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The Great War over Children, 1914–1918

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Children, Poverty and Nationalism in Lithuania, 1900–1940

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Abstract

Massive displacement and the longstanding humanitarian emergency during World War I resulted in a fundamental turning point for the care of poor children throughout the Lithuanian lands and beyond.

While, in both Ober Ost and the displacement, most of the displaced children was supported only financially or through supplies by relief organizations and attended the schools managed by them, those hosted in hostels and day centers—namely the poorest ones and orphans—became the object of a complex process of ethnically based formal and informal education. Day centers, and especially hostels, became veritable tools of nation-building with the task to “create” citizens sharing with the national élite not only common foundational myths and linguistic abilities, but also the understanding of what the élite meant as elements of national modernity.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Report on Suwałki Committee [1915], Lietuvos Mokslų akademijos Vrublevskių biblioteka (LMAVB), Vilnius, Lithuania, F.267–2799.L.1.

  2. 2.

    Memorandum to the Head of Vilnius City [1916], LMAVB, F.9–3270.L.108.

  3. 3.

    Report to the Head of Vilnius City, 10/2/1916, LMAVB, F.9–3270.L.107.

  4. 4.

    N. Raštutis’ letter, 26/8/1915, Vilniaus universiteto biblioteka (VUB), Vilnius, Lithuania, F.1–F421.L.1.

  5. 5.

    Krasiński Report on the situation in Vilnius, 18/12/1915, Archiwum Akt Nowych (AAN), Warsaw, Poland, Box 52.508.

  6. 6.

    Report to the Military Head of Lithuania, 22/7/1917, LMAVB, F.256–1524.L.9.

  7. 7.

    Memorandum to the Head of Vilnius City [1916], LMAVB, F.9–3270.L.108.

  8. 8.

    Tadeusz Wróblewski’s notes from the archive of the Polish Civic Committee in Vilnius, 1915–1919, LMAVB, F.9–2677.L.4.

  9. 9.

    The ratio of mortality between babies under one year of age and the rest of the population increased more than three times between 1913 and 1918: 1,6:1 (1913); 2,2:1 (1914); 2,3:1 (1915); 4,4:1 (1916); 3,7:1 (1917); 5,3:1 (1918). See Tercijonas (1922, 186).

  10. 10.

    Karol Lubieniec’s letter to the General Relief Council, 12/12/1916, AAN, Box 52.1448.S.12.

  11. 11.

    Minute of the LWRC, 11/10/1915, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.23.

  12. 12.

    Letter to the Military Bureau in Vilnius, 28/6/1917, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.105.

  13. 13.

    Minute of the LWRC, 23/4/1917, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.178.

  14. 14.

    Protest to German authorities, 1917, LMAVB, F.23–47.L.3.

  15. 15.

    Peliksas Bugailiškis, Notes on the First World War: A Chronicle on the German Occupation, 1915–1918, LMAVB, F.87–57.L.48–55,58.

  16. 16.

    The Association for the Delivering of Sanitary and Food Aid to the Victims of War (Draugija gydymo ir maitinimo pagalbai nukentėjusiems dėl karo teikti) was probably the only relief organization created by representatives of each ethnic community living in Vilnius (Russians, Poles, Lithuanians, Jews, and Belarusians). The Association was led by left-wing intellectuals who, after the Association stopped its activities, tried with little success to revive interethnic cooperation within the Lithuanian Association for War Relief, Agronomic and Legal Aid. A short-lived coordination board of all the relief committees operating in Lithuanian and Belarus was created in the first part of 1915. See Draugija gydymo ir maitinimo pagalbai nukentėjusiems dėl karo teikti (1915) and Draugijų susivienijimas karo aukoms padėti (1915).

  17. 17.

    LWRC report, 11/9/1915, LMAVB, F.70–189.L.7.

  18. 18.

    Minutes of the Vilnius Lithuanian relief facilities Board, 8/3/1917, LMAVB, F.70–10.L.14.

  19. 19.

    LWRC Commission Report, January 1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.61.

  20. 20.

    LWRC minutes, 28/1/1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.66.

  21. 21.

    Statute of the Civic Committee for the Provinces of Kaunas and Vilnius [1914], LMAVB, F.9–3270.L.170.

  22. 22.

    Żółtowski’s note from Vilnius, 13/10/1916, AAN, Box 52.344.S.4.

  23. 23.

    CBRP hostels, 1916, Lietuvos Valstybės istorijos archyvas (LVIA), Vilnius, Lithuania, F.1264.AP.1.B.62.L.102.

  24. 24.

    List of CBRP hostels, 1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.62.L.101.

  25. 25.

    Letter to the German authorities in Vilnius, 1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.22.L.117.

  26. 26.

    Karol Lubianiec’s letter to the CBRP, 29/4/1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.24.L.72.

  27. 27.

    Dominated by members of the Polish landowners’ élite, from late 1915 Vilnius City Council saw its prerogatives and functions progressively limited and doubled by German administration structures. The shift just reflected the changing attitude of the German towards the Poles and the Polish question. See Gimžauskas (2014).

  28. 28.

    LWRC minutes, 16/6/1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L101.

  29. 29.

    Povilas Dogelis’ letter to the CBRP, 18/1/1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.24.L.117.

  30. 30.

    Report from the Province of Kaunas, 6/11/1916, AAN, Box 52.344.S.2.

  31. 31.

    General Relief Council minutes, 16/7/1917, AAN, Box 52.23.S.162.

  32. 32.

    Vilnius Relief Council Report, 1919, AAN, Box 52.721.S.115.

  33. 33.

    Minutes of the Vilnius Lithuanian relief Board, 19/12/1915, LMAVB, F.70–10.L.7.

  34. 34.

