In the first half of 1990s, Lithuanian–Belarusian relationships were characterised by their low intensity. This situation remained unchanged also when Alexander Lukashenko came to power in Belarus in 1994. Lithuania and Belarus followed a completely different course in their political, economic and military integration. The European and Atlantic course won in the Lithuanian politics, while in the Belarusian politics the Eastern direction prevailed. After presidential elections in 2001, bilateral relations in Belarus were frozen. Only in 2007 there was a convergence of Lithuanian and Belarusian interests, when increasing Russian influence started to pose a threat to their sovereignty. There was a new opening in Lithuanian policy towards Belarus. Political and economic cooperation tightened. An extent of Lithuanian investments in Belarus also increased. Belarus has played an increasingly important role in Lithuanian politics. Lithuania also acts as a mediator in a conflict between Belarus and EU. Both countries also criticised Russian involvement in the Ukrainian conflict. In the nearest future, further development of economic and political cooperation between these two countries should be expected.

This article focuses on the analysis of the current state of the key competence development of adults in Lithuania. The following key competences are analysed: communication in native tongues and foreign languages, development of cultural awareness, entrepreneurship, application of information society technologies, and learning to learn. The research involved analysis of the definition and role of the key competences, discussing their typologies and revealing the preconditions, factors and approaches to the development of the key competences. Results of the quantitative survey involving 6992 adult respondents in Lithuania showed that the key competences are important for the majority of the research sample in their social, work and personal life. Individualised ways of key competence development are applied more frequently than collective ways. Key competence development is mostly enhanced by personal needs (work, wish of development and self-realization) and support of the family. The most frequently mentioned obstacles to the development of key competences are lack of financial resources and expensive training services.

Based on the assumption that cultural orientations affect interpersonal conflicts, the study examined conflict styles across two national cultures of neighboring European countries, i.e. Lithuania and Poland. Whereas Poland and Lithuania score relatively high in terms of individualism, they differ in terms of power distance, uncertainty avoidance, and masculinity-femininity. For the research purposes, a conflict resolving style questionnaire was applied, which was prepared by T. Wach according to the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. The questionnaire was administered to 520 participants aged 13–15. Conflict style comparisons demonstrated that the Lithuanians chose dominating and accommodating styles more often than the Polish did, and the Polish chose integrating more often than the Lithuanians. The research findings can be a valuable source in predicting conflict resolution patterns.

For centuries there has been Polish-language education in Lithuania which results from the centuries-long presence and tradition of the Polish national minority in this country. Polish education in Lithuania has its successes, but also problems that arise from the political and cultural specificity of the issue. On the one hand, it should be noted that in no other country (except Poland) there are as many state-run schools with Polish language of instruction as in Lithuania, on the other – it must be said that currently Polish-language education in Lithuania has become the source of many tensions in Poland and Lithuania inter-state relations. Polish education in Lithuania was a problem for the communist authorities of Soviet Lithuania, and now – for the authorities of independent Lithuania, which undertake both assimilation and integration activities concerning several thousand students and teachers of these schools. The first part of the article presents the situation of Polish-language education in the period of Soviet Lithuania between 1945 and 1990, marking the desperate struggle of parents and teachers to maintain the Polish language of teaching in these schools. The second chapter analyses the issue during the years of independent Lithuania – between 1990 and 2017, emphasizing the revival of Polish education in 1990–2000 and the persistent pursuit of the Polish minority society in Lithuania of ensuring education in Polish and maintain the existing state. The third chapter examines the indicator of higher education of the Polish minority in Lithuania against a national background, signifying that it was twice lower than the national average throughout the whole period. Moreover, it presents the funding of universities by ‘student basket’ model and proportion of school graduates with Polish language of instruction in this model and assesses the prospect of solving the problem.

“Lithuanian books” in the norths of Central Russia at the end of XVI–XVIIth century (used materials from Yaroslavl, Tver and Perm regions)

This article is about appearances of Cyrillic printed “Lithuanian books” on the Yaroslavl, Tver and Perm regions. Author marked three periods of orthodox publishing activity in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth also he analyzed dynamic of this books arrival to those regions. In order to analyze this dynamic he introduced new term “books arrival intensity coefficient”.

