Mokyklos įvaizdis Šalčininkų rajono gyventojų autobiografiniuose pasakojimuose

Standard Language 2025, No. 98, pp. 1–20 Contents link ISSN 2351-7204 (electronic / online) Copyright © 2025 Violeta Švaikovskaja. Published by the Institute of the Lithuanian Language. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. // Published by the Lithuanian Language Institute. This article is open access, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction of the content in any media, provided that the author and source are acknowledged. Received: / Gauta: 2025-02-28. Accepted: / Priimta: 2025-05-28. 1 IMAGE OF SCHOOL FOR RESIDENTS OF ŠALČININKŲ REGION IN AUTOBIOGRAPHIC STORIES The Image of the School in the Autobiographical Narratives of the Inhabitants of the Šalčininkai District VIOLETA ŠVAIKOVSKAJA Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore El. e-mail: [email protected]om ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5658-0890 Research areas: ethnolinguistics, phraseology. https://doi.org/10.35321/bkalba.2025.98.04 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The aim of this article is to examine, using the narrative history method, what role the school played in the autobiographical narratives of the older generation of inhabitants of the Šalčininkai district, what attitude to it prevailed and what cultural and social aspects of the last century are reflected in the narratives examined. The research material consists of autobiographical stories of older generation inhabitants recorded during expeditions to the surroundings of Šalčininkai and Dieveniškiai in 2012 and 2016. The analysis highlighted the importance and sensitivity of this topic, the experience of hard work and the dangers of war of the participants of the study distant from school and their desire to convey their experiences to others. A change in attitude towards school has also been noted: changing the conditions of life, school attendance has begun to be perceived as a natural and accessible phenomenon for everyone. Finally, the analyzed narratives showed the self-esteem of the participants: a tendency to minimize and devalue their achievements, opportunities and intelligence or, on the contrary, a desire to emphasize facts that prove their other abilities. KEY WORDS: school, Salcininkai district, oral history, ethnolinguistics, learning, autobiographical narration. ABSTRACT The study aims to investigate, using the oral history method, the role of school in the autobiographical narratives of older residents in the Šalčininkai district, the prevailing attitudes towards it, and the cultural and social aspects of the past century reflected in the narratives under study. The research material consists of autobiographical stories of the older generation recorded during the 2012 and 2016 expeditions to the Šalčininkai and Dieveniškės regions. The analysis highlighted the importance and sensitivity of this topic, the impact of hard labour and the dangers of war that distanced the participants from school, as well as their desire to share their experiences with others. A change in attitudes towards school was also observed: as living conditions changed, attending school came to be seen as a natural and accessible phenomenon for all. Finally, the analysed narratives revealed the self-esteem of the participants: a tendency to underestimate and devalue their own achievements, abilities and intelligence, or, conversely, a tendency to emphasise facts that demonstrate their other abilities. KEYWORDS: school, Šalčininkai district, oral history, ethnolinguistics, learning, autobiographical narrative. 2 INTRODUCTION In the general Lithuanian dictionary there are three definitions of the word mokykla: 1. ‘educational and training institution’; 2. ‘teaching, learning, learning, experience’; 3. ‘direction, tendency, method of art, science, literature’ (BLKŽ). The definitions illustrate that school is perceived primarily as a building or institution where education and knowledge transfer takes place. This meaning is closely related to the second, more abstract and broader concept – school is the activity, the process of teaching and learning, when knowledge about the world is transmitted and acquired. Thus, school is more identified with education or even life-long experience. The third definition relates to a line of thought or set of ideas that a person with similar methodological views can adopt and apply in their scientific, artistic or literary works. In other words, the school is both a building and a learning process, and a direction of science, art or literature. In this work, school is perceived not only as a physical place, but also as a process of education, knowledge transfer and acquisition, i.e. the second definition of BLKŽ. This choice is based on the fact that in the autobiographical narratives of the analyzed sample, the focus is often not on the school as a location, but on the learning experience and its significance in the lives of the respondents. Summarizing the Education Act adopted after the restoration of Lithuanian independence, anthropologist Kristina Šliavaitė states that Lithuania has a tolerant educational policy that guarantees school education in the mother tongue for ethnic minorities and at the same time establishes the status of Lithuanian as a state and public language (Šliavaitė 2018: 145– 150). But even a century ago, in Lithuania, especially in the eastern and southern part of the country, the circumstances were quite different. In the 20th century, Vilnius Region experienced an extremely unstable political situation. After Lithuania declared its independence from Tsarist Russia in 1918, the Vilnius Region, which belonged to the state already in 1920, was occupied by Poland and remained its part until 29 October 1939. Just over half a year later – on 15 June 1940 – this territory was occupied by the Soviet Union and in 1941 by Nazi Germany. In 1944, Vilnius region, like