| Abstract [eng] |
In the 19th century the Russian Empire pursued the policy of Lithuania's russification restricting the rights of Catholics and introducing the Orthodox Faith. Tsarist authority built Orthodox churches, expanded Orthodox parishes and closed down Catholic churches. Most closed down churches were owned by monasteries. In the Diocese of Samogitia, authority closed down circa fifty Catholic monasteries and, consequently, monastery churches. Congregations of five Lithuanian parishes (Dūkštas, Šešuoliai, Tytuvėnai, Kęstaičiai and Kražiai) countervailed against authority and in 1893 the Kražiai congregation openly stood out against a decision to close down the church of the Benedictine Sisters. The revolt was suppressed so severely that it was called the Kražiai Massacre. The Kražiai Massacre was used as an example of religious and national policy of Tsarist authority, persecution of Lithuanians and as the symbol of struggle for freedom in propaganda discourses of the Lithuanian National Movement. The Polish national movement used the Kražiai Massacre as an example of persecution of Polish Catholics in Tsarist Russia in their propaganda. Much attention is given to Lithuania in the inter-war period (1918-1940) and narratives about the Lithuanian National Movement in the late 19th century, the nation's struggle for freedom in cultural memory. One of the symbols of the nation's struggle for freedom is the Kražiai Massacre. Commemoration of the event, setting up a museum, literary texts consolidate collective memory of the Kražiai Massacre. |
