Augustus III. But the king died in Dresden in 1763.

The Diet of Convocation was held in May, 1764, under
the protection of the Russian army. Here, Hetman Bran-
icki and Radzivill (Panic Kochanku), Palatine of Vilnius,
were impeached for alleged injustices and coercion, where-
upon they left the country. The power of the clergy was
limited, the dignity of the king enhanced, and the libenivi
veto restrained. Through the support of Russia and Prus-
sia, Stanislav August Poniatovski (1764-1795) was elected
king of Poland and Lithuania. Through Repnin, Russia
renewed the affairs of the dissenters. Notwithstanding the
vigorous protests of the clergy and the gentry, the Diet of
Warsaw restored the liberty of holding services in church
and home, returned the churches which had been taken away
from the dissenters, permitted burial in the cemeteries, de-
livered the dissenters from the jurisdiction of the Catholic
Church, and freed the pastors from the imposts on their of-
fice. But the liberum veto was sustained.

The dissenters formed a confederation in Poland, and
another, under Grabovski, in Lithuania. They then ap-
pealed to foreign court circles asking for aid in their quest
for equal rights. The Catholic gentry formed a confedera-
tion to oppose the moves of the dissenters, and, at the sug-
gestion of Repnin, the envoy of Russia, Radzivill, who had
been exiled, was made Marshal of the Lithuanian Confed-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 49

eration. Radzivill's estates and offices were restored to him.
In 1767, a confederation to wrest equal rights for the dis-
senters from the existent powers was instituted at the city
of Radom, and Russia was asked to guaranty the liberties
in Poland. The Diet of Warsaw was compelled to ratify
their demands. A few changes in the relations of master
and serf were decided upon also: the privilege of deciding
upon the life or death of the serf was taken away from the
lord. Russia's guaranty was asked for in the assurance of
equality of rights for the dissenters and in the granting to
them of the fundamental rights (election of kings, liberum
veto, and the prerogatives of the gentry). This guaranty
took the form of a treaty between Poland and the Czarina,
and could only be changed with Russia's consent.

The gentry was angered by the intervention of Russia.
Heeding the exhortations of Bishop Krasinski, the gentry
demanded the deposition of the king and the restoration of
the previous exclusive privileges to Catholicism. Some of
them even armed themselves and mobilized at Bar where
they formed a confederation for the defence of Catholicism
and the old liberties of the republic (1768) . The dissenters
and the Dis-Uniates were not admitted. In addition, a so-
ciety bearing the name of the Knights of the Holy Cross
was formed to defend Catholicism even at the cost of blood
and life.

The king and the senators sought Repnin's assistance.
The Russian army overpowered some of the confederates
and dispersed the remainder. While all this was taking
place, Cossacks had already begun the extermination of the
Catholics in the Ukraine, beginning their work with the
massacre of 20,000 people in the town of Human. But the
Russians suppressed the revolt once more, and handed the
guilty leaders over to Poland for punishment.

At this time other confederations in Poland came to life.
S. Kossakovski, Kozello, Medeksa, and others were active
in Lithuania. Everywhere bands of adventurers roved about
making depredations, for which reason a war between Rus-
sia and Turkey broke out. The hope of victory exalted the

50 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

spirit of the confederates. Following the recall of Repnin,
the king intended to arrest Duke Volkonskij. Since the
dignitaries of the confederation despised the king, they ar-
ranged for a meeting in Biala, where, in 1770, they pro-
claimed the deposition of Stanislav Augustus, The king
again asked Russia's aid, and the Polish army, led by Bran-
icki, marched against the confederates.

Seeing the lack of unity within the nation, foreign
powers decided to partition Poland. The Czarina sent the
energetic Baron Saldern to Warsaw with the demand that
the confederates lay down their arms. At Lanzkorona,
Suvorov defeated the stubborn confederates who were sup-
ported by France. In 1771, the confederates decided to
seize the king at Warsaw. This served as a pretext for in-
tervention by Prussia and Austria. Russia appropriated
Livland, Polotzk, Vitebsk, and a part of Minsk — a total of
1,692 square miles; Austria took Osviecim and Zator with
Red Russia — a total of 1,508 square miles; Prussia received
Varmia and Pommerania — a total of 660 square miles. Po-
land lost her grain commerce and 4,000,000 of her inhabi-
tants. All of the provinces were occupied without resistance
since the inhabitants were eager to be relieved of the chaotic
state of affairs. This cession of territory had to be ratified
by the Diet. Of the 111 delegates to be elected, many were
the recipients of money from foreign potentates, among such
were Ad. Poninski and Bishop Massalski. These delegates
signed the treaties. Only Turkey protested against the first
partition of Poland.

In the meantime. Pope Clemens XIV. announced the
cassation of the Jesuit order. The Commission of Educa-
tion was established on the motion of J. Chreptovicz, and the
possessions and relics of the Jesuits were handed over to
this commission.

In 1775, the Diet deliberated on the new constitution.
The fundamental rights were added to, but the rights of
the dissenters were abridged; their participation in the Diet
was limited to three delegates, one from each province. The
ringing of bells in new Calvinist churches was forbidden.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 51

Baron Stackelberg approved of all this, because the Diet
was always submissive to Russia in more important matters.
A Permanent Council was instituted for the government of
the country. It was made up of the king, eighteen senators
and a like number of representatives of the gentry. It had
five distinct departments: 1. The Department of Foreign
Affairs; 2. the Department of Police; 3. the Department
of War; 4. the Department of Justice; and 5. the Depart-
ment of the Treasury, The king's power was limited by the
powers given the Permanent Council. In giving this Con-
stitution the Diet did not forget its own members ; some re-
ceived high titles, others enjoyed large incomes from monop-
olies, stewardships or from the Jesuit estates. Thus Ponin-
ski not only paid off his debts, but soon accumulated over
3,000,000 ducats in money. Bishop Massalski frequently
lost 300,000 ducats at cards. Warsaw was never so gay as
it was during the sessions of this Diet.

But Branicki, Hetman Oginski, and other magnates
were dissatisfied with the Permanent Council. At the same
time Stackelberg and the king worked in favor of enlarging
the Council's power. Ex-Chancellor Zamoyski was ordered
to draft a new project of the legal code and judicial pro-
cedure. He advised the prohibition of witchcraft. So, the
Diet of 1776 made some additions to the constitution which,
thanks to the guaranties of the Czarina, lasted twelve years.

Some of the magnates, Hetman Branicki and Sev.
Rzevusld especially, attacked the Permanent Council and
the king. These attacks were symbolic of the anarchical
spirit the magnates displayed toward the public order. But,
even so, the government was able to work for the moral, in-
tellectual and material elevation of the nation. The king,
too, in conjunction with some of the magnates, expended
no little effort in establishing libraries, museums and schools.
The Cormnission of Education was especially activ^e in its
attempt to rid the schools of church influence — a uniform
program was worked out, and lay teachers were employed.
The Academies of Cracow and Vilnius were reorganized.
In Vilnius the chairs of natural science, chemistry and anat-

52 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

omy were occupied by learned aliens. Teacher's seminaries
were opened and a society for the preparation of elementary
text-books was established. In 1783, the by-laws concerning
the national system of education were prepared by G. Pira-
movicz and accepted by the Commission of Education.
Elementary schools were established in towns and villages,
and the pupils received instruction in horticulture, husbandry
and hygiene as well as in arithmetic, reading and writing.
The Commission kept the schools under close scrutiny. Gen-
eral inspectors made annual reports on the progress of the
work. The Freemasons and other secret societies exerted
themselves in spreading humanitarian ideas.

Improvements were made in agriculture, industry and
towns began to prosper, commerce was revived and even
the number of inhabitants showed an increase. Some of the
landlords abolished serfdom and substituted quintrent in its
stead. Jews were driven from the inns. But the constitution
was not favorably disposed toward the cities ; it annulled the
German law which prevailed in the Lithuanian cities; the
Department of Police, however, enhanced the cities' protec-
tion against fire, numbered their houses and improved the
streets.

Fanaticism, however, did not sleep. Progressive books
and papers had to be printed in secrecy. Teachers and pu-
pils had to attend church. Ignorance was still prevalent
among the gentry. Reforms were necessary if progress was
to dawn. In 1778, Zamoyski, Wybicki, and other jurists
had finished their reformed code of laws for villagers and
townsmen; but Stackelberg refused to sanction the reforms
since the Czarina had ordered him to stand by the constitu-
tion of 1775 literally. Thus her guarantee turned out to be
an obstacle to domestic development.

The Czarina, involved in a war with Turkey, sent Stack-
elberg the conditions for a new treaty with Poland. At the
time, there were three parties (the Russian, Prussian, and
the Patriotic) among the Poles and the Lithuanians. All
three parties stood for an increase in the army. The Great
or Four- Year Diet was convened (1788-1792). All the

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 53

parties joined in a confederation and agreed that all im-
portant questions were to be decided by a majority vote —
the ballots to be open or secret. This was a decided advan-
tage for the Patriots.

Ambassador Buchholtz of Prussia proffered a defensive
alliance with Prussia and at the same time warned Poland
not to become involved in a war with Turkey. The mem-
bers of the Diet, imagining themselves freed from the domi-
nation of Stackelberg, decided to increase the army to 100,-
000 men, and, despite Stackelberg's protests, rid themselves
of the Department of War and reestablished the old Military
Commission in its stead. When Buchholtz gave assurances
that Prussia would not interfere with Poland's internal re-
forms the Diet, in 1789, annulled the Permanent Council
which restrained the independence of the gentry, and which
had done the country good service. The gentry was not ad-
verse to taxation now, and agreed to the levying of various
imposts.

A delegation from 141 towns and cities assembled in
Warsaw where the so-called Black Procession demanded the
rehabilitation of their old rights. In compliance with the
demand of the Lithuanians, the Civil and the Military Com-
missions for the preservation of order in the country were
established. Russia removed all her storehouses from Po-
land, and her transports avoided transit over Polish territory.
The Diet forbade even the exportation of Polish products
across the Dnieper, because the Poles had placed such im-
plicit faith in the promises of Buchholtz's successor Luc-
chesini. A treaty for mutual defense was entered into with
Prussia (1790), and Stackelberg was replaced by Bulgakov.
The Patriots had triumphed. Russian adherents left the
country. Poninski was removed from office, shorn of his
titles, and imprisoned. The Diet's actions were applauded
by the press whose influence had now become important. The
progressives advocated succession of the throne, annulment
of the liberum veto, the placing of the townspeople on an
equal footing with the gentry, and reforms for the villagers
and the Jews. The Patriots formed a political club. But

54 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

Austria and Prussia held a convention in Reichenbach
whereby the Prusso-PoHsh treaty of 1790 was weakened.
It was now evident to the Poles that they had to defend their
country without the assistance of foreign powers. The Diet
insisted on the wholeness and the independence of the coun-
try in the Cardinal Laws, and repudiated Russia's guaran-
ties of 1768 and 1775. The elective throne became one of
succession, and Frederick Augustus of Saxony was to be
the next Idng. The palace which had been bought for Stack-
elberg, was taken over by the Department of the Treasury
as a sign of the contempt of previous servility to Russia. The
Diet then decreed that only the landed gentry could partici-
pate in the government. In 1791, many townspeople were
elevated to the ranks of the nobility, towns received home
rule and were liberated from the jurisdiction of the gentry.
But the townspeople were not the equals of the gentry in
legislative matters. The reforms made headway very slowly,
because the conservatives and the Russian Party, together
with Bulgakov, put many obstacles in the way. The Pa-
triot's Club then decided to accelerate matters by "steam-
roller" methods. In the Diet they hoped to pass a new con-
stitution by acclamation and without discussion. Deputy
Suchorzewski of Kalish and Bulgakov protested. On May
third, 1791, the new constitution was rushed through and
the king vowed under oath to stand by it as did the Senators
and the Deputies. All present affixed their signatures. The
Deputies and some of the Oppositionists who were absent
added their signature on May fifth.

