TheLithuanian press ban (Lithuanian:spaudos draudimas) was a ban on allLithuanian language publications printed in theLatin alphabet in force from 1865 to 1904 within theRussian Empire, which controlledLithuania proper at the time.[1] Lithuanian-language publications that usedCyrillic were allowed and even encouraged by seekingRussification ofLithuanians.[2][1]
The concept arose after the failedJanuary Uprising of 1863, taking the form of an administrative order in 1864, and was not lifted until 24 April 1904. The Russian courts reversed two convictions in press ban cases in 1902 and 1903, and the setbacks of theRusso-Japanese War in early 1904 brought about a loosened Russian policy towards minorities.[3]
Under the ban, it was illegal to print, import, distribute, or possess any publications in the Latin alphabet.[4]Tsarist authorities hoped that this measure, part of a largerRussification plan, would decrease Polish influence on Lithuanians and would return them to what were considered their ancient historical ties with Russia.[5] However, Lithuanians organized printing outside the Empire, largely inLithuania Minor (East Prussia), and in the United States.
Knygnešiai (Lithuanian book smugglers) smuggled illegal books and periodicals across the border. The number of such publications kept increasing despite strict sanctions and persecution of the activists. The ban created a well-defined and organized opposition to Russian rule and culture—the opposite of its original intent. The Lithuanian historianEdvardas Gudavičius has described the ban as a test of the concept of Lithuania: had there been no resistance, the language would have become a historical footnote.[6]
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The first book published in print in the Lithuanian language wasLutheranCatechism of Martynas Mažvydas in 1547. Other milestone publications includedDaniel Klein'sGrammar in 1653, a publication of theBible in 1735, and the first work of imaginative literature,Kristijonas Donelaitis'Metai (The Seasons), in 1818. During the years of thePolish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which lasted from 1569 to 1781, thePolish language gained ground as the writtenlingua franca of greater Lithuania, although thePrussian areas ofLithuania Minor continued to issue publications in Lithuanian.[7]
At the beginning of the 19th century, use of theLithuanian language was largely limited to Lithuanian rural areas, apart from its use in Prussia; it was, however, retained by some members of the minor nobility, especially in theSamogitian region. Several factors contributed to its subsequent revival: the language drew attention from scholars of the emerging science ofcomparative linguistics; after theabolition of serfdom in the Russian Empire in 1861,social mobility increased, and Lithuanian intellectuals arose from the ranks of the rural populace; and language became associated with identity in Lithuania, as elsewhere across Europe.[8] Within the Catholic Church, the barriers that had earlier prevented commoners from entering the priesthood were eased. A closer relationship developed between the educated clergy, who were increasingly of ethnic Lithuanian stock, and their parishioners, including a sympathy with their wish to use the Lithuanian language.[9] The emerging national movement sought to distance itself from both Polish and Russian influences, and the use of the Lithuanian language was seen as an important aspect of this movement.[10]
According to thebibliographerVaclovas Biržiška, between 1800 and 1864, when the press ban was enacted, 926 book titles were published in the Lithuanian language using its Latin alphabet.[11] Theorthography of the language was not standardized; this problem was used by the Russian authorities as a rationale for the change to Cyrillic.[12]
After thepartitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the late 18th century, significant portions of Lithuania and Poland were incorporated into theRussian Empire. The uprising of 1863, seeking to re-establish the Commonwealth, convinced many Russian politicians that Polish cultural and political influence was the main obstacle hindering the Russification of Lithuania. They believed that if the Lithuanian peasantry were distanced from thePolonized nobility and theCatholic Church, Lithuanians would naturally come under Russian cultural influence, as they had allegedly been during previous eras.[13] The Russian politician Nikolai Miliutin wrote that "Russian letters will finish that which was begun with the Russian sword."[14]