Polish-Lithuanian restitutive negotiations in the period of the Third Republic of Poland (1911–2018)

Since regaining independence in 1991, Lithuanian historical documents have been kept in two archives: 1) the Lithuanian State Historical Archives (Lietuvos Valstybes Istorijos Archyvas); 2) the Lithuanian Central State Archives (Lietuvos Centrinis Valstybinis Archiv). Making them available for Polish scholars was a subject of negotiations between Polish and Lithuanian archivists. In June 11, 1993 in Białystok there was signed an agreement of cooperation between the Head Office of State Archives (Jerzy Skowronek) and the Office of the Chief Archivist of Lithuania (Stanislovas Gediminas Ilgunas). It concerned mainly information sharing about Lithuanian documents in Poland and Polish documents in Lithuania.
1994 Treaty Between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania on Friendly Relations and Neighbourly Cooperation signed on April 26, 1994 has regulated the issues of cultural heritage protection in its Articles XVIII and XXIII. Based on the treaty and consistently with the principle of pertinence (territorial affiliation), on October 26, 1994 there was signed Polish- Lithuanian Initiating Protocol on Exchanging Record Documents. Further talks between Director Jerzy Skowronek (1937–1996) and Stanislovas Gediminas Ilgunas (1936–2010) held in the Lithuanian Archives Department and the Lithuanian State Historical Archives resulted in agreeing on the working schedules of Polish and Lithuanian archivists.
Moreover, queries were concluded by the Military Archival Commission which made more than 100 thousand copies of acts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania coming from 1918–1939, documents of Poles imprisoned between September 1939 and July 1940 (in Kalvarija and Birštonas), and acts of Lithuanian NKVD and KGB – kept in the Lithuanian Central State Archives and the Lithuanian Special Archives of the former KGB.
On January 6, 1995 – independently on the agreement between Polish and Lithuanian archives – the Ambassador of Lithuania to Poland, HE Antanas Valionis (born in 1950), conveyed the copies of documents concerning 52 Poles murdered in Vilnius in 1944–1947 by NKVD to the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation.
Polish-Lithuanian exchanging revindication that took place in 1995– –1998 led to the State Archive’s in Suwałki conveying to the Lithuanian State Historical Archives more than 70 thousand of microfilm frames with civil status books produced in 1808–1912 on the territory of middle and eastern part of the former Sejny County that was accessed to Lithuania after the I World War. Simultaneously, Lithuanians conveyed to the State Archive in Białystok also more than 70 thousand of microfilm frames made by XIX-th century record books of parish deaneries in Białystok, Knyszyn and Sokółka.
On December 16, 1999 the governments of the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Lithuania signed a bilateral agreement on the cooperation of government plenipotentiaries in terms of cultural heritage protection that has become the pillar of joint archive studies, library conservation, securing the monuments of sacral and residential architecture, and the joint discovering and studying the common past.
On November 28, 2006 in Warsaw there was held a summit of the Polish- Lithuanian Expert Group on the Preservation of Cultural Heritage during which both sides declared cooperation between the archives of Poland and Lithuania. Sides agreed to collect data concerning Polish documents in Lithuania and Lithuanian documents in Poland.
Despite Lithuania keeps Polish cultural heritage appropriated in 1939– 1940 and discriminates against Polish minority, it has become an important partner in Polish Eastern politics in recent ten years.
In Lithuania – independently on studies conducted in Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and Moscow – there are very advanced works on editing another volumes of Lithuanian Metrica which is a collection of copies of almost all documents leaving the grand-ducal office between 1440–1795. It has been published since the end of XIX-th century in the Romanov Empire in the series of the National Library of Russia. In 1993–2015 there were published 53 volumes of the Lithuanian Metrica and a series edited in Poland. Now there should be expected – despite financial problems – the edition of another 27 volumes, several of which are already ready to print. However, there are still 500 volumes of acts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that await publication. It would be a task equally magnificent to Polish Bibliography of Estreichers.
Still, the matter of returning archives concerning the current Polish state remains unresolved. The same applies to the prewar Wróblewski Library – nationalized in 1940 by the authorities of Soviet Lithuania and transformed into the Library of the Academy of Sciences of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (currently the Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences).

