Every week, starting from 16 February and up until 11 March we will be sharing documents from Vilnius University Library collections that have great significance in the history of freedom of Lithuania! #FreedomRestored
This time we present the work Iszganymas wargdienio (Salvation of the Needy) by Jonas Šliūpas (1861–1944), an outstanding Lithuanian public figure, publicist, historian, physician, one of the initiators and founders of the newspaper Aušra (Dawn) and the founding father of the Lithuanian professional journalism. In his book Iszganymas wargdienio Šliūpas put forward an idea of the Lithuania’s political independence as well as presented the aim to achieve Lithuania’s statehood for the first time. The book, which was published in New York in 1886, also addressed the issue of social injustice. The author encouraged people to fight against a faulty system and exploitation.
Jonas Šliūpas was a persistent fighter for the Lithuanian issues. He encouraged to stand against Polish influence, made efforts to regain Lithuanian print and thus establish Lithuanian language. Šliūpas promoted the idea of the Lithuania’s independence and helped to build up national identity of Lithuanian communities. Despite his scandalous (at the time) view of the world (Jonas Šliūpas propagated materialism, freethought and rejected religious dogmas), he was quite popular among Lithuanian intelligentsia, especially the youth.
[…] Lithuanians ought to have Lithuanian authorities and not Russian, German or Polish ones!
Šliūpas, Jonas. Iszganymaswargdienio.
2021-03-03