all of Lithuania, became part of the USSR, and only almost five decades later – in 1990 – it was freed from this oppression. Such a complex and changing geopolitical situation affected the everyday life of the inhabitants of these areas, and thus also the school system – it changed with the changes established by the new authorities. After the Polish occupation of Vilnius in 1920, a fierce process of polonization took place. He had a strong influence on educational policy. The Polish language prevailed as the state language, language of education and home language, and the clergy associated Catholicism with the Polish nation (Vidugiris 1995: 429). However, the establishment of the Polish language in all areas did not meet the needs of all inhabitants of Vilnius Region. The “Rytas” society held the position to preserve the Lithuanian heritage in the Lithuanian Dieveniškiai neighborhoods and to ensure the education of children in their mother tongue, although due to the restriction of the community’s activities it was difficult to achieve this goal. For example, Lithuanian primary schools were allowed to be established only after the Polish authorities had given their consent and approved the teacher (Martinkėnas 1968: 52; Ereminas 2013: 117). This did not stop the society, on the contrary – it encouraged Lithuanian education and patriotic ideas to be spread in secret schools and libraries. In order to strengthen Polish schools, Lithuanian educational institutions were abandoned. This can be seen in the story of Vincas Martinkėnas, a member of the Vilnius region society. The Lithuanian primary school in Didžiuliai, established in 1923, was closed in 1925, but after protests by local residents, its activities were resumed in late 1926 and continued until 1933. In 1932, the activities of the Lithuanian educational institution in Žižmai were suspended (Martinkėnas 1968: 52–55). Linguist Zigmas Zinkevičius mentions that Lithuanian language lessons were held in Lithuanian areas at least temporarily. In his words, in 1934 Lithuanian language was taught in 98 schools, but this was not done qualitatively because the teachers did not have sufficient Lithuanian language competence (Zinkevičius 1992: 225–226). According to the historian Stanislaw Buchaveckas, during the Polish occupation, many children in Vilnius region and the Salcininkai district did not attend primary school, although in 1927 Poland adopted a law on compulsory 3 primary education (Buchaveckas 1992: 120). As the main reasons for not attending the educational institution, the author refers to the negative attitude of parents to the educational institution and education, the difficult economic conditions at the time and the unwillingness of Lithuanians to educate their children in Polish. The lack of tolerance was not only characteristic of the Polish authorities. It seems that in the first half of the 20th century, in tense times, there was no attempt to seek compromise and harmony, but to show the power of the new government with little regard to the real needs of the various ethnic groups. Before the Soviet occupation in 1940, in 1939, Lithuania regained Vilnius region. This short period was favourable to Lithuanian culture, but discriminated against the rights of other people. According to the historian Barbara Jundo-Kaliszewska, the period of Lithuanian rule was marked by the elimination of Polish from public life, the destruction of Polish symbols and street names, the suspension of Polish schools, the dismissal of teachers and the closure of the University of Stephen Bator (Jundo-Kaliszewska 2006). Kaliszewska 2019: 63–64). During the Nazi annexation, the inhabitants of Šalčininkai region experienced unequal effects. Despite Germanization, Lithuanians managed to maintain education in Lithuanian (Lesys, Niūniavaitė-Lesienė 2012). In Polish primary schools, the number of lessons in Polish, Lithuanian and German was equal, which encouraged Polish resistance, non-attendance of educational institutions and the creation of clandestine Polish schools (Buchaveckas 1992: 144–147). After the Second World War, the situation in Lithuania deteriorated even more. The country had to deal not only with the consequences of the war, such as deprivation and the destruction of cities and villages, but also with the second Soviet occupation. However, particularly difficult conditions prevailed in the Vilnius region, which at the end of the 1940s occupied the last positions in terms of the number of children attending primary school (Stravinskienė 2024: 74–75). Slavist Valerijus Čekmonas talks about the economic and cultural decline of this region caused by three reasons: government repression and violence against the intelligentsia, repatriation to Poland and the migration of the youth to the city of Vilnius (Čekmonas 2017 [1995]: 97). During the first (1945–1947) and second (1955–1959) repatriations to Poland, about 220,000 Poles left the Vilnius region (Górecki 2005: 71–72). This process also strongly affected Šalčininkai district – only 1/3 of the intelligentsia remained there (Čekmonas 2017 [1995]: 97). Of course, teachers were also looking for better living conditions. In 1945–1946, there could have been about 1300 qualified teachers who left the Vilnius area (Stravinskienė 2011: 17). These indicators reveal the difficult and rapidly changing demographic situation of the region and the loss of an educated, economically stable society. paveiktiems gyventojams, ypač susibūrusiems tuštėjančiuose kaimuose. Without it it was difficult to recover from the war losses. In the first post-war years the state of schools was extremely difficult: poverty prevailed, there was a lack of teachers of both Lithuanian and Polish languages, teaching materials, stationery and even school benches (Stravinskienė 2011: 18; 2024: 66–68). Such poor educational conditions are illustrated by the example of the historian Vitalija Stravinskienė, who said that