Jonas BASANAVICIUS, (1851-1927),
physician and ethnologist, leader of the Lithuanian national revival,
and signer of the Lithuanian Declaration of Independence, born at
Ozkabaliai, near Bartininkai, county of Vilkaviskis, on November 23,
1851. In 1873 he began studying history at the University of Moscow. A
year later he transferred to the school of medicine and was awarded a
scholarship reserved for Lithuanians. Upon receiving his degree in
medicine, he was allowed to remaining the surgical department to
prepare for a professorship, but without funds. So he would have to
begin medical practice in Moscow with the risk that he would be
transferred further into Russia to work out repayment of his
scholarship. This uncertainty drove the young physician to settle in
Bulgaria for many years.
The Physician in Bulgaria. Just at that
time Bulgaria had reverted to being an independent principality
(1878-1879). Believing that he would have more freedom there than in
Russia, Basanavicius arranged an invitation from the Bulgarian
government, and left Moscow early in 1880. In Bulgaria he was
appointed a physician of the Lorn Polanka area and director of the
hospi- he organized the newly-built hos- pital, and wrote for the
professional journals, Russia's continued interference in the internal
life of Bulgaria, caused the development of a democratic anti-Russian
party, which Basanavicius joined.
When the party was removed from
governmental office and began to suffer persecution, Basanavicius
requested two months' leave for reasons of health. In the spring of
1882, he sailed on the Danube to Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Here
he was wrongly suspected of being a partisan Russophile, so without
delay he left for Zagreb, and from there went to Vienna. In Vienna he
worked in medical clinics and libraries. Later he moved to Prague to
further his studies in medicine, and there he met a German Czech,
Gabriele Elenora Mohl. They were married in Vienna on May 15, 1884.
After the wedding, they returned to
Bulgaria and once more, he began duties as a physician. On Aug. 17,
1887, a Bulgarian invited him as a doctor to his home, where he
wounded Basanavicius with two bullets. The motive for the shooting
remained unclear. In 1888, Basanavicius traveled throughout Bulgaria
gathering data for his study of sanitary conditions in Bulgaria.
The painful experience of his wife's
untimely death in 1889 made Basanavicius decide to remain in Bulgaria
for a longer period. In 1891 he received Bulgarian citizenship. In
1892, he was transferred from Lorn Polanka to Varna where he was
assigned a position as chief physician in the department of internal
medicine for the city hospital, and in 1894, he was also given the
position of palace physician for Prince Ferdinand. While residing in 1
Varna, he was a member of the Bulgarian Democratic Party and acted as
its representative in the city council and at various meetings during
the years of 1899-1903.
After earning his pension, on Jan. 19,
1905, he sent a request to the Russian Minister of the Interior to be
allowed to return to Lithuania. The same request in 1894 had been
rejected. This time, after waiting a long while for an answer in vain,
he crossed the border secretly and arrived in Vilnius on Aug. 1,1905.
Editor of Ausra. Although he had been
out of the country for 25 years, Lithuanian affairs had never left his
attention. In Lithuania Minor, which was then ruled by Prussia,, there
existed a few Lithuanian periodicals, but they were all narrow in
content and pro-German. Basanavicius sent articles to these
periodicals in the hope of arousing interest in the past of Lithuania
and in the national revival, but the editors did not understand the
need of arousing national consciousness. Also newspapers of Lithuania
Minor were printed in Gothic letters, which were unfamiliar in
Lithuania Major. Under Russian rule publication of Lithuanian writings
in the Latin alphabet had been forbidden in Lithuania Major since
1864. There was an obvious need for a new periodical which would be
especially directed to Lithuania Major.
This was achieved in the spring of 1883 with the first publishing of Ausra
(Dawn). The printing was carried out in Lithuania Minor, and then
the periodical was secretly transported into Lithuania Major.
Basanavicius had written the prefatory statement of purpose for the
periodical and he acted as editor while he was abroad. By idealizing
the deeds of historic Lithuanians, AuSra was prompting a
nationalistic consciousness. The periodical only lasted three years
(1883-86), but the movement it started continued expanding and
strengthened the nation's desire for freedom. (See Ausra.) Interest
in Lithuanian History. Basanavicius had written in the preface of Ausra
(March, 1883): "Our most important and greatest concern should be
to know the traditions of our ancient past and the works of our
honorable forefathers." He devoted every spare moment to the
understanding of this past. While employed as a physician in Bulgaria,
he often traveled abroad, especially to Germany and Austria, gathering
material for his Lithuanian studies in their museums and libraries.
His prime interest lay in the study of Lithuanian prehistory, ancient
religion, customs, and folklore. While he was still attending the high
school of Marijampole, he recorded Lithuanian folk songs and legends.
Later, although he was studying in Moscow, he kept contact with a
society started by Germans at Tilsit (Tilze) in Lithuania Minor, Litauische
Literarische Gesellschaft, whose purpose was to gather linguistic
and ethnological material relating to Lithuania. From 1880-1885 this
society's journal, Mitteilungen der Litauischen Literarischen
Gesellschaft, published, songs, riddles and legends collected by
Basanavicius; the legends also appeared in a German translation with
the title Fragmenta Mythologiae (1886). Later songs and tales
which he collected and which others sent to him were printed in
Lithuanian periodicals published in Lithunia Minor and the United
States, especially in Dirva (The Field) from 1898-1902.
