MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

Institute for Lithuanian Culture Research

Research area: ideological aspects of ethnology.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35321/a1l81-09

IDEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS OF THE SCHOLARLY WORK OF ANTANAS AND JONAS JUŠKA IN KAZAN

The Ideological Context of the Scholarly Work of Antanas and Jonas Juška in Kazan

ANNOTATION

The article seeks to answer the question of why it was specifically in Kazan that the works prepared by the Juška brothers (Lithuanian national folklore) could be published in the Latin alphabet in 1878–1882. The study focuses on the sociocultural conditions and ideological contexts of the scholarly environment that prevailed in the Kazan region during the period of their most active scholarly work.

KEYWORDS: Lithuanian folklore, Latin script, Cyrillic, publishing, Kazan University, center for linguistic research.

ANNOTATION

The article attempts to answer the question why Kazan was the place where the works (Lithuanian folklore) compiled by the Juška brothers could be published in the Latin script in the period 1878–1882. The research focuses on the sociocultural conditions and ideological contexts of the scholarly environment that prevailed in Kazan region during the period of their academic activity.

KEYWORDS: Lithuanian folklore, Latin script, Cyrillic script, publishing, Kazan University, Center for Linguistic Research.

Articles / Articles

199

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

INTRODUCTION

Brolių Juškų biografijoje, kurią rekonstruavo Antanas Mockus (2003), išskirti du gyvenimo etapai Kazanėje. Pirmasis – 1862–1864 m. Šiuo laikotarpiu Jonas Juška pagal paskyrimą dirbo Kazanės karo žinybos mokykloje, kur parengė ir nesėkmingai Rusijos mokslų akademijoje bandė išleisti lietuvių kalbos gramatiką. Antrasis – 1875 m. Tais metais Jonas grįžo į Kazanę dirbti mokytoju gimnazijoje ir rūpinosi brolio surinktų dainų ir vestuvių papročių leidyba, o 1879 m. talkinti Jonui čia persikėlė ir Antanas. Abu broliai mirė (Antanas – 1880 m., Jonas – 1886 m.) ir buvo palaidoti Kazanėje. Straipsnyje, remiantis Juškų biografo A. Mockaus tyrimu, išplečiamas įtakos jų mokslinei veiklai turėjusių asmenybių ir aplinkybių kontekstas, siekiant pagrįsti lietuvių folkloro lotynų raidynu leidybos Kazanėje dėsningumą. Apeliuojant į istorikų Dariaus Staliūno (2006), Aleksejaus Millerio (2010), Henryko Glebockio (2013), Michailo Dolbilovo (2010) įžvalgas dėl bendros Rusijos imperijos kolonizavimo politikos, rusinimo strategijų ir priežastinių ryšių, dėmesys koncentruojamas į per kelis dešimtmečius Kazanėje susitelkusios mokslininkų bendruomenės etosą.

Here, in the Tatar capital, far removed from the political center and centers of conflict, a strong diaspora of Polish and Lithuanian origin took shape. It participated in regional culture, scholarship, and education and, undoubtedly, preserved its national ideology and values, which shaped the broader sociocultural atmosphere. Integrating into the local community, the former Polish-Lithuanian elite introduced a European way of life in Kazan and spread liberal ideas among the local population. Some of them had arrived there following the systematic exile to the Volga region of participants in anti-tsarist movements and uprisings. The first wave of exiles from Lithuania reached Kazan in 1824. The Philomaths and Philarets—students and teachers of Vilnius University—were exiled there: Jan Wiernikowski, Józef Kowalewski, Feliks Kulakowski, Hilarijus Lukaševskis, Teodoras Lozinskis, Mikalojus Kozlovskis, and other scholars. Thus, Kazan acquired, not without reason, the unofficial status of the capital of intellectual exile in the Russian Empire (Шарифаҗанов 2002).

Another substantial stratum of the diaspora consisted of scholars who, after studying at universities in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, or Europe, continued their careers at Kazan University, which played an important role in shaping their worldview and disseminating scholarly ideas. They not only developed their fields at the university but also established scholarly dynasties within their own families: the Dogels (Janas, a pharmacologist; his son Michailas, a professor of international law; and his nephew Aleksandras, an anatomist and physiologist), the Zaleskis, the Kovalevskis, the Adamiuks, the Kovalskis (father Marianas and son Aleksandras, both astronomers), the Lukaševskis, the Petrovskiis, and the Janiszewskis (Erastas, a mathematician elected mayor of Kazan in 1871; his sons Michailas, a geologist and paleontologist; Aleksejus, a neuropathologist and psychiatrist; and Dmitrijus, a biologist) (Гатилова 2012).

