Table Of ContentThe Lithuanian Family in its
–
European Context, 1800 1914
DaliaLeinarte
The Lithuanian
Family in its
European Context,
–
1800 1914
Marriage, Divorce and Flexible Communities
DaliaLeinarte
VytautasMagnusUniversity
Kaunas,Lithuania
ISBN978-3-319-51081-1 ISBN978-3-319-51082-8(eBook)
DOI10.1007/978-3-319-51082-8
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2017938018
©TheEditor(s)(ifapplicable)andTheAuthor(s)2017
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthematerialisconcerned,specificallytherightsof
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology
nowknownorhereafterdeveloped.
Theuseofgeneraldescriptivenames,registerednames,trademarks,servicemarks,etc.inthis
publicationdoesnotimply,evenintheabsenceofaspecificstatement,thatsuchnamesare
exemptfromtherelevantprotectivelawsandregulationsandthereforefreeforgeneraluse.
Thepublisher,theauthorsandtheeditorsaresafetoassumethattheadviceandinformation
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publishernortheauthorsortheeditorsgiveawarranty,expressorimplied,withrespectto
thematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeenmade.The
publisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmapsandinstitu-
tionalaffiliations.
Coverimage©DeLuan/AlamyStockPhoto
Printedonacid-freepaper
ThisPalgraveMacmillanimprintispublishedbySpringerNature
TheregisteredcompanyisSpringerInternationalPublishingAG
Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland
To Dalia,Emilija,Nicolas and Gilles
P
REFACE
This book reaches readers at a time when the paradigmatic framework of
the 1960s–1970s on the essential differences in marriage and household
structures in North-Western and Eastern Europe is undergoing transfor-
mation.1 Industrialisation and urbanisation alone were not capable of
changing traditional household and marriage patterns. The East and
West typologisation is being replaced by the methodological approach
that the variety of family systems existed throughout Europe and these
weredeterminedbyexternalfactors.2Militaryconflictsandthechangein
political regimes not only brought about sexual violence, and an increase
indivorceandinfanticide,butalsooftenintroducednewfamilyideologies
and led to transformations in family behaviour.3 The fundamental ques-
tion is, how did families in the past respond to social upheavals and
economic reforms as well as policies of state and religious institutions?
This question is especially important for the understanding of family
behaviour in Eastern Europe, where due to drastic changes new marital
behaviouroftenmaskedthedominantfamilysystems.AsAndrejsPlakans
put it, “From the last decades of the eighteenth to the end of the nine-
teenth centuries, virtually every generation of Eastern European rural
people had to incorporate in its life some kind of unprecedented change
(...) which affected everydayaffairs.”4
This book investigates family life in nineteenth-century European terri-
toriesoftheRussianEmpirewithinthemethodologicalinquirynotedabove.
Giventheoftenrestrictivelawsandpolicies—manorialrightsandserfdomup
to1861,thepervasiveroleoftheChurchandabsenceofcivilmarriageand
divorce, inaddition to deep-rooted customary practices—how did women
vii
viii PREFACE
andmeninLithuaniamanagetonormaliseandsolvetheproblemsoftheir
family life? The book reveals that it was possible through the adoption of
unofficial, and often illegal, solutions. It explores the way in which the
peasant community in the nineteenth-century Lithuanian society resorted
tounsanctionedmaritalbehaviour.Cohabitation,bigamyandleviratemar-
riages,amongothers,practicedinordertorespondtotheexternalobstacles
thathadanimpactonthefamilylife.
Up until now there have been no comprehensive investigations in
English that examine the historical development of marriage and divorce
in Lithuania during tsarist times. This historiographical gap has been
partially filled by studies examining the family in central Russia and the
three Baltic provinces of the tsarist empire. However, we must take into
account the many particularities of marital behaviour in different regions
of theEuropean partofthe Empire (Figs.1and 2).
ThisbookcoversthecasestudyofthetwolargestLithuanianprovinces,
theKaunasandVilniusprovinces.ThePolish–LithuanianCommonwealth,
formallytheKingdomofPolandandtheGrandDuchyofLithuania,which
was dissolved in 1795, was the largest empire in the sixteenth century
Europe. Subsequently, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was incorporated
into Russia in 1795 and was part of the tsarist Empire until 1914. In
1801, Lithuania underwent a division into two provinces (guberniyas):
Lithuanian Vilnius (Vilna, Wilno) and Lithuanian Gardin (Grodno). The
period of1842–1915saw Lithuania being divided intotwo administrative
units,thatofKaunas(Kovno)andtheVilniusprovinces(Fig.3).In1867,
Suvalkai (Suwalki) province, which was part of Poland until 1915, was
established in the southwestern part of the current Lithuanian territory.
