Organizing education of Russians in Lithuania : challenges of identity and integration
LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Etninių grupių požiūriai; Identiteto konstravimas; Integracija; Lietuvos rusai; Mokykla; Rusų bendruomenė; Tapatumas; Tapatybė; Tarpukaris; Tautinė mažuma; Švietimas; Attitudes of ethnic groups; Construction of identity; Education; Identity; Integration; Interwar period; Lithuanian Russians; National minority; Russian community; School.
ENThis article analyses factors that influenced the status and development of education at institutions teaching in the Russian language in Lithuania in 1918-1940. It is focused on political and social circumstances and attitudes of the ethnic majority towards these institutions, i.e. factors that had considerable influence over the perspective of Russian civil self-expression, education of the young Russian generation and its integration into Lithuanian society until 1940. It is argued that, though the Lithuanian educational system in the interwar period was fairly open to the needs of ethnic minorities, it firstly represented interests of the Lithuanian government to strengthen the Lithuanian majority and to assert its cultural and ethnic identity. These goals of the Lithuanian government did not always correspond to the expectations of other ethnic groups. This, notwithstanding the network of Russian language schools, had, for the first time in history, become effective means of fostering Russian ethnic identity and an instrument for promoting integration of Russians into Lithuanian society. Yet, material deprivation, significant discrepancy between values of different segments of the Russian community, lack of consolidation among urban intellectuals and rural communities as well as social and demographic characteristics (spatial dispersion, illiteracy, poverty, etc.) encumbered development of Russian schools and realization of their goals. [From the publication]
