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Gabrielius Landsbergis-Žemkalnis
Gabrielius Landsbergis-Žemkalnis (1852–1916) was a Lithuanian playwright and activists of the early Lithuanian amateur theater. Born to an old noble family, Landsbergis attended Šiauliai Gymnasium where his friend Petras Vileišis encouraged him to speak Lithuanian and support the Lithuanian National Revival. After finishing a telegraph school in Riga in 1871, he worked at the telegraph offices in Moscow and Crimea. He returned to Lithuania in 1884 and joined the Lithuanian cultural life. He contributed articles to the illegal Lithuanian periodicals ''Varpas'' and ''Ūkininkas'' and his house was a gathering place of many Lithuanian intellectuals. Due to these activities, he was forced to leave Lithuania in 1894 but continued to maintain contacts with Lithuanian activists. He was arrested and imprisoned for ten weeks in 1900 and sentenced to two years of exile in Smolensk in 1902. He returned in 1904 and became administrator of ''Vilniaus žinios'', the first legal Lithuania ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughly one-sixth of the world's landmass, making it the list of largest empires, third-largest empire in history, behind only the British Empire, British and Mongol Empire, Mongol empires. It also Russian colonization of North America, colonized Alaska between 1799 and 1867. The empire's 1897 census, the only one it conducted, found a population of 125.6 million with considerable ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic diversity. From the 10th to 17th centuries, the Russians had been ruled by a noble class known as the boyars, above whom was the tsar, an absolute monarch. The groundwork of the Russian Empire was laid by Ivan III (), who greatly expanded his domain, established a centralized Russian national state, and secured inde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vilniaus žinios
''Vilniaus žinios'' (literally: ''Vilnius news'') was a short-lived newspaper published in Vilnius, Lithuania. It was the first legal Lithuanian-language daily newspaper to appear after the Lithuanian press ban was lifted on May 7, 1904. History The first issue of ''Vilniaus žinios'' was published on December 23, 1904. It was discontinued on March 17, 1909, after 1175 issues. ''Vilniaus žinios'' was founded by Petras Vileišis, who published it in his own printing house and was officially credited as its editor. The first issues were edited by Jonas Jablonskis and Povilas Višinskis, later ones by Jonas Kriaučiūnas, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, Jonas Vileišis, and others. At first the public was interested in the newspaper and its circulation reached 6,000 copies in 1905. The newspaper's staff was instrumental in organizing the Great Seimas of Vilnius at the end of 1905. However, soon the interest started to decline as the newspaper strived to remain nonpartisan and focus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pumpėnai
Pumpėnai is a small town in Panevėžys County, in northeastern Lithuania. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 855 people. History The first church in Pumpėnai was built around 1638. The town established itself due to the settlement of monks from the Carmelites, Order of Carmelites in 17th century. The monastery was built by Povilas and Jurgis Zavadskis and Juozapas Šyšla in 1655. The monastery was built from wood and burned down in 1770 and then was rebuilt. In 1792 Pumpėnai got Magdeburg rights. On 15 July 1941, Jews of the town were kept imprisoned in a ghetto. On August 26, 1941, an execution squad murdered the Jews in a mass execution. Sovietization of the Baltic states, Soviet occupants in 1946–1953 Soviet deportations from Lithuania, deported about 500 people from the Pumpėnai area. After the Occupation of the Baltic states#Under Soviet rule (1944–1991), Soviet occupation in the surroundings of Pumpėnai Lithuanian partisans of Algimanta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Duchy Of Berg
Berg () was a state—originally a county, later a duchy—in the Rhineland of Germany. Its capital was Düsseldorf. It existed as a distinct political entity from the early 12th to the 19th centuries. It was a member state of the Holy Roman Empire. The name of the county lives on in the modern geographic term Bergisches Land, often misunderstood as ''bergiges Land'' (hilly country). History Ascent The Counts of Berg emerged in 1101 as a junior line of the dynasty of the Ezzonen, which traced its roots back to the 9th-century Kingdom of Lotharingia, and in the 11th century became the most powerful dynasty in the region of the lower Rhine. In 1160, the territory split into two portions, one of them later becoming the County of the Mark, which returned to the possession of the family line in the 16th century. The most powerful of the early rulers of Berg, Engelbert II of Berg died in an assassination on November 7, 1225. In 1280 the counts moved their court from Schloss Burg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Werden Abbey
Werden Abbey () was a Benedictine monastery in Essen-Werden (Germany), situated on the Ruhr. The foundation of the abbey Near Essen Saint Ludger founded a monastery in 799 and became its first abbot. The little church which Saint Ludger built here in honor of Saint Stephen was completed in 804 and dedicated by Saint Ludger himself, who had meanwhile become Bishop of Münster. Upon the death of Ludger on 26 March 809, the abbacy of Werden passed by inheritance first to his younger brother Hildigrim I (809–827), then successively to four of his nephews: Gerfried (827–839), Thiadgrim (ruled less than a year), Altfried (839–848), Hildigrim II (849–887). Under Hildigrim I, also Bishop of Châlons-sur-Marne, the new monastery of Helmstedt in the Diocese of Halberstadt was founded from Werden. It was ruled over by a provost, and remained a dependency of Werden till its secularization in 1803. Werden was a wealthy abbey with possessions in Westphalia, Frisia, eastern ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministerialis
The ''ministeriales'' (singular: ''ministerialis'') were a legally unfree but socially elite class of knights, administrators, and officials in the High Middle Ages in the Holy Roman Empire, drawn from a mix of servile origins, free commoners, and even cadet sons of minor noble families, who served secular and ecclesiastical lords and often rose to hold hereditary land, noble titles, and political power indistinguishable from the free nobility. The word and its German translations, ''Ministeriale(n)'' and ''Dienstmann'', came to describe those unfree nobles who made up a large majority of what could be described as the German knighthood during that time. What began as an irregular arrangement of workers with a wide variety of duties and restrictions rose in status and wealth to become the power brokers of an empire. The ''ministeriales'' were not legally free people, but held social rank. Legally, their liege lord determined whom they could or could not marry, and they were not ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Landsberg Family