in 1946 the Lithuanian primary school in Dieveniškiai taught in Russian because the teacher who worked there at the time could not speak Lithuanian (Stravinskienė 2011: 19). The language of teaching also varied. There were no optimal opportunities for those wishing to obtain education in Lithuanian. Geographer Petras Gaučas explains that in the 1950s only a few Lithuanian educational institutions operated in the territory of South-Eastern Lithuania and that parallel Lithuanian classes were opened in Polish schools only after Stalin’s death in 1957. However, under Brezhnev, non-Russian-language educational institutions were rapidly abandoned. (Gaučas 2000: 47). Education in Polish was also undesirable (Stravinskienė 2011; KamilewiczRucińska 2017). In 1944 there were 213 Polish educational institutions, and in 1947 there were already 197, while the number of Lithuanian and Russian schools increased (Stravinskienė 2011: 20). The main objective of the authorities was not to preserve linguistic diversity, but to russify the Lithuanian population and instill communist ideology. These objectives have been partially achieved. The social sciences researcher Danuta Kamilewicz-Rucińska points out that already in the early 1960s Russian schools accounted for 60% of all educational institutions in Lithuania (Kamilewicz-Rucińska 2017: 126). Taking into account the prestige of the Russian 4 language and its similarity to Polish, some Poles pragmatically chose to send their children to Russian educational institutions more often, although there were also families who supported education in their mother tongue (Stravinskienė 2024: 78). The discussed scientific works show that the political order in the territory of Šalčininkai district at the beginning of the 20th century was unstable, changing every decade. People lived in uncertainty – new innovations were replaced by others. As a result, some of the wealthy left to seek a safer environment, while the rest tried to adapt to the new order. In educational institutions, the youngest children also had to adapt to a different language of instruction or were not allowed to go to school because of parents’ unreliability or rebellion against government policies. This study is based on the theoretical assumption raised by the ethnolinguist and dialectologist Halina Pelcowa (2014; 2023) that each dialectal expression is culturally motivated, reflecting past realities and traditions, human experiences and connecting the experience of previous generations with the present. Thus, based on it, the aim of the thesis is to investigate, using the narrative history method, what role the school played in the autobiographical stories of the older generation of inhabitants of the Šalčininkai district, what attitude to it prevailed and what cultural and social aspects of the last century are reflected in the examined narratives. 1) after discussing the commonalities of oral history and ethnolinguistics, to determine how their combination could be useful in examining the multilingual and multicultural Salcininkai district; 2) based on qualitative data, to find out what role school played in the lives of older generation respondents; 3) to reveal how the concept and importance of school changed with changing social and historical context. The article presents an analysis of excerpts from autobiographical stories of 14 authors (10 women and 4 men). Presented material – audio recordings, which are part of the results of the 2012 and 2016 expeditions to Dieveniškiai and Šalčininkai neighborhoods. In 2012, the expedition to 1 Dieveniškiai town and Dieveniškiai and Poškoniai municipalities was organized by the Lithuanian Language Society and led by Rita Urnėžiūtė and habil. dr. Boniface Stonzha. Its aim is to record the socio-cultural, linguistic and ethnological heritage of the region. Sociocultural questionnaires were used as a tool to systemize questions and extract detailed autobiographical stories of respondents. It should be emphasized that although the questions were structured, the interviewees could choose which topics to develop and which to avoid. In 2016, Prof. Dr. A part of Kristinos Rutkovskas personal archives are the autobiographical accounts of informants of the Šalčininkai district. The duration of the audio recordings analyzed in this study is 9 hours. The data collected in 2012 and 2016 are similar in that the survey sample consisted of the older generation of similar age – born between 1924 and 1948 – who talked about the past: childhood, family, work, holidays, etc. Such material allows to analyze not only individual life stories, but also broader cultural and social processes that formed people’s attitude to school and relationship with it. Although during the expeditions a lot more interviews with informants were collected, this study focuses on a deeper analysis of autobiographical stories, so only a small part of the material was selected. As the Hungarian-born linguist Zoltán Dörnyei points out, the number of interviews is less relevant in qualitative data, because the aim of similar analyses is to better understand each narrative and thus complex phenomena (Dörnyei 2007: 39–42), in this case the concept of school and the learning experience among the older generation. For example, the study of the Polish ethnolinguist Damian Gocół, which examines the dialects of five people aged 35-65 years, has been published in the journal „Słowo i Życie”. Kristina Rutkovska, Rita Urnėžiūte and habil. dr. 1 Bonifacius Stundžiai for the opportunity to use the audio recordings. 