Lietuvos bei Lietuvių Krikštas ir 1387-ji Metai
1991
Introduction
Jonas Dainauskas's scholarly pamphlet examines the Christianization of Lithuania and Lithuanians, critically reassessing the historiographical significance of the year 1387 and challenging Polish historiographical claims about the nature and timing of the Lithuanian baptism. Published in Chicago in 1991 by the Vydūnas Youth Fund, this work represents Lithuanian diaspora intellectual engagement with foundational national-historical questions at the moment of Lithuania's restored independence. It is a significant example of Lithuanian-American scholarly publishing that contested Soviet- and Polish-dominated historical narratives.
Community and publication context
Community and publication setting
Context and significance
Significance
This pamphlet represents a strand of Lithuanian diaspora intellectual production that functioned as a counter-archive to Soviet and Polish historiographies during the Cold War and into the independence period. By critically interrogating the 1387 baptism narrative—a cornerstone of Lithuanian-Polish historical relations—Dainauskas engaged questions of national sovereignty, ecclesiastical history, and the integrity of Lithuanian historical memory. Published in the year Lithuania re-declared independence, the work embodies the diaspora's long-sustained parallel scholarly tradition.
The Vydūnas Youth Fund's role as publisher links this text to the broader Lithuanian-American cultural infrastructure in Chicago, one of the major centers of Lithuanian diaspora life. The financial contribution from Lietuvių Fondas further illustrates the collective community investment in maintaining scholarly discourse in the Lithuanian language outside the homeland. As a document of diaspora intellectual history, the pamphlet offers evidence of how Lithuanian communities in North America organized resources to produce, print, and circulate serious historical argument in Lithuanian at a moment of geopolitical transformation.
How this record carried memory
Diaspora scholarly publishing. The Vydūnas Youth Fund, a Lithuanian-American cultural organization, financed and produced this work in Chicago, sustaining Lithuanian historiographical discourse outside Soviet-controlled Lithuania. Lietuvių Fondas provided additional financial support.
Record connections
People, places, and institutions linked in the catalog