For the first time, Karl Loewenstein had used the category of militant democracy concerning the Weimar Republic. Although the world’s situation has changed, the process of political systems taking over non-democratic regimes’ characteristics is still visible. Among the indicators that can testify to becoming militant democracy, the restriction of freedom of the press is distinguished. This article attempts to analyze the dynamics of this process in Lithuania based on the Freedom House reports. The research question formulated is: What restrictions on the press’s freedom in Lithuania occurred in the period? The hypothesis is: In 2008-2019 in Lithuania, there has been a regular restriction on the freedom of the press, which may indicate a progressive process of militant democracy. Results: The hypothesis has been partially verified positively. During the period considered, there were regular restrictions on the freedom of the press but were justified mainly by circumstances, or immediate counter-action was taken.

Przedmiotem niniejszego artykułu są wybory parlamentarne w Republice Litewskiej. Podjęto się analizy przebiegu i uwarunkowań instytucjonalnych wyborów, które odbyły się na Litwie w październiku 2020 roku w czasie trwającej pandemii Covid-19. W artykule przeanalizowano takie elementy, jak: wyniki wyborów na Litwie w 2020 r., nowe regulacje wyborcze, a także zaimplementowane nowe techniki głosowania w czasie pandemii. Oprócz tego poruszono także zagadnienia przebiegu kampanii wyborczej, która prowadzona była w warunkach obostrzeń i ograniczeń, które miały zwiększyć bezpieczeństwo wyborców oraz zmniejszyć transmisję koronawirusa SARS-CoV-2.

Since the first quarter of 2020, the whole world has been struggling with the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. More and more governments are introducing restrictions and bans for security reasons, with the aim of limiting the transmission of the virus and reducing health risks for citizens. The scale of the problem is best illustrated by the rising numbers of infections and deaths. In addition to the epidemic threat worldwide, the pandemic has brought to light many other problems and challenges. One of them is growing crisis of democracy around the world. Using a systemic approach, the article sets out to analyse the state and problems of contemporary Lithuanian democracy under pandemic conditions, focusing also on indicators of democracy and public opinion polls. It evaluates, inter alia, the state of Lithuanian democracy, the political system and its openness to citizens.

This article aims to analyze the use of new technologies (ICT) in the election process in Lithuania, understood as election procedures and electronic voting. While ICT is widely used in the registration of voters, calculating voting results, or announcing election results, so far, the concept of electronic voting in Lithuania raises many concerns. However, it is anticipated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, new regulations may be adopted, and electronic voting will contribute to the modernization of election procedures and help maintain sanitary requirements in the current crisis. Based on the analysis of legal acts, reports of international organizations, and the results of academic research, the author proves that new technologies significantly affect the operation of the broadly understood electoral apparatus. They can also increase electoral accessibility and participation, improve electoral processes in the context of new challenges, and stimulate the international visibility of the state.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the emotions that generate constructive and destructive strategies for coping in social conflict situations by adolescents. Studies based on C. Spielberger’s ThreeFactor Personality States and Traits Inventory (TISCO), adapted by K. Wrześniewski, and K. Thomas’ and R. Kilmann’s Conflict Resolution Style Questionnaire (CRSQ), adapted by T. Wach (Dąbrowski 1991), were used for the empirical study done in 2014 on students from Polish gymnasium schools in Vilnius. Adolescent students (131 girls and 126 boys) ranging from age 1315 years were chosen. Base on the analysis of the study material collected, one can say that adolescents applying destructive strategies in social conflict situations, demonstrate high level of negative emotions. Adolescents who constructively steer their behaviour in a social conflict situation are characterized with a higher level of positive emotions. The data from current studies suggests that youths using cooperation strategies in social conflict situations, exhibit higher emotional tension of curiosity, as a trait. Studies conducted show that during the age of adolescence, boys deal with emotionsactivating social conflict situations better than girls, as more often they seek mutual understanding with partners rather than resolving disputable issues.

