1858 metų rugsėjo 6-oji Vilniaus senienų muziejuje: simbolinių gestų prasmės

ENOn 6-8 September 1858, Emperor Alexander II visited Vilnius. On September 6, he was received in the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities. To commemorate this occasion, the Emperor was presented with the publication В память пребывания Государя Императора Александра II в Вильне, 6 и 7 сентября 1858 года - Na pamiątkę pobytu Najjaśniejszego Cesarza Jego Mości Alexandra II w Wilnie 6 i 7 września 1858 roku (“In Memory of the Visit of Emperor Alexander II to Vilnius on 6 and 7 September 1858”, Vilnius, 1858) published specially for this purpose, and a catalogue of the museums collections Перечневый каталог предметов в Виленском музеуме древностей (“A Catalogue-List of Objects in the Vilnius Museum of Antiquities”, Vilnius, 1858) compiled by Adam Honory Kirkor (1818-1886). The compilation, content and distribution of the publication presented to the Emperor, as well as the meaning of this gesture and its assessment in society of that time is interesting and worthy of analysis.It is important to find out how political loyalism was combined with the attempts to organise the scientific and cultural life of the region and rally the community of the upper class(es) with academic interests. The respect and loyalty to the monarch declared in the publication can be understood as an expression of loyalism of the upper class and should be analysed as part of political culture and political rituals, which was included among the events of the Emperors visit to Vilnius and, more widely, in the political context of expectations placed on Alexander II. Another interesting aspect is the study of the content of the publication with regard to the texts, the compilers and their cultural and political stance and status in society. The publication should be analysed as an expression of a certain understanding of the science of history, and its distribution - as an attempt to legitimise the scientific and cultural activities organised in Vilnius in the wider academic community. [From the publication]