The national identity of Lithuanian Karaims or their self-consciousness of being one of Turkic nations has been very strong and vigorous through the ages. It manifests itself through a native language, national and religious traditions, folklore and professional creation. All these factors have remained vital up to the present time: on the one hand, as the expression of national self-consciousness and on the other - as its basis uniting the community.
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Celebrating the 600th anniversary of the settling down of Karaims and Tatars in Lithuania. Karaim youth in national costumes. Trakai, 1997 |
In the late 19th century and the early 20th
century, under the new economic and political conditions of the world
undergoing great changes it was no more enough to be the usual and authentic
Karaim community, functioning for itself and in itself. That time gave
rise to the emergence of the man's new inner need to deeply perceive one's
own national “I” and to declare it in an active and open way. This new
need emerged making an attempt to motivate one's own (both of a separate
individual and a group) identity among other people, because only then
“others” disclosed themselves, and in order to maintain a national self-consciousness
itself, which was as a guarantee of the survival of the nation.
This need for a national identification was satisfied first of all by
an active public, cultural and educational activities in the major Karaim
centers in the early 20th century, such as Trakai, Vilnius, Panevëþys,
Luck, Halich, Eupatoria, Moscow. In Moscow was published the magazine
“Karaimskaja þiznj” (“The Karaim Life, 1911-1912, in Russian), in Vilnius
- “Karaimskoje slovo” (“The Karaim Word”, 1913-1914, in Russian) and “Myúl
karaimska” (“The Karaim Thought”, 1924-1939, in Polish, in 1946-1947 continued
in Poland), in Luck - “Karaj avazy” (“The Voice of Karaim”, 1931-1938,
in Karaim), in Panevëþys “Onarmach” (“Prosperity”, 1934-1939, in Karaim).
The authors of the articles analyzed the situation, history and cultural
heritage of their communities as well as published the Karaim poetry,
prose, many scientific articles and the reports from the everyday life.
The Karaim art amateur groups, clubs, public societies and libraries played
a great role, too.
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A scene from Karaim theatre amateur play. Trakai, December 1990 |
Today we estimate the activities of that
period as particularly valuable due to their unique results. That period
fixed on paper and in the people's consciousness all the complex of things,
which serve as a basis for the public activities of the present day Karaim
community and which, on the whole, revived its spirit and opened a much
deeper and better grounded context of perceiving the Karaim nation and
its culture. Unfortunately, the upswing at the beginning of the century
lasted only until the sovietization of Lithuania. It was the time when
any verbally expressed idea about a national self-consciousness was out
of the question. In the long run, even the perception of the nation was
exhausted. The public life of the Karaim community came to life again
only in 1988. It was associated with the changing political atmosphere
in this part of the world, and some time later - with the restoration
of independence in Lithuania..
The scope of secular art, which emerged in the culture of Lithuanian Karaims
in the early 20th century, performed a significant function of the manifesto
of national self-consciousness even in the period of the national rebirth
of Lithuanian and other nations of Lithuania since 1988. The changing
religious consciousness that in the past was one of the strongest supports
of the national self-consciousness now adapts itself to new life conditions
of society and imports to the Karaim identification some modern shades.