Didysis Vilniaus Seimas

• LII: knygos tekstas

LTVienuoliktoje „Lietuvių Atgimimo istorijos studijų“ knygoje, skirtoje Didžiajam Vilniaus seimui, tautinės (moderniosios) Lietuvos sukūrimo ir Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės atkūrimo kontekste toliau nuosekliai nagrinėjami ankstesniuose tomuose kelti Lietuvos pilietinės visuomenės plėtros klausimai.

ENThe 1905 Great Assembly of Vilnius (Lith. Didysis Vilniaus seimas) or The Lithuanian Congress of Vilnius (Lietuvių suvažiavimas Vilniuje) is important in several respects: it marks a remarkable frontier in the history of Lithuanian Revival, the climax of the national revolution of 1905-1906, and the beginning of the formation of the Lithuanian people’s political aspirations. The importance of the Assembly to the Lithuanian nation can hardly be overestimated. At this Assembly the delegates of the whole nation declared their determination to seek Lithuania’s autonomy within its ethnographic boundaries. This meant the beginning of a new ethnosocial community eager to solve its own fate. Thus the model of a new modern nation which had developed since the times of the newspaper “Aušra” (the Dawn) was transferred from the sphere of public thought to real political declarations and activities. Nevertheless it is obvious that this did not mean the rejection of other possible models for Lithuanian ethno-political structures. The Great Assembly of Vilnius specified the political objectives of the 1905 revolution, defining the minimum of ethnopolitical demands. Lithuanian autonomy was then understood as an interim phase on the road to complete independence. Therefore a study of the Great Assembly of Vilnius offers new opportunities for the analysis of the genesis of the Act of February 16, 1918 and helps to define the relationship between the new embodiment of Lithuanian statehood (the national state) and the old Lithuanian polity - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (GDL).Apart from this, the analysis of this problem offers a way to disclose some qualities of Russian politics in the “imperial hinterland” and to make known the methods and measures which subsequently were repeatedly used by the legal successors of the Russian empire - Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union - in their international relations with Lithuania, as well as in domestic national politics. In order to analyse the developments in Lithuania during 1905-1906, it is necessary to determine in what respects the Great Assembly of Vilnius differed from the national revolution and the general revolutionary process of 1905. The 1905 revolution in Lithuania represented the revolutionary movement of all Lithuanian ethnic groups, social strata and parties, directed against Russian absolutism, for cardinal or moderate reforms. On the general Lithuanian scale it was a rather chaotic process involving ethnic communities and political and social forces that pursued totally different goals. The national revolution was also a part of the general revolutionary movement in Lithuania as well as a totally independent phenomenon that had evolved from the Lithuanian national movement and it had quite individual objectives. The 1905 revolution was a combination of a variety of movements, while the national revolution was a deliberate action on the part of the whole of Lithuanian society aimed at restoring Lithuanian statehood on the basis of the Lithuanian ethnos. The primary goal of the national revolutionary movement was to consolidate the Lithuanian public and to win the autonomy of Lithuania. This movement was represented by the already formed Lithuanian political structure embracing Lithuanian political parties and groupings, and the Lithuanian intelligentsia as a whole; its social basis was the Lithuanian peasantry.The Great Assembly of Vilnius was already a part of the Lithuanian national revolution, and its highest point. Therefore, it would be a highly formal solution of the problem to dissociate the national revolution from the Great Assembly of Vilnius. The organization of the Assembly (i. e. Congress) was aimed at assessing the possibilities which the Lithuanian national movement faced during the period of national revolt. The archival material on the Great Assembly of Vilnius is not very rich. This deficiency is compensated by the memoirs of Assembly delegates which were lavishly published throughout the period of the Lithuanian Republic (1918-1940). Yet until recently the problems of the Assembly have been more an object of popular writing than of scholarly research. The Great Assembly of Vilnius has not yet had the attention of a monographic study. Among the most active researchers of the Assembly have been M. Römeris (Romer). L. Gira, Pr. Klimaitis, M. Biržiška, J. Gabrys-Paršaitis, P. Ruseckas, A. Tyla and Pr. Čepėnas. Their works and some others are not comprehensive, and only some of the problems have received broader coverage: the national revolution in the Lithuanian countryside, the activities of the political parties late in 1905, and the implementation of the Assembly’s decisions and their significance for the restoration of Lithuanian statehood. Much less attention has been paid to organizational aspects - the activities of the Lithuanian Organizational Bureau of Vilnius and the Organizing Committee of the Congress (OC), or the Lithuanian Memorandum of November 1905 to the Russian government. The data on the proceedings of the Congress are very scanty, too, and no detailed analysis of the resolutions can be found. [...].