5 autobiographical accounts of respondents (Gocół 2020). It is important for the researcher to understand how different age groups construct narratives, how personal experiences intertwine with cultural and social factors, and how values of other groups influence the actions of informants. Based on the autobiographical narrative examined in this work, the authors were born and raised in the Šalčininkai district or moved there in their youth and spent most of their lives there. Their childhood was marked by political changes, so their learning experiences, as discussed, are very different from today’s realities. In an effort to ensure convenience for the presenters and create conditions for a pleasant and detailed dialogue, the conversations took place in a convenient language code. 3 informants spoke Lithuanian dialect, 8 chose Polish language or its dialect, one respondent spoke Russian language and Russian and Gudi dialects. Some indicated that they use the chosen language or its variant on a daily basis, but there were also those who communicate po prostu in everyday communication, but did not want to use it in the presence of the listener. In their stories, which ranged from 15 minutes to 2 hours, almost all of the interviewees mentioned at least a few words about school. Some were willing to tell in detail about their teachers, stories that happened in the lessons, the number of classes they attended, while others seemed to have nothing to say because they did not go to school or did not go much. However, their stories are also about education, and the content of the narrative is so extensive and valuable that their statements make up most of the material cited in this article. Respondents are coded by gender (male or female), year of birth or age at the time of interview and place of residence. DEMOGRAPHIC AND LINGUISTICAL SITUATION OF THE REGION OF ŠALČININKAI In order to justify the relevance of the method, it is worthwhile to give at least a brief overview of the linguistic and ethnic situation of the research region. The ethnic composition of Šalčininkai 2 district is different from other Lithuanian localities. It is home to Lithuanian, Polish, Russian and Belarusian ethnic groups. The cultural diversity of the region is evidenced by the Statistics Department data. In 2021, almost 85% of the representatives of Slavic-speaking cultures lived in the Šalčininkai district (76.3% Poles, 5.0% Russians, 2.9% Belarusians and 0.6% Ukrainians), Lithuanians accounted for only 12.6%. This ethnic composition, dominated by Slavic cultures, also 3 determines the linguistic situation of the region. Linguists Danguolė Mikulėnienė and Kristina Rutkovska distinguish the following language codes in Šalčininkai district: Lithuanian language, Lithuanian dialect, Polish language, Polish dialect, Gudi dialect (often called po prostu by the inhabitants themselves), Russian language and Russian dialect. According to the authors, Lithuanian dialect is spoken in the Dieveniškiai area, while Russian and its dialectal variant are common among the elderly people living in the Šalčininkai district (Mikulėnienė, Rutkowska 2013: 464). Insights into the linguistic situation in the region of Šalčininkai are supplemented by the research of dialectologist Violeta Meiliūnaitė. Based on the linguistic landscape of the Šalčininkai district and on the data of the advertisements posted at the sacral buildings, V. Meiliūnaitė (2022: 160–171) records cases of bilingualism and even trilingualism, but sees the role of Lithuanian only as a formal language – a state language, but with a weak communication function. It turns out that public institutions write advertisements in Lithuanian and Polish, while private businesses and individuals are more likely to provide information in Lithuanian and Russian, and occasionally trilingual advertisements – Lithuanian, Polish and Russian – are also found. V. Meiliūnaitė considers the tendency to publish information in Lithuanian and Russian rather than Polish as a reflection of the real linguistic environment of the region of Šalčininkai. In addition, the researcher also mentions the regional newspaper of Šalčininkai, “Šalčia”, which is published mainly in Russian, with only partial translations of articles into Lithuanian and Polish (Meiliūnaitė 2022: 170). Dialectologist Nijolė Tuomienė adds that the Russian language is considered more prestigious in the region of Šalčininkai, therefore it is widely used in public spaces by the middle and younger generation of residents; it often overshadows Polish, thus increasingly competing with the younger generation 2 A detailed overview of the linguistic situation in the Šalčininkai region can be found in the study of dialectologist Nijolė Tuomienė Language and identity on the borders of South-Eastern Lithuania and Belarus (second half of the 20th century – beginning of the 21st century) 1 (Tuomienė 2023: 33–62). 3 For more details, see https://osp.stat.gov.lt/lt/statistiniu-rodikliu-analize?hash=58bdd9a5-b274-42c9-98d0cd83c5724724#/. 6 popularizing Lithuanian language (Tuomienė 2022: 187–189). These findings allow us to speak about the still existing superiority of the Slavic languages, and especially of the Russian language, in the studied region, although the increasing importance of the Lithuanian language is also noticeable. It should be noted that in a multilingual region, languages do not function separately from each other, but interact and express themselves differently in the communicative act. N. Tuomienė, based on audio recordings of the expeditions to the localities of South-Eastern Lithuania in 1964–1990 and 2011–2013, investigated the characteristic manifestations and functions of code change. The latter identified five: reference, control, identity, metaphoric and metal-linguistic (Tuomienė 2023: 103–117). Age is identified as a determining factor for code change. The researcher states that the older generation has a stronger connection with the local dialect po prostu, while the middle and younger generations communicate with elements of Lithuanian, Polish and Russian. This study testifies to the exceptional linguistic situation of Salcininkai region and the significance of all the languages spoken in the region for expressing ideas and the identity of the speaker. 3. