Suvalkija
Encyclopedia
Regions of Lithuania
Lithuania can be divided into historical and cultural regions . The exact borders are not fully clear, as the regions are not official political or administrative units. They are delimited by culture, such as country traditions, traditional lifestyle, songs, tales, etc. To some extent regions...
. Its unofficial capital is Marijampolė
Marijampole
Marijampolė is an industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Marijampolė is 48,700...
. People from Suvalkija are called suvalkiečiai (plural) or suvalkietis (singular). It is located south of the Neman River
Neman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
, in the former territory of Vilkaviškis
Vilkaviškis
Vilkaviškis Until 1940 the city had a large Jewish Community which was annihilated by the Nazis and their local collaborators. The whole Jewish population was killed in a single day,, after the entry of the Germans into the city.-Names:...
bishopric. Historically, it is the newest ethnographic region as its most distinct characteristics and separate identity formed during the 19th century when the territory was part of Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
. It was never a separate political entity and even today it has no official status in the administrative division of Lithuania. However, it continues to be the subject of studies focusing on Lithuanian folk culture of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Most of Lithuania's cultural differences blended or disappeared during the Soviet era (1944–1990), remaining the longest in southeastern Lithuania. The concept remains popular among Lithuanian people. A 2008 survey of freshmen and sophomores at Kaunas
Kaunas
Kaunas is the second-largest city in Lithuania and has historically been a leading centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the biggest city and the center of a powiat in Trakai Voivodeship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania since 1413. During Russian Empire occupation...
' Vytautas Magnus University
Vytautas Magnus University
Vytautas Magnus University ) is a public university in Kaunas, Lithuania. The university was founded in 1922 during the interwar period as an alternate national university...
found that 80% of the students continued to identify themselves with one of the regions. Efforts are made to preserve, record, and promote any remaining aspects of the original folk culture.
Region
In Lithuania three different names have been applied to region, causing some confusion:- Sudovia (Sūduva) is derived from the ancient Baltic tribeBaltsThe Balts or Baltic peoples , defined as speakers of one of the Baltic languages, a branch of the Indo-European language family, are descended from a group of Indo-European tribes who settled the area between the Jutland peninsula in the west and Moscow, Oka and Volga rivers basins in the east...
of Sudovians, the original inhabitants of the region. The term Sudovia is ambiguous as it is also used to refer to the ancient Sudovian-inhabited areas, which stretched much further south. - Suvalkija is derived from the former Suwałki Governorate (1867–1914) of Congress Poland. The city of Suwałki has been part of Poland since 1919 and the original meaning of the phrase is long lost.
- Užnemunė (literally: beyond the Neman RiverNeman RiverNeman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
) describes the geographical location of the region, but is not entirely accurate. The southwestern portion of DzūkijaDzukijaDzūkija or Dainava is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. Dzūkija is a cultural region defined by traditional lifestyles and dialects of the local Lithuanian population and has never been defined as a political or administrative unit...
, sometimes known as Dainava, is also on the left bank of the river. The areas became distinct as a result of drastically different economic developments in Suvalkija (northern Užnemunė) and Dzūkija (southeastern Užnemunė).
In recent years there has been a public debate as to which name, Suvalkija or Sudovia, is preferable. Historians have argued that Sudovia is an anachronism
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
that refers to the land in the 13th and 14th centuries. One commentator labeled the effort to rename the region as "neotribalism" – an artificial attempt to find connections with the long-extinct tribe. Supporters of Sudovia protested against using a term imposed on the region by the Russian Empire, especially since the city of Suwałki is in Poland and the current region has no connection with it. They have also argued that the term Suvalkija is a fairly recent and artificial political development, popularized by Soviet historians, and that the more archaic Sudovia more correctly reflects the region's historical roots. The suffix -ija is not generally used in the Lithuanian language
Lithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
to derive placenames from city names (the only exception is Vilnija, used to describe the Vilnius Region
Vilnius region
Vilnius Region , refers to the territory in the present day Lithuania, that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time,...
). An official petition from the Council for Protection of the Suvalkija Regional Ethnic Culture to the Commission of the Lithuanian Language
Commission of the Lithuanian Language
The State Commission of the Lithuanian Language is the official language regulating body of the Lithuanian language.The Language Commission was put in operation in 1961 as a non-governmental entity under the auspices of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences....