200

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI

Ideological contexts of the scholarly activities of Antanas and Jonas Juška in Kazan

A particularly strong core of scholars of Polish origin gathered in the field of philology. In the 19th century, several research centers took shape at the university: a school of Slavic studies, initiated by Professor Viktoras Grigorovičius, whose research was continued by Memnonas and his son Nestoras Petrovskiai; a center for Mongolian studies, founded by Józef Kowalewski (who served as rector of Kazan University from 1854 to 1860); and a center for comparative linguistics, established by Jan Baudouin de Courtenay with Mikołaj Kruszewski. More than 60 scholars of Lithuanian and Polish origin worked at Kazan University in the 19th century (Koerner, Szwedek, eds., 2001). Their linguistic research was conducted under conditions unfavorable to philological scholarship, as the tsarist authorities, pursuing an aggressive policy of adapting and integrating the cultures and languages of the empire’s peoples, intervened directly in scholarship as well, using it to formulate a program of actions and measures.

Historian Aleksejus Mileris, comparing cases of the Cyrillicization of languages in the Russian Empire, notes common trends in these processes, linking them to the geopolitical interests of great powers, and emphasizes that the principal task of political ideologues was not so much to assimilate small nations as to establish an identity loyal to the tsarist authorities and suppress oppositional influence: in the Northwestern Territory, the aim was to distance Lithuanian culture from the Poles who sought the restoration of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth; in the Baltic Governorates, to separate Latvian and Estonian cultures from the growing influence of Germany; and in the Volga region, from the Ottoman Empire as a center of attraction for Muslims (Миллер 2010).

The attempt by the Russian Academy of Sciences to publish the songs prepared by the Juška brothers in Latin script also confirms this scholar’s view. As is known, in 1867 the first collection of 33 songs was published in the Academy’s proceedings in Cyrillic, with J. Juška’s translation into Russian. In 1878, the Juška brothers, having resumed the publication of songs at Kazan University, also approached the Academy of Sciences to ask whether the originals could be published without transcribing the texts into Cyrillic. In the capital, the collection of 1,100 songs Lietuviškos svobtinės dainos was published in the Latin alphabet only in 1883, and another publication appeared in the Academy of Sciences’ journal in 1884. Somewhat later, Antanas Juška’s Lietuvių–rusų–lenkų kalbų žodynas was published as well. However, unlike in peripheral Kazan, the matter was considered for longer (with the involvement of Izmail Sreznevskis, a professor at Petersburg University; Jakovas Grotas, head of the Russian Language and Literature Section of the Russian Academy of Sciences; and Aleksandras Potebnia, a professor at Kharkov University) and at higher levels. In 1880, permission to publish Lithuanian works in scholarly Latin script (according to August Schleicher’s system) was granted by Tsar Aleksandras II, on the proposal of the Minister of Public Education, Dmitrijus Tolstojus, after the decision had been coordinated with the Minister of Internal Affairs, Levū Makovas, on the condition that “these publications not be distributed among Lithuanians living in the Northwestern and Vistula regions” (Mockus 2003: 140).

Articles

201

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

THE CENTER FOR LINGUISTIC RESEARCH AT KAZAN UNIVERSITY: DEPOLITICIZED SCHOLARSHIP

During the period when Lithuanian folk songs were being prepared and printed in Kazan, the university operated under the prevailing General Statutes of the Russian Imperial Universities (Зайцева 2016: 217–218, 220). The statutes approved in 1863 granted universities greater autonomy and expanded their scholarly authority: a faculty structure was established (History and Philology, Physics and Mathematics, Law, and Medicine), which partly complicated personnel policy, since the expanded number of teaching positions left Kazan University short of professors. In the urgent effort to train new scholars and educators, the university sent scholarship holders abroad for two-year placements; they had the opportunity to conduct independent research over 2–4 years, prepare dissertations, and defend them. Thus, in 1868, no fewer than 9 young scholars were awarded professorial titles at Kazan University, with an average age of 34; in 1869, another 7 scholars became professors, with an average age of 38, while in 1871 their average age was 31 (Костина, Куприянов 2017: 933). Such staff turnover, together with the restrictions on university self-governance imposed by the Minister of Public Education’s decisions in 1868–1869, adversely affected the quality of academic and research administration: authoritative figures left the departments and were replaced by weaker scholars (Костина, Куприянов 2017: 934).

As historians Tatjana Kostina and Aleksejus Kuprijanovas, who have studied personnel policy, argue, compared with the higher education institutions of Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Dorpat (Tartu), in the 1870s Kazan University felt the shortage of highly qualified specialists most acutely, as well as the arbitrary personnel management style of the trustee of the educational district (Костина, Куприянов 2017: 935). On the other hand, the university underwent considerable renewal, bringing together a progressive scholarly community with liberal views. Nevertheless, the key achievement of the new university model was self-governance: the university rector and the collegial bodies subordinate to him (the University Council, Board, and Court) had decisive authority over internal academic and research administration. The University Council, chaired by the rector and comprising all ordinary and extraordinary professors, was responsible for decisions on scholarly publications (Зайцева 2016: 218–219). Scholarly works were assessed, and their suitability for publication decided, by a faculty meeting consisting of the dean and the faculty’s professors (Загоскин, ред., 1900: 9, 12–16).

