Amžininkų atsiminimai – krašto identiteto raiška
ENPasvalys Public Library, Manuscripts Department holds over 100 memoirs documents. The report discusses the most significant higher and lower volume memoirs of contemporaries. In light of these memoirs the author analyzes, how the authors of different generations, from different areas, with different experience capture their land, its people, establish the identity of the land leading it to the world space. Philosopher, Prof. Algis Mickūnas in recently published memoirs "Rojus" (Paradise) vividly portrays his childhood world in Banioniai remote area near the town of Krikliniai, captures the departure from the homeland and Lithuania, living in Germany after the war, forced exile trip to the United States. The experience gained in the birthplace is still the foundation of professor's life. From the same Krikliniai region originating immunologist Prof. Vitas Antanas Tamošiūnas in his memoirs "Kelius nuėjęs, keliu pareisiu" (The Roads I Went The Way I Come Back) overviews the whole life from the motherland, childhood images of the post-war years to the present. In Kotryna Kavaliauskaitė memoirs "Pumpėnai" (Pumpėnai) there is a detailed description of the home town, its streets, residents, traditions of the period of independence, during the war and postwar years. It is an important source for local history researchers.Memoirs of cultural engineer Mykolas Tonkūnas, written from 1990 to 1991 in Lemont (USA) is a detailed ethnographic story about his birthplace in Stačiūnai village near Pasvalys, childhood, family, further life. Diplomat Dr. Stasys Antanas Bačkis left important testimonies about his native Pantakoniai village and his childhood years. Historian Prof. Jonas Aničas in his memoirs "Nuskubėjo per Pasvalį jaunystė" (Youth Rushed through Pasvalys) which he donated to the library, revealed images of his homeland and Pasvalys Gymnasium. Journalist Balys Brazdžionis enriched land's history with memoirs "Vokiečių siautėjimas mano apylinkėje 1941-1944 metais" (The violence of German in my district from 1941 tol944). Memoirs of pilot Simonas Mockūnas is an important source for Lithuanian aviation history. Memoir writers in their own way, different expression restore the lost identity of our own, of our land, of Lithuania.