, requesting an official name change from Suvalkija to Sudovia, was rejected in 2005. The Commission based the decision on its finding that Suvalkija prevails in both academic literature and everyday life. The decision was not voted on by the inhabitants of the region.
Sub-regions
Suvalkija is roughly subdivided into two areas, inhabited by Zanavykai (singular: Zanavykas) and by Kapsai (singular: Kapsas). Zanavykai occupy northern Suvalkija in the area approximately bounded by the NemanNeman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
, Šešupė, and Višakis Rivers. Before 1795 that part of Suvalkija lay within the Eldership of Samogitia
Eldership of Samogitia
The Duchy of Samogitia had been the administrative unit of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1422 . Between 1422 to 1441 it was known as the Eldership of Samogitia...
, while the rest was within Trakai Voivodeship
Trakai Voivodeship
Trakai Voivodeship, Trakai Palatinate, or Troki Voivodeship , was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1413 until 1795.-History:...
. Šakiai
Šakiai
Šakiai is a city in the Marijampolė County, Lithuania. It is located west of Kaunas. It is presumed that Šakiai first expanded from Šakaičai village. By 1719 a church in Šakiai was built. By the 19th century Šakiai already had city rights; it also had a school, Catholic and Lutheran churches, a...
is considered to be the capital of this subregion, sometimes called Zanavykija. Another important center is in Veliuona
Veliuona
Veliuona is a small town on the Nemunas River in the Jurbarkas district municipality in Lithuania.Veliuona was first mentioned in 1291 in the chronicle of Peter of Duisburg....
. The name Zanavykai is derived from the Nova River, a tributary of the Šešupė River. People who lived beyond the river (Polish: za Nawą) became known as Zanavykai. The prefix
Prefix
A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:...
za- and the suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
-yk are Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
. To correct this, linguists proposed naming the group Užnovičiai or Užnoviškiai, terms which also mean "beyond the Nova river" but follow Lithuanian language precedents. However, this proposal did not gain popular support and the term Zanavykai is still widely used.
Kapsai inhabit southern Suvalkija, with major centers in Marijampolė
Marijampole
Marijampolė is an industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Marijampolė is 48,700...
and Vilkaviškis
Vilkaviškis
Vilkaviškis Until 1940 the city had a large Jewish Community which was annihilated by the Nazis and their local collaborators. The whole Jewish population was killed in a single day,, after the entry of the Germans into the city.-Names:...
. The term is not used by local inhabitants to identify themselves, but is rather a term coined by linguists; thus it did not gain much popularity in the public. When linguists classified Lithuanian language dialects, they identified two major sub-dialects in Suvalkija: one in the territory inhabited by Zanavykai and another in the south. Southerners pronounced the word kaip (how) as kap. This distinct characteristic earned them the name Kapsai, but they could also be called Tepsai as they pronounced word taip (yes) as tep. A revised classification of the dialects, proposed in 1965 by linguists Zigmas Zinkevičius
Zigmas Zinkevicius
Zigmas Zinkevičius is a leading Lithuanian linguist-historian, professor at Vilnius University, and a true member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences. He has contributed to studies in the history of languages, onomastics and other areas. Zinkevičius is a recipient of the Herder Prize, which was...
and Aleksas Girdenis, eliminates this distinction and deems the local dialect a sub-dialect of Western Aukštaitian dialect
Aukštaitian dialect
Aukštaitian dialect is one of the dialects of the Lithuanian language, spoken in ethnographic regions of Aukštaitija, Dzūkija and Suvalkija. It became the basis for the standard Lithuanian language.-Classification:...
. However, other cultural distinctions between Zanavykai and Kapsai exist, including their traditional clothing styles.
Political history
Yotvingians
Yotvingians or Sudovians were a Baltic people with close cultural ties to the Lithuanians and Prussians...
were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
during the 13th century. The region was frequently ravaged by the Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
and was abandoned by most of its inhabitants. After the 1422 Treaty of Melno
Treaty of Melno
The Treaty of Melno or Treaty of Lake Melno was a peace treaty ending the Gollub War. It was signed on September 27, 1422, between the Teutonic Knights and an alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at Lake Melno , east of Graudenz...
