Dėl Pietryčių Lietuvos ankstyvųjų slavėjimo tarpsnių

LITHUANIAN LINGUISTICAL QUESTIONS, XXXIV (1994) LITHUANIAN LANGUAGE DIARCHEMS AND THEIR STUDIES Aloyzas VIDUGIRIS ABOUT THE EARLY SLAVIC INTERPRESSION OF SOUTHEAST LITHUANIA It would be difficult to talk about Southeast Lithuania, its ethnolinguistic development and situation without the old local names of this region. However, few people probably know that these place names, which differ in sound and pronunciation in no way from the names of other places in Lithuania, returned to a second life thanks to the care of Prof. Antanas Salis, the most authoritative curator of the Lithuanian toponyms in 1939—1943. Until then, these place names were severely distorted, glorified, i.e. covered with a thick layer of foreign plaques. During his visit to Lithuania in 1969, I had a considerable conversation with Prof. A. Salis about the ethnolinguistic situation in South-East Lithuania. He told quite a lot about old people who knew Lithuanian and who he had met in the vicinity of Vilnius, and about the characteristic dialects of their language. I remembered his words that in the territory belonging to Lithuania during the war, extending to Vidžiai, Svyriai, Ašmena and Krėva, there was almost no neighborhood without people speaking Lithuanian *. With the return of old forms of place names, this region is undoubtedly even more firmly perceived as a part of the whole of Lithuania, the identity of our cultural context. From this alone follows the unwavering significance of A. Salis’s works, his own; as a scientist and a personality. Today, South-East Lithuania is quite diverse both linguistically and ethnically, having gone through a long path of language and sometimes population change. Here we want to discuss more broadly the reasons for the earlier stages of Slavification in this part of Lithuania and the course of Slavification itself. The beginning of the general Slavification (Polonization) of Southeast Lithuania is usually dated to the middle of the 19th century, especially the second half of that century (mainly based on the research data of H. Turska). However, such a generalization is only partially correct when it comes to the beginning of the general polonization of rural people. At that time, the stormy breakthrough of polonization manifested itself in three foci: Vilnius, Kaunas and Smalvų (more precisely — Daugpilis). The earlier process of glorification can be called incubation. * During post-war expeditions here (e.g., near New Vilnius, Kyviskiy village, Sūmske or in Belarus — Mackonių village near Kamojai, Mikailiškės, on the way to Sviryūs — and elsewhere) I had the opportunity to meet former elders of the time, real personalities who had suffered Siberian camps and the terror of the Army Krajova. Some of them learned Lithuanian from a young age (from their parents or grandparents), others learned later by earning money or in another way. 75 The Polish language (in Lithuanian Polish — "polszczyzna litewska", or cultural dialect of the peripheral Polish language), here gradually spread vertically — from the upper class (aristocracy) through the middle class (small nobility and townspeople) to the lower class (Lithuanian peasants or free peasants) for several centuries. The most important reasons for the decline of the Lithuanian language were the Lithuanian Catholic Church, which was dependent on the Polish spiritual hierarchy, and the weakening of the Lithuanian statehood after the Union of Lublin in 1569. The statehood was finally destroyed during the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian state (1772, 1793 and 1795). The majority of Lithuanian aristocrats, who up to then had supported the sovereignty of Lithuania and always emphasized their difference from the Poles, in the face of the common danger increasingly showed solidarity with the Polish barons. The name of Lithuania was also removed from the 1791 Constitution. The fact that the Lithuanian state was not as homogeneous as in the 13th century, during the reign of King Mindaugas, also played a role. Later, Lithuania extended from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Moreover, there has never been a clear ethnic boundary between Lithuanians and Eastern Slavs, the current ancestors of Belarusians: much earlier, the Eastern Slavs, baptizing the bilingual inhabitants, penetrated into the ethnic