202

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXXI

Antano ir Jono Juškų mokslinės veiklos Kazanėje ideologiniai kontekstai

The Juška brothers’ first song manuscripts were therefore initially placed in the hands of Nikolajus Būčilius, dean of the Faculty of History and Philology¹, at the recommendation of Professor J. Baudouin de Courtenay. Soon, without any obstacles, the first publication of four Lithuanian folk songs in the Latin alphabet, Lietuviškos dainos, surašytos per Antaną Juškevičę, appeared in 1878 in the May–June issue of the Proceedings and Scholarly Notes of the Imperial Kazan University (Mokus 2003: 108–109). The swift and deliberate decision to print the songs in their original form, rather than in Cyrillic, was made by a remarkable individual. The worldview of N. Būčilius (b. 1824), who grew up in Kazan and studied philosophy at its only university, was shaped by a focused interest in the doctrine of French utopian socialism, the events of the 1848 French Revolution, and the ideas of the Spring of Nations, as well as by contact with Polish political exiles. While still in his twenties, he spoke Polish fluently, knew the works of Adam Mickiewicz, had memorized nearly the entire section of the poem Vėlinės, and quoted one of the poet’s most significant works, Poną Tadą (Буни 1903: 745), through which he could understand the essence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and express solidarity with the Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, and Ukrainian peoples who aspired to restore their statehood.

During his studies, he also had the opportunity to discuss Spinoza’s philosophical system with Lev Tolstoy, who studied law in Kazan; to belong to the secret society Kazan Student Library at Moscow University, which was affiliated with the narodnik organization Land and Liberty; and to collaborate with the editorial office of Kolokol, an anti-monarchist newspaper founded by Aleksandras Gercenas. After defending his dissertation on Friedrich Schelling’s philosophy in 1845, he joined the university’s teaching staff and became the students’ favorite lecturer, representing the methodology of Western European schools. After one lecture in 1859, which was met with a storm of applause from students, the university administration treated the incident as a serious breach of order: nine students were expelled for applauding, and N. Būčilius’s reputation suffered until, after several months of tension, he was dismissed from his professorship in February 1860 for giving lectures deemed harmful in their tendency. At Kazan University, these events were called the “Būčilius affair,” and in his autobiography the professor recalled them as the most difficult period of his life: “The most terrible public outrage descended upon me; it was hard to live, and to work as well” (Бенреп, ред., 1904: 128). He spent several years in Saint Petersburg, where he continued his scholarly work associated with the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Russian

¹ The Faculty of History and Philology was established in 1863 under the General Statutes of the Russian Imperial Universities approved by Aleksandras II (Зайцева 2016: 214–229). The departments of the Faculty of History and Philology were Philosophy, Classical Philology, Comparative Linguistics and Sanskrit, Russian Language and Literature, Slavic Philology, General History, Russian History, Western European Literature, Church History, and Theory and History of Art (Зоркин 1900: 9, 163–165).

Straipsniai / Articles

203

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

language and literature section, Jakov Grot, and to the professor at Saint Petersburg University, Izmail Sreznevskij, who directly concerned themselves with the publication of Lithuanian works in Latin script at the beginning of the press ban. In 1861, N. Bulius returned to Kazan and, following the aforementioned university reorganization, quickly advanced in his career: his views and his “sin”—his past—did not prevent him from being elected dean of the Faculty of History and Philology three times (1862–1864, 1875–1878, 1881–1882), serving as vice-rector (1864–1871), and even holding the position of rector (1882–1885).

Another favorable circumstance that paved the way for the first songs to be published was that the editor of Scholarly Notes at the time (from 1874 to 1883) was the young (36-year-old) law professor Adolfas Osipovas (b. 1842), who came from Podolia Governorate, studied at the Warsaw Institute for the Nobility, pursued law studies at the universities of Heidelberg and Dorpat, earned a doctorate in law, and from 1869 continued his academic career at Kazan University in the field of international political and civil rights (Загоскин, ред., 1900: 112). It seems that the intellectually minded, liberal dean, taking advantage of the circumstances and, of course, the right provided for in the university statutes to subject publications to internal censorship only², made the decision without hesitation.

The subsequent publication of the Juška brothers’ songs proved more complicated. Encouraged by N. Bulius to continue and publish as comprehensive a collection of songs as possible, J. Juška soon (in December 1878) again approached J. Baudouin de Courtenay to ask him to intervene and help publish at least some of the 170 songs prepared in the university’s scholarly publication; A. Juška had collected them in the vicinity of Pūsletas and Vėluona. The principal argument made by both J. Juška and J. Baudouin de Courtenay for publishing authentic texts (preserving dialect and alphabet) was the material’s significance for comparative linguistics; publication was also associated with J. Juška, which was important for the financially struggling university (Mockus 2003).

This time, responsibility for the publication of the Juška brothers’ Lithuanian folk songs rested with the Russian history professor and ethnographer Nikolas Firsovas (b. 1831), author of works on the colonization of the Volga region (Фирсов 1866, 1870), who had taken over as dean of the Faculty of History and Philology from N. Bulius in September 1878 (Загоскин, ред., 1900: 56). The linguistics professors Janas Baudouinas de Courtenay and Nikolajus Krūševskis, the Russian philology professor Nikolajus Buličius, the Greek philology professor Dmitrijus Beljajevas, and the Slavic philology professor Menonas Petrovis were expected to participate in the meeting at which the collection was considered.