, its western borders were fixed and the territory became the sole property of the Grand Duke himself. In 1569 the Grand Duchy joined the Kingdom of Poland
Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)
The Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons was the Polish state created by the accession of Jogaila , Grand Duke of Lithuania, to the Polish throne in 1386. The Union of Krewo or Krėva Act, united Poland and Lithuania under the rule of a single monarch...
to form the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth was partitioned in 1795 and Suvalkija, as part of the larger territory on the left bank of the Neman River, was incorporated into the Province of East Prussia
Province of East Prussia
The Province of East Prussia was a province of Prussia from 1773–1829 and 1878-1945. Composed of the historical region East Prussia, the province's capital was Königsberg ....
. This meant that Suvalkija was separated from Lithuania Proper
Lithuania proper
Lithuania proper refers to a region which existed within Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and spoke Lithuanian language. The primary meaning is identical to the Duchy of Lithuania, a land around which Grand Duchy of Lithuania evolved...
, which was taken by the Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
. In 1807 Suvalkija was briefly part of the Duchy of Warsaw
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...
, a small Polish state established by Napoleon Bonaparte, before being incorporated in 1815 into Congress Poland
Congress Poland
The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...
, an entity formed by personal union with the Russian Empire. During the remainder of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Suvalkija was administratively part of the Augustów Governorate
Augustów Governorate
Augustów Governorate was an administrative unit of the Congress Poland.It was created in 1837 from the Augustów Voivodship, and had the same borders and capital as the voivodship...
, and later of the Suwałki Governorate. Russian census statistics showed that Lithuanians formed a slight majority in the northern part of the governorate, and that Poles, concentrated in the Suwałki Region in the south, accounted for about 23% of the Governorate's total population. Lithuania and Poland became independent states after World War I, and disputed their borders in this region. The Suwałki Governorate was split more or less along ethnic lines. Suvalkija has since been part of Lithuania, and Suwałki Region – part of Poland.
Economic history
Suvalkija has long been known as an affluent agricultural region. An increased demand for wood prompted resettlement and deforestation of the region during the 16th and 17th centuries. The demand led to illegal tree-harvesting incursions from the Duchy of Prussia. To discourage this, the Grand Dukes of Lithuania established several border villages between JurbarkasJurbarkas
Jurbarkas is a city in Tauragė County, Lithuania. It is on the right-hand shore of the Neman River at its confluence with the tributaries Mituva and Imsre...
and Virbalis
Virbalis
Virbalis is a city in the Vilkaviškis district municipality, Lithuania. It is located west of Vilkaviškis.As German Wirballen, Polish Wierzbołów, or Russian Verzhbolovo , it is frequently mentioned in historical as well in modern literature...
. Queen Bona Sforza
Bona Sforza
Bona Sforza was a member of the powerful Milanese House of Sforza. In 1518, she became the second wife of Sigismund I the Old, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, and became the Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania.She was the third child of Gian Galeazzo Sforza and his wife...
, who governed the land on behalf of her husband Sigismund I the Old
Sigismund I the Old
Sigismund I of Poland , of the Jagiellon dynasty, reigned as King of Poland and also as the Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until 1548...
between 1527 and 1556, was especially supportive of these new settlements. Resettlement also came from the north, particularly along the Neman River
Neman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
. There large territories were gifted by the Grand Duke to various nobles, including the Sapieha
Sapieha
The Sapieha is a Polish-Lithuanian princely family descending from the medieval boyars of Smolensk. The family acquired great influence in the sixteenth century.-History:...
family. These settlements slowly spread further south and east.
By the mid-17th century, the pace of resettlement had slowed. The demand for wood experienced a sharp decrease and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania lost almost half of its population due to the Northern Wars
Northern Wars
Northern Wars is a term used for a series of wars fought in northern and northeastern Europe in the 16th and 17th century. An internationally agreed nomenclature for these wars has not yet been devised...
(1655–1661), famine, and plague. Settlers were attracted by its fertile farmland, which had largely been cleared of forests, and by the relative ease of serfdom in the area: because much of the land was owned by the Grand Duke himself, serfs did not have to perform corvée
Corvée
Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...
