Lietuvos istorijos institutas

The article analyses the repercussions of the state relations between the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in reforming the Commonwealth of Both Nations in mass communication in the period following the adoption of the Constitution of 3 May 1791. Mass communication is understood as messages addressed to a large, anonymous, and diverse audience, transmitted through communication media and channels. At the end of the eighteenth century, the periodical press acted as such means and channels. The research aims to determine to what extent and how the press of the Commonwealth of Both Nations at that time covered the Grand Duchy of Lithuania’s relations with the Kingdom of Poland and how much, if at all, was known to the users of the Western European means of communication, included in this analysis, about the 20 October 1791 document of the Mutual Assurance of the Two Nations.

The article addresses the issue of how, following the manifest of 17 October 1905 of the Russian emperor Nikolai II, which declared the freedom of expression, the top authorities of Vilnius approached the influence of the periodical press on the spread of ideas and opinions and formation of respective attitudes, and to what extent they aimed (or did not aim) to restrict that influence.