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- Title
KINTANTIS BAJORŲ PASAULIS KAZIMIEROS BIALOZORAITĖS-TANSKIENĖS DIENORAŠTYJE IR LAIŠKUOSE SOFIJAI RÖMERIENEI. XIX A. 8-9 DEŠIMTMEČIAI.
- Authors
BAIRAŠAUSKAITĖ, TAMARA
- Abstract
The so-called ego-documents, such as memoirs, diaries and letters, are an important source facilitating inquiry into the phenomenon of the nobility's everyday life. This source, however, often lacks particularity and subjectivity. It does not offer a panoramic view of the society, and the phenomena covered in it can hardly be applied to the social group represented by the writer and do not allow wider generalizations. But ego-documents reflect the authentic environment, convey the contemporaries' way of thinking and help observe phenomena lost in other sources. Women's diaries and letters are an excellent source facilitating the re-creation of a noble family's history. Observing everyday life, women also recorded phenomena disclosing the peculiarity of the nobility's world. One of the above described sources is Kazimiera Bialozoraitė-Tanskienė's (1816-1888) diary and letters kept in the Manuscript Department of the National Library in Warsaw. The offspring of a renowned in Lithuania Manvydas-Bialozoras family was attributable to the most vulnerable members of the noble family. She was descendant from a wealthy family of landlords, associated with the elite of Lithuanian noblemen, however, was lacking a strong social status and had to fend for herself. Separated from her husband, childless and lonely she became attached to the families of her sisters--Paulina Končienė and Sofija Römerienė (Zofia Romer)--managed a farm, was actively involved in the work of the local noble community and left a testimony on its everyday life. The diary which she with an extensive break kept in the 1870s-1880s and letters to her sister Sofija Römerienė (1817-1893) offer an insight into the changes that the environment of Lithuanian noble landlords was subjected to in an extremely complicated period. Following the uprising of 1863-1864 it sustained the pressure imposed by the imperial leadership and experienced its after-effects. Entire families of noblemen were exiled from Lithuania, some of them returned to the country in the 1870s, others settled in the Kingdom of Poland. In 1865 noblemen of the "Polish origin" were banned from purchasing land and serving in the country and contributions laid on estates made the nobles change their strategy of life thus also changing their world. K. Bialozoraitė-Tanskienėmostly associated with the noblemen from Kaunas governorate and Kaunas and Ukmergė districts, therefore the circle of people whose lives she was observing was rather narrow. The article which is based on her records dwells on the shifts in the noblemen's behaviour. It is difficult to argue with the proposition of Polish historiography that noblemen who were under the pressure of the empire withdrew to their estates and turned them into bastions for preservation of cultural, social and national traditions. However, life in the manors and cultivation of traditional forms of coexistence were more reminiscent of a habitual ritual and were routine-bound. The nobility in the period covered in K. Bialozoraitė-Tanskienė's writings lacked proactivity and creativity. This notwithstanding, her diary and letters suggest of the changes in the survival strategies exploited by noble landlords. Their eyes were increasingly turned to the Kingdom of Poland and Western Europe which, in their understanding, offered better possibilities to educate the younger generation, establish new connections and evade the threats of Russification, all the more so because of the communities of emigrants that were about to form there. In the country where political life was eradicated and cultural life was supressed, interests of noble landlords were turned towards economy which also had to be fought for.
- Subjects
ROMERIENE, Sofija; BIALOZORAITE-Tanskiene, Kazimiera; NOBLE family; KONCIENE, Paulina; RUSSIFICATION
- Publication
Year-Book of Lithuanian History / Lietuvos Istorijos Metraštis, 2012, Issue 1, p25
- ISSN
0202-3342
- Publication type
Article