. The repopulation in private holdings of nobles in the north took place at a much slower rate. Another important factor in the area's regrowth was the proximity of East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
and its capital Königsberg
Königsberg
Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...
. The city had become a major trade center and was the second-largest export destination (following Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
) of the Grand Duchy. Kudirkos Naumiestis
Kudirkos Naumiestis
Kudirkos Naumiestis is in the Šakiai district municipality, Lithuania. It is located south-west of Šakiai.The settlement was first mentioned in 1561 as a village called Duoliebaičiai. In 1639 the town was renamed Vladislavovas by Cecilia Renata of Austria after her husband Władysław IV Vasa. He...
was the region's gateway to Prussia. When the Great Northern War
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in northern Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I the Great of Russia, Frederick IV of...
(1700–1721) depopulated Lithuania further, repopulation of Suvalkija was almost complete.
Serfdom
Serfdom
Serfdom is the status of peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to Manorialism. It was a condition of bondage or modified slavery which developed primarily during the High Middle Ages in Europe and lasted to the mid-19th century...
in Suvalkija was abolished in 1807 by Napoleon Bonaparte: peasants acquired personal freedoms, although they could not own land. That changed only in 1861 when serfdom was abolished in the entire Russian Empire
Emancipation reform of 1861
The Emancipation Reform of 1861 in Russia was the first and most important of liberal reforms effected during the reign of Alexander II of Russia. The reform, together with a related reform in 1861, amounted to the liquidation of serf dependence previously suffered by peasants of the Russian Empire...
. By the 1820s, farmers in Suvalkija had begun to divide their villages into individual farmsteads (Lithuanian: singluar – vienkemis, plural – vienkemiai). This development is a clear indicator of economic prosperity among the peasants. The old three-field system was becoming obsolete; under that system the land was managed by the community and individuals could not introduce any technological advances without their approval. By contrast, in other parts of Lithuania this process did not begin until serfdom was abolished throughout the Empire in 1861, intensifying after the Stolypin reform
Stolypin reform
The Stolypin agrarian reforms were a series of changes to Imperial Russia's agricultural sector instituted during the tenure of Pyotr Stolypin, Chairman of the Council of Ministers...
in 1906.
Early abolition of serfdom, fertile land, and close economic ties with East Prussia contributed to Suvalkija's relative wealth. This situation led to the ongoing perception that its inhabitants are very rational, clever, and extremely frugal, even greedy. Such stereotypes, also applied to other regions, gave rise to many anecdotes and practical jokes.
Suvalkija remains the least-forested area of Lithuania (in 2005 forests covered 21.6% of Marijampolė County
Marijampole County
Marijampolė County is one of the ten counties in Lithuania. It is in the south of the country in the historical Suvalkija region, and its capital is the town Marijampolė...
while forests cover 32% of the country as a whole). The third-largest forest in Lithuania, Kazlų Rūda Forest (587 km²), is in Suvalkija, but is located on sandy soil unsuitable for farming. Suvalkija remains one of the most important agricultural regions of Lithuania, harvesting large crops of sugar beet
Sugar beet
Sugar beet, a cultivated plant of Beta vulgaris, is a plant whose tuber contains a high concentration of sucrose. It is grown commercially for sugar production. Sugar beets and other B...
s.
Cultural history
Originally, the region was inhabited by the Baltic tribe of the Sudovians (hence the name "Sudovia"). The Teutonic KnightsTeutonic Knights
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem , commonly the Teutonic Order , is a German medieval military order, in modern times a purely religious Catholic order...
frequently raided the region during the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
in ongoing attempts to conquer and baptize the pagan Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state from the 12th /13th century until 1569 and then as a constituent part of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until 1791 when Constitution of May 3, 1791 abolished it in favor of unitary state. It was founded by the Lithuanians, one of the polytheistic...
