Mykolas Biržiška : patrioto, mokslininko, kultūrininko gyvenimo ir veiklos pėdsakais

LTMykolas Biržiška buvo didis kultūrininkas, visuomenininkas, politikas, Lietuvos socialdemokratų partijos veikėjas, Didžiojo Vilniaus seimo, 1917 m. lietuvių konferencijos dalyvis, Lietuvos valstybės atkūrimo 1918 m. akto signataras, Lietuvos Tarybos narys, kurį laiką - švietimo ministras. Ypač pagarsėjo kaip kovotojas dėl Vilniaus, Vilniaus vadavimo sąjungos vienas iš kūrėjų ir ilgametis pirmininkas, Vilniaus lietuvių (vėliau - Vytauto Didžiojo) gimnazijos steigėjas, direktorius, Kauno "Aušros" gimnazijos vadovas, Vilniaus universiteto rektorius, Lietuvos mokslų akademijos tikrasis narys. Maskvos universitete įgijęs teisininko diplomą, M. Biržiška tapo vienu žymiausių lietuvių literatūros ir kultūros istorikų, tautosakos tyrinėtojų, laikraščių ir žurnalų redaktorių, bendradarbių. Ši knyga yra pirmoji iškiliai asmenybei skirta monografija. Joje, naudojantis Lietuvoje išlikusiais archyviniais dokumentais, periodine spauda ir įvairių autorių atsiminimais, tyrinėjimais, bandoma: M. Biržiškos ilgo ir prasmingo gyvenimo fragmentus sujungti į vientisą biografinį audinį; apibendrinti profesoriaus įvairialypę veiklą, išryškinti svarbiausias jos kryptis; atskleisti pasaulėžiūros lūžius bajoro ir religinio indiferento sąmonėje; išryškinti politinės elgsenos istorinių lūžių momentais specifiškumą; bent iš dalies aprėpti, įvertinti mokslinį ir publicistinį palikimą; nušviesti Lietuvoje mažai žinomą M. Biržiškos gyvenimą ir veiklą išeivijoje; pateikti iškilios asmenybės portretą, jos santykius su artimais žmonėmis, bendradarbiais, mokiniais.Reikšminiai žodžiai: Mykolas Biržiška; Lietuvos Taryba; Nepriklausomybės paskelbimas; Vilniaus klausimas; Biografija; Gyvenimas ir veikla; Mykolas Biržiška; Biography; Life and activities.

ENThe Biržiška family of Samogitian noblemen is known for having brought up three outstanding personalities of Lithuanian culture and science. Three brothers, Mykolas, Vaclovas and Viktoras Biržiška, born in the late 19th century in Viekšniai and fostered by their mother in the Polish spirit, as early as the Šiauliai high school students made up their mind to be Lithuanians (a requirement of the epoch was a definite - either Lithuanian or Polish - identity) and devoted themselves to their motherland and its people. Endowed with great erudition, diligence, civic mind, they vere active public and culture workers, renowned researchers, authors of significant works, press men. Mykolas, the eldest of the brothers, to whom exactly the monograph is dedicated, was a political figure, an active member of the Lithuanian social-democratic party, participant of the Great Vilnius Seimas and the Lithuanian Conference of 1917, a signatory of the Lithuanian State Restitution Act of 1918, member of the Lithuanian Council, Minister of Education. He became especially popular as a fighter for regaining the Lithuanian capital Vilnius which had been occupied by Poland, as well as one of the founders of the Vilnius Liberation Society and its long-standing leader, the founder and director of the Vilnius Lithuanian (later the Vytautas Magnus) High School, head of the Kaunas Aušra high school. Mykolas Biržiška actively participated in the activities of the Lithuanian Scientific Society; he was an ordinary professor, head of a chair, a dean, vice-rector and rector of the Lithuanian (later Vytautas Magnus) University. After Lithuania had regained its historical capital Vilnius, Prof. M. Biržiška was elected Rector of the Lithuanian Vilnius University. In 1941, he was elected Member of the newly established Lithuanian Academy of Sciences.With his lawyers diploma received from the Moscow University, M. Biržiška became one of the outstanding and most productive historians of Lithuanian literature and culture, folklore researchers, newspaper and journal editors and authors. During World War II, considering bolsheviks who in 1940 had annexed Lithuania to be its main enemy, in 1943-1944 he was Chairman of the Advisory Council headed by the General Councillor P. Kubiliūnas. At the end of the war, M. Biržiška withdrew to the West where he experienced the hardships of an emigrant s fate and continued his activities for the benefit of his native country. In Lithuania, the soviet government accused M. Biržiška of collaboration with German occupants, declared him to be a traitor to motherland and expelled him from the Academy of Sciences. The formation of the outstanding personality of Prof. M. Biržiška was influenced by a synthesis of numerous factors such as the family traditions, cultural and intellectual environment, inborn gifts, unusual diligence, patriotism. Dvelving deeply into the 80-year-long life of M. Biržiška offers the researcher an opportunity to characterize this prominent man and to have a new look at some complicated periods of the Lithuanian nation and state in the 20th century, to present a panoramic view of their political and socio-cultural life. In 1903-1938, M. Biržiška published over 8000 various works - monographs, manuals, reading-books, scientific and publicistic papers - in Lithuanian, Polish, Russian. He used over 130 pen-names to sign his works; some of them were published anonymously. While in Lithuania, he contributed to 65 and when abroad to a couple of dozens of editions. M. Biržiška's creative heritage highlights the most urgent problems of Lithuanian national revival, statehood, as well as the ideal principles and practical actions of the author himself.In the monograph, based on the abundant creative heritage of M. Biržiška, authentic documents kept in Lithuanian archives and manuscript stores, contained in periodicals, research works of various authors, attempt is made to join fragments of Professor's long and significant life into an integral biographic fabric. M. Biržiškas variegated activities are summarized, ideological breaks in the world outlook of a nobleman and a religious indifferentist are revealed, specific features of political behaviour in the moments of historical overturns are elucidated. The monograph presents details of M. Biržiškas life and activities in the emigration and a portrait of a prominent personality. The life of M. Biržiška, a nobleman of Old Lithuania and a democrat of the new Lithuanian society, is the life of a noble citizen, researcher, man of culture, a life of a thorough and conscious Lithuanianist. A quiet, peaceful, modest and delicate, physically fragile researcher and public man was a strong and persistent fighter for the liberty and rights of his nation. M. Biržiška contributed much to the restoration of Lithuania's statehood and defence of its liberty and territorial integrity. Without M. Biržiškas political and cultural activities, the most joyful as well as the most dramatical periods of modern history of the Lithuanian nation are impossible to imagine. For the future generations, M. Biržiškas numerous and significant works will be not only an inexhaustible depository of the nations cultural life facts, but also an inspiring source of devotion, persistence, diligence. [From the publication]