Ignas Jonynas (January 24, 1884 – July 14, 1954) was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n diplomat, historian, and university professor. As a diplomat he is known for negotiations with the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

and

League of Nations The League of Nations (french: link=no, Société des Nations ) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference that ...

regarding Vilnius Region. As a historian he specialized in the history of Lithuania in the 13–16th centuries and lectured at the

University of Lithuania Vytautas Magnus University (VMU) ( lt, Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas (VDU)) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university. Initially it was known ...

and Vilnius University from 1924 until his death. He published little, but had a formative influence on the subsequent generations of historians.

Biography

From 1904, Jonynas studied history at the University of Moscow under Matvei Kuzmich Liubavskii, an expert on the

Lithuanian Metrica The Lithuanian Metrica or the Metrica of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ( la, Acta Magni Ducatus Lithuaniae, lt, Lietuvos Metrika, pl, Metryka Litewska, or ''Metryka Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego''; be, Літоўская Метрыка, uk, ...

—medieval archives of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...

. Liubavskii's critical approach to historical sources greatly influenced Jonynas. Jonynas participated in the Russian Revolution of 1905 and thus had to transfer to the

University of Grenoble The Université Grenoble Alpes (UGA, French: meaning "''Grenoble Alps University''") is a public research university in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1339, it is the third largest university in France with about 60,000 students and over 3,000 resea ...

to study French language and literature. He also attended lectures on history at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. Acquitted by Russian courts, he returned to Moscow to finish his studies. After graduation in 1911, he worked as a school teacher in

Noginsk Noginsk (russian: Ноги́нск) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Noginsky District in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located east of the Moscow Ring Road on the Klyazma River. Population: History Fo ...

and Moscow until 1919. At the end of World War I, he returned to Lithuania and joined the People's Commissariat of Education of the

Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (Lithuanian SSR; lt, Lietuvos Tarybų Socialistinė Respublika; russian: Литовская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Litovskaya Sovetskaya Sotsialistiche ...

. After the failure of the Soviet government, he lived in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

, worked as a school principal, and opposed Polish ambitions in the city. For a few months in mid-1920, he was the chief Lithuanian commissioner in the Vilnius Region. After the 1920 Żeligowski's Mutiny, during which Polish forces captured Vilnius, Jonynas moved to

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

and joined the

control commission {{Unreferenced, date=November 2019 A control commission is an independent regulatory body. Control commissions are most often found in regulated industries and political organisations. They typically have full authority to operate within the regu ...

of the

to negotiate the dispute over the Vilnius Region. After the diplomatic efforts failed in 1922, Jonynas continued to be employed by the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublikos užsienio reikalų ministerija) is a governmental body of the Republic of Lithuania that shapes the national policy, and organises, coordinates, and controls i ...

until 1929. From 1924 until his death, he lectured at the

and Vilnius University, attaining professorship in 1932.

Works

As a historian, Jonynas wrote little convinced that his works were not properly researched or that everything was already written by somebody else. He contributed articles on Lithuanian dukes, nobles, treaties, and other topics to the ''Lithuanian Encyclopedia'', the first universal encyclopedia in the Lithuanian language. He studied and translated from Latin ''

De moribus tartarorum, lituanorum et moscorum ''De moribus tartarorum, lituanorum et moscorum'' ("On the Customs of Tatars, Lithuanians and Muscovites") is a 16th-century Latin treatise by Michalo Lituanus ("Michael the Lithuanian"). The work, which was originally dedicated to King of Poland a ...

'' (posthumously published in 1966). His most important work was a study on the family of

Vytautas Vytautas (c. 135027 October 1430), also known as Vytautas the Great ( Lithuanian: ', be, Вітаўт, ''Vitaŭt'', pl, Witold Kiejstutowicz, ''Witold Aleksander'' or ''Witold Wielki'' Ruthenian: ''Vitovt'', Latin: ''Alexander Vitoldus'', O ...

, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1392 to 1430. However, Jonynas helped to form a new generation of Lithuanian historians and raised their level of professionalism. He always critically analyzed

primary source In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...

s and dismissed secondary sources—thus helping to rid Lithuanian historiography of mistakes, medieval legends and myths, foreign biases and stereotypes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jonynas, Ignas 1884 births 1954 deaths People from Alytus District Municipality Lithuanian diplomats 20th-century Lithuanian historians Historians of Lithuania Moscow State University alumni Grenoble Alpes University alumni Academic staff of Vytautas Magnus University Academic staff of Vilnius University