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The article is devoted to a peculiar episode of the struggle of Lithuanians against the policy of persecution based on nationality which was pursued by Imperial Russia between 1864 and 1904. Its participants were representatives of the parts of the Lithuanian nation separated by the border between Germany and the Russian Empire - Martynas Jankus (1858-1946), a German citizen, a Lithuanian of East Prussia, the owner of a printing office in Tilsit (Lith. Tilžė, currently Sovetsk, a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian Federation) and a group of Lithuanian young people who were operating illegally, a group of citizens of the Russian Empire. The time under discussion is the 1890s. During that period, the Lithuanian national movement was rapidly developing and strengthening while striving to bring together both parts of the nation and the USA-based Lithuanian diaspora community. One of the most important measures of the common struggle was the distribution of publications printed in Latin characters in the Lithuanian language which were banned to be published in the territory of Russia but were legally printed in East Prussia and smuggled across the border into Lithuania. From there, the publications were sent to Lithuanian communities all over the Russian Empire. This struggle resulted in victory: the ban was lifted by Order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Russia issued in 1904. To strengthen the political opposition, Lithuanian intellectuals printed not only books, brochures and newspapers but also various minor publications - political leaflets. Students of Russian universities and Lithuanian intellectuals graduates of these higher education institutions prepared texts and sent funds intended for their publication to the printing offices of Lithuanians and Germans in East Prussia. The number of such leaflets surviving to the present day is very small. One of these publications was an anonymous card of the size of a standard German postcard (95 x 140 mm). Thus far, three of them have been found in Lithuanian libraries and archives, and one has been discovered in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg. A composition of two illustrations is printed on one side of the card: a Lithuanian countrywoman and a Cossack standing in front of her with a raised whip and a bottle of vodka as a gift for obedience. This symbolised a spread of orthodoxy and the deportation of Lithuanians from their native land. The following exclamation of the Cossack is printed: Are you a Lithuanian? Go to Russia! The explanation of the content of the illustration and the encouragement (first of all, to Catholic believers) to oppose the plans of the authorities are printed in small characters. They are related to the colonisation of Siberia. The statements are well-grounded, the exposition of the subject is logical and written in the correct Lithuanian language. Most probably, it was created by the graduate of the Faculty of Law of the University of Moscow Vladas Mačys (1867-1936). Vaclovas Biržiška, Professor of Law at the University of Lithuania in Kaunas and Director of the University Library, was the first to describe this publication bibliographically. The author regarded this publication as a postcard, attributed it to Martynas Jankus' printing office and dated it '1892'. A more precise description was publicised in the fundamental work of Lithuanian national bibliography Lietuvos TSR bibliografija. Serija A: Knygos lietuvių kalba (Bibliography of the Lithuanian SSR. Series A: Books in the Lithuanian Language; vol. 2: 1862-1904. Book 2 (Vilnius, 1988, p. 401, No. 4065). It was compiled in the Soviet era, and the only available copy stored in Mikhail J. Saltykov-Shchedrin State Public Library (currently renamed the Russian National Library in Sankt Petersburg) served as the basis for it. The present author amended the publication date of the postcard (1891) and specified the circumstances of its distribution, while also ascertaining that the artist of the illustrations was the lithographer of Tilsit Johann Mai. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into Adam Honory Kirkor's life and work was initiated by a specialist in the history of Lithuanian culture, Michał Eustachy Brensztein, in his applied study Adam Honory Kirkor: Publisher, Editor and Vilnius Printer in 1834-67 (Adam Honory Kirkor. Wydawca, redaktor i właściciel drukarni w Wilnie od roku 1834 do 1867. Wilno, 1930). Presently his historiography has become internationally famous, and due to numerous publications in various languages it has branched out into the Polish, Lithuanian, and Belorusian trends. The Lithuanian trend was shaped by Kirkor's liberal and compromise views recognizing the merits of historical Lithuania and the prospects of its continuity as well as by the reduced possibilities of research and cultural activities in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth occupied by imperial Russia. The research and