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD OF COMPARATIVE HISTORY Anot vienos autoritetingiausių Glazgo universiteto sakytinės istorijos tyrėjų ir According to Lynn Abrams, author of the methodological guidelines, narrative history is understood in two ways: as a process, i.e. a research method, an interview during which information about the past is collected, and the result – the collected and recorded material, thus the final narrative of the respondent (Abrams 2010: 2). The term "oral history" is associated with historian and journalist Allan Nevins, who founded the Columbia Oral History Research Office at Columbia University in 1948 (Ritchie 2003: 22). Narrative history was and still is used to recreate past events, dates, facts or places, but at the end of the 20th century it was noted that such a narrative of the past, as the well-known practitioner of this method Alessandro Portelli argues, reflects not so much historical peripeties as the narrator himself, his attitude, evaluation of the realities that have occurred, attitudes and the relationship between the past and the present (Portelli 1981: 99– 100). In view of this statement, the author of this work believes that when telling stories that happened some time ago (especially many years ago), a person may make mistakes, confuse facts, merge several episodes into one, fail to remember or deliberately fail to detail some past episodes that might be essential for the researcher applying the method. Nevertheless, despite possible inaccuracies or distortions of events, it is possible to see how past events have influenced the narrator’s identity, how they were perceived earlier and how they are perceived during the speech. In other words, the story of those times reveals more about the speaker himself, his subjective assessments, feelings and point of view. 3.1. The emergence and application of the narrative history method in Lithuania At the beginning of the 21st century, the 4 method of narrative history has also been applied by Lithuanian scholars. The method was considered particularly suitable for revealing the experiences and challenges of people who were not recorded anywhere in the Soviet era due to press censorship and repression. Political scientists Inga Vinogradnaitė, Ainė Ramonaitė, Jūratė Kavaliauskaitė, Jogilė Ulinskaitė and Rytė Kukulskytė discuss the optimal application of narrative history as a method of studying the Soviet period in their collective monograph Narrative history as a method of studying the Soviet period (Vinogradnaitė et al., 2018). Historian Aurimas Švedas not only applies this method, but also discusses its formal aspects, such as the advantages and limitations of the narrative history method (Švedas 2010), and writes about its development in Lithuania (Švedas 2018). Through the lives of ten women 4 In the article Formy dialogu pamięci i historii w humanistyce litewskiej po roku 1990 (wykorzystanie metody oral history) by Aurimas Švedas, it is mentioned that in the interwar and Soviet periods of the 20th century, field research on the customs, history and everyday life of ethnic culture was based on ethnographic surveys, which, according to the researcher, are not considered to be a form of oral history due to the structured questionnaire form and do not have any common features with it (Švedas 2018: 272). 7 The historian Dalia Marcinkevičienė (2007) investigates the identity models of Lithuanian women who lived during the Soviet period and seeks to determine the degree of communist ideology that influenced them. Sociologist Irena Šutinienė (2020) analyzes the childhood memories of people who were born and raised in Soviet times, i.e. in the 1970s, but who entered adult life in independent Lithuania, evaluations of practices applied in the Soviet Union and stories about the experiences of parents and grandparents. Summarizing the application of the method in question in Lithuania, it can be said that it dominates in analyzing the Soviet life conditions and the impact of the occupation on the life of society, but it is also emphasized that narrative history helps researchers to find out how people themselves understand and analyze past events. In other words, it is not only about history, but also about the subjective view of people. In folklore, there is a belief that every person’s story is worthy of attention. Its content and form, louder statements and silence, laughter and tears, experiences and experiences, themes that are given priority or which are not wanted to remember, allow us to understand the presenter himself, his relationship with his surroundings and the surrounding world. In short, folklorists have no expectations of obtaining knowledge about the field of research that interests them, because, in their opinion, the value of the narrative is determined not by the abundance of facts, but by the respondent’s essence reflected in it (Būgienė 2018: 200). The monograph of social philosopher Jurga Jonutytė, folklorist Linos Būgienės and literary scholar Aleksandro Krasnovo Memory and identity of Lithuanian border towns: Valkininkai, Vilkyškiai, Žeimelis (Jonutytė et al., 2013) examines human memory, its variability, different presentations of the same events and the influence of current realities on the content and form of past narratives. Sociologist Sigita Kraniauskienė (2005) has investigated and compared the social gender practices of men and women reflected in autobiographical stories. The author’s conclusions were confirmed and supplemented by L. Būgienė’s (2012) study on the identity of both genders reflected in autobiographical narratives and the events that foster it, linguistic expression and the relationship with folklore. As can be observed, both factology and individual-oriented narrative history approaches are popular in Lithuanian scientific literature, and sometimes, for example in the work of D. Marcinkevičienė (2007: 8), they are combined. It should be emphasized that because the primary method is used to reconstruct historical facts, rather than to know an individual or to investigate his memory, the term narrative 5 history is not particularly popular among folklorists, who prefer to choose the concepts of narrative or autobiographical narration. Given the methodological development of narrative history and the increasing attention to the subject, it is considered that there is a basis for using the aforementioned terms synonymously. Although narrative history does not necessarily have to be autobiographical, many of its narratives contain autobiographical elements, subjective assessments of past events, and revealing the narrator’s perspective (Abrams 2010: 26). This statement emphasizes the similarities between narrative history and autobiographical narration (especially its oral form). 