Archivum Lithuanicum

When the Vilnius supreme local government considered the issue of the periodical press in Polish, Lithuanian, Yiddish, and Hebrew, it took into account the influence of the latter on public opinion. On several occasions, the Vilnius Governor-General’s office, when discussing the issue of periodicals, recalled the times of the 1863–1864 uprising, when the multilingual press, defined by its mass appeal and readership, played a strong activist role. The Vilnius Governor-General’s office sought to limit the publishing initiatives of all ethnic groups (except Russians). It therefore delayed the resolution of the issue, especially when it came to periodicals in Yiddish, Hebrew and Polish. The only exception to this, in terms of the publishing situation in 1903–1905, was the case of Vilnius News. After the uprising of 1863–1864, it was the first periodical in Vilnius to be published in a language other than Russian. Moreover, it was granted permission surprisingly quickly. There were several reasons that could have led to this decision. It is not unreasonable to assume that the Vilnius Governor-General’s office had the intention of exploiting the press issue to increase and exacerbate conflicts between ethnic groups (primarily Lithuanians and Poles). The idea of the Lithuanian national movement as a counterbalance to the influence of the Poles is clearly expressed in the assessment of the candidacy of Kazimieras Prapuolenis. This is the only reference in bureaucratic correspondence (that is known so far). The idea of pitting Lithuanians against Poles by exploiting the press issue may have been expressed in private conversations. Especially since the person who was actively involved in the informal discussions on the suitability of editors for Lithuanian and Polish dailies was Andrei Stankevich, the head of the chancellery of the Vilnius Governor-General’s office, who was well aware of Piotr Sviatopolk-Mirsky’s views on the press issue and could have passed them on to Aleksandr fon Freze.