fact-finding works by Lithuanian researchers Reda Griškaitė, Antanas Kulakauskas, Pavel Lavrinets, Juozas Maceika, Zita Medišauskienė, Vytautas Merkys, Darius Staliūnas, and other authors in most cases analyze Kirkor's attitude towards the Lithuanian national revival movement and his relations with the participants of this movement. In the article by the present author, research is oriented towards the adaptations, translations into Lithuanian and their publication in Lithuania Minor following the Lithuanian press ban in Greater Lithuania of three works by Kirkor: Grand Duke Vytautas (Beликiй князъ Витовтъ) published in a book by several authors Outlines of the History and Life of the Lithuanian People (Черты изъ исторiи и жизни литовскаго народа. Вильно, 1854); A Guide to Vilnius and Its Environs (Przewodnik po Wilnie i jego okolicach. Wilno, 1880); The Graves of Grand Dukes and Kings in Vilnius (Groby wielkoksiążęce i królewskie w Wilnie. Warszawa, 1882). A deeper insight is offered into the relationship between the author and the publishers and collaborators of the monthly Auszra that promoted the ideas of the Lithuanian national revival. The latter prepared the first Lithuanian translations of Kirkor's works in conformity with the ideological aspirations of the Lithuanian nation in the new times. The sources of research were Kirkor's books published in Polish and Lithuanian as well as the archival and published documents connected with the publishing process, and the bibliographical data accumulated by the bibliologists of several generations. Use is also made of the results of the assessment of the publishing organization and culture of Kirkor's books established by the de visu method. In the course of research, a proposition is suggested that the need for Kirkor's books felt by 19th-century Lithuanian society was programed in advance. The publishing of their Lithuanian translations in Tilsit (lit. Tilžė) and Bittehnen (lit. Bitėnai) accelerated the integration of Lithuanians in Lithuania Minor and Greater Lithuania and the civic rapprochement between the residents of old and new Lithuania, fostered their historical and national identity and promoted cultural variety and progress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of research is the experience and results of the commemoration of the 120th birth anniversary of the writer Ieva Simonaitytė (1897-1978). The significance of this event, celebrated on the national scale, like other anniversaries of prominent personalities in Lithuanian history, was validated by the decision of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania and by the 2017 State program,approved by the Prime Minister. Such a decision meant that the State pledged itself to highlight the writer's humanistic values and her creative heritage. The aims of research were to determine the initiatives of the writer's anniversary commemoration , the most important documents and the objectives raised in them, the process of their realization, the achievements and the content. According to the collected data, the events commemorating Ieva Simonaitytė's anniversary were held all over Lithuania. However, the most important ones were centred in the writer's native land - West Lithuania, the former Klaipėda Region. Major events were organized in the cities and towns of Klaipėda, Šilutė, Pagėgiai, Priekulė, Gargždai as the cultural centres of the nearest local authorities. Such an orientation can be explained by the limited budgetary funding of the commemoration program, with scanty allocations mainly channeled to the region's libraries, museums, Klaipėda University academics, the local movements of cultural workers and public figures and theinitiatives launched by them. As regards the scholarly and information aspect, due to the pool of intellectual and financial resources, Vilnius played an important role. The scientific institutions of the capital city held a seminar and discus sion on The Relevance of Ieva Simonaitytė, and the texts of the reports of the participants were published in the journal Colloquia (2017, Nr. 38); the Vilnius University Academic Publishers published a book of evidential texts and reminiscences, I'm Evė, Daughter of Etmė. Lithuanian Radio and Television released a documentary Ieva Simonaitytė and a radio version of the novel Vilius Karalius; they are professional and powerful, unfortunately, somewhat belated as they were shown at the end of the anniversary year. The program did not contain any long-term projects: the major novels and autobiographical books by Simonaitytė were not republished; compilation of the home library catalogue and the author's bibliography was not undertaken; the publication of the epistolary heritage, especially in the German language, was not continued; and a conference on the up-to-date analysis and assessment of the personality and her work was not held. The public was disappointed by the dire state of the Ieva Simonaitytė memorial museum in the town of Priekulė and failure to include it in to the activities