Lithuanian National Revival - Development of National Ideas

Development of National Ideas

The development of Lithuanian national culture and national identity was further burdened by the Lithuanian press ban, one of the repression measures that followed the 1863 uprising. After the uprising serfdom was finally abandoned. The revival started among young educated people of Lithuanian extraction who attended higher education studies at the universities of the Russian Empire and foreign states. Many were of wealthy farmers origin and thus, having come from the peasant class, least affected by Polonisation. The movement resulted in the release of Lithuanian newspapers, Aušra and Varpas, followed by the writing of poems and books in Lithuanian. These writings romanticized the past of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, depicting the nation of great power and with many heroes.

The revival spearheaded the independence movement, with various organisations opposing Russian influence. Russian policy became harsher in response and there are known to have been attacks against Catholic churches, while a ban of the Lithuanian press still continued. Even in the situation of a press ban, the literacy of Lithuanians continued to rise significantly and was one of the greatest among the nations in the Russian Empire, behind only Finns, Estonians and Latvians. The political Lithuanian nation has already been formed by the turn of the centuries; political claims were vocalized in the Great Seimas of Vilnius and political and cultural activity continued to grow after the press ban was lifted in 1904.