XVIII amžiaus studijos / The Eighteenth Century Studies

The article is dedicated to the research of the private correspondence of inhabitants of local voivodeships in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the period between the end of 1794 and the first three quarters of 1795. The aim of the article is to see the reactions of state or powiat officers, regular nobles, bishops, lower ranking clerics and friars, university professors and military officers towards changes the that were eliminating the statehood and to reveal general tendencies of the letters. The letters that mention political changes in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the end of the year 1794 to the first three quarters of 1795 are not many – 24 pieces. Most of the letters were written from rural areas, provincial towns and boroughs, 5 letters are from Vilnius and 3 from Grodno. Sometimes the letters mention the Supreme Board of the Land, the Russian imperial institution, which then had taken over the governance. In very seldom cases the fact of swearing oath to the Empire is mentioned. The topic of loyalty to the new government is also rare, mostly when talking about communication with the newly formed administration or officers of the foreign army. The letter that stands out is the one by Feliks Warzyński, the flagbearer of Samogitia and elder of Tirkšliai, the text of which is addressing the breaking of the law during a dietine. The most common topic of private correspondence is the factor of the Russian Imperial army. The authors that wrote on these topics mention taxes, supplying of food and feed, lootings, and the options of protecting their possessions. The letters mention pursuit of favour from the top military leadership and commanders of units. This was a pragmatic, situation based pursuit. The reverberations of the 1794 uprising of T. Kościuszko are not ample in the private correspondence. Residents of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania complained and pleaded, for themselves or their relatives, regarding their status of prisoners, also property and food taken by the military in the course of the uprising. The style of most letters is sufficiently calm and business-like, although sometimes bursting with sadness, hopelessness and uncertainty. Sometimes they tell of the very situation of this deep crisis, mentioning the devastation of the land, hunger and difficulty in communicating.

The article discusses a watercolour painting from a private collection authored by Wojciech Iwaszkiewicz, artillery ober-bombardier of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In the background of the urban landscape are objects that allow easy identification of the capital of Lithuania: partly ruined Upper Castle and the Bekesh Hill. Other objects and figures are identifiable by the inscriptions on the other side of the painting. Particularly interesting is the first plan of the drawing, which depicts the Tatar Gates and a few wooden houses standing near them. This is the only known view of the Tatar Gates of the Vilnius defensive wall. The buildings also depict a number of city dwellers, most of them being military personnel of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (artillery officer, cannoneer, ober-feurwerker, etc., as well as the author of the painting himself ), thus the picture is also interesting as a source of research into different military uniforms. Inscriptions by the Upper Castle and Bekesh Hill reflect legends and stories, popular among Vilnians at the end of the eighteenth century. In the former case, one tower of the castle is named as the temple of the pagan god Lelum Polelum Swistum po Swistum. Yet above the Bekesh Hill is written a legend about the reckless death of this cadet on the way down while riding a horse. Through historical sources we were able to determine that W. Iwaszkiewicz enlisted into the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as a cannoneer in the spring of 1790, soon was raised to the rank of the bombardier and in the spring of 1791 to the ober-bombardier, yet in the summer of 1793 he was raised to the rank of stykjunker. The painting in analysis is related to a particular event: attempts to reform and strengthen the Lithuanian artillery at the end of the eighteenth century and the amassing of the military in Vilnius. In spite of somewhat primitive style of the painting, it’s a very interesting and valuable document of urban iconography.

The article is dedicated to present, still unexplored in Lithuanian historiography, works of the late eighteenth-century writer Wincenty Ignacy Marewicz and to discuss his reflections on his living times. Marewicz (1755–1822) was a poor nobleman, born in Trakai powiat and, having studied there, he later spent in Vilnius a significant portion of his life, trying to survive off his literary activities. He dedicated his works to the nobles, hoping to receive their protection and support, which he also published and distributed on his own. Creative legacy of Marewicz is ample and omnidirectional, however his contemporaries considered him a secondary writer and even graphomaniac, thus he was forgotten by the following generations and was little researched. In spite of any doubts regarding literary skills of Marewicz, we can notice that his writings, often very personal, may be interesting to a historian because of the reflections about himself and his living times. Being avid supporter of state reforms and the Four-Year Sejm, Marewicz in the last years of the eighteenth century wrote pieces that were filled with patriotic spirit, full of contemplations on the destiny of his homeland and of advice to the powerful regarding governance of the country. Writings of the litterateur were close to sentimentalism, with the accentuated desire for authenticity and naturalness. Marewicz promoted ideas of egalitarianism and solidarity of society, criticising the predominant types of relationships. The article discusses works created by the litterateur in the last decade of the century, such as drama, political poetry, biographical narratives dedicated to the nobility and decorations designed for the anniversary of the May 3rd Constitution.

