- In the summer of 1862,
the Revolutionary Movement Committee formed to organize a revolt against
Russian regime. By the autumn, it was reorganized into the Committee of the
Province of Lithuania, which proceeded to make contact with the Central
National Committee in Poland. The conservative faction of the manor
estate holders in Lithuania had joined forces with the camp of the
faction of the "white," who were under the leadership of Jokubas
Geistoras (Gejsztor), Aleksandras Oskerka, Antanas Jelenskis (Jelenski),
and Aleksandras Domeika (Domejko). These men supported the pro-
gram of "organic work." Their program involved making demands
to the Russian government to enlarge the rights of the local nobility
for self-rule. Furthermore, the program called for the reestablishment
of Vilnius University, and the founding of public schools and libraries.
It also urged for publishing and circulating of literature created in the native
language. The program claimed prudence in altering the relationships
between the landholders and peasants for the preservation of large scale
governmental land ownership. The leaders of the revolutionaries were the
priest Antanas Mackevicius, the attorney Konstantinas Kalinauskas
(Kalinowski), and the officer and aide-de-camp of the Vilnius Military
Division, Liudvick Zwierzdowski. These men were even more convinced than
of the need to hasten the start of an insurrection. They promoted this
idea by publishing special periodicals, aimed at the public at large -
- On January 22, 1863
the Central National Committee, named the Provisional National
Government, declared an insurrection in Lithuania and Poland.
- On February I, 1863
the Lithuanian Province Committee took over the functions of a
revolutionary government in the provinces.
- On March 12, 1863
Russian Czar Alexander II signed a edict for the abolishment of the
temporary obligations of the peasantry to the manor estate holders.
Bondage was abolished, and an obligatory purchase of allocated lands was
introduced. The former temporary recipients of the obligations were
consigned to the category of peasant owners, and the duties of the 'cincas' feudal system of land
renting were reduced. The right of the peasants to use arable lands within the territory of the
applicable manor estate was recognized. Such an edict had the purpose of
diverting the peasants from participation in the insurrection.
- On May 7-9, 1863
a battle between the insurrectionists and the Russian army took place
near Birzai. The defeat suffered by the insurrectionists forced their
leadership to retract from their larger operations, limit themselves to
partisan activities, and evade face to face battles with the enemy.
- On May 13, 1863
Russian Czar Alexander II appointed Michael Muravjov, as the chief of
the Northwestern Provinces, and granted him extraordinary powers for the
purpose of suppressing the insurrection. The Lithuanian part of the
Augustavas Gubemiya was transferred to the jurisdiction of
Muravjov in September of the same year.
- In autumn 1863,
the insurrection began to falter. This insurrection had been a common
effort of Poland and Lithuania, the partners of the former Commonwealth,
joined together in the opposition to Russian rule. A major purpose of
this alliance had been to gain freedom from Russia by reestablishing the
borders of the former country, as they had existed in 1772 by one way or another.
Various interest groups in Lithuania held differing views of the political future of
Lithuania. The White Party, being led by J. Geistoras (Gejsztor),
envisioned Lithuania as being a province of Poland. The other group, led
by Antanas Mackevicius, envisioned the country as an equal member of a
federation. A third group, with Konstantinas Kalinauskas (Kalinowski)
and Jokubas Dauksa at the forefront, sought a separate and independent
country of Lithuania.
Motiejus Valancius and Laurynas Ivinskis accented an outlook on freedom,
which took ethnicity into consideration, however they remained
indifferent regarding the other projects. The suppression of the
insurrection was a hard blow on the nobility, the traditional political
power within Lithuania,
as well as Poland. In effect, the Russian policies and the process of
modernization permitted a greater voice to the new intelligentsia of
Lithuania, which was socially interrelated with the rural peasant
society. Thereby, the nobility lost their leading position in the
- On January 1, 1864 M.
Muravjov prohibited the activities of all schools that were not under government
- Early 1864 brought about the publication
of e series of articles written by Alexander Hilferding, a Russian
academician and public activist in St. Petersburg. The articles argued
for policies of de-Polonisation in Lithuania and White Russia, and
urged the Russian government to recognize certain rights for the use
of the Lithuanian language in the areas of education and public life.