The core group of experts whose decisions determined the outcome consisted of the founders of a progressive linguistic school who gave priority to scholarship. J. Baudouin de Courtenay and his

² Paragraph 128 of the General Statutes of the Russian Imperial Universities stated that “universities have their own censorship, applied to subjects considered and to other works and collections of scholarly and literary content published by them” (Университетский устав 1863: 55, 108).

204

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI

Antano ir Jono Juškų mokslinės veiklos Kazanėje ideologiniai kontekstai

The studies of the psychological and sociological aspects of language by his student and colleague N. Kruszewski became fundamental not only for the Kazan Linguistic School, which was oriented toward theoretical analysis of the phenomenon of language functioning (Андрамонова 2002: 55–42), but also brought about changes in world linguistics (Якобсон 1985: 331). Their colleagues fully understood the scholarly value of such a source: N. Būlius (Зарокин, ред., 1900: 36), a researcher of ancient Greek language and literature, expressed his position clearly in his first decision; D. Beliaev (b. 1846) (Зарокин, ред., 1900: 37), who had just returned from European cultural centres (having acquired knowledge at the University of Leipzig, in Paris, Rome, Florence and Naples, and in the museums and libraries of Venice), defended a dissertation on the question of Euripides’ worldview (Белев 1878) and received the title of professor; and M. Petrovsky (Зарокин, ред., 1900: 48), a scholar of Polish origin, one of the most prominent Slavists of the nineteenth century, classified among the Slavophiles, yet possessing “neither religious nor historical convictions, much less a chauvinistic instinct” (Корсаков 1912: 264; Лаптева 2003: 152). At Kazan University, he taught Slavic literature and languages and had an excellent knowledge of the history of the Czech, Bulgarian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian and other European Slavic peoples. According to A. Mockus, who studied archival sources, the faculty considered the possibility of “adding a translation into Russian” to the publication in Lithuanian (Mockus 2003: 110). However, because of their advanced age and lack of time, the Juška brothers were not suited to undertake such work; the issue was not raised again, and Cyrillic was not even mentioned.

In March 1879, after submitting the song collection to the University Council for consideration, J. Baudouin de Courtenay proposed to the Council the very next day that Lithuanian be included as a minor subject in the examination programme for the master’s degree at the Faculty of History and Philology. In A. Mockus’s view, this was a strategic move by the professor: he sought to emphasize the need for the song publication as a source not only for scholarship but also for study (Mockus 2003: 111). The University Council, and especially its presiding rector, Eugraf Osokin (Зарокин, ред., 1900: 112), a professor of political economy, historian of law and finance, European-educated (he repeatedly undertook long-term study visits abroad) and broad-minded, did not object to Lithuanian being included in the university curriculum (the first such case in the academic practice of the Russian Empire), and granted the Juška brothers permission to print the songs without any instructions to correct or change anything.

When work on publishing the songbook was halfway complete at the printing house, an official ban was imposed by Kazan censor Sergei Shilevsky (Зарокин, ред., 1900: 119), who had received information about Lithuanian literature being published at the university. The censor who vetoed the publication—a well-known lawyer in Kazan, former university professor, founder of the Society of Archaeology, History and Ethnography (Шиплевский 1879), and author of numerous articles on the history of Tatarstan (Katanov 1907)—most likely could not fail to respond to the complaint, but he neither substantiated his negative decision nor openly stated the reason (the songs

Straipsniai / Articles

205

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

were being printed in the Latin alphabet), probably understanding that, under the statutes, he had no authority to interfere in the university’s internal academic affairs. The process lasted a full year—from December 1878 to December 1879 (Mockus 2003: 109–124)—until, following the firm position taken by the Faculty of History and Philology and J. Baudouin de Courtenay’s argument that the censor was violating the university statutes, the Lithuanian songs were printed in a scholarly alphabet; moreover, other Lithuanian publications for scholarly purposes had already appeared in Latin script. The University Council finally reached a decision and approved the publication of Lithuanian folk songs in the Latin alphabet: three volumes were published in 1880–1882, as a supplement to Scholarly Notes, alongside which a description of wedding customs in the Veliuona area, Svotinė rėda, was also published.

Naturally, the publication in the Latin alphabet of Kristijonas Donelaitis’s texts by the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1865 (Metai, according to the letters) (Donelaitis 1865), and the public recognition of this publication by the Ministry of Public Education, whose journal printed a review responding to criticism of the publication, had a considerable influence on this decision. In response to the anonymous author’s rhetorical question about why a publication issued in St Petersburg at Russian expense had been printed in Polish rather than Russian letters (Голос... 1865), the editors offered a weighty argument: the texts, accompanied by a specially compiled Lithuanian–German dictionary, had been prepared for publication by Professor August Schleicher, who understood the linguistic and ethnological value of the poem; this work was a preparatory stage in the scholarly comparative-linguistic research he had begun, which served the Academy’s aims: “The achievements of world linguistics are closely connected with interests of significance to Russia, and Lithuanian ethnos, very close to the Slavic peoples and highly important for research into the prehistoric world of the Russian and Slavic peoples, is located there” (Об издании... 1866: 61–62).