The article presents personality and activities of Augustyn Middleton, nobleman from Kaunas powiat, with the main focus on assessing this person in the light of political events in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the geopolitical situation. At the centre of this research is the period from the reinstatement of the diplomatic mission of the Commonwealth in The Hague on 14 April 1790 to the end of activities of the Four-Year Sejm. The article reveals that Augustyn Middleton, assigned by Stanislaw August to the diplomatic mission of the Commonwealth in the United Provinces of the Netherlands, was the agent of the King, who had to inform the King’s cabinet on activities of Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary Mihał Kleofas Ogiński and to promote the reforms by the Four-Year Sejm in the foreign press thus shaping a positive public opinion in Western Europe regarding changes in Poland and Lithuania. Due to benevolent circumstances A. Middleton was able to reach the rank of embassy resident, however the horizons of his diplomatic career were limited by available finances. Political views of A. Middleton reflected aims declared by the fraction of Stanislaw August’s court: to create a strong and prospering monarchy, hoping that the state will be able to regain its glorious past. A. Middleton promoted constitutional monarchy, inheritable throne, regulation of activities of the Sejm and the dietines (sejmiki), granting of political rights to townspeople, and economic development of the country. While supporting the idea of a centralized state, A. Middleton did not reflect on the rights of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or the topic of a binary state. In assessing economic changes in Europe A. Middleton opposed the physiocrats, emphasizing that the most powerful form of capital comes not from agriculture but from banking. However, he was not afraid to admit that his knowledge of economics was not sufficient to explain the processes of financial capital. Ideas of religious tolerance, promoted by A. Middleton, his cosmopolite view of collaboration between states and nations, active interest in political and social transformations in Europe through anonymous polemical publications in foreign press on the topics of revolution allow for bringing the nobleman from Kaunas powiat A. Middleton into the circle of yet unknown people of the Enlightenment.

Jono III Sobieskio valdymo laikotarpiu Sapiegos įgijo reikšmingą įtaką Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje. Istoriografijoje netgi akcentuojama šios giminės hegemonija. Jono III Sobieskio pastangos sutelkti opoziciją Sapiegoms rezultatų davė tik po valdovo mirties, kada vidutinės bajorijos atstovai, diskretiškai remiami Sapiegų įtaką palaužti siekiančių didikų, iškėlė teisių sulyginimo (vadinamosios koekvacijos) programą ir siekė šią programą įgyvendinti. Būtent šios bajorijos grupuotės pasisakė už Vetinų dinastijos atstovo išrinkimą į Abiejų Tautų Respublikos sostą, tikėdamosi, kad tai pakeis vidaus situaciją Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje. Ir jos nesuklydo: Sapiegų pozicijos susilpnėjo. Iš naujojo Abiejų Tautų Respublikos valdovo Augusto II buvo tikimasi paramos vadinamųjų respublikonų grupuotei, tačiau Augustas II, oficialiai siekdamas išlaikyti jėgų pusiausvyrą Lietuvoje, mėgino demonstruoti palankumą Sapiegoms. Vis dėlto pusiausvyros išlaikyti nepavyko. Lietuvos Didžiojoje Kunigaikštystėje prasidėjo ginkluota kova prieš Sapiegas. Vidaus kovos rezultatas buvo tas, kad, kilus Didžiajam Šiaurės karui, Sapiegos stojo į Švedijos karaliaus Karolio XII pusę. Respublikonai paramos tikėjosi ne tik iš sunkioje situacijoje atsidūrusio Augusto II, bet ir užmezgė ryšius su Rusijos caru Petru I. Švedijos karaliaus pralaimėjimo akivaizdoje Sapiegos buvo priversti ieškoti susitaikymo su Augustu II kelių ir būdų. Svarbi šios giminės pastangų susigrąžinti Abiejų Tautų Respublikos valdovo malonę dalis buvo dokumento, iš Sapiegų giminės pozicijų nušviečiančio įvykius Lietuvoje ir aiškinančio jų nelojalų elgesį, paskelbimas.

The aim of this article is to establish which events of greater historical impact and in what manner affected the community of the Lithuanian Friars Minor Conventual. The article attempts to uncover what historical events were noticed, how they were reflected and thus inscribed in the collective memory of the Conventual Franciscans based primarily, but not exclusively, in Vilnius. The principal object of this investigation is the Memoriale of the Friars Minor Conventual that began to be compiled in 1702 by fr. Antoni Gumowski and received its final shape at the hands fr. Antoni Niewiarowski in 1842. This manuscript is kept at the Lithuanian State Historical Archive (f. 1135, ap. 20, b. 669). It includes miscellaneous materials relating to the culture of memoria as was practiced at the convent of Vilnius. For the sake of comparison, the information contained in the necrologies of the Valkininkai convent has also been used. The idea is, that memorial books containing detailed biographies of famous friars broke out of the limits of being a strictly necrological commemoration and approached to chronicling contemporary events. The local collective identity of the Vilnius Friars Minor Conventual rested on the memory of the Franciscan martyrs of Vilnius (fourteenth century) and the first two bishops of Vilnius, who were Franciscan friars themselves: Andrzej Jastrzębiec (1388–1398) and Jakub Plichta (1398–1407). The description of events and the enumeration of the names of friars of the fifteenth sixteenth centuries indicate that all this data was transmitted through the mediation of written records and notes. The 1610 fire of Vilnius may be viewed as the oldest event inscribed in the living memory of the early eighteenth-century Franciscan community. Other events that became seared into their collective memory are the mid-seventeenth century Muscovite invasion, the Swedish occupation of Vilnius in 1702, the great pestilence of 1710, and the First Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. All these events of greater historical significance provided stimulus to produce a number of detailed descriptions of local events as lived through by the local Franciscan communities and individual friars. Their experiences range from a collective dislocation of communal life to the individual martyrdoms. The Vilnius Memoriale also describes events related to the Russian imperial policy in a matter-of-fact fashion, allowing a reader to draw conclusions as to the policy of interference, control and the eventual suppression of monastic communities and their convents.