Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XX. War sufferers
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has been proofread at least once.
(diff)
(history)
Denna sida har korrekturlästs minst en gång.
(skillnad)
(historik)
Lithuanian people, of the Lithuanian language. The
Grand-Duchy of this name still exists, of course, and its
colours and its arms still proudly wave next to the
Polish White Eagle; but if the integral form has been
preserved, the contents have changed. All the nobility
of the country has been Polonised; only in the villages
does one still hear the old language which has remained
neglected. Mickiewicz, the greatest poet of Lithuania,
has never written one verse in Lithuanian.
Yet the village people have undeniable virtues; good,
honest, hard-working, devoted almost to fanaticism to
their faith—the Roman Catholic—they have managed to
progress during the last century by small but sure steps
along the path of their national resurrection. Prussian
authority, which holds a purely Lithuanian fraction
of the country, is hurriedly trying to denationalise
and colonise it, and is partially successful; Russian
authority, which presides over the destinies of the rest of
the Lithuanian population, does nothing either for or
against this national movement; continuing to look on
the Lithuanians as Poles, it embitters them from time to
time by vexatious measures with regard to what this
people hold most dear—their churches and their creed.
In the ’eighties there was even a disgraceful incident of
the kind, which ended in bloodshed; history will for
ever record the name of the spot: the village of Krozé,
and the names of the authors of the crime:
Governor-General Orjevski (son of a Polish renegade) and
Governor Klingenberg (of German extraction). But
this sad incident roused the indignation of all
right-minded and honest Russians and drew the attention of
Russian public opinion and even of the Government to
the Lithuanians. Stolypin, who knew the Lithuanian
population thoroughly—he had settled down on a large
estate bought by his parents in the province of
Kovno—eventually protected these good and honest peasants
whom he had learnt to love and esteem. Moreover, at
this period, the national awakening of the Lithuanians
had already made notable progress. Their constant
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