of promoting her creative heritage. The Lithuanian general education schools have a problem too: the writer's literary works had been removed from their curricula for 20 years. When it was included into them again in 2016, teachers were faced with difficulties due to the lost experience and methods, the inability to convey the national, moral and social problems raised in the novels, the exceptional qualities of her characters, and the powerful suggestibility of Simonaitytė's narratives. During discussions, the duty to fulfil the writer's will was stressed: to move her remains from Vilnius to the garden at her memorial museum in Priekulė. To realize these tasks, it is necessary to prepare a long-term (for the duration of several years) program of commemorating Simonaitytė's work. Her novels are still relevant today as it was witnessed by a piece of investigative journalism: while celebrating the centenary of the restoration of Lithuania's independence, in the list of the Hundred of Centenary Books rated by a public opinion poll, the most important books of the writer were placed sixth and seventh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leonas Panavas (1942-2011) was a professional milling-machine operator at Vilnius metal-working plants who became a bibliophile and book binder due to his cultural aspirations. He was motivated by his complicated family and personal experiences as well as by his natural abilities. His book culture was developing in several directions. It was dominated by his collection of a personal library of scholarly bias, his strong inclination for reading, and bibliophily. Even though L. Panavas lacked higher education, his personal book culture surpassed not only that of an ordinary metal worker but also exceeded the competences achieved by some professionals in the humanities. The main motivation for his creative activities was bookbinding. It made up for the gaps in his specialized secondary education acquired in his younger days. With the aim of self-development, L. Panavas turned bookbinding into a way of life. To keep it going, he constantly solidified the material foundations of his craft, expanded the circle of his clientele and continuously perfected his professional skills and his style of binding. Striving for a qualitative progress, he made use of professional literature and expert consultations, visited exhibitions of original artefacts created by masters of binding and learned from them. The literature on bookbinding collected by him is valuable and diverse in content. It included the history of writing and book publishing, the methods and technology of binding, the graphics of type and ornamentation of covers, binding materials, and the restoration of ancient bookbindings. He did his best to familiarize himself with the professional publications on the related crafts (leather industry, paper making) in other countries (Russia, the United Kingdom, France, the USA, Czech Republic) even though, due to the lack of knowledge of foreign languages, he could not always use them to the best advantage. However, the bookbinder's reading range was not limited to professional literature only. His reading interests were truly universal and they were satisfied by a well selected personal library specializing in the humanities. Its characteristic feature is preservation of books and respect for them. In the present study, research into L. Panavas's book culture and bookbindings is based on his personal collection of over 150 professional bookbindings preserved by his family as well as on his private library and some documents. However, one feels the absence of more diverse archival material. A major part of bookbindings created by L. Panavas during 25 years of binding activities is dispersed in the private collections of his numerous customers. Researching them is a task for the future. Still, the study has made it possible to establish L. Panavas as an important participant of the Lithuanian book binding process during the period of the restoration of Lithuania's statehood and its consolidation (1985-2010) as well as a productive craftsman. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of research is a personal library of Kristijonas Donelaitis. Its investigation has not produced any results so far. This depends on the low relevance of the problem and scarce source data available. This article suggests that it is necessary to broaden and increase the sets of historical data needed for the analysis of the problem and their variety. It is also important to use new methods and critical approach to the evaluation of the sources and historiographic literature used by the creators of Donelaitis' studies such as Martin Ludwig Rhesa, Ludwig Loui Passarge, Franz Oskar Tetzner, Aleksandr Horn, Carl Wilhelm Hugo Freyberg). Taking into account the present state of historiography, the aim of the research is formulated as follows: to assertain, to deny, or to leave open the possibility of the existence of the personal library of Donelaitis for further investigation