The new constitution retained the old social system with
its distinctions between the gentry, the townspeople, and the
serfs, although the townspeople were brought somewhat
nearer to the gentry. The legislators feared a revolt of the
gentry. The whole country, with the exception of the serfs,
received the new constitution with enthusiasm. While it
represented an improvement, it did not give equal rights to
all the inhabitants. The legislators were afraid of civil war
as well as a possible intervention by foreign thrones. They
desired, above all, to preserve the wholeness, the entireness,

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 55

of the fatherland without injury to any one. Was it any won-
der, then, that the Elector of Saxony refused to accept the
crown? Within a year, the Diet had accomplished every-
thing in the establishment of the new government and in the
operation of the new order of things according to the new
constitution with the exception of the organization of the
Commission of Education and the code of laws, and the reg-
ulation of the Jewish affairs. Furthermore, the Diet made
an effort to strengthen Poland by an intimate administrative
relationship with Lithuania, i. e., by making uniform the
administrative, police and the fiscal departments. Instead of
a separate double commission (e. g. Police and Treasury)
for both Lithuania and Poland respectively, they appointed
single committees for both Lithuania and Poland together.
With this, Lithuania became fully incorporated into Poland.

S. Potocki and S. Rzevuski, both of them antagonists- to
the idea of succession, turned to the Russian potentate Po-
temkin. The latter parleyed with the Turks at Jassy, and,
when he died, the former two turned to Potemkin's succes-
sor, Bezborodko. For this the Diet removed them from of-
fice. They then journeyed to St. Petersburg where they
were joined by Branicki. In order to overthrow the con-
stitution it was agreed that the formation of a confederation
and Russia's aid were necessary. On May eighteenth, 1792,
Bulgakov handed Chreptowicz, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
a statement that Russia's armies were already on Polish soil.
The Diet came to an end. The country was unprepared for
defense. The treasury was depleted and only 57,000 men
were available for war.

Two armies invaded the country: General Kochovski,
with 64,000 men, entered Ukraina, while Krecetnikov, with
his 30,000, pushed on into Lithuania. The St. Petersburg
Confederates and their friends, thirteen in all, announced
their confederation and invoked the intervention of the Czar-
ina at Targovica. In Ukraina, Joseph Poniatovski re-
treated with his 16,000 men toward Lublin. Ludwig of
Wiirtemberg, having made up his mind to turn traitor, in-
tentionally scattered his 15,000 men all over Lithuania. For

56 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

this he was dismissed. Joseph Judicki, suffering defeat at
Mir, retreated toward Grodno where he handed his army to
Zabiella. But the latter was also defeated and forced to re-
tire to Vengrovo. King Stanislav Augustus, deserted by
Austria and Prussia, signed the Targovica Confederation,
entered into parlies with the Czarina, and ordered the army
to cease fighting. The privileged classes were indifferent
as were the serfs who did not find it to their interest to de-
fend the constitution. Poniatovski and 200 officers handed
in their resignation. The war came to end. Nevertheless,
Kochovski entered Warsaw with his army. The confed-
erates in Lithuania and Poland compelled the gentry to
join the confederation of Targovica. When the Russians
occupied Vilnius, the general confederation of Lithuania
proclaimed as Hetman S. Kossakovski whose brother, Bis-
hop Jos. Kossakovski, thereupon chanted the Te Deum in
the Cathedral.

The government of the country was now turned over to
the "illustrious" confederation which was formed at Brest-
Litovsk in September. The government was transferred
to Grodno where The Diet was to convene in an extra ses-
sion. The Patriots' Club was done away with and its mem-
bers deprived of their political rights. All aliens were placed
under the surveillance of the police. A censorship was es-
tablished. The Commission of Education was censured for
its activity. Public property was pillaged. The cynical
Kossakovski brothers held their heads high.

In the meantime, Russia, Prussia and Austria deliberated
on the partition of Poland at Luxembourg. In 1793, a
Prussian army entered Great Poland and occupied Thorn,
Posen, Danzig and Czenstachowo. Prussia appropriated
1,060 square miles; Russia took "Inflanty," a part of the
Palatinate of Vilnius, the Palatinate of Minsk, Voljniia,
Kiev, Podolia, etc., a total of 4,550 square miles. There re-
mained for Poland but 3,830 square miles of territory and
4,000,000 inhabitants. Under Sievers' pressure, the Per-
manent Council was restored and the Diet was convened in
extra session. The Confederates and their tools who had

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 57

begged for Russia's intervention, became despondent, re-
nounced their offices, and left the country. Adam Poninski
had all his honors reconferred upon him.

The final Diet convened at Grodno in June, 1793.
Sievers controlled the Diet and arrested refractory Depu-
ties. The Diet first ratified the treaty with Russia, and,
when that body refused to do likewise with the treaty with
Prussia, Sievers enveloped the building with his army and
artillery. A "silent session" ensued, and, since no one pro-
tested, the ratification became an accomplished fact. A new
confederation — that of Grodno — was started. The Russian
army now remained in Poland which country was not al-
lowed to enter into diplomatic communication with foreign
courts. The Polish army was reduced to 15,000 men. The
new form of government was dominated by Sievers and was
not very unlike that which prevailed under the constitution
of Stackelberg in 1775.

Neither Prussia nor Russia can boast of the Diet at
Grodno. It would indeed be impossible to find an analogy
in the history of the whole world to the infamy, treason, lies
and coercion which both governments were guilty of in these
few months. It is a pleasure to note that the civilized world
never gave its approval to the decisions of this Diet.

Baron Igelstrom now had an army of 30,000 men in Po-
land. The Patriots, among whom were the shoemaker J.
Kilinski, and the banker, A. Kapostas, in Warsaw, and K.
Prozor and F. Jelski in Lithuania, were now laying the foun-
dations of a new revolt from which they secretly sought aid
in England, Turkey and Sweden. They were afraid to dis-
turb the social relations of the inhabitants for which reason
they shunned revolutionary France. They promised under
oath to restore the constitution of May third, and, if neces-
sary, to fight for the same. They made some secret prom-
ises to the serfs, but the latter were loathe to believe in the
empty phrases of the emissaries. T. Kosciuszko, a Lithuan-
ian gentleman, was appointed leader and dictator of the re-
volt. He had seen service in America and had not long
before distinguished himself at Dubienka. He was a sin-

58 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

cere leader and a daring soldier, but he lacked decision and
determination. He trembled at the thought of the impend-
ing civil strife and greatly feared that it might turn into a
revolution. He expected the devotion of the villagers, the
gentry, and even the Russian sympathisers to the cause. But
in this he deceived himself. He now had unlimited power
over life and property — a power which had never been en-
trusted to any man in Lithuania or Poland previous to this
time.

Madalinski, the Polish general, marched against Cracow
where he defeated General Tormansov. In Cracow, on
IMarch twenty-fourth, 1794, Kosciuszko gave out a procla-
mation to the whole nation in which he promised to remun-
erate honesty and devotion to the country's cause, to pun-
ish villainy, and to run down every traitor. The landowners
had to pay a progressive tax for the support of the father-
land. Leading an army composed of only 4,000 regulars
and of 2,000 villagers who were armed with scythes, Kos-
ciuszko met General Tormansov at Raclavice and gained a
brilliant victory. At Chelmno, the Polish army elected
Grochovski as its leader. Igelstrom feared that a revolution
might break out. In Warsaw, on April eighteenth, 1794,
the revolutionists, led by the priest Joseph Meyer, and the
shoemaker, J. Kilinski, expelled the Russian army and in-
stalled the Representative Council. Mazovia joined the re-
volt and established a Commission for the maintenance of
Order and a Criminal Court. But the king, who was an
agent of the Czarina, was not disturbed in Warsaw; in fact,
the Representative Council even sought his advice in na-
tional matters.

General Chlevinski expelled the Russians from Samo-
getia; the peasants, proclaiming their independence, fought
for four months against the combined forces of the gentry
and of Muscovy, until they met defeat at Meskuicei, and
their leaders — seven in all — were put to death. In Vilnius
Jacob Jasinski, with 300 men, disarmed the Russians and
arrested Hetman Kossakovski whom the Criminal Court

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 59

sentenced to death. He was later hanged in the market-
place at Vilnius.

Not long after, on May ninth, a mob, led by the priest
Meyer, and K. Konopka, compelled the Criminal Court at
Warsaw to condemn to death those who were in the pay of
the Russian government. Among those executed were Het-
man Ozarovski, Hetman Zabiella, Bishop Kossakovsld and
Ankvic, a member of the Permanent Council. Shouts of
"Long Live the Revolution" went up following the execu-
tions.

In the meantime Kosciuszko encamped at Polanec, near
Sandomir, where he squandered much precious time. In-
stead of attacking the retreating army by a series of quick
onslaughts, he endeavored to enlarge his army. The gentry
were slow in supplying recruits, and the serfs, noticing the
slothfulness of the landlords, did not take up arms. For
this reason Kosciuszko issued a manifesto on May seventh,
giving the serfs some relief. Each serf was given personal
liberty, and they were allowed to move if they had paid off
their debts and capitation. The serfs who took up arms were
freed from statute labor, but on their return they were to be
serfs still. The consequence was that the landlords fell into
a rage, while the serfs remained indifferent, so that it proved
difficult for Kosciuszko to provide for whatever army he was
able to muster. When a landlord gave a bushel or two of
grain, he did it grudgingly and stated that a famine was
staring him in the face.

Then Kosciuszko established a national council in Poland
and one in Lithuania in the interests of administration and
justice. Finally, he was ready to take up the offensive.
Since he intended to fight only Russia, he gave strict orders
to keep away from the territory of the other neighbors. At
Szczekocin, the Prussians, without having declared war, sent
an army to aid the Russians. Kosciuszko lost that battle as
well as two generals ( Vodzicki and Grochovski) . Not long
after, Zaj^cek was defeated by the Russians at Chelmno
Kosciuszko retreated to Kielce, while Zaj^cek withdrew
with his army toward Lublin, where the Royal Commission

60 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

had indeed assembled 30,000 serfs as had been ordered. But
the serfs were persuaded to disperse during the night. Thus
was the spirit of the revolt betrayed and the cause of Rus-
sia espoused.

