Ethnopolitical tendencies in Lithuania during the period 1905-1907 and the conceptions of the revival of the University of Vilnius

ENThe period of 1905-1907 is remarkable in the early 20th-century Lithuanian history for its extraordinary liberalization of cultural and political life, which made it possible for various social strata to state their goals clearly. Therefore, when dealing with the issue of the need for the institute of a higher education it is not difficult to see, that over this period one or another part of society was more open, in comparison with 1900-1904 or the period immediately after 1907, in declaring its own concept of a higher school, taking less heed of the attitude of the Russian administration. During the revolution of 1905 most opinions were in favour of the revival of the University of Vilnius. In the context of the early part of the 20th century such a formulation is notable for several reasons. On the one hand, views are expressed in support of the need for a university adapted to the requirements of society, not the tsarist administration. On the other, the stipulation that the university is to be reopened rather than "founded" indicates the right of having a higher school results primarily from the fact that the nation had this type of institution before, i.e. this is a declaration of a historical right to have a university in Vilnius. This circumstance not only throws some new light on the legitimacy of this demand, it also presupposes another problem which could be labelled as the distribution of the legacy left by the University of Vilnius of the early 19th century. The point is that by declaring the aim to restore the university one cannot avoid expressing an opinion that the contribution of the existing university to the cultural (and political) life of Lithuania.It was precisely because the Russian administration regarded the University of Vilnius in the early 19th century as a strong hold of polonization, that at the beginning of the 20th century, no public appeal for the foundation of a higher school at Vilnius was based on the fact that a university had already existed there. This problem, however, is not our present concern; it could be discussed in separate study. There is no doubt that the revival of the University of Vilnius was only possible if the internal structure of the Russian empire underwent substantial changes. Therefore the question of the revival of the University of Vilnius is closely related with ethnopolitical tendencies in Lithuania. [p. 97].

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