On 13 May 1863, TsarAlexander II of Russia appointedMikhail Nikolayevich Muravyov as the governor general of theVilna Governorate.[15] His duties included both suppression of the uprising, and implementation of the Russification policy. Because the situation was perceived as critical, Muravyov was temporarily granted extremely wide powers.[16] Muravyov andIvan Petrovich Kornilov, the newly appointed director of theVilnius educational district, prepared a radical long-term Russification program that became known as theProgram of Restoration of Russian Beginnings (Lithuanian:Rusų pradų atkūrimo programa). Its stated goals were to:[17]
On 22 May 1864, Tsar Alexander II approved this program.[15] A few days later Muravyov issued an administrative order that forbade printing Lithuanian language textbooks written in the Latin alphabet. This order was developed into a comprehensive ban on 6 September 1865, byKonstantin Petrovich von Kaufman, Muravyov's successor.[13] Kaufman issued an order to six neighboring governorates declaring a full ban on all publications and demanding that censorship committees enforce it without hesitation. A week later the order was extended to the entire Empire byPyotr Valuev, Minister of the Interior. In 1866, the ban was further extended to include all academic books.[16]
Despite its strict and widespread enforcement, none of the ban's supporting measures were ever actually codified into law. The ban was enforced based solely on administrative orders and the tsar's approval.[16] When the special temporary powers of the governor general were revoked in 1871, these administrative orders lost any legal value. From that point on the ban had no legal basis, but it was still strictly enforced.[16]
At first the Russian authorities encouraged and sponsored the publication of Lithuanian-language works in the Cyrillic alphabet. The idea of replacing the Latin alphabet with Cyrillic was first elaborated by the well-knownPan-SlavistAlexander Hilferding in his 1863 bookLithuania and Samogitia.[13]
The first experiments with the conversion of Lithuanian writings into Cyrillic were conducted by a Lithuanian linguist,Jonas Juška. He showed some samples of adapted texts to both Muravyov and Kornilov in February 1864.[13] However, Juška discontinued his work and Kornilov formed a committee to work on publishing Lithuanian books in Cyrillic. The committee had four members: the Polish librarianStanisław Mikucki fromWarsaw, RussianJonas Kerčinskis, a LithuanianCatholic priest who had converted toEastern Orthodoxy,Antanas Petkevičius, and the well-known Lithuanian educator and publisherLaurynas Ivinskis.[16] Ivinskis soon withdrew from the committee. The first such book was a primer intended for use in the new Russian schools that were replacing the Lithuanian parish schools. It appeared during the summer of 1864. The committee also published aprayer book, a calendar, and other religious literature.
About 55 Lithuanian-Cyrillic titles were published during the 40 years of the ban; about half of these were published during its first decade.[16] Seeing that the Lithuanian people were unwilling to accept these books, even when they were offered for free, the Russian government shifted its attention to eliminating the illegal publications.[citation needed]
The Russian Ministry of Education issued a report in May 1898 recommending that the press ban be repealed. The report stated that the ban had produced adverse and unforeseen results, including the development of Lithuanian nationalism. Other Russian officials had opined that the interests of the Russian state would be better served by the presence of a legal Lithuanian press that could be censored.[3]
During the years of the ban, 3,047 people (829smugglers, 859 distributors, and 1,359 persons possessing banned books) were arrested in connection with the ban.[5]
| Period | Number of titles |
|---|---|
| 1865–1874 | 345 |
| 1875–1884 | 501 |
| 1885–1894 | 1,076 |
| 1895–1904 | 2,031 |
| Total | 3,953 |
Anti-Russian sentiment and distrust of the tsarist authorities had arisen after the 1863 revolt. The ban was also perceived as a threat to the Catholic Church; the Eastern Orthodox Church used the Cyrillic alphabet, and loyalty to the Latin alphabet was also a symbolic loyalty to Catholicism.[16] Attempts were made to circumvent the ban by usingGothic script. However, that was also banned in 1872. A number of problems arose with the various Lithuanian-Cyrillic orthographies, which were all criticized as ill-adapted to the Lithuanian language. Within Russia, the ban was opposed by scholarly, liberal, and pro-democratic groups, which served to mitigate the punishments.[4]