On June thirteenth, an Austrian army surged into Po-
land. The National Council put forth an appeal urging the
people to join in a general revolt. Col. Vieniavski soon sur-
rendered Cracow to the Prussians without even firing a shot.
This was a moral blow to Kosciuszko. People began to
grumble about treason in the administration and the army.
But Kosciuszko allowed the suspects to retain their office
and removed even a staunch patriot like Jasinski from office.
In Warsaw a mob, led by K. Konopka, erected a gallows and
hanged Duke Czetvertynski, Bishop Massalski and five
others. Kosciuszko censured the excesses, Konopka and the
priest !Meyer were turned over to the Criminal Court, and
6,000 of the "wags" were arrested at night, pressed into
service and sent to the front.

Kosciuszko approached Warsaw, which was threatened
by the Prussians and a Russian army, led by General Fer-
sen. Once more the mob threatened the undesirable element
with the gallows. Primate Poniatovski took poison, the Tar-
govicians were hanged in effigy, while the death sentence of
Bishop Skarsevski was commuted to life imprisonment.
Even King Stanislav Augustus was accused of having re-
ceived bribes from Russia. After a siege of two months, the
enemy had to retire because K. Dabrovski and D. Mnievski
had succeeded in stirring up a revolt in Great Poland, and,
after having taken some towns, they had cut off the entire
transport of ammunitions destined for the Prussians on the
Vistula.

Although Jasinski had defeated the Russians in three
battles in Lithuania, Kosciuszko disliked his being a terrorist
and gave the command first to M. Wielhorski and then to
Mokronowski. But the Russians took Vilnius and were now
able to attack Poland from Lithuania as a base.

New armies of the enemy were approaching from all
sides. Suvorov defeated Sierakovski's division at Terespol.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 61

Fersen cut off the road along which provisions were carried
to Warsaw. On October tenth, Kosciuszko met Fersen's
army at Maciejovice, but was completely routed. Kosci-
uszko himself, wounded and unconscious, was taken prisoner.

The situation was now a desperate one. The inhabitants
of Warsaw made ready for a last stand. Suvorov was ap-
proaching Praga and incidentally he defeated the Lithuan-
ian army led by Molo-onovski. Soon Praga was stormed.
Jasinski was one of her 8,000 defenders to breathe his last.

Terror-stricken Warsaw decided to capitulate. The
bridge across the Vistula, which was burned down during
Vavrzecki's retreat, had to be rebuilt by the inhabitants,
whereupon Suvorov led his army into the city. Vavrzecki,
pursued by the Russians, dismissed his army at Radoszyce.
With Kosciuszko, Kilinski, Kapostas and many others,
Vavrzecki was exiled to Russia. KoU^tay and Zajg,cek be-
came prisoners of Austria. Madalinski fell into the hands
of the Prussians.

Such was the outcome of Kosciusko's revolt. The mag-
nates had stood aloof of the General who had donned the
garb of the serf. The villagers had failed to revolt en masse
because no proclamation of equality had been given out.
The gentry was unwilling to contribute voluntarily and to
sacrifice its interests, Warsaw alone was sincere in its efforts
to obtain liberty.

That Kosciuszko, the Lithuanian, "rose and saved the
honor of the country in the hour of her peril and with it the
magnificence and peace of conscience for the future genera-
tions of the Polish nation," is at present acknowledged by
the Poles themselves.

King Stanislav Augustus went to Grodno where the
aged Duke Repnin persuaded him to abdicate on November
twenty-fourth, 1795.

Russia, Prussia and Austria now struck a bargain and
Poland suffered her third partition. Russia took possession
of Lithuania and Lettonia — the cities Vilnius, Kaunas,
Grodno, Brest and Mitau — a total of 2,183 square miles;
Austria appropriated Cracow, Kielce, Radom, Lublin and

62 The Decline and the Partitions of Poland.

Zamosc— a total of 835 square miles; Prussia's share
amounted to 697 square miles of territory which lay between
the Pilica, Bug and Niemen rivers, together with the city of
Warsaw. Europe said not a word. Turkey alone did not
approve of the destruction of Poland and Lithuania.

Catherine II. considered the Poles and the Lithuanians
criminals and treated them accordingly. Thousands upon
thousands groaned in Siberian wildernesses or in the prisons
of St. Petersburg and Moscow.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 63

VI. LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGNS OF
CATHERINE II. AND PAUL.

In 1796, the governments of Vilnius and Slonim were
combined into one and called the Lithuanian. In 1801 this
Lithuanian government was cut in twain and the names Gov-
ernment of Vilnius and Government of Grodno given to its
component parts.

Eleven thousand people who had taken part in Kosci-
uszko's revolt were sent either to Siberia or to the prisoner's
"battalions." Zubov, Repnin, Suvorov, Fersen, and others,
received large estates upon which the villagers had to per-
form the statute labor — not by the farm, but according to
the number of souls. Recruits had to serve in the army for
a period of twenty-five years. Schools established by the
Commission of Education were closed. The Lithuanian
Statute remained in force, as did the national elective judi-
ciary and assemblies, which chose the judiciary. The coun-
try was ruled by governors and Russian officials. The clergy
was forbidden to have direct communication with Rome ; the
Jesuits remained intact and opened a novitiate at Polotzk.
The Uniates were forced into the Greek Orthodox Church
at the point of the bayonet or by threats of confiscation of
their lands. The villagers had to pay capitation. The
landed gentry increased the size of their estates by depriving
the villagers of their farms. The villagers were often
flogged for not working harder. The Jews were excluded
from Russia Proper. A strict censorship of books was es-
tablished in Lithuania.

Czar Paul (1796-1801) released Kosciuszko and many
other prisoners. Stanislav Augustus was allowed to live in

64 Lithuania During Reigns of Catherine II. and Paul.

St. Petersburg where he died in 1798. The gentry was
freed from compulsory service in the army. In Poland and
in Lithuania secret societies sprang up in great abundance.
For this reason about seventy people were imprisoned in Vil-
nius. In 1797, the priests Ciecierskis, D^brovski, Ziolkovski
and Judicki were flogged and sentenced to hard labor in
Siberia.

Paul, being afraid of freethought, in particular, not only
increased the number of dioceses, but even renewed two Uni-
ate bishoprics. He bestowed special favors upon the Jesuits
who were allowed to hold chairs in the Academy at Vilnius.
Even the estates of the Jesuits were about to be returned to
them; but before this was done, the Russian aristocracy had
strangled Czar Paul.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 65

VII. LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGN OF
CZAR ALEXANDER I.

Alexander (1801-1825), moved by a youthful spirit of
liberalism, established a college for the regulation of the
Latin and the Uniate clergy. The teaching, was entrusted
to laymen. The organization of the school system in Lithu-
ania was undertaken by Adam Czartoryski who, in 1803, had
been made the Curator of the district. The Academy at Vil-
nius was reorganized and made over into a university. Here
the youths of Samogetia and of Lithuania were made to
drink deep of the cup filled to the brim with Polish spirit.
The university did have a few good teachers, however.
Among such were Jundzila and Lelevel. The institution
,-prepared teachers and programs for schools and published
text-books. Jesuit wealth was to be used for the advance-
ment of education. While the college at Polotzk was
raised to the rank of an academy, it was still the seat of
obscurantism. Because the Jesuits were successful in con-
verting some of the aristocracy to their faith, they in-
curred the wrath of the Greek Catholic Church. In 1820,
they were expelled from Russia.

Lithuanian as well as Polish emigrants (Prozor, Gen.
Giedraitis, etc.) established what was known as the "Polish
Deputation" in Paris. M. Oginski and Gen. Rimkevicz or-
ganized regiments in Turkey. Gen. Kniazevicz joined the
Polish legions in Italy. Gen. Rimkevicz fell in battle when
Suvorov swept over the Cisalpine Republic. Many members
of the Legions were sent by Napoleon to Hayti where they
perished. From this time on, a feeling of sympathy for Al-
exander began to be felt, and not a few returned to their
homes, especially on occasions when the Czar spoke of the

66 Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alexander I,

restoration of Poland. Napoleon made the very same prom-
ises, and many Poles and Lithuanians joined his army dur-
ing his war with Prussia. Following the Treaty of Tilsit
(1807), the Duchy of Warsaw was established and a consti-
tution was given to the Poles ; the Palatinate of Augustovo
was added to the duchy, and so the Lithuanians living on
the left bank of the Niemen river were separated from the
Lithuanians living on the right bank.

When the supplying of the army became unnecessary
and the ports were closed to England, the Lithuanian gentry
complained bitterly of the economic depression; moreover,
many of the villagers fled across the Niemen, and the gentry
were held responsible for the fugitives. Duke Lubecki was
sent to St. Petersburg where the Czar, expecting a war with
Napoleon, received him with great kindness. He did the
same with M. Oginski, the organizer of the Legions. The
Lithuanian Circle of St. Petersburg was asked to work out
two projects for the organization of the country; one for the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the other for Poland. When
the war of 1812 broke out, Lubecki and Vavrzecki took
charge of provisioning the great Russian army, and the Czar
participated in a ball held in Vilnius where he simply dazzled
the Lithuanian gentry by his kindness and promises. But
Napoleon arrived not long after, and the people were com-
pelled to supply his army. The gentry's sympathies were
on the side of the Czar. The serfs alone greeted the French
army with hopes of liberation. Napoleon, however, did not
reciprocate their confidence, and gave Lithuania a provis
ional government under leadership of the harsh Gen. Hogen-
dorp. This new government, made up of magnates, re-
newed the Act of the Union of Lublin and sent it to the Po-
lish Diet at Warsaw. Bishop Dederka, Duke Radzivill and
Duke Giedraitis were among the few to join the French
with their regiments of infantry and cavalry.

Napoleon left Lithuania without covering up the tracks
of his army, so, when he was forced to beat a retreat from
Moscow, he found the bridges over the Berezina destroyed.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 67

While the temporary government at Vilnius had stored up
provisions, there was no army stationed in Lithuania, for
Napoleon distrusted the gentry. The aristocrats (K. Czar-
toryski, E. Sanguszko, etc.,) forsook his ranks and made
overtures to the Czar. On the retreat from Moscow to Vil-
nius, 300,000 dead were found by the roadsides. In Vilnius
the French burned their transports, and the treasury of the
army fell into the hands of the Russians. The Lithuanian
government fled to Cracow. The Czar gave amnesty to all ex-
cepting a few (D. Radzivill and others). Vavrzecki and
Lubecki were sent to govern the Duchy of Warsaw. Lithu-
ania, stripped of everything by both the French and the Rus-
sian armies, awaited the impending reprisals for disloyalty.
Whosoever had arms in his possession or sheltered fugitive
prisoners was punished by having his property confiscated
or by being exiled to Siberia. Rimskij-Korsakov was lord
and master of every person's life.

Czartoryski and Kosciuszko attended the Congress of
Vienna in the interests of Poland and Lithuania (1815).
After much strife, Russia retained Lithuania as a conquered
province, and changed the Duchy of Warsaw into the King-
dom of Poland under Russian suzerainty, but permitted the
kingdom to retain its parliamentary form of government.
Lithuania's sole gain was the stationing of an army corps
under the command of Grand Duke Constantine at Vilnius !
The Palatinate of Augustovo, with its capital at Suvalkai,
was once more added to Poland.

