Gente Lithuana, natione Lithuana : myśl polityczna i działalność Konstancji Skirmuntt (1851-1934)

LTKnyga apie žymią Lietuvos visuomenininkę, XIX-XX a. sankirtoje aktyviai veikusią Konstanciją Skirmantaitę. Lietuvių mokslo draugijos narė, Jono Basanavičiaus korespondentė, K. Skirmantaitė aktyviai dalyvavo visuomeniniame gyvenime, organizavo šalpos draugijas ir pogrindines mokyklas valstiečių vaikams. Gyvendama Palenkės vaivadijos žemėse ir beveik nešnekanti lietuviškai, K.Skirmantaitė aktyviai įsitraukė į lietuvių tautos atgimimą ir pasisakė už ryšių su Lenkija plėtojimą. Suvokdama savo giminės ryšius su istorine Lietuva, tyrinėjo šio krašto praeitį. 1886 metais Krokuvoje išleido knygą "Dzieje Litwy opowiedziane w zarysie", kurią vėliau į lietuvių kalbą išvertė Petras Vileišis, o 1887 metais Jonas Šliūpas išleido Niujorke. Minėtų tyrinėjimų tąsa laikytina trilogija "Nad Niemnem i Baltykiem". Susižavėjimas istorija suartino ją su lietuvių tautinio atgimimo patriarchu daktaru Jonu Basanavičiumi. Daugelyje savo straipsnių, kurie po 1905 metų pasirodė lietuvių ir lenkų spaudoje, Konstancija Skirmuntt ragino atsisakyti abiejų broliškų tautų tarpusavio rietenų, gerbti bendrą lietuvių-lenkų unijų tradiciją ir pripažinti abiejų kalbų lygiateisiškumą buvusiose LDK žemėse. Šitie apmąstymai atsispindėjo jos propaguojamoje "krašto" idėjoje, kurios šūkiu buvo visų vietinių tautų (lietuvių, lenkų, baltarusių ir lietuvių), gyvenančių buvusioje LDK teritorijoje taikus sugyvenimas. Po 1918 metų Konstancija Skirmuntt karštai agitavo už Vilniaus priklausomybę naujai susikūrusiai Lietuvos respublikai, kartu primindama šio miesto lietuvišką kilmę. Mirė Konstancija Skirmuntt 1934 metais sausio 23 dieną Pinsko mieste.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Konstancija Skirmunt; 19 amžius; Modernioji tauta; Modernusis nacionalizmas; "krajovcai"; Politinė mintis; Politinė praktika; Viešasis gyvenimas; Moterų teisė; Katalikybė; Tradicija; Konservatizmas; Konstancija Skirmuntaitė; Skirmuntai; Palenkė; Lietuvos bajorija; Lietuvių-lenkų santykiai; Krajovcai; Lietuvių nacionalinis judėjimas; Jonas Basanavičius; Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis; Aleksandras Dambrauskas-Jakštas; Liudwikas Abramowiczius; 1905 metų revoliucija; Vilniaus klausimas; Slaptasis mokymas; Labdarybė; Moterų emancipacija; Lietuvos praeities tyrimai.

ENIn the 19th century the Skirmuntt family, residing in the Pinsk district of Polesie, then part of the Minsk Guberniya of the Russian Empire, belonged to that part of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania szlachta (nobility) which was actively engaged in the region's economic, cultural and political affairs. In the first years of Alexander II's reign Konstancja Skirmuntt's parents, Kazimierz and Helena Skirmuntt, were involved in implementing the peasant reform of 1861 before manifesting their deeply felt patriotism and attachment to the traditions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the January Uprising of 1863, for which the Russian authorities ultimately forced them to sell their landed property and leave the region. They would spend the rest of their lives exiled in the interior guberniyas of the Russian Empire. Konstancja Skirmuntt was born before these misfortunes befell her family, on 17th (29th) October 1851 at her parent's estate of Kolodno as the second of four children. Initially, she was educated at home and then in 1862, under the care of her grandmother Hortensja Skirmuntt nee Orda, she travelled to Kalisz to continue her learning at one of the town's renowned schools. From 1869 until her mother's death in 1874 she lived with her parents in Balaclava in the Crimea - the place where they had been forced to settle. Next she returned to Pinsk to live with her grandmother and her cousin Józefa Kurzeniecka at the so-called Skirmuntt 'Wall': an 18th-century palace built by Mateusz Butrymowicz, which through marriages had subsequently been passed on to the Orda family and then the Skirmuntts.It was in Pinsk that, together with her cousin Józefa Kurzeniecka, Konstancja became socially active, organising secret Polish classes and undertaking charity work by establishing the Pinsk Philanthropic Society (Towarzystwo Dobroczynności). Undoubtedly one of her greatest achievements was enabling the Catholic Church to regain its shrine at Horodyszcze; part of a monastery that had punitively been confiscated after the outbreak of the 1863 January Uprising. Konstancja Skirmuntt was also active as a scholar and political journalist. Fully aware of her family ties with the farmer state of Lithuania, she researched the history of her country, which in 1886 led to the Krakow publication of her book entitled Dzieje Litwy opowiedziane w zarysie. (A History of Lithuania in Outline). This work was next translated into Lithuanian by Petras Vileišis and published in New York in 1887 by Jonas Šliūpas. Her further studies resulted in a trilogy bearing the collective title Nad Niemnem i Baltykiem (On the Niemen and the Baltic), whose volumes successively appeared between 1897 and 1909, while in 1907 large fragments were translated into Lithuanian and published in the Kaunas periodical Draugija Literaturos, Mokslo ir Politikos Menesinis Laikraštis, which was edited by Fr. Aleksandras Daumbrauskas-Jakštas. Konstancja's passion for history brought her into contact with Dr Jonas Basanavičius, the leader of Lithuania's National Revival; over many years their correspondence also served as a platform for the exchanging of what could be broadly termed as political views.After 1905, in numerous articles published in Polish and Lithuanian newspapers, particularly Kurier Litewski and Litwa, Konstancja appealed for an end to discord between two brother nations which should instead respect their common traditions stemming from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and for the Polish and Lithuanian languages to have equal status in the territories of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania. These considerations led her to publicly advocate the idea that all the native peoples of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania - the Lithuanians, Poles, Byelorussians and Latvians - should peaceably coexist in a single state, while citizenship should be denied to immigrant Jewish and Russian populations. After 1918, she became an ardent campaigner for letting the borders of the newly formed Republic of Lithuania to also encompass ViInius on account of that city's ancient Lithuanian heritage. Yet after the First World war Konstancja's political ideas were effectively marginalised in the reborn Polish Republic. Her articles only occasionally appeared in Ludwik Abramowicz's Przegląd Wileński and sometimes political pamphlets of her authorship were also published. In that time this woman of conservative convictions spoke out in defence of the Catholic Church, condemned communism as well as Soviet Russian influences and was very concerned about the fate of the Byelorussians, with whom she felt a great affinity. She died on 23rd January 1934 in Pinsk. Her death was related in both Polish and Lithuanian newspapers in Kaunas and Vilnius. [From the publication]