Lietuvos tūkstantmetis: raidos dramatizmas. I. Laimėjimų „paradas“ ir jų istoriosofinė interpretacija
Lithuania’s Millennium: Dramas of the Development. I. The “Parade” of Victories and Their Historiosophic Interpretation

Summary/Abstract: The author of the article views the last thousand years of Lithuania’s history from social anthropological and ethnological positions, based on the systems of social organization, hermeneutics, and other theories. This article is the first part of a critical study, intended to evaluate the qualitative transformations in the nation’s history. It is intended to discuss five positive transformations which took place when the state of Lithuania and the nation itself joined the Christian civilization. The first aspect is the expansion of mound network which became more intensive after the reform of the Baltic religion. This enabled to establish a distinctive world outlook and to lay foundations for a territorial community, i. e. state (and empire). The second qualitative transformation is characterized by the author as the emergence and consolidation of military power. The major military achievements are identified. The third transformation is the formation, recognition and consolidation of the state of Lithuania; this process lasted, by stages, throughout a thousand years. The fourth one, according to the author, is the integration of the Lithuanian ethnos (nation) into the Christian Western European civilization. Lithuania made its own contribution to this civilization by defending Europe from the Mongols and Turks and by spreading religious tolerance. The fifth aspect covers the preservation and continuation, despite certain historical circumstances, of the ancestors’ spiritual culture and their way of life. To mention but a few examples: the preserved native language, polyphonic part-songs, acknowledged by UNESCO, the art of crossmaking, or Čiurlionis’ paintings. However, historical development displays not only gains but, unfortunately, more losses, which will be discussed in the second part of the study.

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