Because several magnates (Lubecki, Sulistrovski, Niem-
cevicz, Gizycki) were made governors, the gentry expected
that Lithuania would soon be made a part of Poland. The
youth of the gentry in Lithuania were fired with Polish pa-
triotism.

But Novosilcov at St. Petersburg altered Russia's policy,
and, what was still worse, Karamzin published his History
of Russia wherein he contended that Lithuania, Volynia, and
Podolia were countries "Russian from time immemorial and
redeemed only by Catherine II." Was it to be wondered at,
then, that even the mentioning of the Constitution of the

68 Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alexander I.

third of May in the schools was followed by investigations,
expulsion, and corporal punishment?

When the Czar began to abridge the constitutional rights
in Poland, the gentry of Lithuania turned its attention to the
villagers. The provincial Diets of the gentry decided to
send a delegation to the Czar with a request for the liberation
of the serfs. The Russian magnates alone refused to sign
the request. Alexander Skirmunt endeavored to extend the
home industry. Count K. Brzostovski abolished serfdom
from his estates and established schools, country stores, loan-
shops, which lent the villagers money without security, dis-
tilleries, breweries, machine shops, glass factories, etc., all for
the benefit of the villagers. Mickievicz, in his "Ode to the
Youth," expressed the sentiments of the young gentry. In
"Grazyna" and "Konrad Wallenrod," the same writer re-
minded them of their nation's noble past. D. Poskevicius
and Velenavicius wrote some excellent patriotic verse in Li-
thuanian and Simon Stanevicius published collections of the
peasants' songs. The historians of the University of Vilnius
— Lelevel, Danilevicz, Onacevicz and Jaroszevicz — dissemi-
nated far and wide the love of studying the nation's history.

The Czar feared death at the hand of an assassin. When
he was informed of the tragic deaths of Kotzebue and of
Duke Berry abroad, his fear became still greater. Follow-
ing the year 1817, there was a rise in the influence of Arak-
ciejev who disliked the Poles and who was adverse to the
combining of the Lithuanian government to that of Po-
land — a thing which the gentry of Lithuania greatly desired.
Alexander decided against such a combination and left Lith-
uania at the mercy of Novosilcov, Baikov and Pelican.

In 1822, Lubecki presented a project of the Augustovo
canal. If realized, it would have joined the Niemen, Vistula
and the Venta, and could easily have been extended to the
Duna. The purpose was to direct the commerce of Poland
away from Danzig and Elbing, provided Prussia refused to
contract a commercial agreement. In 1824, Pradzynski per-
fected the plan and supervised the work. In 1826, however,
he was imprisoned and his laboratories were confiscated by

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 69

Gen. Malletski. The whole work was halted during the
Polish insurrection. By means of this canal, the country
could have had direct communication with England and
other countries of Western Europe.

In 1823, the Czar issued certificates which had to be filled
out for all goods imported into Russia from Poland. The
Polish industry was in danger. Lithuania now had an op-
portunity to develop an industry in its larger and smaller
centers. Two Lithuanian magnates, Lubecki and Grabov-
ski, saved the situation for Poland to the detriment of Lith-
uania. The Prussian tariff of 1823 was also detrimental to
Lithuania who exported her produce to Konigsberg and to
Memel (Klaipeda). Only the new commercial treaty of
1825 raised the prices which had previously fallen to a very
low level. According to this tariff, woolen goods could not
be exported from Lithuania, and a reasonable charge was
made on the exportation of metals, hides and linen.

Secret societies now began to flourish all over Russia,
which aimed at overthrowing the dynasty. They even had
members in the army and the aristocracy. The Czar in-
tended to abdicate, but he died shortly after at Taganrog
from poison.

VIII. LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGN OF
CZAR NICOLAS I.

On the very day that Nicolas I. (1825-1854) ascended
the throne, the conspirators known as the Dekabrists re-
volted under the leadership of K. Rylejev, a pronounced
democrat ; but their regiments were overpowered, their dead
thrust under the ice of the Neva, and their leaders extermi-
nated. Many aristocratic families were involved in the trial
of the Dekabrists, especially after the Polish Duke Jablon-
ovski had volunteered to tell all he knew. Arrests followed
in Warsaw, Kiev, Vilnius, and even in Lvov and Thorn.

From that time on, Nicolas was obsessed with the idea
of insecurity and hoped to avert every danger by relentless

70 Lithuania During the Reign of Nicholas I.

repressions. His was a crushing tyranny. He endeavored
to keep the people away from revolution and unbelief, and
his hate of liberalism grew into a mania. In order to divert
attention from internal weakness and disorder, he, like all
despots, discovered pretexts for wars, first with Turkey,
whereby Serbia and Greece gained their independence, and
then with Persia. In 1830, when in Warsaw, he crowned
himself King of Poland. Students and cadets would have
shot the Czar had it not been for the counsels of the aged
Lithuanian gentleman Niemcevicz, who persuaded the youth
to reconsider their step.

In 1830 the revolutionists expelled King Charles X. from
France, and Belgium broke away from Holland. Since
Nicolas considered himself the guardian of Europe, he made
ready to go to war against France. The Poles then pre-
pared an insurrection at home because the Czar paid little
heed to their constitution and abridged their rights. The in-
surrectionists appointed Gen. Chlopicki commander in chief.
On November twenty-ninth, 1830, Grand Duke Constantine,
who had flogged the Polish students, was expelled from
Warsaw. The Poles demanded that their constitution be
guaranteed and that Lithuania and the Ukraine be joined
to Poland. The Russian government replied with a demand
of submission. War ensued. But Chlopicki, after a par-
leying with the Czar, resigned his dictatorship, and the Diet
appointed M. Radzivill as his successor. In the meantime.
Field-marshal Diebich overran the whole of Lithuania with
his forces and thus restrained the Lithuanian army corps
from joining the insurrectionists. On January twenty-fifth,
1831, the Diet dethroned Nicolas. After defeating the Rus-
sians at Stoczek and at Grochovo, the morale of the Polish
army improved. But the second battle at Grochovo proved
indecisive. Since the gentry were confident in their ability
of defeating the Russians without the aid of the serfs, the
Diet refused to recognize the rights of the villagers to prop-
erty and did not release them from the execution of statute
labor. The insurrection in Volynia, stirred un by Czacki,
Olizar and Worcell, was a total failure. Diebich received

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 71

reinforcements early in the spring, but his subordinates, Geis-
mar and Rosen, were defeated.

Grand Duke Michael was approaching Diebich's army
with which he joined forces at Nadbory, and together they
defeated Skrzynecki at Ostrolenka where the Poles lost 270
officers and 8,000 men. Not long after, Diebich and Grand
Duke Constantine died of cholera.

Although a state of war existed in Lithuania and the in-
habitants were terror-stricken, a revolt was started by the
Samogetians. Later, peasants from the district of Asmene
joined the struggle, and soon the whole of Lithuania was
burning with the spirit of insurrection. Matusevicz occupied
Trakai. Przezdziecki took Asmene which was later retaken
by the Russians who slaughtered old men and women and
children who sought shelter in a church. BUevicz defeated
Gen. Bezobrazov near Vilnius. Emilia Plater and Maria
Rasanovic directed the movements of the insurrectionists in
the vicinity of Dunaburg.

The Polish government made a grave mistake in its ap-
peal of May thirteenth to the generosity of the gentry of
Lithuania, instead of proclaiming the emancipation of the
serfs. Gen. Chlopicki was sent to encourage the revolt which
was brewing in Lithuania. Following the battle of Ostro-
lenka the Polish forces joined at Kedainei, and A. Gelgud
and Dembinski came to Lithuania. But Gelgud was beaten
at Vilnius. Chlopicki crossed the Prussian frontier and was
disarmed. Gelgud, suspected of treason, was shot by one of
his own officers. Dembinski alone, without money and am-
munition, turned back at Poneviezh with 3,500 men and ar-
rived safely in Warsaw.

Field-marshal Paskevic, profiting by the inactivity of
Skrzynecki, now marched on Warsaw where riots broke out
and 300 people were put to death because of alleged treason.
The National Counsel appointed Pr§.dzynski Commander in
Chief. But Warsaw fell on September eighth. The leaders
were sent to Siberia, while the people were impressed into the
army or committed to serfdom. The Polish constitution was
annulled, and Poland made a part of Russia. Lithuania was

72 Lithuania During the Reign of Nicholas 1.

doomed to suffer Russianization. In 1832 the University of
Vilnius was closed, and Russian was made the official lan-
guage of the country. The Russian Code supplanted the
Lithuanian Statute. An academy for the Roman Catholic
clergy was started in Vilnius, but this was transferred to St.
Petersburg in 1842.

The villagers were turned into slaves, and the relations
between master and slave were never more brutal than in the
days of Nicolas I. The gentry who were not enrolled in
the Book of Heraldry before October the sixteenth, 1831,
automatically were barred from the ranks of the nobility.
Some 45,000 families of the gentry were sent to Caucasus
and turned into Cossacks by compulsion. Graft prevailed
everywhere. The term Western Provinces of Russia was
everywhere substituted for the term Lithuania in official
documents. A catechism printed in 1832 for use in schools,
taught the children that Russia was their fatherland and that
"reverence, obedience, loyalty, tribute, service, good- will and
prayer to God" be offered to the Czar of the Russias. An
intricate system of espionage was evolved. Schools were
closed — out of 394 only 92 remained; corporal punishment
and espionage flourished. Whoever spoke Polish in the com-
mon lodgings of the students, was flogged. M. Volovicz,
who returned from abroad and urged the villagers to revolt,
died heroically on the gallows at Grodno in 1833. Simon
Konarski was very active in the interests of the serfs and en-
joyed a large following among the women and students of
the gentry. He established many secret revolutionary
groups in Lithuania with headquarters at Vilnius. Revo-
lutionary societies prevailed even in the army. Eventually
the leaders were apprehended. Konarski was first terribly
tortured and then shot in the city of Vilnius on February
twenty-seventh, 1839. Novicki, Brynk, Rodzevicz and many
others were exiled to Siberia or Caucasus. Over 200 officers
of Gen. Geismar's army corps were arrested and cast into
subterranean dungeons. In 1839 the townsfolk and the vil-
lagers were prohibited from wearing the Polish costume un-
der penalty of being flogged, whereas anyone who donned
the Russian costume received a gift of one ruble.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 73

The work of the Democrats in Lithuania and in White
Russia was facilitated and made more effective through the
government's policy of persecuting the Uniates and other
religious denominations — a policy which roused the common
people. In 2urovice, in the government of Grodno, Bishop
Joseph Siemasko gradually introduced the Greek Orthodox
services. Priests who objected to the innovation were sent
away, while the people who rioted were calmed by the lash.
Aged men and women were ready to die for their faith. In
1839, an Act combining the Greek Catholic and the Greek
Orthodox Churches was announced at Polotzk, and upwards
of 2,500,000 people were compelled to join the Orthodox
church in fear of being lashed by the Cossacks and the police.
Many reluctant villagers — women as well as men — were
flogged to death.