. As a result most of ancient Sudovia became a sparsely-inhabited wilderness covered by large forests. After the Battle of Grunwald
Battle of Grunwald
The Battle of Grunwald or 1st Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410, during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respectively by King Jogaila and Grand Duke Vytautas , decisively defeated the Teutonic Knights, led...
in 1410, which ended the crusades against Lithuania, the territory was slowly repopulated by settlers from Samogitia
Samogitia
Samogitia is one of the five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. It is located in northwestern Lithuania. Its largest city is Šiauliai/Šiaulē. The region has a long and distinct cultural history, reflected in the existence of the Samogitian dialect...
and Aukštaitija
Aukštaitija
Aukštaitija is the name of one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. The name comes from the relatively high elevation of the region, particularly the eastern parts.-Geography:...
. They brought their cultures, which mingled with that of the remaining local Sudovians, and an ethnologically
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
-distinct culture gradually took shape, combining Samogitian and Aukštaitian elements and indigenous elements not found anywhere else.
Significant changes took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Suvalkija was separated from Lithuania Proper. While the Napoleonic period was brief, it resulted in lasting impacts. Of these impacts, the most important were the introduction of the Napoleonic Code
Napoleonic code
The Napoleonic Code — or Code Napoléon — is the French civil code, established under Napoléon I in 1804. The code forbade privileges based on birth, allowed freedom of religion, and specified that government jobs go to the most qualified...
, the usage of the Gregorian Calendar
Gregorian calendar
The Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
, and the abolition of serfdom almost 50 years earlier than in the rest of Lithuania. Peasants gained personal freedom and opportunities to acquire wealth. The region also offered better educational opportunities to its residents – Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary
Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary
Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary was a seminary in Veiveriai, Suwałki Governorate, Congress Poland . It was established as teachers' courses in 1866 and reorganized into a seminary in 1872. It prepared teachers for elementary schools in the Suwałki Governorate. During World War I, the seminary was...
and a gymnasium in Marijampolė
Marijampole
Marijampolė is an industrial city and the capital of the Marijampolė County in the south of Lithuania, bordering Poland and Russian Kaliningrad oblast, and Lake Vištytis. The population of Marijampolė is 48,700...
continued their operations at a time when most educational institutions in Lithuania were closed following the 1863 January Uprising
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an uprising in the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth against the Russian Empire...
against the Russian Empire. Students could also attend Roman Catholic seminaries in Sejny
Sejny Priest Seminary
The Sejny Priest Seminary or Sejny Theological Seminary was a Catholic priest seminary established in Sejny in 1826. The courses lasted five years...
and Kaunas
Kaunas Priest Seminary
Kaunas Priest Seminary is the largest seminary in Lithuania serving the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kaunas. It is part of the Faculty of Theology of Vytautas Magnus University. Its current rector is Aurelijus Žukauskas. As of 2007, the seminary had 35 students...
. According to the census taken in 1897, the rate of literacy among the peasants of the Suvalkai Province was the highest in the Russian Empire. The people of Suvalkija were also among the first and most numerous emigrants to the United States.
These developments led to the formation of a new well-educated class, which fueled the Lithuanian National Revival
Lithuanian National Revival
Lithuanian National Revival, alternatively Lithuanian National Awakening , was a period of the history of Lithuania in the 19th century at the time when a major part of Lithuanian inhabited areas belonged to the Russian Empire...
in the second half of the 19th century. Among the many notable figures from the region were the patriarch of Lithuanian independence Jonas Basanavičius
Jonas Basanavicius
Jonas Basanavičius was an activist and proponent of Lithuania's National Revival and founder of the first Lithuanian language newspaper Aušra. He was one of the initiators and the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the 1905 Congress of Lithuanians, the Great Seimas of Vilnius...
, Vincas Kudirka
Vincas Kudirka
Vincas Kudirka was a Lithuanian poet and physician, and the author of both the music and lyrics of the Lithuanian National Anthem, Tautiška giesmė. He is regarded in Lithuania as a National Hero. Kudirka used pen names - V...
, the author of the Lithuanian nation anthem, and Jonas Jablonskis
Jonas Jablonskis
Jonas Jablonskis was a distinguished Lithuanian linguist and one of the founders of the standard Lithuanian language...
, a linguist frequently credited with the creation of a standardized Lithuanian language. Dialects spoken in Suvalkija became the basis for the modern language. The Revival, which had previously been centered in eastern Samogitia, gradually shifted to Suvalkija due to the activities of these prominent figures and its better economic conditions.