In the nineteenth century, approximately 410,789 people inhabited the
Lithuaniandistricts(volosts)oftheSuvalkaiprovince.TheKaunasprovince
covered 38,400 km2 with a total of approximately 969,369 inhabitants in
1857 (Fig. 4). There were 144 districts with around 25,465 villages. Its
inhabitants were predominantly Catholics. In the nineteenth century, the
Kaunas province was the largest Catholic province in the entire imperial
Russia. The Vilnius province covered 41,907 km2 with a total of approxi-
mately 1,314,000 inhabitants (including both areas in Lithuania and
Belarus) in1889. According tothe first Russian ImperialCensusof1897,
there were around 738,943 inhabitants in the Lithuanian districts of the
Vilniusprovince.
The main conclusion of this book points to the existence of flexible
family strategies in the traditional nineteenth-century Lithuanian
PREFACE ix
Fig. 1 European part of the Tsarist Empire, second half of the nineteenth
century.TheWroblewskiLibraryoftheLithuanianAcademyofSciences,K-796
community. Peasants made decisions that often went against the valid
legal regulations, canons and dominant cultural norms. Flexibility and
adaptability allowed them to “wait out” unfavourable economic reforms
orpoliticalperiods.5Somefamilydecisionsrequiredfundsandsanctioned
permission from the Church: in the case of an early death of a spouse, in
ordertopreserveacertainhousehold6structureandthefamily’sproperty,
farmers often requested dispensation for levirate or sororate marriage. In
othercases,peasantswouldadoptortolerateillegalfamilybehavioursuch
ascohabitationandbigamy.WhereasreasonsforcohabitationinWestern
Europe were usually related to the postponement of marriage, cohabita-
tioninLithuaniawastheresultofrestrictivecanonlaws.Flexiblestrategies
x PREFACE
Fig. 2 European part of the Tsarist Empire, 1911. The Wroblewski Library of
theLithuanianAcademyofSciences,K-1175
werealsoextendedtothetreatmentofchildrenborntosinglemothers.In
this regard, peasant families could even go to the extent of justifying
criminal behaviour: illegitimate children born to single mothers had no
place in a farmer’s family and the community would tolerate their early
death.Thenineteenth-centuryLithuaniancommunityacknowledgedonly
familylife,sounwedsinglesiblingswouldmisstheirpartintheinheritance
andwouldthus losetheir socialstatus.
The introductory Chapter 1 of this book presents a comparative over-
view of family systems, including household structures, marriage and
inheritancemodels,divorceandseparation,child-rearing,andnationalistic
family ideologies in Europe. The chapter also details the description of
archival sources used in this book. They include documents from the
Curia of the Samogitian Diocese which cover annullments and dispensa-
tions, as well as parishioners’ complaints about the interference of priests
in their proposed marriages for the period 1813–1914. Another body of
sources consists of files holding marriage annulments and separations in
PREFACE xi
Fig.3 KaunasandVilniusprovinces.TheWroblewskiLibraryoftheLithuanian
AcademyofSciences,K-938
the Kaunas province that were brought before the ecclesiastical court of
the Consistory of the Samogitian Diocese in 1853–1914. Significant
archival sources come from the so-called “Trials on Depraved Lifestyles”
(Дело о блудной жизни) that were also brought before the ecclesiastical
court of the Consistory of the Samogitian Diocese. A separate body of
sources contains papal encyclicals and sermons given by parish priests in
the Kaunas province relating to various matrimonial issues. The book is
also based on a broad scope of inventory data from the first half of the
nineteenthcentury,whichincludes3,000peasanthouseholds.Thecensus
wascarried outin 1847andrecorded19,917people.
The second chapter of the book is devoted to the various social phe-
nomena associated with marriage in the nineteenth-century Lithuania. It
discloses the ostracism experience by single men and women in the nine-
teenth-century rural community. Single mothers and their illegitimate
