Jurgis Krikščiūnas-Rimvydas ir jo artimieji

ENThis book reflects the Lithuanian history in the light of the destinies of one family - Kriksciunai from Asminta. In the beginning of the 19th century, according to the Napoleonic Code, the farmers of Užnemune released from the serfage, who started to live freer, understood the worth of the release and began to send children to study. The bishop Mykolas Pranciskus Karpavičius undertook the mission of the education in this city. In the second half of the nineteenth century, the imperial government of Russia, which wanted revenge for the uprising of 1863, forbade the Lithuanian press, but Matas and Agne Kriksciunai did not begrudge the money to acquire the secret and spread-by-book-distributors literature. Working hard they allowed four of their sons to gain higher education, hoping that their sons would live in a brighter and happier manner than the previous generations. Even though their other four children were educated just minimally, all of their eight children were Lithuanian patriots and they showed it through their behavior during the WWII period and in post-war years by not resigning with the occupation. A bright period of an independent Lithuania, between 1918 and 1940, was very productive for the brothers Matas, Antanas, Jurgis, Juozas Kriksciunas and they contributed to the strengthening of their fatherland. This family did no less to protect the freedom of Lithuania. Kazimieras Banionis-Klajunas, Vytautas Kriksciunas-Mikas, Jurgis Kriksciunas-Maziukas, and Jurgis Kriksciunas-Rimvydas, who grew up during the years of independence, became partisans. Most of the members of family experienced the destiny of refugees or departees. From 1940 Jurgis Kriksciunas-Rimvydas chose the way of the resistance to the occupants just as many of the friends of a fight.He was an idealist, an educated and sensitive person, hard-working, persistent, he knew how to joke without hurting people’s feelings. He had artistic aspirations, but he did not overestimate his talents, carried out the tasks of a freedom fighter, which were assigned to him by his leaders, striving to carry them out in the best way possible. Not always did he succeed. But he started everything persistently from the beginning. Jurgis loved those who were close to him, he missed them, however, he did not leave his friends of fight, even though he had this opportunity in 1947. The closest to him were his “brothers of the forest”: Juozas Luksa-Daumantas, Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas, Lionginas Baliukevicius-Dzukas, Juozas Gegužis-Diemedis and Rimvydas; he did not disappoint them. If the father of Jurgis Kriksciunas, the colonel Antanas Kriksciunas, the head of the department of the topography of the Lithuanian army had lived, he would have been proud of his son who despite of the fact of he did not finish the studies of geodesy in Vytautas Magnus university, became one of the epic heroes in Lithuanian freedom fights. And not only he would have been proud of his son, but also of his students, co-workers: Antanas Kučingis-Kalvaitis, Jonas Žemaitis-Vytautas, Vladas Bacius-ka-Zmogus, Kazimieras Pyplys-Mazytis, Juozas Stravinskas-Kardas and others. [From the publication]