Rašytinis tarpukario Vilniaus lietuvių ir baltarusių studentijos tapatumų raidos palikimas

ENThis article aims to analyze and evaluate the data from the documentary and published sources on moral values of the Lithuanian and Belarusian student body in interwar Vilnius, the directions and forms of cultural expression of Lithuanian student communities in society, cultural interconnections between Lithuanian and Belarusian students and the impact of their changes to the development of cultural identity. The work presents an analysis of Vilnius students' manuscripts, Lithuanian and Belarusian periodicals of the interwar period as well as other published sources from the Lithuanian Central State Archive (LCVA) and Manuscripts Department at the Wr6blewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (LMAVB RS). Though not very abundant, the written sources of Vilnius academic communities bear enough information to reveal the tendencies in cultural activity of Lithuanian and Belarusian academic intelligentsia in the Vilnius region in the historical interwar conditions. Documentary and mass communication sources indicate that in the middle of the 1920s the consolidation of Lithuanian and Belarusian students started to be implemented by socially inclined academic organizations established on ethnic grounds.At the beginning of the 1930s they undertook consistent cultural and educational activity in order to reinforce their national identity in the Vilnius region. It allowed to realize the students' creative ideas and comprehend the role of intelligentsia in society. The sources investigate cultural interconnections between the Lithuanian and Belarusian student bodies which were based on positions of universal values, such as academic solidarity and national as well as religious tolerance. Thanks to the collaboration, it became possible to use the experience in cultural activity organization in a broader context, although contradictions between Lithuanians and Belarusians induced by national ideologies find their manifestation in the second half of the 1930s. According to published and archival information, the most significant forms of students' cultural expression and cultivation of national consciousness in society was the organization of education and art events, as well as journalism. These means transmitted aims and ideas of the young Lithuanian and Belarusian intelligentsia, stimulated discussions on the issues of society's cultural consciousness. Nurturance of linguistic, historical, traditional and cultural heritage was regarded as the value basis for reinforcement of cultural identity of both Lithuanian and Belarusian young intelligentsia. It has become the core manifestation of national identity.