until its reality or at least the fact of probability to be answered unambiguously. The grounds for this research were found in the ambition of the Prussian royal authorities of the 18th century to impose more stringent control on the knowledge, skills and personal life of Protestant priests. Back then, rather fruitful means were used to accomplish this goal. The priests had to react to the new developments in order to improve their official and social standing. This led to the acquisition of a handy library for the development of skills and education. When investigating the library of Donelaitis the main aims should be as follows: 1) to identify personal and official information and creative needs of its owner, 2) to establish the means and sources of library acquisition, 3) to identify its composition and purpose, 4) to trace its fate after the death of the owner. The method applied is based on theoretical proofs and the speculative analysis of historiographical statements and secondary sources. At present, the conducted investigation allows us to provide only theoretical assumptions. According to the results, no convincing proof of the existence of Donelaitis' personal library can be produced. The possibility of the denial of its existence still exists. Therefore, we can formulate the following dualistic conclusion: 1) according to the conditions of the time and his position, Donelaitis must have had a personal library, 2) so far, there is no data about the fact of the existence of this library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martynas Jankus (1858-1946) is a famous worker of Lithuanian press in Prussia, a participant of national movement, a politician who supported bringing together two parts of the Lithuanian nation separated by the borders between German and Russian empires. Over more than 40 years he had published and printed 395 non-periodical and 27 periodical publications in Lithuanian and some in German and Byelorussian languages. Among the authors of these publications, there were many significant representatives of Lithuanian and other nations: writers, ethnologists, historians, Protestant theologians and politicians. Jankus' personality was formed by the life style of a peasant family, social environment of his native Bitėnai village and the pressure of national discrimination affecting the indigenous people. He attended only a primary school and later self-educated himself by reading voratiously literature about Lithuania and Lithuanians. Lithuanian newspapers and especially the works by Georg Sauerwein, a defender of the interests of small nations in the German empire, published in them have increased his motivation for social activity. The active political movement of the end of the 19th century and the election campaigns to the Prussian Landtag and German Reichstag directly influenced his decision to participate in publishing. In 1879-1888 he published several leaflets in support of Lithuanian candidates, some books, pamphlets and calendars for the cultural education of Lithuanians. Among these publications Jankus included his own collections of original and folk poetry as well as prose translated from German and Polish languages augmented by polemic articles. When Jankus got acquainted with the members of the national movement in Great Lithuania, he became an editor and administrator of the Lithuanian periodical "Auszra" established by them. Other editors stayed on his farm in Bitėnai. As there was a lack of popular literature, Jankus and his companion published the Lithuanian "Auszra" calendar ("Lietuviškas "Auszros" kalendorius") in 1883 and 1884. The texts of educational and applied character were published in the calendar as well as literary texts, such as original and translated poetry and prose. They were written by Lithuanian authors Jonas Basanavičius, Andrius Jonas Vištelis, Petras Vileišis, and writers of other nations such as Sauerwein, Jozef Ignac Kraszewski, Adam Mickiewicz, Ivan Krylov, Aleksandr Puškin, William Shakespeare and Guy dec Maupasannt. For many Lithuanians these translations were the first acquaintance with the world literature. Martynas Jankus used to order printing of his books, calendars and "Auszra" in the printing houses of nearby towns, such as Ragnit (Lith.: Ragainė) and Tilsit (Lith.: Tilžė). Their production was disseminated in Lithuania Minor and smuggled to the Great Lithuania, which was under the strict ban on Latin printing introduced by the Russian tsarist regime. For this purpose, Jankus established a network of illegal disseminators of literature. It consisted of two sectors: secret book transporters over the border and disseminators in the Great Lithuania and legal storage owners near the border on the side of Prussia. This network was extended along the German-Russian border from Palanga till Dubeningken (Lith.: Dubininkai; Dubeninki in present day Poland). The first stage of publishing activity was successful for Martynas Jankus. He acquired publishing expertise, knowledge of organizing illegal