Polish national democrats ofthe Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Lithuanian revival at the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

The fundamentals of the Lithuanian national revival date back to the eighties of the 19th century when in the environment of Lithuanian intellectuals a conception of publishing a newspaper in the Lithuanian language and printed in the Latin alphabet arose. Among the many persons involved in the implementation of this project, doctor Jonas Basanavičius played an outstanding role; he did not put up with failures in obtaining the publishing concession for the territory of the Russian Empire and decided to do it in Prussian Lithuania - in Ragainė and consequently to smuggle the copies of the newspaper across the border to the area of Great Lithuania. "Aušra" - "Jutrzenka" was supposed to become the "daybreak of the national revival of Lithuania". National democrats in Vilnius treated the Lithuanian national movement rather in transitional categories, as a long-term action or aspirations of getting wide autonomy in the future. Lithuania, in the territorial-historical aspect, was treated as a body formed by all nationalities inhabiting this area, favouring simultaneously the equality of rights of them all. They were critical only about the actions of Lithuanian activists - "litwomans".