Lithuanian lands. In 1323, when Gediminas wrote letters to Western Europe from Vilnius, the official capital at the time, Vilnius already had not only a Catholic church but also an Orthodox church. With the growth of the state and the strengthening of Catholicism, Vilnius became one of the largest cities not only in Lithuania, but in the whole of Eastern Europe.” It is the capital of not only ethnic Lithuania, but also the western Eastern Slavic lands that became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and one of the most important international crossroads centers of Western and Eastern Europe. in Since the Counter-Reformation years, the university and many monasteries in Vilnius, over time, were able to control a considerable amount of surrounding lands. The Swedish and Russian invasions of the 17th and early 18th centuries brought famine and plague. A significant number of Slavic inhabitants moved from the east to the emptied lands of southeastern Lithuania, which in some places significantly changed the relationships of language use. From the baptismal book of Lavėriškiai parish from the beginning of the 18th century (1702—1729), which came into my hands by chance, it is clear that many of the surnames were still Lithuanian, indicating people who spoke Lithuanian, e.g. : Batoraytis (1716, Dekaniškių k.), Bielunas (1705, Dekaniškės), Bivoynis (1704, Juozapinė), Buihunes (1723, Lavériskés), Czeszninkas (1716, Lavériskes), Dac-| kunas (1713, Kirtimai), Dedela (1703, Kyviškės), Dervinis (1704, Slabadė), Dudela (1717, Dekaniškės), Dutkus (1713, Bildžiai), Gaydaytis (1716, Kirtimai), Gaydis (1704, Skaisteriai), Gawris (1721, Puntuzai), Kuialis (1719, Mickūnai), Pavilenas (1713), Szwogzlis (1712, Bildžiai) and many others. There are also a number of already Slavicized (with Slavic suffix, without Lithuanian ending) male | surnames, e.g. : Bilksztowt (1723, Dekaniškės), Buywid (1718, Bildžiai), Derši win (1704, Slabada), Derwinowicz (1705, Skaisteriai), Grazul (1721, Dūbiai), Mikulaniec (1721, Slabada), Szwagžlewicz (1704, Dekaniškės) and others. The Lithuanian- -speaking inhabitants are shown by the numerous Dzūkian girls’ surnames, e.g. : Awksztadwaricia (1713, Dekaniškės), Bajoruyczia (1716, Dekaniškės), Derwiniuczia (1709, Skaisteriai), Dirwoniuszknyczia (1716, Lavėriškės), Ga(i)daluczia (1716, Bildžiai), Gaylucia (1714, Skaisteriai), Meertemnuyczie (1716, Dubniškės), Karaniucia (1702, Skaisteriai), Kiekcziucia a undeniably 76 (1705, Bildziai), Melnikuycia (1718, Lavériskeés), Mikulayczia (1716, Kirtimai), Szaltanosa(i)cia (1713, Lavoériskés), Waskaicie (1713, Lavériskeés), Zmitruntkucia (1703, Rusiai) and many others. There are also Slavicized names, e.g., Biwoyniowa (1709, Kirtimai), Buywidowna (1717, Dekaniškės), Dedeléwna (1703, Kyviškės), Derviniowna //Derviniuwna (1704, Skaisteriai; 1705, Slabadd; 1718, Bildziai), Dagiliowna (1703, Dekaniskés), Mikulanka (1714, Slabada), Milucanka (1703, Kyviškės), Smilginicha (1724, Mickūnai), Szakulanka (1712, Mickūnai) ir and others. At that time, a part of the population, apparently, still spoke Slavic very weakly. This is shown by female surnames composed with a double — Lithuanian and Slavic suffix, e.g., Dudicianka (< Dad + yč + anka; 1716, Dekaniškės), Markuniczuuna (< Morkūn + yč + uwna; 1702, Skaisteriai) and probably Brazaiciowna (< Braz + aič + owna; 1716, Lavoriškės), Grigaiciowna (< Grig + aič + owna; 1713, Kaniūkai), since neither the surname Brazaitis nor Grigaitis is mentioned in the aforementioned metric book. However, the bilingual population probably increased rapidly, because in the first and second decades of the 18th century there were considerably more Lithuanian surnames than in the 1920s. There are also more names with the Slavic suffixes -evič, -ovič. Bilingualism seems to be spreading more and more. Due to plague and settlers, the ethnic composition of the population may have changed. However, until the end of the 18th century, and elsewhere later, the ethnolinguistic situation had not changed fundamentally. In Vilnius and its nearer and further surroundings, a person speaking Lithuanian was considered a common thing until the second half of the 19th century. Therefore, the Lithuanianness of the Vilnius district, the bishopric, and in part, the whole gubernia was self-evident. This can be seen clearly from the writings of