3.2. Application of Oral History in Ethnolinguistics The method of oral history has attracted a great deal of attention from individual-oriented ethnolinguists. It allows researchers to see how past phenomena are perceived by the person who has survived them. It is this approach that interests ethnolinguists using narrative history (Pelcowa 2014; 2023; Rutkovska 2018; 2019; 2020; Gocół 2020; 2023), who are concerned not with one objective truth, but with the subjective interpretation of reality conveyed by the words of each person. The ethnolinguist Kristina Rutkovska proposes an innovative, yet still growing in popularity in Lithuania, application of the oral history method. Based on the statements of the Polish dialectologist Halina Pelcowa that the dialect text is a source of history, culture and traditions that the narrator willingly transmits to other generations, while the narrative of a person living in the countryside is full of subjectivity and evaluation based on personal experiences and values (Pelcowa 2023: 133), K. Rutkovska additionally points out that such a text is a suitable tool for researching the memory and identity of the “ordinary man” (Rutkovska 2018; 2019; 2020). Subjective point of view 5 The diversity of terms in the scientific literature has been discussed by Joanna Bornat (2004). 8 here is considered an advantage, because the analysis of similar material allows to know the world concept, identity and axiological system of the studied community. Using the method discussed above, K. Rutkovska examines the narrative stories of the older generation of narrators from Polish-speaking towns in the Kaunas area (Rutkovska 2020) and the north-eastern border of Lithuania – Meikštai and Smalvų neighborhoods (Rutkovska 2018) – and the image of the manor house that has survived in their memory and is conveyed in language. In this way, the researcher immortalizes aspects perceived by the ordinary villager, such as the appearance of the manor, the buildings nearby, the relations between peasants and lords, the latter’s general activities, the attitude towards them, etc. Šalčininkai district, a multilingual and multicultural corner of Lithuania, forms a particularly favourable medium for the research of oral history, revealing the structure of the memory and identity of local inhabitants. For ethnolinguists, one of the most important advantages of the oral history method is that during the conversation about the past, the informants can freely create the content of the narrative and emphasize the desired points. More accurate and complete expression of the content is guaranteed by the possibility for the narrators to use a linguistic code closer to them – common language, dialect or elements of several linguistic codes, which is especially important in view of the ethnic and linguistic diversity of the region discussed in this article. The form of the narrative is no less important. Linguistic and non-verbal means – emotional charge, pronouns, modifiers or silence – help to understand not only what is being told, but also how the presenter himself evaluates events, what is his relationship with the past. Summarizing the research methodology, it can be said that the narrative recorded by the narrative history method reflects the way of life of the past, its evaluation, as well as the cultural heritage and its importance in the present. 4. THE SCHOOL IMAGE OF THE SURROUND AND THE DIVINE LAND This part will look at the subject of school developed in the narrative stories of the respondents. As already mentioned, the presenters speak little about her appearance or her experiences. Their narratives reveal rather the circumstances that made school attendance difficult, the attitude towards it and the self-esteem of the respondents related to (non-)attendance of the educational institution. 4.1. Mokyklos lankymą apsunkinusios aplinkybės Nowadays, school is perceived as a part of our lives – both young and old. However, as discussed in the introduction of this work, in the first half and middle of the last century a completely different political and social environment prevailed – this is reflected in the narrative of the presenters themselves. When asked how many classes they have completed, most informants admit that they have lost their school education or that they have only been able to do so for a few years. If such a question was asked in the questionnaire, the informant would be able to either enter the number of completed classes himself or choose one of the suggested answer options with specified intervals. However, during the conversation, telling about old realities, people get the opportunity to comment on their answer and explain why it happened exactly like this. This means that the material obtained by the narrative history method gives the presenter protagonism and creates conditions for evaluating and narrating past experiences more broadly. According to the respondents, the most common culprits of school absenteeism are war, work and distance. War disrupted everyday life of everyone, even children (1), (4), educational institutions were burned (2), (3) or occupied by invading armies (3). A similar case is documented by S. Buchaveckas when writing about Eišiškių secondary school. According to him, in 1943, during the Nazi occupation, it was appropriated by the German occupiers (Buchaveckas 1992: 145). V. Stravinskienė also notes a lack of physical buildings in Vilnius region where lessons could have been held. The researcher comments that in 1948 this problem was attempted to solve, although unsuccessfully, by a law that assigned an educational purpose to abandoned and abandoned objects (Stravinskienė 2024: 67). 