business, created long-term relations with the owners of printing houses, established the network for the dissemination of publications, developed skills to supply it with different printing materials and information. By March of 1889, the publisher from Bitėnai had established his own printing house in Ragnit and started printing business. This was the start of the second stage of Martynas Jankus' activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An owner of a printing house and a publisher, Martynas Jankus (1858-1946) was a citizen of Germany and a Lithuanian of the East Prussian region. He was an active member of the Lithuanian national movement of the 19th - early 20th century. He supported the opposition of the people of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which was annexed and integrated into the Russian empire in 1795. When the usage of the Lithuanian language in Latin script was banned in 1864-1904, Martynas Jankus started printing illegal books and newspapers in his printing house and transporting them secretly to the Russian empire. He supported publishing "Auszra" and "Varpas" the most influential newspapers of the national movement. In 1918, after the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Lithuania, this veteran of Lithuanian culture and politics was highly appreciated and attracted close attention of journalists. He publicised quite many memoirs about the publishing and distribution of illegal press, known newspaper editors and book authors, printers, and publishers. The greatest value for historiographic research of the book resides in three generalised memoirs that M. Jankus attempted in his late years. They include the publication "Smuggling of Lithuanian books" („Lietuviškų Kningų Kontrabanda″) which was published in the newspaper "Tėvynė" (1918) edited by Lithuanians in the USA, and two unpublished manuscripts: an exhaustive narrative (27 pages) without a title about the state of the Lithuanian press and language during the period of the growth of the national movement, sent to the professor linguist of the Göttingen university (Germany) Eduard Hermann, and the memoirs "An encyclopedia of my adventures" (,,Mano prietikių enciklopedija″) written in the form of a scholarly encyclopedic dictionary characterizing the acquaintances of M. Jankus. The advantage of the memoirs lays in the point of view of the author who is a direct participant and observer of the factual events, political and social processes, and characters of persons. Foreign researchers appreciate the knowledge of M. Jankus' cooperation with the participants of Byelorusian, Polish, and German national and revolutionary movements and assistance in their literary publishing. On the other hand, although this author wrote many published and unpublished memoirs, they were small in size, written in the journalistic style and quite open. Therefore, they raised contradictions and critical comments of the public. Many did not understand the character of M. Jankus, which was conditioned by differences in cultural and religious traditions based on the civil rights of Prussian citizens, implying a much greater religious and political freedom. His publications and opinions were not self-controlled or limited in any way. The author sincerely depicted the positive and negative sides and character of the national movement and its participants. He was among the first to raise the issues of Polonized and estranged Catholic priests and the vices of the book smuggling as a social phenomenon. The Lithuanian society was not matured enough at his time and did not support him. The dethronement of the movements, communities, and leaders that had a national character was not tolerated during M. Jankus' lifetime; it is not tolerated in modern society, either. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The object of this study was the personal library of Plater, a Lithuanian intellectual of the first half of the 19th century. The work on the article was inhibited by the lack of data from Jerzy Plater's lifetime as the Plater family archive was destroyed by the Soviet Army which occupied Lithuania in 1940. The aim was achieved by analyzing dispersed published and unpublished historical sources and selecting the authentic data by comparing their reliability. The owner of the library was count Jerzy Plater (Jerzy Jan Wincenty Plater, Jerzy Jan Wincenty Plater-Broel z Broelu hrabia Plater, Geor-gius comes de Plater, Jurgis Plateris in Lithuanian; born 1810 in Klaipėda (Memel), died 1836 in Raseiniai, buried in Švėkšna) - a member of an influential aristocratic family in the Lithuanian-Polish Commonwealth. He was educated by domestic teachers in the manor, later in the Kražiai and Vilnius gymnasiums, and graduated from Vilnius University where he studied philology and liberal arts. At the University his scholarly interests were formed. Plater was one of the most important members of the gentry that participated in the Lituanistic movement of the first half of the 19th century. The main