K. Bogušas, K. Kontrimas, D. Poška, P. Kepenas, M. Balinskas, T. Lipinskis, J. Jaroševičius, T. Narbutas and other authors of the time. At the same time, however, concern is expressed about the situation of the Lithuanian language, its unlawfulness and destruction. The reaction following the first partition of Lithuania and Poland —The educational reform of 1773 set the task of consolidating and merging the Lithuanian and Polish nations into one. The network of parish schools has been greatly expanded for this purpose- ." The secularised Vilnius University (academy) had to supervise them and coordinate the teaching programmes, and the teaching was no longer in Latin but in Polish. “Soon after, in 1787, Polish was introduced into the baznyéias® of the Vilnius Diocese. This was the most painful blow to the Lithuanian language, because it was removed from the last public place of official use. In many places in eastern Lithuania, this was a fatal blow to the Lithuanian language. How the sudden change of status affected the use of the Lithuanian language is shown by a brief description of the linguistic situation in the area in 1827, given by the pastor of Lavėriškiai: "the native language of the parish inhabitants is Lithuanian, but now Russian is spoken (i.e., Gudic — A. V.); 40 years ago, everyone spoke Lithuanian"". Thus, exactly 40 years had passed between 1787, when Lithuanian was removed from the church, and 1827, when it was apparently already avoided to speak Lithuanian in public. At TT best, Lithuanian remained only in families, but even that — not everywhere and not for the same time. The inhabitants, who began to speak Slavic languages, also quickly became Slavic. However, until the second half of the 19th century, and in some places even later, it did not spread to the mind. the Polish language (although everybody tried to speak it), and the Gudu, or common, language, which from tradition spread directly through horizontal (lateral) contacts bg: du and played the role of a transitional, intermediate, and a certain regional language. Especially its role and usage increased during the years of the rule of the Tsarist Russian Empire, because, perceived by Lithuanian peasants as a lower variant of the prestigious Polish (pony) language, it was much closer in social terms. The need for the Gudi language was encouraged by the policy of lenkization, which was conducted through the manors and the church, and later by the policy of russification (the Russians considered it to be a dialect of the Russian language- ). It was not possible to learn Polish simply from casual contacts with nobles and clergy without having direct connections with the Polish ethnicity. j As in the Lavėriškių district, the situation was similar at that time in other parishes east of Vilnius, where the Slavy (‘rusy-lenky’ rusiny’, i.e. Gudi) language prevailed, e.g., Rudaminés, Rūkainiai, Kenos, Simsko, Taba riskiy, Médininky, Astravo- ®, etc. In the first half of the 19th century, the Lithuanian language still prevailed only from Lavoriškiai to the other side, e.g., in Buivydžių parish — "all the villagers of Buivydžių parish speak common Lithuanian to each other"*. Bistryčiai —"everybody in the whole parish speaks Lithuanian, only rarely Polish or Russian"- 1? ; ; Varnioniai—"spoken alternately in Russian, Polish and Lithuanian; Lithuanian language up to here extends from Kaunas and Curonian gubernijų"! ; Mikailiskiy —"26 villages speak Lithuanian"! ?, not to mention the Lithuanian neighborhood of Gervėčiai. On the other side of the "corridor" which had begun to become famous some time earlier, Lithuanian still existed in Rūdninkai, Turgėliai, Šalčininkėliai, Šalčininkai and other neighbourhoods!3 F Quite accurately and concisely the situation of the first half of the 19th century in the Vilnius district was described by the good scholars of that region, historians M. Balinskis and T. Lipinskis. "Vilnius County is inhabited by Lithuanians themselves. However, the Lithuanian language is spoken only from the northern side, or on the right bank of the Neris; it gave way to Polish near Vilnius itself on the southern side; further Lithuanian villages are mixed with villages where the Polish-Russian (Guds — A. V.) language is spoken. However, among the rural people of this county, the Lithuanian language outweighs the latter two? 14, That the inhabitants of the Vilnius-Mėdininkai-Ašmenė and Vilni i Sumskas-- Salos-Smurgéinys roads, who had begun to speak the Slavic language earlier, were assimilated unevenly, was asserted in 1860 by the writer V. Sirokomlė, who had travelled from Vilnius to Ašmena: "People met on the way in places speak Lithuanian, but among the younger generation of people the Lithuanian language is already forgotten and gives way to the Ruthenian-Polish language!