9 The narratives (1) and (2) have similarities – in both cases the compound i wsio, i wszystko “and everything” is used. In the first case, by using it, the respondent draws a line between the realities before the beginning of the brutal Second World War and after it. In this way, the author of the story makes it clear that everything that happened before the bloody armed conflict was cold-bloodedly interrupted. In the second example, the speaker indicates the number of completed classes, but after a pause explains that this situation was also caused by the outbreak of war. (4) the narrative commented more broadly on the changes in the political order, the sequence of events and the new educational order. From the presenter we learn that as early as 1939 there was the possibility to study in Polish, during the USSR occupation – in Belarusian, and during the Nazi Germany period – in both languages. This narrative depicts the determination to acquire knowledge despite changing authorities from time to time. The respondent emphasizes her desire to learn in several ways. In particular, by repeating the noun ja “I” and the verb chodziłam “I went”, this gives the narrative more emotional charge and portrays her as an active narrator. Secondly, the woman contrasts the abovementioned verb with the first-person plural verb przyszli ‘to come’, thus highlighting not only the change of power but also the effect on education, which is also conveyed by the verb uczyli ‘to teach’: 1. I: And I don’t know how to write [laughs – V. Š.]. I only know how to write. And to read it a little I read because I do not. I finished school, I just finished the first class. The war began in the village (M1931, Rūdninkai). I: And I can’t write [laughs – V. Š.]. I can only sign. And to read, I read a little, because I don't. I just finished first grade. The war started, and that's it. 2. I: You finished seven classes? I: No. Two. Two in Polish, two in Russian. And four. And all... then there wasn't that school there. It burned down during the war and remained so (V1933, Šalčininkėliai). And you even finished seven grades? I: No. Two. Two in Polish, two in Russian. And four. And then... there wasn't that school there. It was burned down during the war and remained as it was. 3. I: Four, we had no more classes. Only four. <…> The school, it was a big four-class school. And then... when there was war, here the Germans settled in this school. As the Germans retreated, they burned this school (M1924, Rūdninkai). I: Four, we had no more classes. Only four. <...> The school, it was a big school – four classes. And later... when there was war, the Germans were sitting here [seized the school – V.S.] in this school. When the Germans retreated, they burned that school. 4. And was there any school maybe? Was it possible to go to school near these Grawżyszek? I: I walked. Madam, there was a Polish school in our village of Borci. <...> There was this school. But she's gone. They turned it over. I was walking. What was my school – three classes. I went to three. I followed the Germans, I followed the Soviets as they came. But they taught ME, I was still at home when I was little, and there was a crippled grandfather. And he taught me to read that I already read in Polish at home. That I went to school only a week and the war began. In the 39th year the war began. Then the Soviets came. In the 40's. They taught in Belarusian. No, no, no, no. Well, it was me and... but I was already light, because I knew the letters, I knew, I could read in Polish. It was me, I quickly... but then there was nowhere... as... we there after the colony changed. Two kilometers far to this school. Then came the Germans. And after the Germans taught in Polish and Belarusian. Behind Germany. And then I didn't go anymore... (M1931, Šalčininkėliai). Or maybe there was a school there? Was it possible to go to school with those Graužiškiai? I: I went. What a Polish school there was left in our village, in Barčiai. <...> There was that school. But she's gone. They destroyed it. So I went. What was my school there – three classes. I went until three. I went when the Germans were there, I went when... the Soviets came. But they taught ME [to read – V. S.], I was still a little girl at home, and there was such a lame man. And he taught me to read. So I read in Polish at home. So I went to that school and a week later the war started. In 39, the war began. Then the Soviets came. 40's. He taught Belarusian. Well. Well, that's me and... but it was easy for me, because I knew the letters, I knew how to read in Polish. That's for me, I'll be quick... but then there was nowhere... like... we later moved to a detached house. Two kilometers, a long way to that school. 