directions of scholarly work pursued by the Count were the Lithuanian language, history of Lithuania and his personal library. His works reflect the variety of methods applied by him: they included informal communication, targeted visits to the libraries that kept printed heritage collections, book analysis de visu, and archival research. The Count was one of the first authors to write his scholarly works in Lithuanian. Plater inherited the Gedminaičiai Manor from his parents and created a basis for his research there - a personal library and a small museum. To achieve his main aims, he built a Lituanistic collection which included not only publications, but also manuscripts, graphic art, technical drawings, paintings and museum objects. The collection comprised over 3000 items. The main acquisition sources were Vilnius and bookstores in the nearby Prussian towns Königsberg (Karaliaučius), Tilsit (Tilžė) and Klaipėda (Memel). There he acquired old Lituanistic and Old Prussian research works and serials. He sought for the possibilities to enrich his library through personal contacts with outstanding researchers, creative priests, and book culture representatives. The Count was aware of the advantages of collective research and invited a creative collaborator - the writer and philologist Simonas Tadas Stanevičius - to work with him. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigation of book history sources or source research is a book science discipline that investigates the origin of book history sources, their retrieval, classification, evaluation and usage. This is partly a theoretical and partly an applied discipline. The theoretical part of source investigation includes the analysis of the authenticity, reliability, and typology of sources. The applied part of source investigation focuses on the issues of building the basis of sources and their usage. The general solution in the methodology of processing sources is classification. The main concepts of classification are type and sort. A type is perceived as a model of a group of objects (data, work or things) having a general essential property. A sort is defined as an object under classification that meets the type definition by a general or a partial attribute. Scholars of different countries have agreed that a type is determined by the following attributes: 1) time of origin (primary and secondary), 2) information format (written, visual, audial, linguistic, or objects). Book history perceives the second attribute as the most important because, according to it, sources are defined as written and non-written. Written sources are most numerous; depending on their purpose they are grouped into the following sorts: 1) books; 2) official documents; 3) critical and evaluation materials; 4) bibliographies; 5) statistical documents; 6) reference books of institutions and companies, catalogues, address books; 7) archival clerical documents; 8) advertisements of publications; 9) information material of periodicals; 10) diaries; 11) correspondence; 12) memoirs; 13) book research in other sciences; 14) publicistic writings; 15) book ownership marks; 16) other manuscript or printed sources. Non-written sources are less diverse. They include: 1) visual and audial documents; 2) objects of material culture (buildings, equipment, memorials, book culture means). Critical evaluation concerns mainly written sources. It may be internal and external. The first one helps to identify the sort of a source as a document and its attributes, and the latter is related to the significance of a document. A researcher builds his conclusions on the totality of sources and reconstructs the facts and phenomena that belong to the past of a book and serve as a basis for determining the regularities of its development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Martynas Jankus (1858-1946) is a historical personality. His importance does not diminish with time. The myth of Jankus was created during his life, monuments for him were erected, streets and organisations were named after him. Jankus still makes a significant influence because his interests coincided and coincide with the vital interests of the Lithuanian nation and state. He played an important role in the history of Lithuanian publishing. He established a multifunctional publishing, printing and trading enterprise in Lithuania Minor governed by Prussia. The enterprise was active in 1889-1923. It was mainly oriented towards publishing and production of Lithuanian publications in Latin script prohibited by Tsarist government, and smuggling it to Great Lithuania. It published 400 books and 27 periodicals in the Lithuanian, German, Polish and Byelorussian languages. There were two priorities in Jankus' activity: commercial and idealist. The first ensured existence of the enterprise and the family; the second allowed him to implement spiritual, educational and political goals. One of the achievements by Jankus' enterprise was the productivity of his publishing work, a variety of publications as