- "®. In the 10th century, the common, or local, Gudi language as a second language spread rapidly further west from Vilnius: along the Vilnius-Trūkai roads, along the Neris river —about 100 km. Riešę, Sūdervę, Rykantus, Dūkštas and others. In addition, even the smaller barons often spoke Gudish. ; Many authors, by writing the Slavic languages with a hyphen —"lenky--rusų?", "rusinųlenkų" and others, — wanted to emphasize not so much the closeness of these languages as their inseparable use: the old Lithuanian generation was replaced by the younger one, for whom genetically close languages became inseparable and necessary. The common language, or Gudu, became the predominant language of everyday life, while Polish 78 became the language of the estate, the castle, the church and culture in general. From the end of the 18th century to the second half of the 19th century and later, plain language prevailed: in some places as the main, in others as an auxiliary, second means of communication. At that time, however, there was not yet national, but mainly linguistic assimilation of the population. Although the inhabitants already knew and spoke other languages, they were usually still called Lithuanians!- ®. Thus, the first period of Slavification (end of the 18th century – middle of the 19th century) mainly changed the eastern part of Vilnius County: the nearest south-eastern Vilnius suburbs (including the Vilnius-Trakai road) and the Vilnius-Ašmena and Vilnius-Stmsko roads, or the so-called Black Road (“Čiorny tracht”), etc. The decline of the Lithuanian language was mainly caused by the Church (led from Poland) which started to use only Polish and Polish parish schools, which forbade children to speak Lithuanian not only at school (hanging of metals, etc.), but also in families. The second stage of universal Slavification (second half of the 19th century – beginning of the 20th century) was a direct reaction to the forcible Russification: after the 1863–1864 uprising, Lithuanian press in Latin script was banned, schools taught only in Russian, the inhabitants were persecuted, churches were turned into chapels. It was at this time that ir the fight for influence ir over Lithuanian peasants broke out between the Russifiers, the Tsar’s officials, and the Polonizers, the nobles and the pro-Polish clergy. Although in terms of time this period is an uninterrupted rate of the first stage of Slavification, qualitatively it is a new period: the general Polishization of Lithuanians covered not only the language, but also the national consciousness. The Polish language, which had previously only been spoken in the upper classes of society, reached the lower classes at this time. The peripheral variant of Polish, or simply Lithuanian Polish ("polszczizna litewska"), began to spread among Lithuanian peasants west and north of Vilnius — in Nemenčinė, Pabėržė, Pabrada, Sužioniai, Karvis, Maišiagalė, Joniškis, Dubingi, Inturkės, Giedraičiai, Bijūtiškis, Širvintos, Kernavė and other areas. Polishization reached its peak in the 1880s and early 1900s, when the Lithuanian national movement became active. After the appearance of *Aušra*, from 1884—1885, under the pressure of the bowed landlords and clergy, the spiritual diocese of Vilnius went on an open attack against Lithuanian cultural figures, book carriers, Lithuanian-oriented clergy and the Lithuanian language in general, in order to discredit it." Under the administrative oppression of the Tsarist power and the spiritual yoke of the Polish people suffered twice. Polish political ideologues, using their unlimited influence, persisted in proclaiming that in the former Polish-Lithuanian state there was only one Polish nation, one Polish language and one Polish faith ("polska wiara"). All other languages are only dialects of Polish. Since then, all Catholics have been referred to as Poles, regardless of what language they speak. Large cities, many larger towns, villages and parish centers, a dense network of manors