Language
The traditional classification of the Lithuanian dialects divided those of Suvalkija into two sections: Zanavykai, spoken in its north, and Kapsai, spoken in its south. These two sub-dialects are often described as the basis of the standard Lithuanian language. It has proven quite difficult, however, to identify language characteristics unique to those regions, as the characteristics are extremely diverse and unevenly distributed. A revised classification of the dialects, proposed in 1965, eliminates this distinction and groups the Zanavykai, Kapsai, and Central Aukštaitian sub-dialects as a single sub-grouping, named Kaunas sub-dialect of the Western Aukštaitian dialectAukštaitian dialect
Aukštaitian dialect is one of the dialects of the Lithuanian language, spoken in ethnographic regions of Aukštaitija, Dzūkija and Suvalkija. It became the basis for the standard Lithuanian language.-Classification:...
. The territory of this sub-dialect encompasses a much larger area than Suvalkija and stretches beyond the Neman River
Neman River
Neman or Niemen or Nemunas, is a major Eastern European river rising in Belarus and flowing through Lithuania before draining into the Curonian Lagoon and then into the Baltic Sea at Klaipėda. It is the northern border between Lithuania and Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast in its lower reaches...
.
The Western Aukštaitian dialect, unlike other dialects of Lithuanian, preserves the mixed diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s an, am, en, em and the ogonek
Ogonek
The ogonek is a diacritic hook placed under the lower right corner of a vowel in the Latin alphabet used in several European and Native American languages.-Use:...
vowels ą and ę. The dialect is subdivided into Kaunas and Šiauliai sub-dialects. The Kaunas sub-dialect, in contrast to the Šiauliai sub-dialect, in most cases separates long and short vowels and stresses
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
word endings in the same way as standard Lithuanian. Since they had close economic contacts with East Prussia, people from Suvalkija borrowed a number of German words. There are efforts to preserve, record, and promote the local dialects. Between 2003 and 2006 the Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute
Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Institute
The Science and Encyclopaedia Publishing Centre is a Lithuanian publishing house that issues encyclopedias, reference works, books, monographs, and dictionaries...
published a three-volume dictionary of Zanavykai sub-dialect. Since 1973, Šakiai district municipality
Šakiai district municipality
Šakiai district municipality is one of 60 municipalities in Lithuania....
organizes an annual Language Day to encourage preservation of the sub-dialect.
Along a gradient from north (Zanavykai) to south (Kapsai and Dzūkija) the stressed first component of mixed diphthongs ul, um, un, ur, il, im, in, and ir, changes from short to semi-long to long (from kúlt to kùlt to kūlc – to thresh, from pírmas to pìrmas to pyrmas – first, from pínti to pìnti to pync – to braid). Kapsai tend to modify word beginnings. If a word starts in ei or e, they often replace it with ai or a (aik instead of eik – go, ažeras instead of ežeras – lake). Zanavykai also modify vowels, but in the other direction (ekmuo replaces akmuo – stone, ešis instead of ašis – axis). Kapsai often add a v to words that, in standard Lithuanian, start with uo, u, or o (vuoga instead of uoga – berry, voras instead of oras – air) and j to words that start with i, y, or i.e. (jilgas instead of ilgas – long, jieva instead of ieva – bird cherry). Zanavykai tend to shorten words. They often drop n from verbs (gyvek instead of gyvenk – live!) and truncate the past tense form of verbs (žino instead of žinojo – he knew, galė instead of galėjo – he could, ė instead of ėjo – he walked). Zanavykai also preserved some archaic forms and rules of declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
, especially in pronominal pronoun
Pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun is a pro-form that substitutes for a noun , such as, in English, the words it and he...
s, and of conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
, especially in dual
Dual (grammatical number)
Dual is a grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and plural. When a noun or pronoun appears in dual form, it is interpreted as referring to precisely two of the entities identified by the noun or pronoun...
verbs.
