Balio Sruogos laiškai Juozapui Sruogai: pareigingoji bičiulystė
ENThe article aims to present the letters of Balys Sruoga to his brother Juozapas Sruoga. The collection includes the letters of Balys Sruoga (102 units) written from 1916 to 1947, and the letters of Juozapas Sruoga (100 units) written from 1929 to 1938. Most of the letters are stored at the Manuscript Section of the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore; some of them are at the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum in Kaunas. The correspondence of the brothers has not been published this far, nor has it been examined in more detail or described. By paying attention to details, the attempt is to clarify (1) how this collection of letters stands out in the context of the writer’s other letters, (2) what information it provides about Balys Sruoga, Juozapas Sruoga and their other brothers, (3) how the materials in the letters are related to the testimonies of the reminiscences, and, (4) the textual peculiarities of this collection. The letters tell their reader about the main events in Balys Sruoga’s life during the interwar period (1927–1939) and after the war (1945–1947): excursions organized with his students, the reform of the Lithuanian University, house construction in Kaunas, the criminal charges against Adolfas Sruoga, their family homestead in the village of Baibokai, etc. The existential nature of the early letters is fundamentally altered by the prosaic narrative of the down-to-earth mundane life: petty household concerns, pedantic discussions of business issues, or comprehensive travel descriptions. Balys Sruoga, who in the course of his studies was a raffish dreamer, an idealist, a romantic, an observer of extraterrestrial vision, a mystic, is replaced by a completely different person – standing firmly on the ground, rational, and an extremely thoughtful realist.The letters reveal some traits of Balys Sruoga’s character that are less emphasized or not discussed in his memoirs: dutifulness, planning, good organizational skills, specific thinking, discipline, the ability of cost-effective management of his home affairs, travels, and other practical matters of life. The letters of Balys Sruoga to Juozapas Sruoga change the previous stereotype of unfriendly, formal, and cold relations between the brothers. The letters testify that the brothers, one of whom was older by ten years, had a close and open relationship. The brothers were unified by the rebellious spirit, traumatic war experiences, academic interests, similar hobbies of travel and writing, a passion for mountain, and even the worries of everyday life and health concerns. Many of Balys Sruoga’s letters have no dates. Thanks to Juozapas Sruoga’s notes, it was possible to maximally reconstruct the conversation that the brothers conducted in their letters by arranging them in the order of the time of writing. Due to the possibility of such a reconstruction of the whole corpus, this collection of Balys Sruoga’s letters takes a special place in the entire context of the writer’s epistolary legacy.