became the largest foci of polonization. It was not easy for the people to accept this betrayal of the upper classes. Many, if not most, were still strongly influenced from the past by Lithuanian culture, various "antiponic" traditions, usually still learning, understanding, 79 Those who remembered their Lithuanian-speaking parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, tended to call themselves neutrally — locals, čianykščiai (tuteišiai) and so on. Various ma es forced and now they cannot separate their nationality from religion and citizenship. Until the 1860s, there was no mention of any Polish territories northwest of Vilnius or elsewhere. Polish was only the language of the manor, the church, the castle and the city. According to the data collected by local clergy in 1857, even the present Polish "capital" of Vilnius - the district of Nemenčinė - is treated as entirely Lithuanian. Polish was spoken only "in the village and in the parish" **. There were also purely Lithuanian areas in Pabrada, Sužioniai and Pabėržė. Mixed or intermixed Lithuanian and Gudic or Polish was already spoken in Vėrkiai, Riešė, Karvis, Dūkštai, partly in Maišiagalos, Kernavės and Dubingių neighborhoods. The economic questionnaire of 1872, which was answered by local officials and teachers (mostly, apparently, Russians), also provides considerable material for understanding the situation of languages. For example, in Riešė village the local people spoke mostly Polish and Lithuanian ("Žemaitiškas"), occasionally — Gudiškas ("Lithuanian Russian")'- *; Maišiagalos —in Polish and Gudi (part of “Geisiškiai residents remember their parents after moving from Vitebsk and Polésés)?? ; Nemenčinės — some families started to speak Polish, partly Gudzic, but in public and at gatherings it was mostly heard. speaking Lithuanian and partly Russian? *; Pabėržės, —in Polish and Lithuanian®? ; Inturkės — in Polish, but mostly in Lithuanian?3 i] Vievio — mostly in Lithuanian, | pesos and Gudiškai, and the nobles in Polish? il Širvintų —only in Lithuanian?” and so on. In 1890, according to data collected by A. Pliater and published by Anonymous (J. Rozwadowski?), the number of Polish-speaking inhabitants jumped sharply in the villages of Nemenčinė (3/4) and Maišiagalė | ER il lB authoritiA i i LL in (3/5) and —up to half —in the village of Pabėržai*- "." Bilingual people with second Polish language began to appear rapidly | about Dūbingiai, Joniškis, Giedraičiūs, Išturkė, Bijutiski, Širvintas and others. At the beginning of the 20th century, from unofficial newspaper reports it is clear that the number of Lithuanian-speaking people in Dūbingiai and Joniškis decreased to half (it was 5/6), Pabėržė — to 1/3 (1/2), Nemenčinė — to 1/3, Maišiagalė — to 1/3 (1/5)?8. During the 1957—1964 expeditions in the surroundings of Nemenčinė, Pabrada, Sužioniai, Paberžė and Nemenčinė, grandparents who spoke Lithuanian and were born in the 1860s, 1870s or 1880s were still found. In their youth they spoke only Lithuanian. There were even more people who remembered how their parents, who were connected with their neighbors, used to speak only Lithuanian, and how they wanted Lithuanian schools, but not only did they not get them during the Polish occupation, but they were also forbidden to speak Lithuanian in public. It was especially dangerous to speak Lithuanian in Maišiagala, Nemenčinė and Vilnius because of aggressive chauvinist townspeople. The old people of Švenčionys repeatedly told that the greatest trouble for those travelling to the Vilnius market or to indulgences was to cross through the town of Nemenčinė, because there were many attacks by bent fanatics. The Ukmergė and Širvintos residents were frightened by the insolent Maišiagala chauvinists. Many people from Nemčinci claimed that the border between the local Polish and the common (Guds) language was the river Neris, i.e. On the left bank of the Neris people spoke simply ("poprostu, poprostemu"), and on the right — Polish. An 82-year-old old woman met in 1964 in Karvėliškiai village, near Nemenčinė, near Nerijos, who had already sung a song in Lithuanian, told that some neighbors had already started 80 to speak Gudi, but, embarrassed by the neighbors, had switched to Polish. His parents were well educated and often spoke Lithuanian to each other. She also knew Lithuanian from a young age, but over time she forgot it. The