Clothing
Traditional peasant clothing in Suvalkija, while consisting of the same basic items, can be clearly differentiated from clothing in other parts of Lithuania. Because the region was relatively wealthier, the clothes were richer in color, decoration, and ornament. They were also made of better and more expensive materials, including brocadeBrocade
Brocade is a class of richly decorative shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in colored silks and with or without gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli," comes from Italian broccato meaning "embossed cloth," originally past participle of the verb broccare...
, silk, wool, and damask
Damask
Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin weave and the ground in weft-faced or sateen weave...
. Regional differences existed even within Suvalkija. Kapsai women wore long, wide dress garments with large designs of stars and tulips, semidark in colour and partially striped. The Zanavykai costume is one of the most decorative in design, colour and style.
Suvalkija women wore wide, gathered
Gather (sewing)
Gathering is a sewing technique for shortening the length of a strip of fabric so that the longer piece can be attached to a shorter piece. It is commonly used in clothing to manage fullness, as when a full sleeve is attached to the armscye or cuff of a shirt, or when a skirt is attached to a...
skirts of one main color (dark and rich, such as dark red, blue, violet, or green) with narrow multi-colored stripes woven into the fabric. Women's blouses in Suvalkija are distinguishable from those of other regions by their wider sleeves and by more extensive decorations. Their aprons were especially richly decorated and colorful, with Kapsai laying stripes and other ornaments horizontally, while the Zanavykai preferred vertical compositions. Women also wore richly decorated sash
Sash
A sash is a cloth belt used to hold a robe together, and is usually tied about the waist. The Japanese equivalent of a sash, obi, serves to hold a kimono or yukata together. Decorative sashes may pass from the shoulder to the hip rather than around the waist...
es around their waists. These sashes used more complex ornaments than in other regions, where more archaic but simpler geometric forms prevailed. Because of their relative complexity, folk art collectors placed a higher value on these sashes. A few examples were presented in the first Lithuanian art exhibition in 1907. Bodice
Bodice
A bodice, historically, is an article of clothing for women, covering the body from the neck to the waist. In modern usage it typically refers to a specific type of upper garment common in Europe during the 16th to the 18th century, or to the upper portion of a modern dress to distinguish it from...
s at first were identical to those in Dzūkija
Dzukija
Dzūkija or Dainava is one of five ethnographic regions of Lithuania. Dzūkija is a cultural region defined by traditional lifestyles and dialects of the local Lithuanian population and has never been defined as a political or administrative unit...
, but diverged by the mid-19th century. Bodices in Zanavykai had short laps, while bodices of Kapsai were long and flared. Young girls and married women could be told apart by their headdresses. Young girls in Kapsai wore tall golden gallon
Gallon
The gallon is a measure of volume. Historically it has had many different definitions, but there are three definitions in current use: the imperial gallon which is used in the United Kingdom and semi-officially within Canada, the United States liquid gallon and the lesser used United States dry...
s, while maidens in Zanavykai wore narrow galloons, sometimes replacing them with beads. Married women wore bonnet
Bonnet (headgear)
Bonnets are a variety of headgear for both sexes, which have in common only the absence of a brim. Bonnet derives from the same word in French, where it originally indicated a type of material...
s similar to those in Dzūkija.
Men's wear was simpler and only occasionally decorated with a modest amount of embroidery
Embroidery
Embroidery is the art or handicraft of decorating fabric or other materials with needle and thread or yarn. Embroidery may also incorporate other materials such as metal strips, pearls, beads, quills, and sequins....
. Men wore caftans pleat
Pleat
A pleat is a type of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and securing it in place. It is commonly used in clothing and upholstery to gather a wide piece of fabric to a narrower circumference....
ed at the back. These caftans, usually sewn from light gray or white woolen cloth, were later replaced by coats. Shirts, resembling a tunic
Tunic
A tunic is any of several types of clothing for the body, of various lengths reaching from the shoulders to somewhere between the hips and the ankles...
, were sewn from white linen cloth and were not usually decorated. The most ormamental detail of men's garments were the decorative patterned sashes they wore around their waists. Men also wore high boots and hats with straight brims that were decorated with feathers and flowers.
As elsewhere, clothing styles began to rapidly change at the beginning of the 20th century as city and town culture increasingly influenced the traditional peasant life. Clothes became simpler, less colorful and decorated. Women started wearing a variety of jackets, usually of one dark color, and covered their heads with simple scarves tied under their chins. Skirts became less and less gathered and colored stripes disappeared. The celebrated aprons and sashes were completely lost.