The Landsberg family is a German nobility, German noble family originating from the Westphalia, whose members settled in Courland and later in Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Lithuania and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland. History The earliest mention of the family dates back to the 11th century, they trace their roots to a ministerialis who lived in 1055 at the Werden Abbey. Their last name comes the in the Duchy of Berg, which was still in the hands of the German representatives of the family in the 20th century. Two members of the family, Wilhelm von Landsberg and Johann von Landsberg, arrived in Courland in the 16th century, where they received the fief estate of . Wilhelm's male descendants lived in Courland until 1820.Johann von Landsberg's descendant, Eduard Eberhard (Ewarni) Landsberg (1625-1652) settled in Lithuania where he acquired the estates in the Vilnius Voivodeship, Vilnius voivodeship. Johann had one son Georg, who in turn had two sons Rafał (born 1715) and B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birutė (opera)
''Birutė'' is a two-act opera composed by Mikas Petrauskas based on the play by Gabrielius Landsbergis-Žemkalnis. It was first performed on 6 November 1906 in Vilnius and became the first Lithuanian national opera. The plot is based on the medieval legend about the love between Birutė and Grand Duke of Lithuania Kęstutis recorded in the Lithuanian Chronicles. The opera was written for the amateur Lithuanian performers and thus is mostly valued for its historical significance. Plot The opera is set during the 14th-century Lithuanian Crusade. Winrich von Kniprode, komtur of the Teutonic Order, wishes to marry Birutė, daughter of the ruler of Palanga. In Act I, von Kniprode sends his envoys to persuade Birutė's father to agree to the marriage. If persuasion and gifts fail, they are prepared to take her by force. Birutė weeps and asks her father to kill her instead. However, '' krivių krivaitis'' (chief pagan priest) Lizdeika decrees that it is the will of the gods for Birut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birutė
Birutė (died 1382) was the Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Kęstutis, Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania, and mother of Vytautas the Great. There is very little known about Birutė's life, but after her death a cult worshiping her developed among Lithuanians, especially in Samogitia. Life Marriage She was probably born near Palanga to a Lithuanians, Lithuanian, Samogitian or Curonians, Curonian magnate family. The story of her marriage to Kęstutis became a romantic legend in Lithuania. Chronicles mention that Birutė was a priestess () and served the Lithuanian mythology, Pagan gods by guarding the sacred fire. When Kęstutis heard of her beauty, he visited the shire and asked her to marry him. She refused because she had promised the gods to guard her virginity until her death. Kęstutis then abducted her, and took her by force to Old Trakai, Trakai where he threw a large wedding. She and Kęstutis had three sons and three daughters. Vytautas the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tadas Blinda
Tadas Blinda (1846–1877) was a Lithuanian outlaw and folk hero. Biography He was born in the village of Telšiai District Municipality, Kinčiuliai, Kovno Governorate, in the region of Samogitia, and inherited his father's 40 hectares at the age of 20. He then married, had three daughters, and became the village elder (administrative title), elder. There are several versions of the turning point in his life that led to his later career. One story has it that he participated in the January Uprising, 1863 uprising, and was sentenced to exile in Siberia. Another has it that his landlord, Duke Ogiński family, Ogiński, ordered him to flog some serfs, became angry when Blinda refused, and then struck him with a whip. Blinda responded with a counterattack. After Blinda had chosen to live outside the law, he gathered a band of followers in the dense forests near Byvainė. According to his admirers, he was a latter-day Robin Hood – he stole from the rich and gave to the poor. His det ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Šiauliai
Šiauliai ( ; ) is a city in northern Lithuania, the List of cities in Lithuania, country's fourth largest city and the List of cities in the Baltic states by population, sixth largest city in the Baltic States, with a population of 112 581 in 2024. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different languages: Samogitian language, Samogitian ; Latvian language, Latvian (historic) and (modern); Polish language, Polish ; German language, German ; Belarusian language, Belarusian ; Russian language, Russian (historic) and (modern); Yiddish language, Yiddish . History The city was first mentioned in written sources as ''Soule'' in Livonian Order chronicles describing the Battle of Saule. Thus the city's founding date is now considered to be 22 September 1236, the same date when the battle took place, not far from Šiauliai. At first, it developed as a defence post against the raids by the Teutonic Knight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Varpas Society
Varpas Society (''varpas'' means ''bell'') was a cultural society active in Šiauliai, then part of the Russian Empire and later Lithuania, from 1908 to 1923. Almost every Saturday it would host an event. Its amateur theater staged some 100 different plays up to 1915 when the city was occupied by the Germans during World War I. Its choir and a string orchestra organized various concerts while educational lectures were delivered by prominent figures in Lithuanian culture. The society maintained a small library, but it was destroyed during the war. The society was abolished by the Ober Ost officials but was reestablished in 1917. Faced with post-war difficulties and frequently changing leadership, it was not very active and was officially dissolved in 1923. History Establishment The Lithuanian press ban was lifted in 1904 and the ban on organizing various clubs and societies was lifted due to the Russian Revolution of 1905. Lithuanians, active in the Lithuanian National Revival, bega ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