- In 1864 Bishop M. Valancius submitted a project to M.
Muravjov, which dealt with the necessity
of teaching reading and writing in the Lithuanian language at Russian
elementary schools within the jurisdiction of the Kaunas Province.
Furthermore, there were projects, regarding the establishment of
Lithuanian classes at Catholic Churches and a Lithuanian secondary
school at the Clerical Seminary of Varniai. These projects were
rejected in May.
- On May 22, 1864 Alexander II approved
the programme for the Russifiication of the Northwestern Province,
approbated by the Western Committee. The authors of the programme were
M. Muravjov and Ivan Kornilov, his assistant in charge of the
Educational District of Vilnius. The western Committee was a special
secret governmental body of Russia. The programme was titled 'The Renewal of
Russian Origins Programme'. It was based on the concept that the Western
provinces, including the lands of ethnic Lithuanians within them, were
"Russian lands since centuries." The program also called for
the restraint of Catholic Church activities, and the discrimination of
Catholics in favour of
the Orthodox Christians. Thereby, persons of Catholic backgrounds were
to be excluded from governmental service within the country,
providing priority to Russian Orthodox Christians. It also encouraged
the formation of Russian manor estate holders with their own peasantry by
prohibiting the Catholic nobility from purchasing manor estates put up
for sale. Numerous manor estates, which had been confiscated following
the insurrection, were distributed to peasants moving in from
Russia, when no buyers appeared among the Russian landholders. The
program also involved the elimination of Polish language and culture
from the public life of the land, and the Russification of elementary
schools. It was believed that Russian teachers would succeed in
integrating Lithuanians and White Russians into mainstream Russian
cultural life, as well as protect the population from
the influence of Polish culture. The teachers were expected to create
a tension between the peasantry who spoke the Lithuanian and White
Russian languages, and the Polish speaking manor estate holders and
nobility. By teaching of the Russian language, which had been planned to
naturally become the language for the process of civilizing the entire
land, the Russian political consciousness would be
implanted. The Russification policy,which was being implemented in Lithuania during
the whole XIXth century, was based on this programme. However, the
result was an even more active Polonisation of the country, due to the
opposition of Lithuania to the Russification. It was the Polish
culture, which was then commonly related with the survival of a
cultural, national and political identity.
- In 1864
the Russian government relocated the Samogitian Bishopic headquarters from Varniai to Kaunas without the
approval of the Vatican. This was done to more effectively observe and
control the actions of the bishop.
was marked by the establishment of the Vilnius Commission of
Archeography. It replaced the former Vilnius Commission of
Archaeology. The purpose of this new institution was to arrange the publication of Lithuanian historical documents, which were relevant to
the policies of the Russian Czar. The Commission issued 39 volumes of
documents, related to the territory of the former Grand Duchy of
Lithuania between 1865-1915. Numerous valuable research resources
- During the period of 1864-1865
all Lithuanian books, written in the Latin alphabet,
whether printed locally or imported, were suppressed. All works, written
by Lithuanians, were ordered to be written in the Cyrillic script. The period
marked the beginning of the prohibition of the Lithuanian press.
Although the prohibition was never legally formulated, and merely
confirmed by the word of Russian Czar Alexander II on January 30th of
1866, it remained in use for 40 years.
marked the start of the opposition to the politics of Russification,
being organized by the Bishop M. Valancius. He encouraged the priesthood to
urge the peasants and the general population to resist the Russian
Orthodox faith, to boycott books written in Cyrillic letters, and to form
- In 1866 the Russian government established teaching courses
at Veiveriai where teachers for the elementary schools of Uznemune
were trained. The courses were reorganized into a seminary for teachers
in 1872. The Lithuanian language was being diligently taught, due to the
implementation of policies, related to dividing the Lithuanians from the
Polish. Thus, the institution, which had been meant to serve the
policies of Russification, instead became an important centre for
educating the new Lithuanian intelligentsia.