The first concepts and models of the national costume
National costume
Folk costume expresses an identity through costume which usually to a geographic area or a period of time in history, but can also indicate social, marital and/or religious status...
were formed in Lithuania Minor
Lithuania Minor
Lithuania Minor or Prussian Lithuania is a historical ethnographic region of Prussia, later East Prussia in Germany, where Prussian Lithuanians or Lietuvininkai lived. Lithuania Minor enclosed the northern part of this province and got its name due to the territory's substantial...
(East Prussia
East Prussia
East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...
), where Lithuanian cultural activities were legal and not suppressed by the Lithuanian press ban
Lithuanian press ban
The Lithuanian press ban was a ban on all Lithuanian language publications printed in the Latin alphabet within the Russian Empire, which controlled Lithuania at the time. Lithuanian-language publications that used the Cyrillic alphabet were allowed and even encouraged...
. After the ban was lifted in 1904, clothing from Lithuania Minor was promoted as the best candidate for the national dress until the 1920s, when attention shifted to clothing from Suvalkija. The shift can be attributed to the relative abundance of original clothing from the region, which was rich in decoration and could compete with the costumes of other European nations. A number of prominent activists, including President of Lithuania Kazys Grinius
Kazys Grinius
Kazys Grinius was the third President of Lithuania, and held that office from 7 June 1926 to 17 December 1926.When Grinius was born in Selema, near Marijampolė, Lithuania was part of the Russian empire. He studied medicine at the University of Moscow and became a physician...
and his wife Joana Griuniuvienė, collected and promoted the clothing of Suvalkija, especially aprons and sashes. At the time regional differences were not emphasized and cultural activists were attempting to arrive at a single model of a "Lithuanian" national dress, based on samples from Suvalkija. The concept of a single representative Lithuanian national dress was dropped in the 1930s in favor of regional costumes, unique to each of the ethnographic regions.
Music
The musical traditions of Suvalkija are distinctive. The kanklėsKankles
The Kanklės is a Lithuanian plucked string musical instrument , related to the zither. It is roughly in the shape of a trapezium or trapezoid . The instrument is fitted with several wire or gut strings under tension which produce tones when plucked...
, possibly the most archaic Lithuanian instrument, took on distinguishable characteristics in the region; more heavily ornamented than elsewhere, its end is narrow, spreading out into a rounded shape. Recordings made in the 1930s, and reissued in the 21st century by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, contain waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es, marches, schottische
Schottische
The schottische is a partnered country dance, that apparently originated in Bohemia. It was popular in Victorian era ballrooms as a part of the Bohemian folk-dance craze and left its traces in folk music of countries such as Argentina , Finland , France, Italy, Norway , Portugal and Brazil , Spain ...
s, and krakowiak
Krakowiak
The Krakowiak, sometimes referred to as the Pecker Dance, is a fast, syncopated Polish dance in duple time from the region of Krakow and Little Poland. This dance is known to imitate horses, the steps mimic their movement, for horses were well loved in the Krakow region of Poland for their civilian...
s. Popular polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
s performed on the fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
were a significant part of the local musicians' repertoire. The recordings from this era are monodic
Monody
In poetry, the term monody has become specialized to refer to a poem in which one person laments another's death....
; there is usually one singer, and the music relies on variable modal structures, changes of tempo, and subtle ornamentation of the melody for interest.
The composition of the musical ensembles in the region changed during the middle 19th century. Earlier versions featured between one and three kanklės, a fiddle, and a būgnas (drum). Later ensembles often included one or two fiddles, a German or Viennese harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, a būgnas, and at times a cymbal, a clarinet, a coronet
Coronet
A coronet is a small crown consisting of ornaments fixed on a metal ring. Unlike a crown, a coronet never has arches.The word stems from the Old French coronete, a diminutive of coronne , itself from the Latin corona .Traditionally, such headgear is – as indicated by the German equivalent...
, or a besetle (a stringed bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
). Ensembles featuring the fiddle and the būgnas were also popular.