The "Old" and "new" Lithuanians: collective identity types in Lithuania at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Kolektyvinė tapatybė; Lenkas; Lietuvis; Tautinis judėjimas; Lietuvos lenkas; Nacionalizmas; Naujasis lietuviškumas; Senasis lietuviškumas; Tautybė; Collective identity; Lithuania; Lithuanian; Lithuanian Pole; Lithuanian national movement; Nationalism; Nationality; New Lithuanianness; Old Lithuanianness; Pole.

ENIn recent years, certain terms dating from the early twentieth century have made a quite unexpected return to scholarly discourse, viz. “Old Lithuanian” and “New Lithuanian”. Researchers who have revived these terms seek among other things to criticise the dominant view among historians that the Lithuanian-Polish conflict of the late 19th to the early 20th century was a clash between two modem nationalisms. It is asserted that the above-mentioned terms suit this conflict better, since it was indeed a dispute between two different understandings of what it means to be a Lithuanian - one old and historical, the other new and ethno-linguistic. [Extract, p. 35 ]