Authors

Sayaka Kaji¹;  ¹ Iwate University, Japan

Discussion

The paper investigates correlation among historians and intellectuals of different regional, religious, linguistic, and national backgrounds, who researched the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the middle of the 19th century in Vilnius. The interest into the Lithuanian history separated from the Polish history began at Vilnius Imperial University at the beginning of the 19th century. After the close of the university in 1832 as a result of the defeat of 1830-31 Uprising, some of its alumni and ex-professors continued their scientific works. On the other hand, the general governorate of Vilnius implemented the integration policy of the region into the Russian Empire after the uprising, and under it gathered intellectuals, often from the Russian mainland, but also from the North-Western part of the empire. The results of research by the Temporary Archeological Committee of Vilnius, founded by the initiative of Polish nobles in 1855, were also shared among the intellectuals of the different backgrounds. The correlation among the historical research and source publishing by the intellectuals, though under pressure of the Russian dominance of the territory, somewhat continued till the suppression of the 1863-64 Uprising and the foundation of the Archeographical Committee of Vilnius by the governor general. The paper shows mutual reference, refutation, and appropriation among the historians and intellectuals, who had a variety of historical viewpoints, and then the breaking up process of interpretation of the past of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and that of Western Rus’.