Polish linguist H. Turska, who studied the origin of Polish in Lithuania in the second half of the 19th century in the interwar period, observed a rather sudden outbreak of peripheral Polish among rural people. Many of them started speaking Polish as adults, without properly knowing the language. She was inclined to explain this phenomenon by the spontaneous need for cultural language, she did not see the social roots of this phenomenon. There are many facts that show that the breakthrough in self-awareness and language use took place around the middle of the 1880s. The Barkovskiai brothers from Piliakalnis village in Nemenčinė district, born around 1880, remembered well how their parents spoke Lithuanian to them until they were 5-7 years old, and then started to speak only Polish. The memories of J. Sinkevičius (b. 1881), a resident of Ažulauke village, are similar. Although the parents had already begun to speak Polish in their families, they spoke only Lithuanian to their neighbors and their livestock. A. Lasakeviciy (b. 1886), a resident of Kaniūkai village in Šalčininkai district, who was 8 or 9 years old, his father wanted to send him to herd, but at that time the chimneys from other villages had started to sound very loud, and he had not understood a word of Lithuanian yet. He was then buried in the village of Kiemeéliy in Benekainiy district, where almost everyone still speaks Lithuanian. In general, the opinion of an authoritative person (a cleric or a nobleman), his word, meant a lot to people at that time. The glorification virus would hardly have spread so rapidly if Lithuanian life had not been managed by foreigners and persons representing foreign interests. The cultural activities of the priest S. Gimžauskas (1845—1897), a friend of the Eastern Lithuanian educator, poet and linguist K. Jaunius from the times of the St. Petersburg Academy, show how much the personal position of the priest and the word spoken at the right time meant to the people. It was thanks to S. Gimžauskas, who ruled Valkininkai from 1884 to 1892, that this parish remained unslaved. In 1976, the inhabitants themselves confirmed this to the participants of the expedition. According to the parents and grandparents of the current generation of the parish of Valkininkai, the people of Valkininkai at that time (late 19th century), as well as the Lithuanian-speaking people of the neighboring parishes of Paluknis, Rūdninkai, Pabėržė and Eišiškės, which are now heavily degraded, began to speak in non-Lithuanian, i.e., in Gudžiai or Polish, encouraged by the priests or nobles who had been bent down to Gudžiai or Polish. If Father S. Gimžauskas had not personally and publicly denounced their efforts in his sermons at the time, the parish of Valkininkai would have been equally humbled. The fate of Butrimoniai parish (former Beniakainiai branch) is also noteworthy. According to local people, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the whole Butrimoniai area was still purely Lithuanian. In Butrimoniai, only one person did not speak Lithuanian — Vasiukevičius. People are just starting to hunt. The Lithuanian language is particularly hated by the Rėkliškių dvarponis. When in 1905 the Lithuanian priest Budra, who had been transferred to Butrimenis, began to preach Lithuanian sermons, 81 tinti and dvarponio agitated Lithuanian-speaking parishioners went to beat the priest, believing that from "pagan Lithuanian language" defends 'Polish religion and church'. Unfortunately, at the beginning of the 20th century, the appeal of priest Budra not to renounce the Lithuanian language did not affect many people, because their self-consciousness had already broken. | Thus, the second wave of universal glorification, especially accelerated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, covered even larger areas of southeastern Lithuania. Praise has advanced greatly from the Vilnius į south, west ir north. | I don't know what would have iš remained today of all Lithuania, if there had not been idealists who revived it for a second life and the struggle for survival, if in 1918 independent Lithuania had not been restored. And the very hint of polonization | Southeast Lithuania was expanded and consolidated in the Polish and Soviet periods. ir | 1 Turkish edition. On the formation of Polish language areas in the Vilnius region. | 1968. pp. 2. 