'Knygnešiai' of Punskas and Seinai region

There is no equivalent in any language of the world „knygnešys“. In other languages this term is often translated as a „book smuggler“. From the point of view of the tsarist Russia our “knygnešiai” (booksellers/book carriers/book distributors) were smugglers. After the rebellion of 1863, when the tsarist government of Russia prohibited the Lithuanian press, the period of “knygnešiai” and “daraktoriai” in Lithuania and beyond began. This period awakened the gigantic potential of the nation, infused people‘s hearts with love for people, language, culture, literature, and books. The future revolutionaries of the future Lithuanian nation grew up and matured in poverty schools, who, when the time came, invited the people to freedom and independence. The towns of Punskas and Seinai gave birth to a large number of “knygnešiai”, who, at the risk of their lives, liberties, personal or family assets, distributed Lithuanian books and press. Among them there were priests and secular people, intellectuals and ordinary people. The Seinai Spiritual Seminary, which was established in 1826, played a vital role in the revival of the Lithuanian nation. It was the distribution centre of illegal books across Užnemunė. The seminarians distributed the press in various ways, they spread it across the dioceze while going on their holidays, distributed it to their relatives who came to the seminary, sent them by post by placing or wrapping it in Russian newspapers. Four manuscript publications were edited in the Seminary. There were a lot of “knygnešiai” in our country. Not all of their names are known to the public today. Some people have almost disappeared from our collective memory. Some of them were from the caste of the clergy, such as Priest Antanas Milukas, Pastors of the Punskas Parish Simonas Norkus and Motiejus Simonaitis. The most well-known among the secular “knygnešiai” were Vincas Markevičius from Giluišiai village, Karolis Petruškevičius from Žagariai, Povilas Matulevičius from Kreivėnai and others. This article focuses on less known or forgotten but worthy “knygnešiai” of our country.