The organized resistance to the ban, both legal and illegal, was largely initiated by bishopMotiejus Valančius, who petitioned the government to exempt prayer books from the ban. He then moved towards sponsoring theillegal flow of books from outside Lithuania. The period from Valančius's death in 1875 to 1883 saw the establishment of the Lithuanian-language newspaperAuszra (The Dawn), and the resistance at this time is associated with bishopAntanas Baranauskas. The resistance intensified towards the end of the 19th century, after another major newspaper,Varpas (The Bell), edited byVincas Kudirka, was established in 1889. Between 1891 and 1893, 31,718 publications were confiscated and destroyed; between 1900 and 1902 this number increased to 56,182, reflecting their increased flow.[19]
The period from 1890 to 1904 saw the publication of about 2,500 book titles in the Lithuanian Latin alphabet. The majority of these were published inTilsit, a city inEast Prussia, although some publications reached Lithuania from theUnited States. A largely standardized written version of the language was achieved by the turn of the twentieth century, based on historical andAukštaitijan (highland) usages;[20] the lettersč andš were taken fromCzech orthography.[21] The widely acceptedLithuanian Grammar, byJonas Jablonskis, appeared in 1901.[21]
A number of challenges to the ban's legal basis were made, and the use of this venue intensified at the end of the 19th century, along with an increasing number of letters, petitions, and protests from Lithuanians. In 1902 and 1903, the Russian Supreme Court reversed two press ban convictions that had been brought againstAntanas Macijauskas andPovilas Višinskis.[22] The court's decisions stated that the original executive decree creating the ban was illegal. The outbreak of theRusso-Japanese War in February 1904 contributed to the Russian government's perception that its minorities needed to be accommodated.[3] The ban was officially lifted on 24 April 1904.[23]
Public and private education in Lithuanian was adversely affected by the press ban. The level of pent-up demand for schooling in the 19th century is illustrated by the increase in literacy in theRietavas area; between 1853 and 1863, just before the ban, the number of literate persons rose from 11,296 to 24,330.[4] The subsequent ban is thought to have contributed toilliteracy in 19th-century Lithuania.[24]
In the wake of the ruling, parish schools were closed. A shortage of teachers led to the closure of a number of state schools as well, in spite of population growth. Parents began to withdraw their children from the state schools, since they were associated with the policy of Russification; students were not allowed to speak Lithuanian among themselves, and a discouraging atmosphere was created by the system of searches, inspections, and spying. Many students were schooled at home or in small secret groups instead, although this practice also resulted in sanctions.[4]
A census of theKovno Governorate in 1897 showed that a higher proportion of older people than younger had received formal education: of persons age 30 to 39, 61.87% had experienced some level of formal education, compared to only 54.68% of persons aged 10 to 19.[4]
After the ban was lifted, printing presses and their supporting social and cultural infrastructure needed to be established. The first issue of a Lithuanian newspaper after the ban,Vilniaus žinios, appeared on 23 December 1904; theGreat Seimas of Vilnius, which took place in November 1905, was now able to issue its announcements and publications in Lithuanian.
The publishing houses ofMartynas Kukta,Saliamonas Banaitis, and theSociety of Saint Casimir inKaunas were responsible for many of the publications issued between the end of the ban in 1904 and the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1918. The businessmanPetras Vileišis installed a printing press at hispalace, commissioned in 1904. During this period 4,734 Lithuanian-language titles in the Latin alphabet were published in Lithuania and abroad. After Lithuanian independence was established, the rate of publication increased steadily; 16,721 book titles were printed from 1918 to 1939. Between 1925 and 1939, about 800 to 900 book titles were printed annually.[11]
A standard Lithuanian orthography and grammar were established during the ban, despite the fact that the co-ordination of this process, involving competing dialects, was forced to take place in several countries. The ban is widely felt to have stimulated the Lithuanian national movement, rather than discouraging it.[25] In 2004, the 100th anniversary of the ban's end was noted inUNESCO's events calendar, and the LithuanianSeimas declared the "Year of the Lithuanian Language and Book."[26]
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