1939. City of Vilnius, Vilnius, 1968. P. 214. 3 Ksigga of baptismal metrics of the Church of Lavary. 1702—1729. 1966 col petition received to borrow from Lavoriškiai district Adomaiciy village resident | A. Jankovskium (buv. agronomo). 4Zinkevičius Z. History of Lithuanian language. Lithuanian language XVIII—XIX | a. Vilnius, 1990. T. 4. P. 16. So is he. Eastern Lithuania in the ir past now. V. 34 1993. P. 96. 5Lukšienė M. Features of Lithuanian Educational History In the a. first half of XIX // Pedagogical works. T. 4. Kaunas, 1970. P. 68 t.t. 6Vidmantas E. The Conquest of Eastern Lithuania (Late 19th —Early 20th Centuries) //Voruta. 1990. No. 4(7). P. 3. | 7 BenoMOCcTH O KOCTENAX H MOHACTELIDAX snapxuu. 1827 Central Historical Archives of Lithuania. F. 694. Ap. 769. L. 1. 8 BenomMocTu...L. 8-10, 17-21, 25. | 9 Idem, L. 16. 10 Idem. L. 15. 11 Idem. L. 14. 12 Idem. L. 23. 13 Ibid. L. 5-7. 14Balinski M, Lipinski T. Ancient Poland under historical, geographical and statistical si. Warsaw, 1846. T. 3. P. 122 123; 15Syrokomla WI. Excursions in Lithuania in the radius of ilha, Vilnius, 1960. T. 2. P. 58. | 16Basanavičius J. Vilnius Lithuanians and "Polish" in the light of statistics. // Hope, 1908. No. 127 (162). | 17Vidmantas E. Min. veik. P. 3. 18 Zr. : Vilnius and Vilnius region. Kaunas, 1932. P. 75. 19 CBeneHHns1 O COCTOAHHH CENBCKOTO X03 HCTBA H NPOMBILIEHHOCTH. Vilnius) University Manuscript. A. 64. No. 11. 243. L. 3. 20 Ibid. A. 64. No. 11. 238. L. 1 21 Ibid. A. 64. No. 11. 251. L. 2 22 Ibid. A. 64. No. 11. 252. L. 1 | 23 Ibid. A. 64. No. 11. 253. L. 1 24 Ibid. A. 64. No. 11. 207. L. 3 25 Ibid. A. 64. No. 11. 240. L. 7. 26 For more details, see Vidugiris A. About language contact in South-East Lithuania //Lithuanian Linguistics Issues. T. 23. Language contacts in the Lithuanian SSR. Vilnius, 1983. P. 53—55. 82 | | 27 Anonymous. Lithuanian language area in gub. Wilenskiej //Anthropological and archaeological materials 1 ethnographic. Krakow, 1898. T. 3. P. 11-13. 28. B/agdonas/J. Lithuanians in the Diocese 1908. of Vilnius //Viltis, No. 115(150). ABOUT THE PERIOD OF THE EARLY SLAVICIZATION IN SOUTHEAST LITHUANIA Summary Two periods of mass Slavicization in Southeast Lithuania are distinguished. The first period lasted from the end of the 18th. Jh. until the middle of the 19th century It began as a reaction to the partitions of the Lithuanian and Polish state, especially after the First World War. Division when the educational reform (1773) took place, which set the task of uniting the Lithuanian and Polish people into one nation. Polish parish schools were founded en masse. The most painful blow to the Lithuanian language was placed by the decree of 1787, according to which in many churches of the Vilnius diocese the Polish language was used instead of the Lithuanian language. However, until the 2. Half of the 19th c. not the protected Polish language, but the white-Russian or simply called simple language, which traditionally spread through direct (horizontal) contacts and during the czarist occupation a certain role of the regional language had played. During this period there was not national, but only linguistic assimilation of the population, and it mostly encompassed the Ašmena county, the eastern part of Švenčionys county, the central part of the eastern side of Vilnius county. The inhabitants, regardless of their language, were called Lithuanians and they also called themselves Lithuanians. The so-called Polish language or the peripheral Polish cultural dialect (more precisely, the general Polish language used by the nobility, imbued over time with numerous Lithuanianisms and elements of the White Russian language) spread vertically in Lithuania for several centuries, from the highest class, through the middle to the lower, until it became dominant in the 2nd half of the 19th century. Half of the 19. Jh. to the stormy process of Polonization ergo, which not only encompassed the language, but also the nationality. This process —the second stage of the mass Slavification—, which began as a reaction against the Russification, turned from the mid-1880s of the 19th century towards a nationalization. Jh. with all his might auc against the Lithuanian language and nationality persecuted by the tsar. From that time on, all other languages were considered Polish dialects, and Catholics, regardless of what language they spoke, were called Poles. 83