J. Baudouin de Courtenay deserves the greatest credit for this breakthrough: alongside his scholarly commitment, his views also shaped his position. He never accepted the prohibition of the Lithuanian press or discrimination against the language; he expressed his views in The Problem of the Lithuanian Alphabet in the Russian State and Its Solution (Baudouin de Courtenay 1904), and declared his stance on state regulation of the functioning of languages in his essay on the national and territorial principle of autonomy. He spoke openly and with foresight against the Russian Empire’s policy of colonizing its small nations: “What, then, has the great tribe created, if indeed it was created by them? A gigantic prison has been created not only for all other tribes and peoples, but also for the Russian people itself—a prison that now takes so much effort and sacrifice to dismantle; and it remains a question whether this prison can be demolished without the entire rotten Russian statehood also exploding along with it” (Бодуэн де Куртенэ 1913: 56).

Moreover, it was precisely during these years of publishing Lithuanian folklore in Kazan (1880–1882) that the university was headed by the rector, Professor of Medicine Nikolai

206

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI

Antano ir Jono Juškų mokslinės veiklos Kazanėje ideologiniai kontekstai

Kowalewski, the son of Józef Kowalewski, a former member of the Philomaths Society and an exile in Kazan. The university administration and scholars stood united: they resisted political regulation of their activities and defended scholarly interests.

CHRISTIANIZATION AND RUSSIFICATION OF THE KAZAN REGION: THE INTERACTION OF SCHOLARSHIP AND POLITICS

It was a fortunate coincidence that the orientalist and philologist Nikolajus Ilminskis, a former professor in the Faculty of History and Philology who taught the Turkic-Tatar language at the university from 1861 to 1872 and, from 1867, also served as editor of Mokslo užrašų, did not participate in preparing the collection of Lithuanian folk songs by the Juška brothers. He left the university in 1872, having been appointed to head the Kazan Teachers’ Seminary (Загоскин, ред., 1900: 41). By the time J. Juška arrived in Kazan in 1875, N. Ilminskis was already well known in the local academic milieu as a theorist and practitioner of Cyrillicization. In 1862, N. Ilminskis and the local missionary clergyman Vasilijus Timofejevas published the first primer in Cyrillic for the Kryashens (baptized Tatars) (Букварь... 1862). N. Ilminskis, an expert in the syntax of Turkic languages and an ethnologist, was prompted to undertake this work not only by scholarly interests but also by state political objectives: Russia’s historical experience of conflict with the Golden Horde and the development of subsequent relations with the Tatars, as well as the reduction of Islam’s influence in the Middle Volga region (Ильминский 2011: 11–13). The scholar’s efforts were directed primarily toward making religious literature intended for the Kryashens accessible and comprehensible. He proposed not only abandoning Arabic script but also using colloquial Tatar in texts prepared in Cyrillic, so that, while preserving an authentic worldview, the Christian word would be conveyed through more familiar associations, with greater subtlety and clarity (Исхаков 2015: 319). The transliteration into Cyrillic of Arabic-script Tatar, like the conversion of Lithuanian from Latin script to Cyrillic, is associated with the assimilation of ethnic culture and the conversion of Muslims to Orthodoxy. The Ilminsky alphabet, adapted for the baptized Tatars of the Middle Volga, is still in use today, although there have been several attempts to switch to Latin and Arabic scripts³. It can be argued that the nineteenth century saw a second humanitarian

³ In 1999, the State Council of the Republic of Tatarstan (Государственный Совет Республики Татарстан) adopted a law on switching to a Tatar alphabet based on Latin script (Закон Республики Татарстан от 15 сентября 1999 г. № 2352 О восстановлении татарского алфавита на основе латинской графики), which came into force in 2001; the reform was to be completed by 2011, but implementation of the law was suspended in 2002 by the Russian Federation

Straipsniai / Articles

207

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

conquest of Kazan. The first occurred in the sixteenth century, when the famous History of Kazan appeared, recounting how Tsar Ivan the Terrible of Russia defeated the Kazan Khanate in 1552. The Russian cultural historian Dmitrijus Lichačiovas makes an interesting observation (Лихачев 2000: 416): not only lands and their inhabitants were incorporated into Russia, but also the history of Kazan. The scholar draws attention to the lyrical laments of Kazan’s ruler Söyembikä (Сөембикә), forcibly taken to Moscow, in which she calls the Russians strangers and Ivan the Terrible some kind of tsar; yet, in a history written in Russian by a Russian author, the laments of the daughter of the ruler of the Nogai Horde sound in the spirit of Russian folk songs.

His educational work—publishing Orthodox religious books in Cyrillic for Tatars—was carried out within the Brotherhood of St. Gurij⁴ by N. Ilminskis, a teacher and graduate of the Kazan Theological Academy. As the largest center in the empire for Arabic and Islamic studies, as well as for Orthodox missionary work, the academy used scholarly methods to seek ways of integrating “aliens” into the empire’s “unified” population on the basis of culture and religion (Миссионерское... 1906: 634). The strategists of Christianization in the Kazan region chose the wise tactic of proceeding “slowly but surely,” as outlined by Piotras Šestakov, trustee of the Kazan Educational District: “aliens” were to be raised in the spirit of Orthodoxy and Russianness in their native language, with Russian used alongside it (Шестаков 1869: 445).

