Lietuvos nacionalinė Martyno Mažvydo biblioteka
On July 6, 2018 Dr. Dalia Cidzikaitė, senior researcher of the Lithuanian Studies Unit of Documentary Heritage Research Department at the National Library of Lithuania, was awarded the Order for Merits to Lithuania. The award is presented by the President of Lithuania. Dalia is a former editor-in-chief of the American-Lithuanian newspaper “Draugas,” since 2014, she is the representative of the Lithuanian American Community, Inc. in Lithuania.
On July 4, Dr. Giedrė Milerytė-Japertienė, the head of the Lithuanian Studies Unit of the Documentary Heritage Research Department at the National Library of Lithuania, presented her monograph “Imagining Lithuanian-Polish Relations in Emigration from 1945 to 1990.” The monograph examines the fifty-year Lithuanian-Polish relations in emigration – real contacts as well as ideas, cultivated in private intellectual gatherings, which marked mutual cooperation or provoked hatred. It also highlights a wide debate in the press about the future of Lithuania and Poland, and the attempts to answer the question: What ideas and who in particular resulted in today’s harmonious relationship of the two neighboring countries?
The book will be soon published in Poland. The monograph was financially supported by the Research Council of Lithuania and published by the National Library of Lithuania.
In commemoration of the anniversaries of the three prominent Lithuanian émigré activists and freedom fighters, scientist Adolfas Damušis, philanthropist Juozas Petras Kazickas and doctor Kazys Ambrozaitis, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania, Adolfas Damušis Democracy Studies Centre and the Kazickas Family Foundation organized a series of events. Continue reading “The Three Friends: Damušis, Kazickas and Ambrozaitis”
On March 19, 2018, Jonas Antanas Račkauskas, a long-time director of the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center (Chicago, IL), an honorary doctor of Lithuanian University of Educational Studies and Šiauliai University, educator and active member of Lithuanian diaspora, died. Continue reading “In memoriam Professor Dr. Jonas Antanas Račkauskas”
In celebration of the 100th Anniversary of Lithuania’s Independence, the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture opened a new historical exhibit “For Freedom: Lithuanian American Support for Lithuania’s Independence and Recognition.” The exhibit explores Lithuanian Americans’ passionate and energetic support for the cause of Lithuania’s independence one hundred years ago. Using photographs, documents, publications, and other historical artifacts, the exhibition gives an overview of Lithuania’s fate at the dawn of the twentieth century as a subjugated part of the Russian Empire; briefly portrays the Lithuanian American communities in America; and summarizes their significant cultural, political, and financial achievements.
The exhibition’s central focus is the vital role played by Lithuanian Americans as their native land seized a unique and complex opportunity to end its 125-year Russian subjugation. It demonstrates that Lithuanian Americans’ support for freedom in their native land did not end with the declared independence in 1918 nor with its recognition by the United States in 1922. In fact, as the exhibition shows, Lithuanian Americans supported their native land’s recurrent struggles to achieve freedom and independence for most of the twentieth century.
Drawing on materials in the Balzekas Museum as well as public and private national and regional archives and collections, the exhibition centralizes the presence of historical documents to prove that this century-long struggle for freedom was powered by ideas and ideals expressed in words and actions.
On March 9, 2018 the prime minister of the Republic of Lithuania, Saulius Skvernelis, the prime minister of Latvian government, Māris Kučinskis and Estonian prime minister, Jüri Ratas opened the international exhibition “To Be Banned: Baltic Books 1918-1940” at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Continue reading “To Be Banned: Baltic Books 1918-1940”