    LWRC minute, 25/10/1915, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.30.

  35. 35.

    LWRC minutes, 2/4/1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.68.

  36. 36.

    LWRC report from Rezekne [1916], LVIA, F.1232.AP.1.B.5.L.5.

  37. 37.

    LWRC report from Luga [1916], LVIA, F.1232.AP.1.B.5.L.27.

  38. 38.

    Minutes of the Vilnius Lithuanian relief Board, 19/10/1915, LMAVB, F.70–10.L.1.

  39. 39.

    Daily agenda of LWRC hostel at Vasarinė st. [1916], LMAVB, F.70–188.L.125.

  40. 40.

    LWRC minutes, 12(29)/9/1915, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.13.

  41. 41.

    Lithuanian Committee for War Relief, Agronomic and Legal Aid minutes, 14/6/1917, LMAVB, F.225–2.L.48.

  42. 42.

    LWRC report from Shklov, 24/12/1916, LVIA, F.1232.AP.1.B.4.L.52.

  43. 43.

    LWRC report from Shklov [1917], LVIA, F.1232.AP.1.B.4.L.37. See also Bieliauskas (2009, 72).

  44. 44.

    LWRC Teachers’ section in Moscow report, 30/9/1915, LVIA, F.1232.AP.1.B.1.L.9.

  45. 45.

    Lithuanian Committee for War Relief, Agronomic and Legal Aid minutes, 21/12/1915, LMAVB, F.225–2.L.18.

  46. 46.

    Žiburys and Saulė retained their pre-war clerical profile. Rytas, which in pre-war years had an analogous profile, eventually became the receptacle of left-wing forces in wartime. This radical turn can be explained as an attempt to retain some margin of maneuver within a city framework in which right-wing clerical LWRC was overwhelming in the field of education. See Rytas Educational Commission [1916], LMAVB, F.67–307/1.L.32.

  47. 47.

    LWRC report from Shklov [1917], LVIA, F.1232.AP.1.B.4.L.40.

  48. 48.

    LWRC minutes, 4/8/1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.115.

  49. 49.

    Lithuanian Committee for War Relief, Agronomic and Legal Aid minutes, 12/10/1916, LMAVB, F.225–2.L.31; LWRC minutes, 4/5/1917, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.182.

  50. 50.

    LWRC minutes, 18/8/1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.120.

  51. 51.

    LWRC minutes, 13/3/1917, 9/5/1917, and 31/5/1917, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.168,183,189.

  52. 52.

    Lithuanian Committee for War Relief, Agronomic and Legal Aid minutes, 7/6/1917, LMAVB, F.225–2.L.47.

  53. 53.

    LWRC minutes, 4 and 25/8/1916, LMAVB, F.70–4.L.115–6,122.

  54. 54.

    Peliksas Bugailiškis’ letter to Bishop Karevičius, 14/5/1916, LMAVB, F.87–2.L.1–2.

  55. 55.

    Peliksas Bugailiškis, Iš I Pasaulinio karo užrašų: 1915–1918 m. vokiečių okupacijos kronika, LMAVB, F.87–157.L.6–7.

  56. 56.

    Lithuanian Committee for War Relief, Agronomic and Legal Aid minutes, 19/11/1916, LMAVB, F.225–2.L.33.

  57. 57.

    Report [1916], LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.22.L.119.

  58. 58.

    Polish Relief Committee for the Victims of War Report, 1/1/1918, AAN, Box 52.103.S.10–2.

  59. 59.

    Association for Child Care Activity Report [1918], AAN, Box 60.13.S.8,22.

  60. 60.

    Just consider that more than 60% of the whole financial effort of the Polish Relief Committee for the Victims of War was allocated to Vilnius facilities. Polish Relief Committee for the Victims of War Report, 1917, AAN, Box 52.103.S.88.

  61. 61.

    People’s kitchens in Vilnius 1915–1917 [1917], LMAVB, F.9–2860.L.2.

  62. 62.

    Note on meals delivered by the CBRP [1916], LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.16.L.25.

  63. 63.

    Letter to the Chief of Vilnius Administration, 26/9/1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.22.L.8.

  64. 64.

    Report [1916], LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.22.L.117.

  65. 65.

    Chief of Vilnius City administration to the CBRP, 17/11/1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.22.L.161.

  66. 66.

    Vilnius City Board of Relief to the Poor, 1/9/1916, LVIA, F.1264.AP.1.B.22.L.114.

  67. 67.

    Krasiński Report on the situation in Vilnius, 18/12/1915, AAN, Box 52.508.

  68. 68.

    News from Vilnius, 18/10/1916, AAN, Box 52.508.S.3.

  69. 69.

    EC Report (1916–1917) [1917], LMAVB, F.79–880.L.5.

  70. 70.

    Polish education in Lithuania, 1916, LMAVB, F.79–837.L.2.

  71. 71.

    Report to the EC, 1918, LVIA, F.1135.AP.4.B.162.L.8.

  72. 72.

    Letter to the CBRP, 22/10/1915, LVIA, F.1135.AP.16.L.5.

  73. 73.

    Association for Child Care Association for Child Care Report [1917], AAN, Box 52.103.S.153–6.

  74. 74.

    Report of Schooling [1918], LVIA, F.1135.AP.4.B.162.L.308.

  75. 75.

    School No. 2 and children’s club The Dawn Report [1918], AAN, Box 60.13.S.2.

  76. 76.

    Ibid., L.72,120.

  77. 77.

    Report, 22/5/1917, AAN, Box 52.103.S.65.

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  1. Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania

    Andrea Griffante

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Griffante, A. (2019). The Great War over Children, 1914–1918. In: Children, Poverty and Nationalism in Lithuania, 1900–1940. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30870-4_3

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