History-before-1900

Captain Cook’s Naturalist, Georg Forster, in Lithuania 1784-1787

Today, Johann Georg Adam Forster is not a household name. This contrasts very much with his own time, when he was the author of a celebrated book about James Cook’s second voyage to the South Pacific, A  Voyage Round the World. As a traveler and naturalist, he made major contributions …

Read More »

Was Columbus a Lithuanian Prince?

By Miltiades Varvounis arvounis WHO WAS CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS? WELL, THE date of his birth, his birthplace, and his parentage are all tangled in obscurity. To this day, no hard evidence tells us exactly where he came from, what his native language was or even his proper name. For unknown reasons, …

Read More »

Rev. Antanas Mackevicius – an Unlikely Lithuanian 1863-1864 Insurrection Leader

By Henry L. Gaidis ALTHOUGH MOST LITHUANIAN Americans are aware of the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Lithuania during World War II and the subsequent heroic partisan struggle, few are aware of the heroic struggle fought by Lithuanian partisans during the 1831 and 1863-1864 insurrections. On three occasions, the Lithuanian …

Read More »

Zygmunt Mineyko: the Lithuanian Count of Monte Cristo

By Miltiades Varvounis IN 1795, THE NAME OF LITHUANIA WAS ERASED from the map of the world. Most of the lands of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania were directly annexed by the Russian Empire, and a policy of Russification was fiercely implemented. Describing the horrible Russian occupation of Lithuania, …

Read More »

A Lithuanian Perspective On Napoleon’s 1812 Russia Campaign

by Henry L. Gaidis TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, Napoleon embarked on his epic 1812 Russia Campaign with high hopes of securing his total control of the European Continent. Although the story of this tragic campaign is known by virtually every high school student, few are aware of Lithuanian involvement in …

Read More »

The British in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

By Miltiades Varvounis The British in the Grand Duchy  of Lithuania For over five hundred years Britons have visited the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Some came as warriors, others as diplomats, educators or traders, and still others as permanent settlers BRITONS HAVE BEEN VISITING LITHUANIA AND Lithuanians Great Britain since …

Read More »

The Jesuits in Vilnius

By Antanas Saulaitis, S.J. VILNIUS HAS BEEN THE center of Lithuania, both Grand Duchy and Replic, for seven centuries. For two of those centuries, Vilnius was the hub of a wheel of Jesuit education and ministry from Prussia to Russia, Estonia to northern Poland. The Jesuit heritage in the capital …

Read More »

The Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania: Hidden Gold of Lithuania’s Past?

BY JOLANTA KARPAVIČIENĖ THE PALACE OF THE GRAND Dukes of Lithuania, which is now being reconstructed in Vilnius, embodies the whole course of Lithuanian history. The foundation signifies the beginnings of statehood in the thirteenth century and multiple layers of artifacts document the expansion of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania …

Read More »

How Lithuanian Women Affected Politics From Behind the Scenes

BY JŪRATĖ MIČIULIENĖ Historian Jolanta Karpavičienė states that women surrounding Lithuania’s rulers, from the time of Mindaugas, lived a more active public life than Slavic princesses shut up in their ivory towers.— JOLANTA KARPAVIČIENĖ, Assistant director of the National Museum Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in Vilnius, said …

Read More »

The 150 Year Anniversary of the Birth of Jonas Šliūpas (1861–1944)

By Charles Perrin IN 1902 THE COAL MINERS IN THE ANTHRACITE region of Pennsylvania, which at that time had the most dangerous mines in the world, went on strike. It was one of the largest strikes the region ever experienced and Lithuanians played a prominent role in it. Jonas Šliūpas, …

Read More »