Within the Brotherhood, N. Ilminskis established a Translation Commission to coordinate translations into the languages of the ethnic groups of the Kazan region (Tatars, Chuvash, Mari, Udmurts, Mordvins, Kyrgyz, and Kalmyks) and of some Siberian peoples (Altaians, Buryats, Yakuts, Evenks, Nganasans, and Samoyeds). According to N. Ilminskis, this work proceeded slowly because the indigenous people were naïve, sincerely believing, devout, and pure-hearted, yet primitive

After the State Duma introduced an amendment to the federal law On the Languages of the Peoples of the Russian Federation, stipulating that the graphic representation of all languages of the Russian Federation is Cyrillic (Закон РФ О языках народов Российской Федерации от 25.10.1991 № 1807-1; Федеральный закон от 11.12.2002 № 165-ФЗ О внесении дополнения в статью 3 Закона Российской Федерации «О языках народов Российской Федерации»), in 2004 the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation definitively rejected Tatarstan’s attempts to replace Cyrillic with the Latin alphabet, emphasizing that its decision legitimized historically established realities and ensured the harmonious and balanced functioning of the state language and the languages of the republics. Otherwise, federal unity would be threatened. Tatarstan declared its law invalid, and Latin script is not officially used. In 2013, the State Council of Tatarstan adopted the law On the use of the Tatar language as the state language of the Republic of Tatarstan (Закон РТ от 12.01.2013 № 1-ЗРТ Об использовании татарского языка как государственного языка Республики Татарстан), under which the graphic representation of the Tatar language is Cyrillic. The use of Latin and Arabic scripts is provided for only in certain cases. Available online: http://kitaphane.tatarstan.ru/rus/legal_info/new/tat_lang.htm [accessed 2019-06-28].

⁴ Saint Gurij (Grigorijus Rugotinas, c. 1500–1563) was the first Archbishop of Kazan (of the Orthodox Church).

208

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI

Antano ir Jono Juškų mokslinės veiklos Kazanėje ideologiniai kontekstai

Having reconciled themselves to their spiritual poverty of thought, that is, to a “deposit, good soil worth working with in the genuine hope of reaping a rich harvest” (Ильминский 1871: 168). In fact, the environment was favorable for the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet, since most peoples in this region of the empire had previously had no written literature, and the book here opened up “the ages.” Through the Cyrillic alphabet, the adoption of the Orthodox faith suppressed deeper knowledge of Islam, which the Arabic script could have provided. Of course, an important factor was also the ability not only to adapt the authentic spoken language professionally, but also to understand the mentality of ordinary local people—something N. Ilminskis and his scholarly milieu accomplished successfully (Никольский 1905: 4–5).

According to Russian historian Andrejus Poniatovas, the real reason for establishing the brotherhood lay in an attempt to halt the return to Islam, which had gathered momentum at the time among Christians; this is also reflected in the organization’s regulations. The aim was not only to strengthen the faith of the baptized by expanding the network of schools applying N. Ilminskis’s method⁵ and building churches, but also to enlighten those straying back to their ancestral faith. The mission of the Brotherhood of St. Gurijus and its comprehensive activity in the Kazan region, as well as the application of the organization’s experience in other regions of Russia (Astrachanėje, Samaroje, Riazanėje), irreversibly influenced the cultural development of the Tatars and other ethnic groups.

The methodology introduced by N. Ilminskis became one of the successful examples of implementing “national policy.” It is presumed that Andrius Ugianskis⁶, who worked in Kazan during the same period, viewed his colleague’s system positively and proposed implementing a similar model in Lithuania to suppress the Polonization of the region (Staliūnas 2006: 74). Historian Vytautas Merkys, referring to the justification for applying the Cyrillic alphabet to Lithuanian set out by Motiejus Valančius, Bishop of Kazan, in a letter from Kazan, identifies two circumstances: the beginning of the National Revival and the processes involved in shaping Lithuanian orthography (Merkys 1994: 33).

CONCLUSIONS

The publication in the Latin alphabet of Lithuanian folk songs and wedding customs from the Veliuona area, prepared by Jonas and Antanas Juška, was made possible by several ideological and sociocultural circumstances:

⁵ The essence of N. Ilminskis’s method: religion was the principal subject in the brotherhood’s schools, and the system of instruction was bilingual: in the first grade (a two-year course), teaching took place in the native language, while Russian was taught as a separate subject; in the second grade (a two-year course), all subjects were taught in Russian (Понятов 2003).

⁶ From 1850, A. Ugianskis worked at the Kazan Gymnasium; in 1861, he was appointed an extraordinary professor at Kazan University, where he taught Greek and, from 1866, Latin (Затоскин, ред., 1900: 53).

Straipsniai / Articles

209

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

1. A diaspora of Polish and Lithuanian nobles gathered in Kazan, retaining the worldviews that had developed during the period of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and preserving traditional values—culture and language.

