Lietuvių tautinis judėjimas ir Seinų spaustuvė

ENThe article discusses the important activities of the Lithuanian national revival in order to provide better understanding of the meaning and achievements of the printing house in Seinai. The printing house in Seinai operated for nine years. Its activity began in early February of 1906 (the first publication was of the newspaper Šaltinis (Spring) on March 31, 1906), and definitively ended on February 15, 1915. In the first publishing year Šaltinis had 500 subscribers, however, in 1909 the circulation of each publication reached 6000 copies. Before the World War I circulation increased to 15000, meanwhile, the similar magazine Vienybė (Unity) published in Kaunas in 1914 had 6000 copies. The readers of the Šaltinis were not only from the Suvalkai province but also from Kaunas and Vilnius. Apart from the Šaltinis and its supplements, the Vadovas (Guide) was published. The latter was also important for the Lithuanian national revival. The number of books published in the printing house in Seinai reached three hundred. Of course, the total number of books published in Vilnius and Kaunas is higher, but according to some authors, Seinai is ranked first among Lithuanian publishers in terms of the number of editions in Lithuanian. Seinai and the printing house also played an important political role. They had the influence on the fact that the Christian democrats played a significant role in the Lithuanian national revival in 1906-1915.