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Vincas Kudirka (1858-1899),
physician and writer, who did much to revive Lithuanian national and
cultural consciousness at the end of the 19th century, author of
Lithuania's national anthem, born in Paezeriai, county of Vilkaviskis,
on December 31, 1858. From 1871-1876 he studied at Marijampole High
School, showing musical and literary talent. Although he attended
Lithuanian language classes at the high school, he preferred Polish
literature, especially the works of Adam Mickiewicz and, following that
writer's example, began to consider himself gente lituanus, nations
polonus (of Lithuanian birth, of Polish nationality). In 1877 at his
father's insistence he entered the Theological Seminary in Seinai, but
showed no desire to study there. In 1879 he returned to Marijampole to
complete high school. Here he began to write poetry and to publish a
supposedly clandestine student newsletter in Polish; the publication
included his poetry and humorous and satirical articles.
In 1881 Kudirka entered the University of
Warsaw, studied philology for one year, then transferred to medicine. In
1885 he was arrested and tried by the Russian police for helping to
prepare for copying an abridged translation of Marx' Das Kapital.
Apart from this technical help to Polish Marxists, Kudirka matured under
the influence of liberal positivism. Later in Warsaw he recognized the
marked difference between Lithuanians who had adopted Polish culture and
native Poles. He became convinced that Lithuanians and Poles had
distinct national differences. His final conversion was caused by
reading the first truly Lithuanian newspaper Auszra (The Dawn) by
Jonas Basanavicius. During his final year of study in 1888, Kudirka and
other Lithuanian students founded a secret society in Warsaw called Lietuva
(Lithuania); in 1889 they began to publish the Lithuanian newspaper Varpas
(The Bell), which played a significant role in the Lithuanian national
revival.
Kudirka's work in Lithuanian political and
national movements lasted only ten years. When Varpas began to be
published, it became obvious that Kudirka was suffering from an advanced
stage of tuberculosis. However, he completed his studies and began to
practice medicine in Sakiai. Sakiai was not far from his birthplace and
was close to the Russian-German bor-der, across which Varpas was
published because of the Russian government's ban on Lithuanian
literature. He was that newspaper's editor and most important
contributor. As his illness progressed, Kudirka went to Yalta in 1894
for treatment, but returned home due to lack of funds. He moved to
Naumiestis, by the German border, and forsook medicine to concentrate on
editing, journalism and literature. Here he was arrested by the Russian
police, who suspected him of authoring articles in Varpas. He was
released for lack of evidence. Kudirka then sought treatment in
Sevastopol, but in the spring of 1896 returned to Naumiegtis. His
illness had so advanced that he could only write lying down. He died in
Naumiestis on November 16, 1899. The town was later renamed after him
Kudirkos Naumiestis.
Kudirka was the first true columnist in
Lithuanian journalism, and was a most significant influence on the
Lithuanian nation. His column in Varpas, called Tevynes varpai
(Homeland Bells), is the backbone of collections of his works. Much of
its contents (mutatis mutandis) is almost as relevant; to the
20th century as it was to the last decade of the 19th. His writings were
affected by Adam Mickiewicz and Friedrich von Schiller and their
romantic idealization of the combatant spirit of liberty in nations and
peoples. Yet Kudirka also sought to solve actual problems and was a
practical positivist. Fascinated. by. Lithuania's heroic past, he
popularized its history to protest the subjugation of the Lithuanian
people by the Russian tsar. He unmercifully unmasked the injustice of
the Russian government's laws as applicable to Lithuania, especially the
absurdity of the ban on freedom of the press, and exposed the Russian
bureaucrats' inane actions in Lithuania. Yet he did not spare his
compatriots, especially the Lithuanian intelligentsia, whom he
castigated for their apathy, inferiority complex, acceptance of their
lot, political cowardice, not fighting for national rights, and for
internecine squabbling because of ideological differences. Kudirka saw
as heroes the high school students who, while Lithuanian and Catholic,
refused to pray in Russian before classes, or the farmers who, even on
pain of death, did not fear to resist the Russian administration's
attempt to destroy their church.
Kudirka was not inciting revolution or
riot. He urged Lithuanians to first enlighten themselves and learn their
rights, and then to demand and protect these rights. He urged and taught
political, cultural and economic resistance. Considering the attainment
of Lithuania's national rights and good as the most important task for
the Lithuanian population, Kudirka urged the people to discount
religious or social differences and to strive for their goal with a
unified front. Although many political parties eventually developed in
Lithuania, all excepting the communists accepted Lietuva, Tevyne musu
(Lithuania, Our Homeland), written by Kudirka, as the national anthem.
The anthem is a fifty-word condensation of his program of political
ideals for the Lithuanian nation. The first lines of the hymn describe
Lithuania as the homeland of Lithuanians and a land of heroes. He is, of
course, speaking about historical heroes and urging Lithuanians to draw
inspiration and spiritual strength from \ their heroic past. He
speaks not of conquest or the reinstatement of a powerful state, but
rather wishes that Lithuanians would be people of the highest integrity
who work for their homeland's good and for the good of humanity. The
hymn further expresses a wish that Lithuania become a source of
enlightenment, defeat ignorance, and be a stronghold of truth and
justice. Finally it urges patriotism and national unity. Kudirka also
wrote the melody for the anthem; both words and music were published in Varpas
in September, 1898. The second stanza of the hymn, comprised of 23
words, was chiseled on Kudirka's gravestone. By order of the local
Russian police chief, the inscription was later obliterated.
In addition to journalism, Kudirka was a
pioneer in political satire in Lithuanian literature. He left only 4
stories of this genre: Lietuvos tilto atsiminimai (Recollections
of a Lithuanian Bridge), Virsininkai (The Chiefs), Cenzuros
klausimai (The Question of Censorship) and Vilkai (The
Wolves). The satires compromised the Russian administration even more
effectively than Kudirka's journalistic writings. After nearly a hundred
years they may be read with as much pleasure as if they were directed at
current events. As a satirist, Kudirka was a follower of the Russian
writers Krylov, Gogol and Saltykov-Shchedrin. In his poetry he taught
his countrymen how a good Lithuanian should act in life. Even more than
by original work, Kudirka enriched Lithuanian literature by good
translations. Characteristically he chose to translate works which were
thematically concerned with Lithuanian history or with other nations'
struggle for political freedom against foreign domination. The first
category includes: Mindowe (Mindaugas) by J. Slowacki, Kiejstut
(Kestutis) by A. Asnyk, Narymont (Narimantas) by T. Werblowska, Dziady
(All Souls' Day, Part III) and an excerpt from Konrad Wallenrod
by A. Mickiewicz. The second group includes: Wilhelm Tell and Die
Jungfrau von Orleans by F. von Schiller, Cain by G. Byron,
and Dust of the Earth (in Polish) by M. Radzewiczowna. He also
translated the satiric fables of M. Krylov. Furthermore Kudirka, an
originator of Lithuanian literary criticism, published a provisional
Lithuanian writing manual and an article on principles of versification;
both texts greatly helped to improve the new Lithuanian journalism and
literature. He prepared and published Kankles (Lithuanian
Zithers), an anthology of Lithuanian folk songs (2 parts, 1895 and
1899), and pieces for the violin (which he played) and pianoforte.
Herewith Kudirka was an impulse in many branches of Lithuanian cultural
activity. His works were the basis for the political ideology of
Lithuanian liberal and nationalistic parties which later developed.