Protestants also suffered from the whims of Greek Or-
thodoxy. The Bible Society of Vilnius, founded in 1812,
was abolished in 1828. A promise of land to the peasants of
the Baltic Provinces lured thousands of Letts and Esthon-
ians into the Church of Russia. As soon as the peasants be-
came aware of the deceit, however, their religious fervor
quickly vanished and they lent a willing ear to voices eman-
ating from the cradle of Socialism.

In 1832 all the monasteries in the government of Kaunas
were closed and most of the churches were turned into houses
of worship for the Orthodox Russians. In 1842, the govern-
ment confiscated the property — estates and moneys — of the
church and clergy of Lithuania, a confiscation which
amounted to 171,845,000 rubles.

From the year 1827, the children of peasants were barred
from higher institutions of learning. For this reason many
of the peasants changed their names to make them sound like
those of the gentry, e. g., Senkus became Sienkievicz, Jonkus
became Jankovski. Some even endeavored to buy them-
selves into the ranks of the gentry. Many taught their chil-
dren reading and writing at home. From 1837 peasants
were denied admission into clerical seminaries; this decision
was rescinded later, however, but only where the consent of

74 Lithuania During the Reign of Nicholas I.

the landlords and the governor was given, could a peasant
enter such an institution. The Lithuanian Library and
Museum at Vilnius were plundered, and all precious books
and manuscripts were taken to St. Petersburg and Moscow.

By means of its industrial and commercial policies, the
government strove to create a new and wealthy class which
would be grateful for its state of well-being and hence ut-
terly averse to any revolutionary movement. For this rea-
son Russian capitalists were attracted to the provinces of
the Northwestern Territory and given special privileges un-
der the Act of 1841. The gentry, on the other hand, were
transported to Caucasus and Cherson by thousands — an ef-
fort by means of which it was hoped to eradicate the Polish
element. But even the Russians were unable to compete
with the Jews who got control of the local trade and industry.
The Jews were prohibited from wearing their customary
garments, their peyzahs were pulled out, their spiritual books
were revised by the censors, and their uncensored books con-
fiscated. The Act of 1843 demanded that the Jews serve in
the army instead of paying the Recruit's Tax as had been
the case before. The local element were cast out of the higher
offices. The centralization policy of the Russian bureaucracy
began to be felt in evergrowing circles. In 1843, the gov-
ernment of Kaunas was instituted. P. J. Preiss, in his let-
ters from Konigsberg to the Minister of Instruction, in 1840,
demanded that experts in Slavic philology be directed to
study the Lithuanian language ; he endeavored to show that
the Lithuanians were members of the Greek Orthodox
Church prior to the arrival of the Germans into the Baltic
Provinces and mentioned the necessity of compiling an his-
torical dictionary of the localities inhabited by the Slavs and
Lithuanians in common. Like Karamzin, Preiss was a mas-
ter at presenting falsified accounts of the history of the Li-
thuanian nation.

It is not astonishing, then, that the country fell into a
torpor ; the mucky intellectual atmosphere had devitalized the
old gentry. The younger and more progressive people were
sent to the Caucasus to fight against Shamyl and to subju-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 75

gate the races of that region. From the times of Konarski,
the agitation carried on among the villagers gave the govern-
ment no rest, so, in 1842, Nicholas I permitted the landed
proprietors to enter into contracts with their serfs. In this
way the so-called obligatory peasantry was created. But the
serfs looked upon this new condition as liberation from bond-
age, and a series of riots and insurrections followed. In
1844, commissions were appointed to take the inventory of
the estates of the gentry. Whenever the peasantry, craving
liberty, started riots, they were either flogged to death or sent
in groups to Siberia. The propaganda of the Democrats
caused the government much anxiety — it anticipated a gen-
eral political propaganda on a huge scale. Any one who
had in his possession literature of liberal tendencies was in
constant peril of search by the gendarmery. The students
were placed under special surveillance. The gjrmnasiums at
Seinai, Lukovo and Kielce were closed. The uncovering of
Rev. Sciegienny's Conspiracy near Kielce in particular
struck terror into the heart of the government at St. Peters-
burg (1844). Rev. Sciegienny advocated the establishment
of a republic in which the clergy and the villagers were to
be the ruling element. For this he was sentenced to hard
labor in the quarries of Nerchinsk, where he organized a
secret commune among the exiles. The villagers were
flogged and clubbed. Needless to say, the number of vic-
tims was very great.

The effect of the abolition of the Republic of Cracow was
felt in Lithuania also; John Rohr was bastinated with 1,500
strokes. Dr. Renier, Boguslavski and others were adorned
with foul inscriptions and paraded by the soldiers through
the streets of Vilnius, and then sent to Siberia.

In 1847, whole villages of peasants from the government
of Vitebsk started westward with all their belongings. The
army, however, flogged them back to their homes. By this
time the Czar realized that something had to be done for the
peasants, compulsory labor was shortened to 150 days in the
year, peasants were granted the legal ownership of their

76 Lithuania During the Reign of Nicholas I.

land, and gratuitous labor for landed proprietors was abol-
ished. But personal liberty was not acknowledged.

The Magyar revolution of 1848 was but another con-
flagration which threatened to spread into the dominions of
the Czar, who hastened to assist the Emperor of Austria
"against the common foe." Conspirators in Warsaw and
Vilnius were eagerly awaiting the outcome of this rebellion,
which, unfortunately, came to an unsuccessful conclusion
when Gorgoi laid down his arms at Vilagos. And when the
Revolution in Berlin broke out the National Committee of
Poland intended to send an army corps into Lithuania and
Samogetia; but Mieroslavski was unwilling to carry on a
partisan war, the Polish gentry feared a repetition of the
"Galician carnage," and the peasants of Lithuania laid down
their arms, together with their leader Ancyp. Thanks to
the efforts of Pastor Gisevius and Mrongovius, the ideas of
democracy reached Varmia and Eastern Prussia also; but
the spirit of nationalism was soon throttled by the endeavors
of Pangermanic patriots. The patriots of Poland dreamed
now not only of the federation of Poland, Lithuania and
Russia, but of all the Slav races. They hoped to attain a
federation with a central government for common weal, yet
each race was to have equal rights and independence; and
each race was to have its own autonomous government. The
United States of America was taken as an example. The
Poles had many followers in Lithuania, especially among the
students and the younger gentry. From 1850 to 1854 the
police made many arrests. The Russian government sen-
tenced hundreds to be bastinaded and exiled to Nerchinsk.
In Vilnius, the students of the gymnasium were flogged pub-
licly in the market-place, and then impressed into the army.
The requirements for entrance into the schools were made
more difficult, and many books which previously had been
approved by the censors were removed from the shelves of
the libraries. Writers who advocated the abolition of serf-
dom were especially persecuted.

In the winter of 1854, while the Crimean War was still
in progress. Czar Nicolas I. committed suicide by drinking
poison.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 77

IX. LITHUANIA DURING THE REIGN OF
CZAR ALEXANDER II.

The reign of Alexander II. (1854-1881) was a period
devoted to the consideration of various projects of reform.
It was necessary to release the serfs from their condition of
servitude. In the times of Nicolas I. there were 556 revolts
and the assassination of 144 landed proprietors occurred in
the last twenty years of his reign. In an address given to
the gentry in Moscow in 1858, Alexander II. stated that this
reform must come from above, or else it would be realized
from below. The novelist Jos. Ig. Krasevski and the poet
L. Kondratovic directed the attention of the gentry to na-
tional interests. In 1857, when the gentry of Lithuania
demanded the abolition of servitude, the Czar ordered the
appointment of commissions, which were to work for the
realization of this demand. The adherents of the idea of
democracy carried on a spirited propaganda, and the Czar,
in his Ukase of March third, 1861, hastily proclaimed the
abolition of serfdom. In this Ukase he promised much and
gave little. The peasants of Lithuania became owners of
their land after forty-nine years' payment of ground rent.
In 1862, privileged jurisdiction was abolished, trial by jury
for criminal cases was instituted, and, half a vear later, cor-
poral punishment was done away with. But Lithuania, un-
like Russia, did not receive the Zemstvo — a species of local
civil administration.

The Polish revolution of 1863 interfered with the normal
progress of reform in Russia. The agitators desired that the
peasantry renounce obedience to the clergy and the gentry.
Revolutionary demonstrations were begun in the churches
of Poland. Russia had entered into a convention with Prus-

78 Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alexander II.

sia in 1858, and was thus secure so far as her western neigh-
bor was concerned; yet the Czar cautioned the Poles "point
des reveries!" before he committed the leaders of the excesses
to prison. While the Poles had great faith in Napoleon
III., they sent Zamoyski on a mission concerning Poland's
autonomy to St. Petersburg. Constantine was made Vice-
roy, and the aged Wielopolski was to be his counsellor. Her-
zen supported Poland's cause warmly. France now de-
manded that the independence of Poland be recognized. Dur-
ing the conscription, Wielopelski enrolled the dangerous
youth into the army. A revolt followed. Nazimov, the Gov-
ernor-General of Lithuania, had two divisions of cavalry and
one of infantry at his disposal, and soon after another divi-
sion of infantry was added to his forces. The troops were
concentrated in the towns. Many oiScers, however, deserted
the army and went into the forests, where they, together
with the clergy, who were awaiting them, organized the army
of the insurrectionists. The organization of this army was
facilitated by the fact that the civil offices of the country were
held by Poles and Lithuanians. The Red and the White
parties were united. The peasants were promised perpetual
grants of land, free from taxation, provided they joined in
the uprising. The unfaithful were imprisoned or made to
suffer in some other way. On May tenth, 1863, the Polish
National government granted the peasants the right to own
land, and proclaimed the independence of Poland, Lithuania
and Ukraina, with equality for all before the law, and with
full liberty for each to develop its nationality and language.
Lithuania and Ukraina were to be the equals of Poland.

The rebels occupied the villages and forests and had es-
tablished an extensive organization. When Plater captured
a transport of arms in the vicinity of Dunaburg, Muravyov
(the "Hangman") was appointed dictator of Lithuania. He
divided the country into military districts. In Vilnius, the
owners of property and the clergy were made responsible for
those who fled to join the ranks of the rebels. Not long after,
two priests — Isora and Ziemacki — were shot. Bishop Kra-
sinski was sent to Viatka, where he was kept under strict sur-

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 79

veillance. The jails were filled with rebels. Capt. Sierakov-
ski and Kolysko were hanged. Commissions of information
and investigation were established in every district. In the
villages an armed guard of the peasantry was established to
assist the Russian army in exterminating the rebels. Every-
where Muravyov posed as the protector of the peasantry
against the gentry and the clergy. Many Lithuanian offi-
cials were either exiled or jailed, e. g., Lappo of Minsk was
sent to Perm, Starzenski of Grodno was court-martialed and
exiled to the fortress of Bobruisk.

The Lithuanian peasantry, with but few exceptions, re-
mained loyal to Russia. Hence Muravyov temporarily per-
mitted the teaching of the Lithuanian language in the schools
and even promised to publish a newspaper, entitled the "Peo-
ple's Friend."