16 singing and dancing (6), teachers are recalled: some are depicted as strict (9), while others – for a small remuneration contributed to the education of the inhabitants of the smallest localities of the Šalčininkai district (10). CONCLUSIONS This article aimed to investigate how the role of school and its position in the first half of the 20th century are reflected in the autobiographical stories of some older generation inhabitants of the Šalčininkai region. The content of the analyzed narratives revealed that many informants, who grew up in the 30s and 40s, attended only a few classes, and some had no such experience at all. Narrators identify military conflicts and the need to help parents in the household as the most common reasons limiting education. According to them, during the Second World War, educational institutions were seized or burned, and the language of instruction was often changed. The presenters also recall that after the war, during the Soviet occupation, due to the declining economic situation in the district and the migration of the inhabitants – especially the wealthier – difficult educational conditions prevailed: there was a lack of schools and teachers. For these reasons, the lack of teachers was compensated by volunteers, and their salary was paid by the parents of the students. It is clear that school is gradually entering the daily life of many inhabitants of this region. Earlier, in the 1920s and 1930s, they thought that not attending school was a fairly normal and common phenomenon, and completing four grades was a significant event. After the Second World War, the discourses of respondents show a greater importance given to educational institutions and efforts to participate in the educational process. Now, judging from the evaluations and interpretations of the past by the presenters, school has a great significance and is one of the values both for younger residents and for those who, comparing the present with the past, remember a different image of it in their childhood. Looking at the self-perception of the presenters through their constructed narrative, a rather complicated situation emerges. 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Vinogradnaitė Inga, Kavaliauskaitė Jūratė, Ramonaitė Ainė, Ulinskaitė Jogilė, Kukulskytė Rytė 2018: Oral History as a Method for Studying Soviet Era, Vilnius: Vilnius University Press. 1992: Forced Polonization of the Polish-Occupied Part of Lithuania: A Study of the Polish-Occupied Part of Lithuania. – The survival of common language, Vilnius: Mokslo ir enciklopedijų leidykla, 222–245. VIOLETA ŠVAIKOVSKAJA THE IMAGE OF THE SCHOOL IN THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES OF THE INHABITANTS OF THE ŠALČININKAI DISTRICT Summary The methodological approach to oral history has evolved from a tool for reconstructing historical events into a method that enables an in-depth understanding of the memories, identity, self-perception, and relationship with both the past and present of individuals who have experienced those events. This focus on the individual is closely linked with the theoretical foundations of the Lublin School of Ethnolinguistics. Based on the research conducted by Halina 20 Pelcowa and Krystyna Rutkowska, this article highlights the value of oral history in reconstructing the linguistic worldview. This approach is especially valuable for the study of the Šalčininkai region, which unites Lithuanian and Slavic languages and cultures. The study aims to investigate, using the oral history method, the role of school in the autobiographical narratives of older residents in the Šalčininkai district, the prevailing attitudes towards it, and the cultural and social aspects of the past century reflected in the narratives under study. An analysis of the narratives of fourteen respondents reveals accounts of school nonattendance and the factors that contributed to this phenomenon. The most commonly cited reasons among respondents who completed only a few grades include the impact of the Second World War and the necessity of working in the household. The obligation to assist parents with home duties affected a significant proportion of informants, particularly the eldest children in their families. Girls were typically responsible for household chores such as spinning or weaving, while boys tended to the household maintenance. During the interwar period, four-year primary schools were commonly operational, yet the number of respondents who completed these schools was limited. During the Second World War, many schools were either seized or destroyed by fire, resulting in the absence of facilities for formal education. Additionally, there was a shortage of qualified personnel capable of instructing multilingual children, and the language of instruction frequently changed with each new governing authority. In the first half of the twentieth century, schooling was not widely regarded as a social value, and non-attendance was a relatively common occurrence. However, the informants’ narratives reveal a gradual shift in attitudes and practices regarding education. This transformation is particularly apparent when comparing the scarcity of educational opportunities in the past with the more accessible possibilities available today. Narratives from those who did not attend school often contain elements of self-criticism, reflecting low selfesteem and negative self-assessments regarding their abilities. Nevertheless, some accounts seek to mitigate the limited formal education by emphasising the achievements and merits attained during their time at school. APPENDIX: ENCRYPTIONS OF PROVIDERS [M1924, Rūdninkai] – woman, born in 1924, Rūdninkai, Šalčininkų r. [M1930, Jurgelionys] – woman, born in 1930, Jurgelionys, Šalčininkų r. [M1931, Rūdninkai] – woman, born in 1931, Rūdninkai, Šalčininkų r. [M1931, Šalčininkėliai] – woman, born in 1931 in Barčiai (Belarus), moved in 1959 to Šalčininkėlių k., Šalčininkėliai, Šalčininkų r. [M1933, Gojus] – woman, born in 1933, Gojus, Šalčininkų r. [M1936, Valatkiškės] – woman, born in 1936, Valatkiškės, Šalčininkų r. [M1943, Rimašiai] – woman, born in 1948, Gojus, Šalčininkų r. [M86, Šalčininkėliai] – woman, 86 years old, Šalčininkėliai, Šalčininkų r. [M92, Šalčininkėliai] – woman, 92 years old, Šalčininkėliai, Šalčininkų r. [V1929, Gojus] – man, born in 1929, Gojus, Šalčininkų r. [V1933, Rūdninkai] Šalčininkėliai] – male, born in 1933, Šalčininkėliai, Šalčininkų r. [V1936, Šalčininkai] – male, born in 1936, Šalčininkai, Šalčininkų r. [V1948, Kurmelionys] – male, born in 1936, Kurmelionys, Šalčininkų r.