In Vilnius, an exhibition about the January Uprising jointly organized by the Polish History Museum | going.pl
“Walk for Freedom. The January Uprising 1863–1864” – under this title, the main exhibition was opened on Tuesday in Vilnius by the Polish History Museum, commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland. In the Palace of the Rulers about the uprising, which was launched using stories from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.
The exhibition, consisting of 13 boards in Polish and Lithuanian, shows the genesis of the greatest independence uprising against the Russian invader, but also shows the effects that played a role in the fight against various social groups. The exhibition was placed on the fence of the Franciscan church in Vilnius Old Town and thus reminds of the special role of the Franciscans of Wleń in the resistance movement.
Robert Kostro, director of the Polish History Museum, in cooperation with journalists, said that the exhibition “is primarily aimed at a foreign audience. Here in Lithuania, but also in Ukraine, in the countries that are the heirs of the Republic of Poland, we want to show and remember the January Uprising,” said Kostro.
“This exhibition reminds us of our history with Poland, but also of all nations that fought against the invader,” Marius Janukonis, director of the Department of Communication and Culture at the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told PAP. He emphasized that the exhibition had an educational effect “while restoring the memory of the Uprising”.
Marek Dettlaff, a Franciscan during the vernissage, said that “here, behind this fence, in the former Franciscan cemetery, protesters against the Moscow authorities gathered.”
“Patriotic and religious songs were sung here, the Franciscan friars took insurgent oaths and celebrated masses at the beginning of the uprising, as well as for those who died in Vilnius and Warsaw” – said Fr. Marek. he added, “it can be said that our entire monastery joined the uprising” and that there is a document from 1864 in which the Tsar’s authority orders the closure of the Franciscan and Bernardine monasteries in Vilnius.
As part of the celebrations of the 160th anniversary of the January Uprising on Tuesday at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, which also provoked a debate among historians from Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, during which the answer to the questions of what the uprising teaches us, how much the common creators of our shape the regional identities of countries?
Both events listed by the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Institute in Vilnius.
From Vilnius Aleksandra Akińczo (PAP)
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