Small bands of the rebels terrorized the inhabitants. The
so-called "hangman-gendarmes" attained considerable no-
toriety. Muravyov ordered them to be shot on the spot if
captured. Secret agents came to Vilnius from Warsaw to
murder Muravyov and Domeyko, the latter having signed
a petition to the government begging for clemency. Most
of these conspirators were apprehended and hanged. Bishop
Valancaukas aided Muravyov by entreating the people to
lay down their arms, and many leaders (Bitis, Puidokas,
Rev. Dembskis and others) of the bands left the country.
Rev. Mackievicz, a staunch and energetic insurrectionist,
was hanged in the city of Kaunas. The revolt soon died
down in Minsk, Grodno and Augustovo, and by the end of
1863 it was over. Const. Kalinovski, the chief organizer of
the revolt in Lithuania, was hanged in Vilnius on March
second, 1864.

Muravyov imported Russians to fill all of the offices. He
erected Greek Orthodox churches and Russian schools. Sep-
arate courts of justice were established for peasants and for
the gentry, and the latter had to pay a heavy indemnity. Fol-
lowing the pacification of the country, the martial court and
the commissions of investigation were retained. Muravyov

80 Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alexander II.

exterminated at least 9,000 people and exiled many, many
thousands to Siberia.

In order to get a firmer grip on the clersry, Muravyov
ordered the abolition of the Temperance Society, the Vin-
centine Society of Charity, the Society of Charity for the
Poor, and all the organizations of the Sisters of Mercy. The
Greek Orthodox clergy were given an increase in pay, thirty
Roman Catholic Monasteries were closed, the erection of
Roman Catholic churches was rarely permitted, the Russian
language was made obligatory in schools and offices of ad-
ministration, and any manifestation of the Polish spirit was
summarily put down. The organization of the peasants into
communes having been accomplished, the Russians felt cer-
tain that Lithuania had become a thoroughly Russian coun-
try.

The Lithuanian peasantry, which, according to Murav-
yov himself, had helped the Russian government to put down
the rebellion, was terribly crushed. When the Russian ele-
ment had grown somewhat stronger, Muravyov prohibited
the printing of Lithuanian books and papers in the Latin
alphabet and appropriated 25,000 rubles for the printing of
elementary and prayer-books in the Lithuanian language,
but in the "grazhdanka," or Russian alphabet. No doubt he
thought this a fine stroke in the policy of Russianizing the
Lithuanians. The peasants, thought Muravyov, lacking
leaders and a press, and shorn of their hopes for a better fu-
ture, will soon discard their nationality. Muravyov, in his
Memoirs, does not even mention the word Lithuanians. He
said, in substance, that Lithuania had been Russian from
times beyond recall, that the Lithuanians were to be meta-
morphosed by the "real" Russian culture, and not by the
"rotten" culture of the West. The essence of this "real"
culture was the augmentation of the Russian element and
the weakening of the Roman Catholic Church.

In 1865, Adj.-Gen. Kaufman, Muravyov's successor,
prohibited "persons of Polish extraction" from acquiring
estates in the "Western Provinces of Russia," and the Czar
deemed it necessary to Russianize the whole country. Books

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 81

printed prior to 1864 were not to be sold or imported from
abroad, and it goes without saying that the Minister of the
Interior sanctioned this unreasonable prohibition.

Following the Polish Insurrection, the spirit of the Rus-
sian nation became one of retrogression. The party of Kat-
kov came into pre-eminence and Samarin with his friends
subjected the Baltic Provinces to the most criminal treat-
ment. Even the Greek Orthodox Church became more ag-
gressive and militant. The Russophiles, Tupalski, Nemeksa,
and ^ilinski had great influence on the government in the
city of Vilnius. Kaufman and Famincyn elevated ^ilinski
to the office of administrator of the diocese. Special com-
missions translated prayer-books, rituals and other religious
works into the Russian. Nemeksa pointed out the necessity
of introducing the Russian language into the church serv-
ices, and Rev. Kaminski had the audacity to preach in Rus-
sian at the church in §vencionai. In the days of the revolt,
and after, ^ilinski denounced many of the priests to the gov-
ernment, and not a few of them had to spend the remainder
of their lives in the wilds of Siberia. In 1866, Linkinas, a
priest who had been instrumental in the closing of the church
at Dukstai, became a member of the chapter at Vilnius. In
1870, when the Russian "trebnik," or ritual, had been dis-
tributed among the clergy by the "chapter of Muravyov,"
Rev. St. Petravicia of Vilnius consigned 143 copies thereof
to the flames and issued a circular letter wherein he de-
nounced the Russophilism and the treasonable acts of 2ilin-
ski in no uncertain terms. While in the act of preaching a
sermon in his church, Rev. Petravicia burned up the instruc-
tions and the ritual of 2ilinski. For this he was court-
martialed and deported to the northern wastes of Kola. The
teaching of the Russian language, history and literature were
made compulsory in clerical seminaries.

The conservatives had the upper hand in Russia. Nu-
merous were the attempts to assassinate the Czar. Follow-
ing the war with Turkey, the Czar, unable to stop the spread
of Nihilism, summoned the progressive party (Valuyev,
Loris Melikov and Suvalov were its representatives) to take

82 Lithuania During the Reign of Czar Alexander II.

hold of the reins of the government. The Zemstvos and
cities received home rule after a fashion. A representation
of the wealthy land owners in the government was even con-
templated. But on March thirteenth, 1881, the Czar fell a
victim of the Nihilists — Ignatius Gryneviackas killed the
Czar and himself with a bomb.

Eindless misery and distress dwarfed the people of Lith-
uania in stature and in mind. About one-half of the young
men of the country were unfit for military service through-
the diminution in stature. They began to emigrate en masse
to England, South Africa, Argentina and the United States.
The abolition of serfdom proved a boon for the bourgeoisie.
The towns and cities were filled to overflowing by the pro-
letariat who suffered greatly from being exploited by the
greedy bourgeoisie.

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 83

X. FOUR DECADES OF CONTENTION AND
SUFFERING.

The Reigns of Alexander III. and Nicolas II.

The Russian government never hinted at what it really
meant by the phrase "persons of Polish extraction"; some-
times it meant nationality, sometimes religion, and, when
found expedient by the government, it was construed to mean
social rank or class. Now the rights of the class to which the
Lithuanians were ascribed were persistently and systemati-
cally abridged. From the year 1864 the constituents of this
class were debarred from holding office. In 1894, Krivosein,
Minister of Communications, sent out a secret circular which
prohibited the employment of these people in the railroad
service and the leasing of restaurants to them. Men were
brought from Russia to take the places of the Lithuanians,
who were ousted from office. The slightest indication of dis-
respect for a Russian Orthodox priest or an ordinary officer
was considered a sign of disloyalty toward the Russian gov-
ernment. Private meetings held without the knowledge of
the police, or the singing of prohibited songs and hymns, was
considered grossly criminal and made punishable by a fine
of from 100 to 500 rubles. The use of the Lithuanian or the
Polish language in official circles or on official documents,
or the use of the national or any other emblem on buildings,
clothes, harness, etc., was also punishable by a fine. From
the year 1889, illuminations, the decoration of buildings with
flowers and flags, and other manifestations of festivity were
not permitted. Land could be bought only with the consent
of the governor, and could not be rented for a term exceed-
ing twelve years. In 1886, all grants for the purchase of
land in the northwestern provinces of Russia had to be re-

84 Four Decades of Contention and Suffering

newed and approved by the governor. From 1870 to 1885
villagei's of the Roman Catholic faith were permitted to buy
only as much land as a family was able to work without the
assistance of hired laborers. Anyone suspected of having
taken part in ovations given visiting bishops could not get a
permit to buy land. In 1892, whole parishes (Sledzianovo
and Geraniunai) in the government of Grodno forfeited
their right to acquire land by having offered resistance to the
police when their churches were closed by the government.
The motives for such acts of stupidity are to be found in the
diary of the Committee of Ministers, dated 1884: To induce
people from Russia to settle in Lithuania, and to thus estab-
lish there a class of land owners loyal to Russia. Russians
received all manner of advantages when estates were sold
at auction or by private contract for the same reason. The
consequence of all this was a great economic depression and
indigence among the villagers.

The basic laws of Russia guaranty religious freedom to
all the inhabitants. The status of the Catholic Lithuanians,
however, shows that this was and is by no means the case.
The administration used various means of repression against
the clergy, because it considered the latter to be the dissemi-
nator of Polish ideas, and accorded unfair treatment to the
villagers, who did not participate in the revolt. From 1864
to 1878 crosses could be erected only in the cemeteries, al-
though the Lithuanians had a custom of erecting them in the
fields, villages and by the roadside. Moreover, it was speci-
fied that the crosses were to be wooden; for the erection of a
monument made of stone or metal the owner was fined or
forcibly made to remove same. From the year 1866 Catholic
processions were not allowed to be held outside the church-
yard, and only a certain mmiber of even these church-yard
processions could be held. Priests who disobeyed this de-
mand were fined from 10 to 100 rubles. Such rulings in-
creased the casualties resulting from the overcrowding of
churches whenever these processions were held. It was neces-
sary to get the consent of the Minister of the Interior, if the
people desired to build a new church, and from 1881 only

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 85

the governor-general could issue a permit for the repair of a
church or altar. From 1884 the bishops were permitted to
make visits in their own dioceses only with the permission of
the governor-general ; and when they made these visits, the
gendarmery followed their every step, their every utterance
and gesture. From 1881 the clergy were fined from one to
five hundred rubles if they held services in neighboring par-
ishes without the consent of the civil powers ; they were liable
to the same punishment for the preaching of uncensored
sermons, for making collections without the consent of the
local police, for failure to announce the comino" of gala days,
or for holding too early services on such days, and for the
holding of processions not entered in the schedule prepared
by the governor-general. According to Leliva, in 1893 and
1894 the clergy had paid Governor-General Orzevski fines
aggregating over 2,000 rubles.

From 1887 hymns could be sung only at the cemeteries in
conjunction with funeral services, and no banners or emblems,
save the crucifix, were allowed to be carried in the funeral
processions. In 1893, music made up a part of the ceremonies
in the burial of a certain villager ; for this the priest was fined
100 rubles, and the musicians were sentenced to three days in
jail, while the son of the deceased villager was obliged to
spend a whole week in confinement. From 1870 to 1887
religious instruction was given in the schools in the Russian
tongue only, and on gala days all the Catholic students were
compelled to attend the services in the Greek Orthodox
church. In 1889, the schoolboys of Kaunas, Sauliai, Pane-
vezis, etc., went out on strike as a protest to this unfair re-
quirement. Greek Orthodox hand-books of religious instruc-
tion were ordered for use in the schools ; the Catholics had to
use them also up to the year 1879. Since 1890 the Minister
of Instruction did not insist on any more religious instruction
for the Catholics, The brighter students were not permitted
to enter the clerical seminaries. All the teachers of the gym-
nasium had to be Greek Orthodox. The language, the his-
tory and the literature of the Lithuanians were excluded
from the curricula of the schools. Many churches were closed

86 Four Decades of Contention and Suffering

without cause, as at Kraziai, where, in 1893, the villagers pro-
tested and bloodshed followed with over 150 victims among
the villagers. The same happened to the villagers at K§s-
taiciai in 1886. Some churches were even dynamited by the
government as at Geraniunai and Sledzianovo. Such bar-
barous and violent deeds could not help but arouse a feeling
of bitterness and unrest among theLithuanians.

