Klaipėdos kraštas tarpukario metais: vaizduotės žaismas

LTStraipsnyje yra nagrinėjami lietuvininkų ir vokiečių sugyvenimo ypatumai Prūsijos Lietuvoje XIX a. pabaigoje-XX a. pirmoje pusėje, palyginami Prūsijos Lietuvos, Klaipėdos krašto ekonominis gyvenimas ir kultūros su Didžiosios Lietuvos, pateikiama kasdienio gyvenimo epizodų, aptariami Lietuvos ir Vokietijos tarpvalstybiniai santykiai ir jų paaštrėjimas XX a. ketvirtajame dešimtmetyje. Mentaliniams skirtumams išryškinti panaudojami literatūriniai vaizdiniai, remiantis istoriniais šaltiniais, gilinamasi į Klaipėdos krašto, kaip buvusios Europos civilizacinės ribos tarp Rytų ir Vakarų, problematiką. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvininkai; Klaipėdos kraštas [Klaipeda region]; Prūsijos Lietuva; Vokietija (Germany); Rytų Prūsija [East Prussia]; Naciai; Civilizacinė riba; Lithuanians; Klaipėda region; Prussian Lithuania; Germany; East Prussia; Nazi; Civilization threshold.

ENThe Klaipėda region was an autonomous region within Lithuania from 1923-1939. The article reconstructs fragments of everyday life using first-hand recollections. It also analyses 19th and 20й1 century stereotypes of the civilizational differences between Prussian Lithuania and Lithuania Proper, and describes the socio-cultural differences between the Klaipėda region and Lithuania Proper in the first half of the 20th century. The Klaipėda region is famously attractive due to its proximity to the sea, the natural beauty of the Curonian Spit, and its unique architectural and urban heritage, all of which contribute to its singular genius loci and foster strong attachments to the area. This sense of unity with place helped maintain a sense of social unity among the diverse population of Klaipėda until National Socialism and World War II brought about profound change in the region. Cultural and regional differences were characteristic of the Lithuanian ethnic groups living close to the Baltic Sea from ancient times. At the beginning of the 2o'h century, the border zone between Prussia and Lithuania Proper was the broadest point of contact between Lithuanians and Germans.After the Klaipėda region was incorporated into Lithuania in 1923, the borderline moved naturally to the river Nemunas. The entire Klaipėda region, which was inhabited by a near equal number of Lithuanian and German speakers, was a kind of a borderline state with a westernlike lifestyle until 1939. The Lithuanians who moved to the region from Lithuania Proper after 1923 considered Klaipėda a European town with clean streets, brick houses, paved streets and sidewalks, a water supply system with hydrants in the streets and a well-developed infrastructure. The material and cultural life in the Klaipėda region that Lithuanians from Lithuania Proper observed was remarkably different to their own experiences; where Lithuania Proper had been heavily influenced over an extended period of time under Russia, the Klaipėda region had been affected by the social and political processes of 19л-сепШгу Germany and Western Europe. At the end of the 1930s, tensions brought about by the National Socialists disrupted everyday life and affected relations between the resident ethnic groups. In 1939, the Klaipėda region came under the German Reich. The people of the Klaipėda region paid a high price for the ideology of National Socialism. In the summer of 1944, they were forced to flee to East Prussia from the approaching Red Army; Soviet troops marched into the nearly deserted town of Klaipėda in January 1945. The mental and civic division of Europe created by diplomats and politicians was shifted far to the West. [From the publication]