Basanavicius collected the published and
newly-gathered material into the following major publications of
folklore: OSkabaliu dainos (Songs of Ozkabaliai), 2 vols.,
1902; LietuviSkos pasakos (Lithuanian Tales), 2 vols.,
1898-1902; Is gyvenimo lietuvisku veliu ir velniu (From the
Life of Lithuanian Ghosts and Devils), 1903; Lietuviskos pasakos
ivairios (Various Lithuanian Tales), 4 vols., 1903-1905. These
publications included some 300 songs and about 1,000 tales and
legends. In addition, in 1893, in Apsvieta (Education) he
published a study, Is musu botanikos (From our Botany) which
contained a classification of 284 Lithuanian-named plants, and in
1898, published another similar study, Medzega musu tautiskai
vaistininkystei (Material for our National Herbal).
Basanavicius also wrote on matters of
Lithuanian history, such as the grand princes, the battles with the
Order of the Cross, castles and historical landmarks. He gave a
romantic picture of the Lithuanian past. His interest was primarily
held by the question of Lithuanian origin.
Thrace-Phrygian Hypothesis. Basanavicius
considered his most important work to be his efforts to prove that the
Lithuanians were descendants of the Thrace-Phrygians. Traveling widely
in Bulgaria, he became acquainted with its ancient cultural heritage.
He took notice of similarities between Bulgaria and Lithuania, such as
in toponyms, customs, songs, and their melodies. These similarities
were especially pronounced in the southeast, on the coast of the Black
Sea, where Thracians of an Indo European origin lived in antiquity. On
the other side of the Black Sea, part of Asia Minor was inhabited by
the congeneric Phrygians. Basanavicius' hypothesis was that the
Lithuanians were of the same origin, having migrated from the Balkan
Peninsula to the coast of the Baltic Sea. The material he spent most
of his life gathering was the basis of many articles, but he failed to
convince any scholars, either Lithuanian or those abroad. Among the
articles he wrote on this subject are: Lietuviskai-trakiskos
studijos (Lithuanian-Thracian Studies), 1898; Levas lietuviu
pasakose ir prygiskai trakiskoje dailoje (The Lion ir. Lithuanian
Tales and Thraco-Phrygian Art), 1907-19; Apie traku prygu tautyste
ir ju atsikelima Lietuvon (On the Nationality of the Thra
cohrygians and their Migration to Lithuania), 1921; Traku kalbos
likuciai vietu varduose lietuviu kalbos sviesoje (Thracian
Linguistic Remains in Toponyms in the Light of Lithuanian), 1925, and
others. Most of these articles appeared in the magazine Lietuviu
Tauta (The Lithuanian Nation), which Basanavicius had started
publishing in Vilnius in 1907.
Activities at the Capital of Lithuania.
Basanavicius returned from Bulgaria and settled in Lithuania's
capital, Vilnius in 1905. Meanwhile a revolutionary movement arose in
Russia, seeking a democratic state system. In Lithuania, the movement
was directed against the Russian administration, with the hope of
gaining more freedom and autonomy for Lithuania. A Lithuanian assembly
was called in Vilnius to express these goals, and Basanavicius signed
an appeal to the Lithuanian nation. From the time of the publication
of AuSra (1883), he was well-known among the Lithuanian public
and was thought of as the patriarch of the national revival. He
attempted to use this authority at the Great Assembly in Vilnius in
1905 to unite people of various political parties and ideologies, and
so to bring about the passing of resolutions which would demand
Lithuanian autonomy. The revolution was suppressed quickly and
autonomy was not attained, but the Vilnius Assembly did achieve more
freedom in the forming of organizations and the publishing of
newspapers.
Basanavicius established the Lithuanian
Learned Society (Lietuviu Mokslo Draugija), which began work on
Feb. 15, 1907. From that day this organization became his prime
concern. He donated his extensive library and took it upon himself to
gather more books on Lithuanian subjects, manuscripts and material on
ethnology and archaeology. In 1907, he became editor and did most of
the writing for a scholarly magazine put out by the organization, Lietuviu
Tauta (The Lithuanian Nation). The significance which the
Lithuanian Learned Society gained was due solely to his efforts and it
was the only center of Lithuanian learning before World War I. In
1913, Basanavicius, together with Martynas Ycas, went to the United
States and there collected $23,709.36 in donations to build a home for
the organization. The coming of the war prevented the completion of
these plans, and the money, which had been placed in a bank,
disappeared.
Basanavicius lived in Vilnius throughout
World War I and the ensuing years. At the Lithuanian conference, held
in Vilnius from September 17-22, 1917, he was elected to the Council
of Lithuania. On February 16, 1918, this Council in Vilnius declared
the restoration of the state of Lithuania. As the oldest member,
Basanavicius was the first to sign the declaration of independence.
During 1919-1920 Vilnius was occupied in turn by the Russians and the
Poles, causing the Lithuanian government to move temporarily to
Kaunas. Nevertheless, Basanavicius remained in Vilnius with the
Lithuanian Learned Society. Breaking its agreement with Lithuania,
Poland occupied Vilnius on Oct. 9, 1920, but Basanavicius continued
fighting for Lithuanian rights, wrote publicistic papers, and went on
with his research. He died on Feb. 16, 1927 in Vilnius.
Text from the ENCYCLOPEDIA
LITUANICA I-VI. Boston, 1970-1978
