Pomiędzy eksponowaną słowiańskością a skrywaną litewskością : Eustachy Tyszkiewicz i jego wizja Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego

ENThe author of the current research presents Eustachy Tyszkiewicz’s (1814-1873) views on the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. His biography and efforts in establishing the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission and the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities (1855-1865) are briefly discussed. As the political climate changed in the Russian Empire after the uprising of 1863-1864, and the repressions of the Governor General of Vilnius, Mikhail Muravyov (Михаил Николаевич Муравьёв, 1796-1866), began in Lithuania, imperial authorities decided to liquidate the museum. The circumstances that determined the closure of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities and Tyszkiewicz’s efforts to retain this institution are described. Tyszkiewicz’s correspondence with Russian authorities is an excellent source revealing the vision of the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania fostered by the count. He saw historical Lithuania as a symbiotic community of various nations and ethnic groups. Russian authorities not only reproached Tyszkiewicz for exhibiting the “Polish” elements of the past, but also demanded that only those historical sources that could testify to the “Slavic” or “Russian” origin of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania should be displayed.Although Tyszkiewicz tried to follow the instructions of the administration, he did not obey this policy, which he explicitly defined as ignorance of history. He defended the Lithuanian character of the museum and tried to prove that it was necessary to distinguish other ethnic elements including Belarusian and Polish. Despite Tyszkiewiczs protests and his links to the Russian imperial aristocracy, the museum was closed due to the extremely unfavourable circumstances that were formed after the uprising of 1863-1864. In the research, Tyszkiewicz’s fate after the liquidation of the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities and the Vilnius Temporary Archaeological Commission is outlined. Some attention is given to the “idea of the native region” formulated by Tyszkiewicz, which was original and far preceded the views of Michał Römer (1880-1945) and the Vilnius Fellow Countrymen (Krajowcy) developed in the 1910s and 1920s. [From the publication]