[Vilnius - Lietuvos sostinė: problema tautinės valstybės projekte (XIX a. pabaiga - 1940 m.)]

ENThis paper is a review of the latest research work of two Lithuanian historians, Dangiras Mačiulis and Darius Staliūnas (Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius), entitled “Vilnius – The capital of Lithuania: A problem in the project of the national state (late 19th century – 1940)”. The authors in their work analyse the emergence, evolution and implementation of the idea of Vilnius as the capital of modern Lithuanian state at the turn of the 20th century until 1940. The monograph is based on valuable material from the archives, bibliographic sources and interesting iconography. With particular regard to the Lithuanian national project, describing and explaining the strategies of the symbolic appropriation of Vilnius and the question of Vilnius’ Lithuanisation, Mačiulis and Staliūnas first of all focus on the Lithuanian case in as much detail as possible. Here in the reviewed work we do not find such detailed analysis of Polish, Jewish, Belarusian or Russian attitudes towards the Vilnius question. Of course this does not detract from the importance of this inspiring book which is as a valuable academic publication and useful source for further research.