- On June 5,1867
Vilnius Public Library was opened. Private libraries, primarily
confiscated by the Russian government from manor estates after the
insurrection, and the former library of Vilnius University had given the
collections to this library. The Public Library had a particularly rich
collection of manuscripts. The Museum of Ancient Artifacts continued to
operate alongside the library, following the closure of the Vilnius
Commission of Archaeology.
was the founding year of the Marijampole Gymnasium (High School) for
Boys. Teaching of the Lithuanian language was permitted as an optional subject there, as well as at Suvalkai Gymnasium and the Seinai Junior
Gymnasium. National student grants were granted for ten graduating students
from the Suvalkai Province for the studies at Moscow University. The
grants were meant to encourage a pro-Russian attitude among Lithuanian intelligentsia, who held anti-Polish
views without losing their ethnic identity. The Gymnasium became an important training
ground for the new class of Lithuanian intelligentsia.
was the period during which a system for publication of Lithuanian press in the
traditional alphabet and the illegal circulation of such works in Lithuania
was developed in East Prussia on the initiative of the Bishop M. Valancius.
- The 1864 Russian court reforms began
being belatedly implemented when the state of war had been ceased. A
comparatively modem legal system was introduced then. The reforms included
non-elitist courts, professional practice of attorneys, contesting of
lawsuits, independence of judges from the administration and a legal
system, and public disclosure. An institution of district arbitrators
was established. However, the reforms were only partially implemented
in the country. Russian arbitrators, whose professional competency had
been limited to the resolution of small
civil cases, were appointed by the 'zemstvas', which acted partly as independent municipalities of the nobility. Arbitrators were appointed
by the Russian administration in the Northwestern Province. The
appellation institution for this hierarchy of courts was a convention of
the country arbitration judges.
was marked by the publishing of 'Chefek Chaim' (Life's Craving), a book of
theological nature, which was printed in the Hebrew script. The book
won world acclaim for its author. Rabbi I. M. Cohen.
- On January 13, 1874
Russian Czar Alexander II issued an order for the abolishment of the
conscription of recruits, and introduced obligatory military service for
the entire population. This was an additional step in the direction of
- In 1876 the Russian
Town Law, passed in 1870, became
the Kaunas and Vilnius Provinces. The 'Duma' (council of representatives)
at the town level
began electing their boards on the basis of a property census, rather
than by class status.
was the year of the founding of an academic literary society in
known as Litwische Literarische Gesellschaft.
- In 1880 the Polish Socialist Organization, Gmina Socjalistow
- In 1882-1896
the first telephone lines were laid in Lithuania.
marked the issue of the first illegal Lithuanian periodical dedicated to
Lithuania Proper, titled 'Ausra' (The Dawn), in Eastern Prussia. The
illegal Lithuanian national movement was revived. The newspaper contributed
greatly to the awakening of Lithuanian national consciousness, and the consolidation of the intelligentsia of Lithuania
on a national level. The leading ideologists of the newspaper were Jonas Basanavicius and Jonas Sliupas.
marked the establishment and operations of the first secular
organisations for the illegal circulation of Lithuanian press.
was the period of the publication and illegal circulation from Eastern
Prussia of 'Varpas' (The Bell), a periodical of a liberal and democratic
perspective, designed for the intelligentsia, and 'Ukininkas' (The
the rural population. Both periodicals criticized the Russification
of the Russian government and Polonisation, and urged a struggle for
democratic rights. Both periodicals, - 'Varpas' in particular
- had great
significance in heightening Lithuanian national consciousness, and
formulating a programme for a cultural and political national movement.
