Lietuvos leidėjas Kostas Cerpinskis ir jo išleistų atvirukų katalogas

ENThe first postcards of current Lithuanian cities appeared slightly later than of those in neighboring countries. Limited demand of their publishing was determined by low levels of literacy due to Catholic Church and the Russian tsarist colonial policy which did not promote education. Publishing of Lithuanian postcards intensified only after the First World War, when the government of the Republic of Lithuania began the development of education. One of the significant publishers among the top five inter-war Lithuanian postcard publishers was Kostas Cerpinskis (1887–1972). In this article it is used a variety of sources to show the biography and broad cultural and publishing activities of this famous Lithuanian cooperator, painter, photographer, diplomat, translator. The article presents the catalogue of his published 112 postcards, although due to repetition the publisher’s numbering is only from 1 to 76. It is believed that all the postcards were printed in E. Pinkau’s printing house in Leipzig. All of them have a publisher’s and printing house numbering, the publisher is marked by the name or at least by the logo with letters K and C, and the author of almost all photographic images is the same publisher K. Cerpinskis. The article describes three editions of different periods. The first edition of 19 postcards was published in 1919–1920, when he still lived in Žagarė, and reflects the views of the towns Šiauliai, Tauragė, Pakruojis, Jurbarkas, Joniškis, Kaunas that were destroyed during the war.The second edition of 13 cards was published around 1922–1924 and includes only the images of Siauliai reviving from the ruins. Two postcards are already coloured. The most numerous and confusing for systemizing is the third edition published in 1926–1927. It contains 46 postcards with images of Siauliai, 9 – Radviliškis, 2 – Joniskis, 1 – Skaisgirys, 2 are portraits. There is an interesting series of 8 cards, which was not noticed by other publishers, dedicated to Agricultural and Industrial exhibition in Kaunas in 1926, 6 postcards for special occasions with artist G. Bagdonavičius’s drawings, and postcards of several editions with a political cartoon of Mikhail Muravjov (named “the Hangman”), the repressor of the rebellion in 1863. Despite only one of his booklets, K. Cerpinskis is considered to be the largest postcards publisher of Siauliai city, which today have become of a very great iconographic value, reflecting the image of Siauliai that was more destroyed during the Second World War. We are glad that all of these postcards are digitized and through www.limis.lt; www. europeana.eu databases are gradually becoming accessible to people around the world. [From the publication]