V. Petronis | R. Miknys | T. Bairašauskaitė | R. Griškaitė | A. Prašmantaitė | A. Katilius | D. Staliūnas I J.Paškauskas | L.Pocius I O. Mastianica | V. Žaltauskaitė | V. Pugačiauskas | Z. Medišauskienė |
The Nineteenth-Century History Department was established in 1996, after the reform of the Department of Cultural History and National Revival and the Department of the History of the Republic of Lithuania. It employs two chief researchers, three senior researchers, seven researchers, and one laboratory assistant. Three doctoral students are studying for their degrees. The staff of the department form the core of our country’s research on the history of the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.
The research interests and specialisations of the departmental staff cover a wide range of historical problems of Lithuania (the former lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries.
They focus on social history of Lithuania, the change of social structures and social identities in the context of the modernisation of society, the history of individual social groups, social conflicts and tensions, and the forms of self-organisation of the society (self-government institutions, public associations, and the like). Along with the history of the Lithuanians, the department’s scholars research the history of other Lithuanian ethnic, ethno-religious and national groups (Jews, Tatars, Belarusians, etc.), the ethno-political and ethno-cultural attitudes of these groups, and their inter-ethnic relations and conflicts, and their work in this sphere is of considerable significance. The broader issues of nationalism, national and political movements in Lithuania, the modern Lithuanian nation, and the premises for the modern statehood of Lithuania also deserve their attention. In the context of research on the history of Russia, the research on Russian politics (ethnic, confessional, etc.) in Lithuania carried out by the department’s scholars is significant, both in terms of the practical aspects of this policy and its ideological justification. From time to time, the scholars revisit the theme of resistance to Russia and its policies. The Nineteenth-Century History Department can also be regarded as a unique centre for the study into the nineteenth-century history of the Catholic Church in Lithuania. Here, the functioning of the Catholic Church as an institution and as a community has been studied consistently and comprehensively for many years. It is worth mentioning that the scholars of the department are making a solid contribution to the publication of Lithuanian historical sources and have written relevant parts of the multi-volume histories of Lithuania and Vilnius. They are actively engaged in communicating the results of their research to the general public.
The current head of the department is Dr Virgilijus Pugačiauskas.
From 2022 to 2026, the researchers of the department are conducting the long-term research programme ‘Genealogy of a Conflict in a Modernising Society: The Case of Lithuania (the Nineteenth-Twentieth Century), led by Dr Darius Staliūnas.
From 2020 to 2022, the Department of Nineteenth-Century History conducted the research project ‘“The Kražiai Massacre”: Microhistory in the Context of Macrohistorical Processes’, which was funded by the Research Council of Lithuania and led by Dr Darius Staliūnas.
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