The Pre-1914 creation of Lithuanian "national territory"

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Erdvinės koncepcijos; Nacionalinės teritorijos; Tautiniai judėjimai; Tautybė; Spatial concepts; National territories; National movements; Nationhood.

ENThis chapter is an attempt to analyze the Lithuanian image of “national territory” in late imperial Russia. First, following Rogers Brubaker, author will have to ascertain what kind of cultural idioms or, in a narrower sense, idioms of nationhood, determined the ideology of Lithuanian national identity. Here author will try to ascertain what role the abovementioned idioms of nationhood played in defining Lithuanian “national territory” and what other factors (arguments of power, economics, “natural frontiers,” and so on) were involved. Later author will analyze the process by which the image of “national territory” was created during the first (cultural) stage of the Lithuanian national movement. However, the most attention wifi be devoted to the so-called political stage, when Lithuanian political parties introduced into their programs the aspiration of achieving territorial autonomy for Lithuania (and the objective of creating an independent nation state). This political goal inevitably forced Lithuanian politicians to define, as precisely as possible, the contours of an imagined Lithuania. By exploring the discursive practices of Lithuanian nationalism, I will also attempt to gain insight into the role these practices play in shaping the contours of Lithuania’s imagined borders. The final section of this chapter will analyze how Lithuanian nationalist leaders have sought to introduce this image to the masses. This study relies not only on numerous primary sources (in particular, Lithuanian periodicals from the discussed period as well as other printed literature) but also historiography. [Extract, p. 189-190]