2. In the 1870s, a progressive scholarly milieu took shape at the Faculty of History and Philology of Kazan University, creating a depoliticized center for linguistic research. Janas Baudouinas de Courtenay, founder of the school of comparative linguistics, began working at the university in 1875 and became the principal mediator who initiated and supported the publication of Lithuanian works.

3. The more favorable conditions for the Juška brothers’ scholarly activity in Kazan were determined not only by the ideological outlook, qualifications, and potential of the university community’s core to recognize Lithuanian folklore as a significant source for linguistic research, but also by Kazan’s geographical location, far from both the sociocultural center (Lithuania) and the political center (Sankt Peterburgas).

SOURCES AND LITERATURE

Baudouin de Courtenay Jan 1904: Kwestia alfabetu litewskiego w państwie rosyjskim i jej rozwiązanie. Kraków: Nakładem Antoniego Chołoniewskiego.

Donaleitis Christian 1865: Litauische Dichtungen, erste vollständige Ausgabe mit Glossar von Aug. Schleicher. St. Petersburg: Buchdruckerei der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Głębocki Henryk 2013: Margrabia, imperium i Polacy: szkice z dziejów walki przeciwko „nierozsądnej narodowości polskiej” (1861–1864). – Arcana: kultura, historia, polityka, 46–89.

Koerner Ernst Friderik Konrad, Szwedek Aleksander, red., 2001: Towards a History of Linguistics in Poland. From the early beginnings to the end of the 20^th century. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Merkys Vytautas 1994: Knynešių laikai. 1864–1904. Vilnius: Valstybinis leidybos centras.

Mockus Antanas 2003: Broliai Juškos: lietuvių liaudies dainų rinkėjai ir leidėjai. Vilnius: Tyto Alba.

Staliūnas Darius 2006: Kas būtų, jeigu?.. Kelios XIX a. Lietuvos istorijos alternatyvos. – Kultūros barai 5, 71–77.

Subačius Giedrius 2004: Lietuviška ir rusiška lietuviškų spaudinių kirilika 1864–1866 metais. – Raidžių draudimo metai, sud. Darius Staliūnas. Vilnius: Lietuvos istorijos instituto leidykla, 139–173.

210

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI

Antano ir Jono Juškų mokslinės veiklos Kazanėje ideologiniai kontekstai

Андрамонова Наталия 2002: Н. В. Крушевский и история лингвистики – Николай Крушевский: научное наследие и современность: матер. междунар. науч. конф. «Будзоновские чтения» (Казань, 11–13 дек. 2001 г.): серия «Николай Крушевский: жизнь и научное творчество (к 150-летию со дня рождения)», ред. К. Г. Гайуллина, Г. Николаева. Казань: Новое знание, 35–42.

Беляев Дмитрий 1878: К вопросу о мировоззрении Эрвида: Историко-литературные этюды. Казань: Типо-литография Императорского университета.

Бодун де Куртенэ Иван 1913: Национальный и территориальный признак в автономии. Санкт Петербург: Типография М. М. Стасюлевича.

A primer, a brief sacred history, an abridged catechism, moral instructions, and prayers, presented for the baptized Tatars in their spoken language, based on the primer published in 1861 at the St. Petersburg Synodal Printing House. 1862. Kazan.

Булич Константин 1903: Из записок К. Н. Булича: 1828–1846 г.г. – Вестник Европы: журнал науки, политики, литературы 8, 743–763.

Венгеров Семён, ред., 1904: Критико-биографический словарь русских писателей и ученых (от начала русской образованности до наших дней) 6. Санкт Петербург: Типография М. М. Стасюлевича.

Гатилова Анастасия 2012: Научные династии польских профессоров и преподавателей в Казанском университете (XIX – начало XX вв.). Автореферат диссертации на соискание ученой степени кандидата исторических наук. Казань: Казанский (Приволжский) федеральный университет.

A voice from Lithuania on the new edition of the Lithuanian poet Donelaitis, produced by the Russian Academy of Sciences. 1865. – Русский инвалид 269.

Долбов Михаил 2010: Русский край, чужая вера: Этноконфессиональная политика империи в Литве и Белоруссии при Александре II. Москва: Новое литературное обозрение.

Загоскин Николай, ред., 1900: Деяния Императорского Казанского университета. 1805–1900 гг.: Опыт краткого биографического словаря профессоров и преподавателей Казанского университета за первые 95 лет его существования. Казань: Типо-литография Императорского университета.

Зайцева Людмила 2016: Общий устав университетов 1863 г.: предыстория, характеристика, значение. – Lex Russica. Закон русский 9, 214–229.

Ильминский Николай 2011: Вступительное чтение в курс турецко-татарского языка [репринт оригинала]. Москва: Книга по Требованию.

Stripsniai / Articles

211

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

Ильинский Николай 1871: Практические замечания о переводах и сочинениях на инородческих языках. – Православный собеседник 3, 160–183.

Исхаков Радик 2015: К истории создания первого татарского кириллического алфавита и формирования письменной традиции татар-кряшен (крещеных татар). – Известия Самарского научного центра Российской академии наук 17, 3, 319–322.