The larger part of Lithuania, comprising the govern-
ments of Kaunas, Vilnius, Grodno and Suvalkai, parts of
Courland, Minsk and Vitebsk, is under Russian sway and
under the direct jurisdiction of the governor-general of Vil-
nius; the smaller part of the country, sometimes known as
East Prussia, is under German rule. The Lithuanian na-
tion, but recently revived, is making its way fearlessly de-
spite the unusual handicaps. The Lithuanian spirit became
restless in the time of the Polish insurrection, and since the
liberation of the serfs. Though Polonized, Lithuania, never-
theless, had a literature. Besides the Bible and other re-
ligious works which were printed when the wave of Protest-
antism spread over the country, Lithuania had an extensive
literature of a polemical and theological character in the
native tongue. The centers for the Protestant publications
were Kedainei, Tilze and Konigsberg, for the Catholic —
Vilnius. The first manifestation of national consciousness
occurred in 1824, when Prof. Rheza, of Konigsberg, pub-
lished a translation of Aesop's Fables, and in the year fol-
lowing, when he issued a collection of Lithuanian ballads. In
1818 he had published a lengthy poem of Duonelaitis', en-
titled "The Four Seasons." In 1849, Prof. Kursaitis began
to issue a Lithuanian newspaper, called "Keleivis" (the
Traveler). Among other workers in East Prussia were
Prof. Gisevius, Dr. Sauerwein, Pastor Kelkis and many
others. In Greater Lithuania the following distinguished
themselves by their writings; D. Poskevicius, S. Stane-
vicius, S. Daukantas, Ivinskas and Bishop Valancauskas.
The first Lithuanian almanac appeared in Prussia in 1846,
and in Vilnius in 1847. Daukantas (+ 1864) Avill be remem-
bered as the translator of Fedro's Fables and the History of

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 87

Cornelius Nepos; his monumental works, entitled "The Cus-
toms of the Ancient Lithuanians" and "A History of Li-
thuania" will ever be a source of delight to the patriotic Li-
thuanian. This feeling of National consciousness rose first
from the gentry, and then took root among the villagers.
Following the abolition of serfdom men born of peasant stock
came forward and opened up a new future of literary activ-
ity. But the Lithuanians, caught unawares, received a well-
nigh fatal blow from the government — Lithuanian books
printed in the Latin characters were prohibited. This most
stupid prohibition lasted from 1864 to 1904 — forty long
years. The Latin alphabet was considered the prime mover
of disobedience, revolt and disloyalty. By forbidding the
use of the Latin alphabet, Muravyov hoped, or rather ex-
pected, to curb the spirit of revolt; with the compulsory use
of the "grazhdanka" he expected the easy and rapid Rus-
sianization of the Lithuanian people to follow. But since
the Latin alphabet was absolutely indispensable for the rep-
resentation of the Lithuanian language in writing, a mere
prohibition of the police could not undo the work of centuries.
So in 1864 the publication of Lithuanian books and news-
papers was transferred from Greater Lithuania to Lithuania
Minor. Tilze, or Tilsit, as the Germans prefer to call it, now
became the principal center of Lithuanian publication. From
this time on, whatever was printed in Lithuania Minor was
smuggled into Lithuania Proper and distributed among the
people. This prohibition inhibited to a large degree the nor-
mal growth of education and literature in Lithuania. One
should not forget that in 1795, when Lithuania was added to
Russia, and in 1815, when the congress of Vienna met, Li-
thuania had been guaranteed all her previous rights, and
hence the use of the Latin alphabet.

According to the Ukase of 1864, instruction in the pri-
mary schools was to be given in the national language of the
inhabitants, not even excepting Russia. But even in the gov-
ernment of Suvalkai this was not the case. In 1871 Count
(not Leo) Tolstoy verbally commanded the teachers to bring
the Russian language into use everywhere, and in this man-

88 Four Decades of Contention and Suffering

ner he got around the law. In 1869, the Committee of Min-
isters decided to retain the Polish language in the religious
instruction of the Polish youth in the gymnasiums, but the
Lithuanians even of the government of Suvalkai still re-
ceived their religious instruction exclusively in Russian and
were compelled to use Russian prayer-books, which were
published by the Vilnius district of instruction.

According to the decree of the Synod of Clairmont, in
Catholic parishes of mixed population, additional services
must be held in the language of the majority of the inhabi-
tants. The Russian "workers" themselves arrived at the
conclusion that it was a mistake to introduce the Russian lan-
guage in the extra services of the Catholic churches. And
yet as late as 1886 even the Committee of Ministers was
afraid of granting the request of the Lithuanians, who de-
sired the use of the Lithuanian language in ethnographical
Lithuania. In many parishes the Latin language is used, in
others the Polish is favored, although the Lithuanian parish-
ioners understand neither the one nor the other ; and this con-
dition not infrequently leads to misunderstandings between
the parishioners and their pastors, and occasionally even to
bloodshed within the walls of the church.

Up to 1905 the Lithuanian language was excluded from
the lower and higher schools of Lithuania. In the clerical
seminaries the native tongue was taught in a most prepos-
terous manner — preposterous because the Russian alphabet
was obligatory.

Because of this policy of Muravyov the Lithuanian press
disappeared from the native land altogether and had to seek
refuge in East Prussia and the United States of America,
From 1883 to 1905 the Lithuanian press flourished in Ger-
many. "Ausra" (Dawn), "gviesa" (The Light), "Apz-
valga" (Review), "Varpas" (The Bell), "Ukininkas bei
Naujienos" (Farm and News), "Darbininkij Balsas" (The
Workmen's Voice), "Tevynes Sargas" (The Country's
Guard), etc. were, printed in Tilze alone. "Lietuviskasis
Balsas" (The Lithuanian Voice), "Vienybe" (The Union),
"Lietuva" (Lithuania), "Garsas" (The Clarion), "Rytas"

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 89

(Morning), "Kardas" (The Sword),"NaujaGadyne" (The
New Era), "Apsvieta" (Enlightenment), "Tevyne" (The
Fatherland), "Dirva" (The Soil), "Pennsylvanijos Dar-
bininkas" (The Pennsylvania Workman), "Saule" (The
Sun), "Ateitis" (The Future), "^vaigzde" (The Star), etc.,
were published in America. All of the above periodicals
were disseminated in that part of Lithuania which is under
Russian sway — a fact which shows the futility of a great
power's effort to denationalize a people who are bound to
defend their rights come what may.

Raids, search, fines, imprisonment, and deportations to
Siberia were matters of everyday occurrence. There was a
steady rise from year to year in the number of confiscated
books: From 1891 to 1893, 37,718 Lithuanian books were
confiscated at the custom houses on the frontier; from 1894
to 1896 the number was 40,335 copies; from 1897 to 1899
the number fell to 39,024, and from 1900 to 1902 it rose to
$6,182. Every year huge piles of books were burned up in
the market place in Vilnius. Yet the Russian government
posed as a disseminator of civilization.

The Russian government, unable to curb the activity of
the Lithuanians, arranged an understanding with Germany.
The government hoped to be able to cope with the situation
by a prohibition of the Lithuanian press abroad. In 1897,
while visiting at Peterhof, Kaiser Wilhelm II. gave his full
consent to the scheme. In Tilsit a special political police
agent was appointed. This agent could enlist the services
of the district attorneys of Konigsberg and Tilsit at will, and
was also given the right to communicate directly with the
Russian authorities on the frontier whenever he deemed it ex-
pedient to do so. Such was the combined effort of Germany
and Russia to snuff the ardor of the workers who had re-
generated Lithuania. This policy resulted in an interesting
lawsuit in the city of Konigsberg against five Lithuanians
who were arrested for maintaining depots of Lithuanian
literature and for smuggling books and newspapers into Li-
thuania Proper. The Berlin daily, "Vorwaerts," took up the
cause of the Lithuanians and changed entirely the complex-

90 Four Decades of Contention and Suffering

ion of the lawsuit — not the five Lithuanians, but the Czar
himself was on trial for his inhuman and senseless policy
toward the Lithuanians (1902) . Not only did the people win
a great moral victory, but the newspapers brought the ter-
rible spiritual sufferings of the Lithuanian people before the
eyes of the Western World.

When the night ^vas darkest, the book smugglers would
emerge from their haunts along the frontier and bring the
people light. They were especially active during the rainy
seasons. The system demanded men of untiring zeal and de-
votion and found them in Svedas, Bielakas, Antanavicius,
Mikolainis and many others. Having passed the line of fron-
tier guards, these men would hand their bundles to trusted
men who carried the literature to the secret depots of distri-
bution in the very depths of the country. The authors of
these books and papers — intellectuals and priests — did not
ask for compensation. Among them we might mention Dr.
J. Basanavicius, P. Vileisis, Dr. V. Kudirka, P. Visinskas,
Biliunas, Vaicaitis, Macys, Sernas, and Rev. Tumas. In
America, two large organizations — "Tevynes Myletojij
Draugyste" (Lovers of the Fatherland) and the Lithuanian
Alliance of America — gained the everlasting gratitude of
the Lithuanian people by publishing at their own expense
books for gratuitous distribution in Lithuania. The ultimate
distribution was entrusted to special agents, though, not in-
frequently, beggars, Jewish peddlars, farmers, laborers,
teachers and the clergy did this work willingly. Of course,
the Russian government stationed spies everywhere, and
many arrests may be attributed to their activity. In 1898,
1899 and 1901 there were hundreds of people involved in law-
suits of a political nature.

Eventually the government became aware of the futility
of its oiminal work. All difficulties and persecutions not-
withstanding, Lithuanian books and newspapers Imported
from abroad enjoyed a wide circulation and the discontent of
the people gradually grew more potent. Then it was that
Governor- General Sviatopolk-Mirskij, anticipating a revolt
of the people, recommended the restoration of the press to

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 91

the Lithuanians. And so, on May seventh, 1904, the Senate
passed a decree which set the prohibition aside. Thus did a.
little virile nation make the great power come to terms.

XI. THE OUTLOOK.

The period of the suppression of the Lithuanian press
witnessed the rise of the educational society among the peo-
ple. "Atgaja" (Restoration), "Lietuva" (Lithuania),
"Ausrine" (Morning Dawn), "Teisybe" (Truth), "Sie-
tynas" (The Pleiades), "Darzelis" (The Garden), "Spin-
dulys" (The Ray), "^iburelis" (Light), "Vienybe"
(Union), "Artojij Draugyste" (The Ploughmen's Society),
etc., are the names of a few of such educational organizations
which sprang up among the people in spite of the govern-
ment's measures of repression. Some of these societies gave
scholarships to poor and worthy students at various universi-
ties. The police discovered that Sietynas was doing just this
work; a lawsuit followed, and the. customary pxmishment was
meted out to hundreds of the "offenders."

Following the year of 1904, hundreds of new elementary
schools and several classical and pro-gymnasiums for boys
and girls were established. The Lithuanian students were
now at liberty to organize their circles openly. In St. Peters-
burg and Moscow, Warsaw and Kiev, Dorpat and Riga,
topics in history, literature, and economics were discussed
openly in the students' sessions. Yet the Russian govern-
ment refused to restore the University of Vilnius and paid no
heed to the fact that the Lithuanians demanded the restora-
tion for years and had shown the sincerity of their demand
by collecting funds for same.