well as their orientation towards secular and polemic issues. This was an important innovation within Lithuanian publishing, formed by Jankus' orientation towards maturing the national movement, co-operation with the majority of the nation, rapidly evolving social and political powers. Jankus' historical role is also associated with the innovative experiments in publishing (he tried to produce satirical, daily, and evening periodicals), with expansion of publishing relations between Lithuanian national-revolutionary movement and similar movements in neighbouring countries. A number of Lithuanian young people acquired the qualifications in typography in Jankus' enterprise. Some of them became initiators and professionals of publishing business in Great Lithuania after the ban on Lithuanian press had been lifted in 1904. At present, the heritage published by Jankus is increasing in value. Almost all books, brochures, periodical and small publications published by him belong to the category of rarities. The search and retrieval of this published heritage is continuing, therefore, we still do not know the precise number of publications produced by Jankus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bibliophile activity in exile is one of the important and interesting areas of Lithuanian book culture. However, it is not well researched. We rarely talk about valuabel libraries and collections of bibliophiles, except when they are donated to the memory institutions of the homeland. Many of them were collected by physicians, diplomats, artists, and priests who have reached high social standing. Justinas K. Karazija (1892-1991) belonged to the first generation of Lithuanians in the USA. He belonged to the working class (was a steel industry worker) and participated in the social-democratic movement. Karazija's personal library included publications from 1891-1976 published in exile and in the homeland: books, periodicals, maps. During the later years of his life, the owner has made a bibliographic description of this library and donated it to the American Lithuanian Cultural Archive (ALKA) in Putnam (Connecticut, USA). In this article, six aspects of the library are analysed: the age of publications languages, publishing places, contents typology, and the level of individuality. The data allows the author to claim that the library has influenced the formation of the personality, provided possibilities of the intellectual development and stimulated creativity. At the same time it symbolized a minimal, re-located homeland and was oriented to the preservation of the national identity. The library helped to create the physical space and the spiritual microcosm on the basis of the national identity. The case of Karazija's library proves that this feature of intelectual elevation was characteristic not only to the inteligentsia groups but also to the members of the working social stratas. The microcosm of a personal library enabled them to identify and forecast the future changes of the emigrant community and to define their own place and role in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Villus Gaigalaitis (1870-1945) was a distinguished Lithuanian politician and public worker, researcher and educator in book culture in Lithuania Minor. His political, public, and ecclesiastic activity created possibilities to communicate with the most significant publishers, typographers, and book traders. His research interests brought him face to face with the university researchers and required publishing his own research works. The most important among those were: a doctoral dissertation "Die litauische Wolfenbütteler Postillenhandschrift aus dem Jahre 1573" (A manuscript of Wolfenbütteler Lithuanian Postilla published in 1573) that he defended in 1900, a historiographic essay on Lithuanina book in Lithuania Minor "Lithuanian history and our writings" (1912), some chapters in other books and articles in a journal Pagalba (Help) edited by himself. Gaigalaitis always investigated the printed or manuscript heritage de visu. Old manuscripts, books, periodicals, and calendors were primary sources for his research, data analysis, synthesis, and formulation of conclusions. During his studies he developed bibliographic skills and provided bibliographic data to Silvestras Baltramaitis -- the librarian of the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg, to a serial published by Lithuanian Literary Society in Tilsit, to the professor Vaclovas Biržiška at Kaunas University. In 1905-1939 he headed a cultural-educational society „Sandora" and established its library of great scientific and cultural significance as well as increased its publishing activity. Gaigalaitis used press as an important means in realisation of strategic political and spiritual goals. He employed Lithuanian press and publications to unite the national community, to ensure its internal communication and develop national identity, to ensure its self-expression and public relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]