Dienoraštis, 1915-1918 m. Kn. 1, 1915 m. gegužės 11 (24) d. - 1916 m. rugsėjo 9 d.

LTKnygoje publikuojami pirmieji keturi iš devynių XX a. pradžios Vilniaus visuomenės veikėjo, inžinieriaus, kooperatininko Aleksandro Szklenniko 1915-1918 m. rašyto dienoraščio sąsiuvinių. Tai originalus ir įdomus veikalas, supažindinantis ne tik su XX a. pradžios istoriniu Vilniaus gyvenimu, bet ir pateikiantis plačią Europos lemtingų įvykių panoramą. Knygoje atsispindi autoriaus demokratiškumas, jo pagarba LDK tradicijai, viltis dėl taikingo ir darnaus daugiatautės visuomenės sugyvenimo. Dienoraštyje gausu informacijos, kurios nesama kituose ano meto dienoraščiuose ir net istorinėje literatūroje, pvz., aprašomos rusų valdžios pasitraukimo iš Vilniaus detalės, miesto vokiškojo administravimo peripetijos, tautybių tarpusavio santykiai ir kt. Šiuolaikinis lietuvių skaitytojas supažindinamas su tuometinio, iš esmės nelietuviško, Vilniaus gyvenimu, todėl nepažinta Vilniaus istorija jam tampa savesnė ir artimesnė. [Anotacija knygoje]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Aleksandras Szklennikas; Dienoraštis; Kooperacija; Okupacija; Vilnius; I pasaulinis karas; Vokietija (Germany); Lenkija (Lenkijos karalystė. Kingdom of Poland. Poland); Aleksandr Szklennik; Diary; Co-operation; Occupation; Vilnius; World War I; Germany; Rusija (Russia).

ENIn Lithuanian historiography and source research, the World War I period has, for various reasons, been one of the least studied fields throughout the entire 20th century. Even today, many aspects of this period (military activity, demography, social history, etc.) remain poorly researched, or not at all. This situation is to a large extent determined by the historical source base in Lithuania from this period: there are obvious signs of a lack of primary archival sources (as they are mostly of non-Lithuanian origins and are kept in foreign archives), the existing ones are very fragmented and distributed over different archives. Under such circumstances, press and memoirs take on great importance for researchers, which again, for various reasons, are sometimes hard to come by or are not very convenient to use in their manuscript form. As a result, journal genre historical source publications by contemporaries and participants in events from this particular period prove to be valuable material for history researchers, especially if these journals are noted for their comprehensive and varied content. All Lithuanian publications of historical sources from the period 1914-1918, not only of the journal genre, are quite scarce in their number. Journal genre publications from countries neighbouring Lithuania are incomparably richer and more varied. Their number increased further in recent years to coincide with the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of World War I. Usually, the dominant trend in all countries post-1918 was to publish the journals of the social elite, politicians and military commanders; this trend is still prevalent in Russia, somewhat less in Germany. In Poland, traditionally priority is given to the war-time experiences of civilians rather than just of officers. [...].However the Poles, who are closest to the Lithuanian variety of journal genre publications, usually tend to prioritise the memoirs of the social elite and nobility, who are viewed as the most erudite and educated representative group in society. Lithuanians basically did not have such representatives among their fold, additionally, they were in harsh conflict against the Poles on precisely these grounds, which is why in the search for an equal alternative in the Lithuanian context the journals of educated representatives from the middle class become so pertinent. They would serve to highlight and at the same time form the originality of the Lithuanian journal publication tradition. In this context, the journal of Aleksandr Szklennik that was discovered in the Lithuanian State Historical Archive is especially valuable. These are the notes of an early 20lh-century Vilnius public figure, a qualified engineer and representative of the cooperative move ment, made in the period 1915-1918. The journal consists of nine thick notebooks written in Polish, each one is archived as a separate collection file. The content of the journal draws attention for the variety and originality of the information contained within. Its author was a Pole by nationality, yet by no means was he a Polish nationalist as the text exudes his political democratic beliefs, engagement with the centuries-long tradition of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the axiom of peaceful and sustainable co-existence of the traditional multi-cultural society. The engineer Szklennik did not belong to the social elite of the day, yet nor can we call him a representative of the middle or lower class; owing to his status and the popularity of his public activities, he was somewhere around the middle of the social spectrum, which is perfectly reflected in the text: he was interested in the realities of both the upper and lower classes, and recorded various details regarding society's existence.The author of the notes left a very thorough account of the war-time situation in Vilnius and its surrounds, which differs in many ways from the stereotypical Lithuanian image. Aside from any scientific intentions, it is worthwhile revealing the mentioned text to the present Lithuanian readership for this reason alone. The publication of this journal will undoubtedly enhance the base of published Lithuanian historical sources on the World War I theme, as well as expand it with the rarely encountered journal genre. Today's Lithuanian reader will be introduced to the essentially non-Lithuanian lifestyle that existed in Vilnius at the time, helping society learn more about a very poorly researched period in the history of Vilnius. Due to the significant volume of the journal and other publishing related matters, we plan to release it as three separate books. The first book contains the first four of the total of nine manuscript notebooks Szklennik left, the total chronology spanning the period from 11 May, 1915 to 9 September, 1916. The first notebook ends with the entry made on 3 August, 1915. It is probably the shortest one, but in terms of the information it contains, it is one of the most colourful and varied. Here we can read about fighting in the Carpathian Mountains and in Galicia, about pogroms in Moscow enacted against the local Germans, the bribery of Russians, international Polish affairs, etc. [...]. [From the publication]