Tarpukario Nepriklausomybės ženklų beieškant: Žemaičių muziejaus "Alka" rinkiniai
ENThe article reviews the museum valuables related to the restoration of independent Lithuania of interwar period stored in the collections of Samogitian Museum “Alka”. In 1951 and 1952, during the Stalinist epoch, in Samogitian Museum “Alka” (in that time it was called Telšiai Local Lore Museum) 33 exhibits of the main fund were written off. There is no doubt why they were written off – the tendency to select the values of a particular group draws our attention, and their condition in many cases does not seem sufficient for that reason. Despite the write-off policy, which was carried out on ideological basis, the museum has preserved a part of exhibits selected for destruction, related to prominent interwar personalities, the Lithuanian Catholic Youth Federation “Spring”. The virtual exhibition “The Signs of Independence” was prepared on the occasion of the centenary of the restoration of the state of Lithuania, where some of the most important events of the restoration and life of the interwar Lithuania were presented. Although the part of the exhibits are not unitary, they have thematic equivalents in other institutions preserving heritage, however, several exhibits or groups of them are worth to be mentioned.The museum preserves the letters, document copies of the year 1893–1900 of Stanislovas Narutavičius (1862–1932), who was the member of 1917 Vilnius conference organizational committee, Lithuanian Council, 1918 Lithuanian independence act signatory. The diary of the year 1915–1919, translated by the public figure Feliksas Milevičius (1883–1965), which consists of three notebooks which fixed the relevant issues of Telšiai region, other archival values are important as well. The archival material of Kazys Pabrėža highlights the contribution of Siberian Lithuanians to the history of restoration of Lithuania. Thanks to the investigation of two exhibits (the certificate of the Lithuanian Independence medal and the certificate of the award of volunteer medal), not only was it possible to find out the fate of Stasys Nutautas, who was the creator-volunteer of the interwar period of Lithuania, to complement the history of the interwar Telšiai, but also to find links with the well-known personalities of present time – Valdas and Alma Adamkai.