As soon as the Lithuanians were given their right of the
press, a number of newspapers sprang into existence. "Vil-
niaus^inios" (The Vilnius Daily News), "Ukininkas" (The
Farmer), "Lietuvos ^inios (Lithuanian News), "Viltis"
(Hope), "Lietuviij Tauta" (The Lithuanian Nation),

92 The Outlook

Bitininkas (The Bee-Keeper), "Vairas" (The Rudder)— in
the city of Vilnius, "Lietuviij Laikrastis" (The Lithuanians'
Magazine) — in St. Petersburg, "Rygos Garsas" (The Echo
of Riga) and "Rygos Naujienos" (The Riga News), in the
City of Riga, the clerical "§altinis" (The Fountain), in
Seinai, the monthly "Draugija" (Society) — in Kaunas, etc.
Besides the newspapers, singing societies, farmer's circles,
co-operative store associations, numerous societies of credit
and two banks, one in Vilnius, the other in Kaunas, with
numerous branches in the smaller towns, began to thrive.
Great stress was put on the organization of young peoples'
educational circles. The Lithuanian Society of Art and The
Society of Science in Vilnius. Any nation could be proud
of the excellence of the literary output of this reawakened
nation, ^emaite (The Samogetian), Bite (The Bee) Laz-
dymj Peleda (The Hazel Owl), Satrijos Ragana (The
Witch of Satrija) are the pseudonyms of some of Lithu-
ania's gifted women novelists. The clergy have contributed
not a few gifted poets and authors, among them are Maironis,
Dambrauskas, Margalis, Gustaitis and Tumas. The poets
Vaicaitis, Steponaitis, Jovaras, Vaitkus, Gira, and Tumenas
in Lithuania, and JVIacj^s, Jurgelionis, Rackauskas, Baniulis
and many others in America have attained considerable re-
nown. Daugirdas and Rev. 2;iogs are excellent archaeolo-
gists. The late Bishop Baranauskas, the late Rev. Jaunis,
the late Bytautas, Jablonskis, and Buga are the names of
Lithuania's remarkable crop of philologists. Nor is there a
dearth of composers as the names of the following will at-
test: Mikas Petrauskas in America, Naujalis, Simkus, Stan-
kevicius and Tallat-Kelpsa in Lithuania. Ciurlionis, P.
Rimsa, ^muidzinavicius, Kalpokas, Varnas, Braks of East
Prussia, and Sileika and Dulbis of America are the deserv-
ing names in sculpture, painting and illustration. Dr. John
Basanavicius, INI. Birziska, Janulaitis and J. Gabrys are
specialists in the history of the Lithuanian nation. P. Vi-
leisis, Smetona, Leonas, Dr. Grinius, Dr. Garmus, Dr. Mat-
ulaitis, and Dovydaitis, of Lithuania, and Sernas, §irvydas,
Laukis, Balutis, Rimka, Smelstorius, Vitkauskas and many

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 93

others of America are popular as journalists or as writers
on topics of general interest. Among the dramatists I
should not forget to mention the late Alexander Fromas
(Guzutis), and Gab. Landsbergis as the organizer of the-
atrical circles, especially the "Vilnius Kankles."

The Lithuanian nation has at least established its vitality.
Moreover, the Lithuanians have given Poland some of her
greatest citizens: Kosciuszko, Odyniec, Mickiewicz,
Chodzko, Kraszewski, Domeiko, Karlowicz, Mme. Orzeszko,
Miss Skirmunt, B. Limanovski, Miss M. Rodziewicz, not to
mention numerous statesmen, historians, novelists, painters
and men of science. Even Henryk Sienkiewicz is of Lithu-
anian extraction. In Russia P. Vileisis ranks very high in
the field of civil engineering, and the poet Baltrusaitis is con-
sidered as being of the first rank. Jasiukaitis is famous as a
short-story-writer in both his native and his adopted (the
Russian) tongue. Many a German statesman and author is
of "Old Prussian," i. e., of Lithuanian descent. Nicholas
Copernicus was neither a Pole nor a German, but an Old
Prussian. The German poet Simon Dach, the writer Gott-
sched, the philosophers Herder and Em. Kant, etc., were
Germanized Lithuanians. The writer has mentioned many'
names to show that the Lithuanians — the very oldest of the
living white races — are still full of vigor and very much
alive, and, that all that is needed for the nation's develop-
ment, is independence.

In 1905, when Russia was swept by the revolution, the
Lithuanians called a convention in the city of Vilnius. More
than 2,000 delegates from societies, parishes, communes and
towns attended this important convention. The first act of
this large body of serious men was to pay its solemn respect
to those who had fallen in their country's cause. On Decem-
ber fourth and fifth, 1905, the convention passed resolutions
advocating free education, freedom of organization and the
urgency of fighting the bureaucracy of Russia. But this was
not all. It demanded an autonomy for Lithuania with a
Diet in the city of Vilnius, and that the representatives of
that Diet were to be chosen without distinction of sex, race

94 The Outlook

or creed. This Diet of autonomous Lithuania was also to
contain a representation of the neighboring races — with
equal privileges for all — if they expressed a desire for it by
a plebiscite. The re-annexation of the government of
Suvalkai was an important demand. A federation with
other autonomous races — in Russia and elsewhere — was ad-
vocated and approved. Not long after, in February, 1906,
the Lithuanians of America held a similar convention in the
city of Philadelphia, which was attended by 169 delegates
from all parts of the United States. Besides approving the
demands of the convention held in Vilnius, the Phildelphia
assembly advocated the establishment of a Letto-Lithuanian
Republic with the seat of government in Riga, Vilnius or
Konigsberg, thereby joining all the branches of the Lithu-
Lett race into an independent body politic. The establish-
ment of national universities in Vilnius and in Konigsberg
is a conditio sine qua non of the whole Lithuanian nation.

In the present titanic war in Europe, 400,000 Lithuanian
sons are in the field — some fighting for the glory of Russia,
others for the glory of Germany. The feelings and the de-
sires of these reluctant warriors cannot be very different
from the feelings and the desires which animate those of
us who live in the felicitous American Republic. Americans
of Lithuanian extraction uphold the policy of neutrality as
expressed by President Wilson, the head of this great re-
public, and hope that at the conclusion of this appalling war,
the American government will be able to play an important
part in the settlement of the existent grievances among the
various nations and races to the best interests of the world
at large.

In conclusion, it might be of interest to say a few words
about the Lithuanians in America. There are approximately
700,000 Lithuanians in Canada and the United States. The
larger colonies are to be found in Chicago, New York, Phil-
adelphia, Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, and in the cities
and the towns of the coal regions.

The Americaa Lithnauians are of various political
affiliation concerning American politics. A deep interest

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 95

concerning the affairs and the condition of their mother
country has caused them to spht into three distinct Lithu-
anian parties: 1. the Social-Democratic, 2. the Clerical,
and 3, the National.

As to the Social-Democrats, judging from the views they
have expressed in their five newspapers and in the conven-
tion held in Brooklyn, N. Y., in October, 1914-, it is evident
that they do not expect any material changes after the war,
excepting, of course, those Which the Social-Democratic
Party thinks it is certain of bringing about by a future revo-
lution. However, an occasional comment in some of their
newspapers show a slight leaning in favor of the Germans.

The Clerical or the Roman Catholic Party is composed
of the Lithuanian clergy (about 150 in number) and their
immediate followers. They control four weekly publica-
tions. Their chief organization — The Lithuanian Roman
Catholic Union — has over 8,000 members. From their prin-
cipal organ — the weekly "Draugas" (Friend) — and from
some of their circulars, one can readily see that their sym-
pathies are decidedly in Russia's favor. The leading Cleri-
cal periodical — "Draugija" (Society), published in Kaunas,
Lithuania — has not infrequently observed that the Lithu-
anians are merely tenants of the Russian Czar, and that he,
being their landlord, can do with them as he pleases. The
Lithuanian Clericals in America, however, have displayed
a decided desire for autonomy under Russian suzerainty. To
foster this purpose, they maintain an agent, Mr. Joseph
Gabrys, in Paris, who conducts the Lithuanian Bureau of
Information there, and who carries on a vigorous propa-
ganda for the program of his party in the periodicals of
France, Italy and England.

The National Party was launched but recently. The
membership of the Lithuanian Alliance of America (having
about 10,000 members) is in large part made up of this
group, but expectations of the National Party are more com-
prehensive. First, they firmly believe that all Lithuanians,
be they under Russian or German (East Prussia) sway,
should, together with the Letts of the JBaltic Provinces, con-

96 The Outlook

stitute a unit. This unit would consist of at least 7,000,000
people. It is expected that the Letto-Lithuanian country-
shall be organized into a distinct political state — a Letto-
Lithuanian Republic with the capital at Vilnius, Riga or
Konigsberg. This party is neutral concerning the purposes
of Germany and Russia in the present war. Not only does
it mistrust both Germany and Russia fully, but it does not
expect the republic as a gift from them. Since the Lithu-
anians cannot fight for their liberty under the present cir-
cumstances, they have arrived at an understanding with the
members and descendants in America of the various op-
pressed nationalities in Europe and have established the
International League for Equity and Freedom. The aim of
this organization is to enlist the sympathies of the people
of the United States, and through them and the good of-
fices of the government of the United States they hope to
have their righteous and humane aspirations presented be-
fore the Peace Congress at the conclusion of the war.

Through the good offices of the governments of the
United States of America and other neutral liberty -loving
nations, the Lithuanians hope to attain freedom for the
Letto-Lithuanian race. But if the Lithuanians were forced
to make a choice between either Russia or Germany, it would
be extremely difficult at present to tell whether they would
prefer the hammer or the anvil. The Lithuanians have suf-
fered throughout the ages from German encroachments —
the writer needs only to remind the reader of the fate of the
Old Prussians, of the Letts, and of the Germanization, even
of Lithuania IVIinor (East Prussia) . They have suffered no
less from Russia, as has been shown in the foregoing pages.
In both countries the Lithuanians were prohibited from hav-
ing their own schools where they could teach their history,
literature and language. With the National Party at least
the question The Hammer or the Anvil? still remains open.

All three parties agree that Lithuania should not, under
any circumstances whatsoever, share in a common autonomy
or independence with Poland. Utter incompatibility be-
tween the Poles and the Lithuanians in language, social

Lithuania in Retrospect and Prospect. 97

aims, and racial descent precludes a peaceful and mutually
beneficial growth for both nations if they should have to
guide their future ships of states in common. The Poles
have been terribly persecuted themselves, and yet, simul-
taneously with the horrors inflicted upon them, they have
persecuted the Lithuanians and the Ukrainians. The Lith-
uanians wish Poland the best success in her quest for inde-
pendence and happiness. But they demand that Poland
keep her hands off the governments of Suvalkai and those
parts of the governments of Grodno, Minsk and Vitebsk,
which are inhabited by Lithuanians.

All three parties are engaged in a pleasant competition
collecting funds for the war sufferers in Lithuania.

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