Propaganda in the parishes: local communication during the insurrection of 1794

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Lietuvos istorija; Politinė istorija; Abiejų Tautų Respublika (ATR; Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodów; Žečpospolita; Sandrauga; Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth); The Lithuanian history; Political history.

ENThis chapter originated in the discovery of a document preserved in the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in Vilnius. This source was created in May 1794, during the early stages of the insurrection against Russian domination of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. It contains a letter from Reverend Canon Symon Waraxa (vel Szymon Waraksa) to the parish clergy of the southern half of his deanery of Olwita (Alvitas) in the Roman Catholic diocese of Wilno (Vilnius). Attached to the letter are one hand-written and two printed proclamations by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in Wilno as well as instructions for their delivery ('via cursoria') to each parish. It also details how these instructions were carried out. The analysis of this document, when combined with other sources, enables the historian to investigate various questions including the priorities of the insurrectionary authorities, the discourse of insurrectionary propaganda, practical cooperation between civil and ecclesiastical administrations, and the routes and speeds of communication at a particular time and place. The latter is the most significant for this volume’s theme of microhistories. [Extract, p. 217]