Катанова Николай 1907: Памяти Сергея Михайловича Шпилевского. Казань: Типография Императорского Университета.

Корсаков Дмитрий 1912: М. П. Петровский. – Исторический вестник 7, 262–270.

Костина Татьяна, Куприянов Алексей 2017: Кадровая политика попечителей Казанского учебного округа и динамика возрастного состава профессоров Казанского университета в 1804–1884 годах. – Ученые записки Казанского университета (Серия гуманитарные науки) 159, 4, 925–941.

Лаптева Людмила 2003: Казанский славист Менон Петрович Петровский (1833–1912). – Славянский альманах 2002, 152–177.

Dmitry Likhachev. 200: Русская культура. Moscow: Iskusstvo.

Машанов Михаил 1892: Обзор деятельности Братства св. Гурия за двадцать пять лет его существования (1867–1892 гг.). Казань: [б. л.].

Миллер Алексей 2010: Латиница и кириллица в политике властей Российской империи. – Перзянский сборник 2 (Новые материалы и исследования по истории русской культуры). Москва: Новое издательство, 467–477.

The Missionary Department at the Kazan Theological Academy and the internal mission in Russia. 1906. – Церковно-общественная жизнь 18, 634.

Никольский Николай 1905: Переводческая комиссия в Казани и ее просветительная деятельность среди инородцев (По поводу отчета Казанской переводческой комиссии за 1904 г.). Казань: Центральная типография.

On the publication of the Lithuanian poet Donelaitis by the Academy of Sciences. 186. – Журнал Министерства народного просвещения CXIX, 61–63.

Понятов Андрей 2003: Некоторые аспекты миссионерской деятельности «Братства святителя Гурия». – Православный собеседник 2, 45–78.

University Statute of 1863. 1863. St. Petersburg: Ogizko Printing House.

Фирсов Николай 1870: Инородческое население прежнего Казанского царства в новой России до 1762 года и колонизация закамских земель. [Казань]: [б. л.].

212

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI

Antano ir Jono Juškų mokslinės veiklos Kazanėje ideologiniai kontekstai

Фирсов Николай 1866: Положение инородцев Северо-Восточной России в Московском государстве: рассуждение, написанное для получения степени магистра русской истории Н. Фирсовым. Казань: Университетская типография.

Izmail Sharifanov. 200: Польские профессора и преподаватели в Императорском Казанском университете. Kazan: Kazan State University Publishing House.

Шестаков Петр 1869: Речь, произнесенная г. попечителем казанского учебного округа П. Д. Шестаковым, при открытии братства святителя Гурия. – Сборник документов и статей по вопросу об образовании инородцев. Санкт Петербург: Типография т-ва «Обществ. польза», 439–447.

Шиплевский Сергей 1879: О задачах деятельности Казанского общества археологии, истории и этнографии и о возможном содействии Обществу со стороны жителей местного края. Речь товарища председателя Общества С. М. Шиплевского, произнесенная в 1 годичном публичном собрании Общества 19 марта 1879 года. Казань: Типография Императорского Университета.

Якобсон Роман 1985: Избранные работы. Москва: Прогресс.

The Ideological Context of the Scholarly Work of Antanas and Jonas Juška in Kazan

SUMMARY

This research adds the sociocultural conditions and ideological contexts of the ideological scholarly environment that prevailed in Kazan region during the period of academic activity (1878–1882) of Lithuanian folklorists Jonas and Antanas Juška. In order to substantiate the regularity of publishing Lithuanian folklore in the Latin alphabet in Kazan, the ethos of the scholarly community of Kazan University that stood out in the general imperial policy of adapting and integrating the cultures and languages of the nations of the Russian Empire is analyzed.

Lithuanian folk songs and regional Veliuona wedding traditions gathered and arranged by the brothers Juška in the Latin script were possible to publish due to several circumstances: the Polish and Lithuanian scholarly elite and the supporters of traditional values had gathered at Kazan University and formed a progressive, depoliticized school of linguistic research; the establisher of the school, Jan Baudouin de Courtenay, had become its main mediator and supported the publishing of Lithuanian folklore, which was regarded as an important source material.

Straipsniai / Articles

213

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

On the other hand, the Cyrillic translation of the scripts of the nations colonised by the Empire is associated with the processes of establishing the identity loyal to the Tsarist government and suppressing the opposition. During the implementation of the Cyrillic script in the Northwestern Krai the first and foremost efforts were placed into distancing Lithuanian culture from the Poles who were nourishing the idea of the reestablishment of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Meanwhile, in the case of the Transvolga Region it meant the reduction of the influence of the Ottoman Empire, the center of Islam. Thus, the publishing of Lithuanian folklore in Kazan, which was distant from the sociocultural hotbed (Lithuania) and political center (Saint Petersburg), was regarded as a solely scholarly project.

Submitted on 1 September 2019.

MARGARITA MATULYTĖ

Institute of Lithuanian Culture Research

58 Saltoniškių St., LT-08105 Vilnius, Lithuania

[email protected]

214

Acta Linguistica Lithuanica LXXI