The main ideologist of 'Varpas' was Vincas Kudirka ( during the period
of 1889-1899). His
composition of 'Tautiska giesme'
(National Hymn) became the national anthem of Lithuania. The major
contributors to the 'Varpas' periodical included Kazys Grinius, Juozapas
Bagdonas. Juozapas Adomaitis-Semas, Jonas Jablonskis, Povilas Visinskis,
Jonas Vileisis, Jurgis Saulys, and other eminent Lithuanians of those
- In 1890-1896
'Zemaiciu ir Lietuvos apzvalga' (A
Review of Samogitia and Lithuania) periodical was issued by the Catholic
intelligentsia of Eastern Prussia, who held conservative views. The
periodical also criticized the politics of Russification, but
from propagating a struggle against the Russian government.
- On March 3, 1892
the Russian government issued an order regarding the persecution of
underground Lithuanian and Polish schools.
- In June 1893
a convention of the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partja Socialistyczna
- PPS) was held in Vilnius. Lithuania and White Russia were recognized
as a territorial unit for the activities of this party. A Lithuanian PPS
section was organized.
- On November
23,1893 was the date of the Kraziai Massacre. The Russian
government had brutally exterminated people who protested against the
governement's closure of the Kraziai Monastery.
was a period of activity by distributor and reader societies of the then
illegal Lithuanian press.
witnessed the issue of the books of poetry, entitled 'Pavasario balsai'
('The Voices of Springtime') and 'Jaunoji Lietuva' ('The Young Lithuania'), written
by Jonas Maciulis under the pen-name of Maironis. The manifestations of
rebirth of the Lithuanian nation were made poetically meaningful.
was the year of the establishment of the Lithuanian Social Democratic
Party. The written party platform sought a sovereign Lithuania,
comprising the Provinces of Vilnius, Kaunas, Suvalkai and Grodno, and
one that was to be linked with neighbouring countries on the basis of a
free federation. The leading activists of the party included Alfonsas Moravskis,
Andrius Domasevicius, later - Vladas Sirutavicius, Augustinas Janulaitis, Mykolas
Birziska, Steponas Kairys and others.
was the publication period of 'Tevynes sargas' ('The Guardian of
Homeland), a periodical in the Eastern Prussia. In it the ideas of the
members of the intelligentsia, who held views of modern Catholic thought,
were expressed. The periodical actively protested against Russification,
and made active effort to involve the rural population in the movement for a
national struggle. The main
ideologist of the periodical was a Lithuanian writer and a priest, Juozapas
was the year of the first census of the entire population, conducted by
the Russian Empire. The data of this census states that the population
of the Lithuanian areas of Kaunas, Vilnius and Suvalkai numbered 2.5
brought the recall of the prohibition of building new Catholic churches.
Catholic schoolchildren were no longer forced to attend the Russian
Orthodox places of worship during the holidays of the Russian Czar.
- On October 7-9,
1897 the first convention of Jewish Social Democrat organizations was
held in Vilnius. There, the 'Buiidas', a public Russian and Polish Jews
workers' union, was established.
- In 1897-1902 the first stockholder companies
were established in
- The period of 1898-1899
was marked by the merging of underground Polish culture and
education societies into an illegal alliance. named 'Oswiatci' and led by
marked the initiation of the activities of the pro-Masonic 'Neoszubravc' Society, led by
the attorney Tadas Vrublevskis (Tadeusz
Wroblewski) in Vilnius.
- On August 20, 1899
the first Lithuanian play was acted in public in Palanga. The play,Amerika
pirtyje' (America In the Bathhouse), was written by Antanas
- In 1900
Lithuania participated in the World Exhibition in
was the year when the Museum of M. Muravjov was opened, where numerous
expositions and archives about the 1863 Insurrection had been
was marked by the formation of the Lithuanians' (after 1906 - changed to Lithuanian) Democratic Party (LDP). The party formulated a
programme in order to
seek the demarcation of the ethnographic borders of an independent
democratic Lithuanian country. The proposed borders were very similar to the
borders of present-day Lithuania.
- In 1902
'Mizrachi', the first Zionist
the Russian Empire, was established as well.
- On May 7, 1904 the prohibition of press
in the Latin (or Lithuanian) alphabet script was cancelled.
- On December 23, 1904
the first legal daily newspaper, 'Vilnians zinios' ('Vilnius News'), was
published in Vilnius in the Lithuanian language.