The Political Position of the President in the Parliamentary and Semi-presidential Systems in the Light of the Lithuanian Constitutions of 1922 and 1992

This article aims to analyze the political position of the president in the parliamentary systems of interwar Lithuania and the semi-presidential system of modern Lithuania. The analysis covers the regulations of Lithuanian constitutions of 1922 and 1992. The article assesses the most important legal provisions concerning the political position of the head of state. The subject of the analysis is still relevant, as Lithuania, like during the first independence period, adopted the same political system, restoring its pre-war solutions (including reactivating the institution of the head of state). Identifying the differences and similarities in the systemic position of the institution of the head of state in the light of the Lithuanian basic laws seems to be an issue worth scientific research.

The aim of this article is to analyze the efficiency of the three currently working on the Polish side bilateral textbook commissions (Polish-German, Polish-Lithuanian and Polish-Ukrainian). Its added value lies, firstly, in rarely undertaken in the literature comparative research – the author’s ambitions go beyond simple description of several different textbook committees. Secondly, in the formulation of concrete conclusions, which to some extent can be applied in practice. The used research method was studying the documents. Using the technique of critical analysis of the content the author revealed similarities and differences in the functioning of the three institutions in terms of: the history of creation; tasks, procedures and organization of their work; discussed topics and appearing controversies; the effects of undertaken actions. On that basis, she formulated the conviction that a decisive impact on the effectiveness of the mentioned institutions have the following factors: ambitions and chosen by commissions course of action, the framework of states’ educational policies, the political support of the governments, wide debate on commissions’ findings, attitudes of the societies on the both sides of the border and objective factors like: time, stage of nation-building process and partners’ financial capacities.

Alternative voting procedures in Polish and Lithuanian election law

Organizing voting in general elections only in the traditional way (i.e., at the ballot boxes) may make it difficult for more and more voters to participate. This is due to the increasing mobility of society and the fact that citizens are away from home on election day, the aging population and much more difficult access of the old and the sick to polling stations, and – as shown in the years 2020–2021 – unexpected epidemic crises that affect public health, which in turn translates into the election process. This article focuses on alternative voting methods in Poland and Lithuania. The main intention of the authors is to analyze the legal basis and compare the functioning of alternative voting procedures in the electoral systems of both countries, as well as to answer the question about the possibility of introducing new forms of voting that could increase the health safety of voters and ensure the democratic nature of elections in emergency situations. The motivation to take up this topic were: the wprowapresidential elections in Poland in 2020 and the parliamentary elections in Lithuania in 2021, during which not only alternative voting methods were used (e.g., correspondence voting), but also the possibility of implementing completely new solutions – safe in the event of spreading coronavirus pandemic.

The COVID-19 caused a global crisis of an unprecedented scale. In order to contain the spread of the virus, governments took instant measures, adopting new legal regulations which included restrictions and limitations in the sphere of constitutional rights and freedoms. The aim of the paper is to discuss protesters’ actions and their different forms, and to analyse the response of law enforcement officers who secured demonstrations. I undertook to find the answers to two fundamental research questions: What action did protesters take during the pandemic in Lithuania? What was the character and intensity of the surveillance, intimidation and presence of the police during demonstrations? The research covers the period from 11 March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the pandemic, to the autumn of 2021, when anti-vaccine protests took place in Lithuania. In the study, I applied the institutional and legal analysis, as well as the qualitative source analysis.

The Polish State, with due regard to the time constraints on its continuity, is perceived from the perspective of more than a thousand years. Simultaneously, as an organised entity with its own values, it has been a mental problem for Poles since the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries and is continued until now. Thus, the reflections here have been restricted to the mentioned period because it is then that the main drawbacks of the Polish State began to occur. They include a description of these major flaws as we understand them and their effects. We often express the belief that our state disappeared from the map of Europe mainly due to the actions of our aggressive and finally partitioning neighbours. However, in doing so, we distance ourselves from the mistakes in managing the state made by the generations of our ancestors. This article analyses and exemplifies a deeper, critical academic reflection on these errors committed internally during the mentioned period and visible until today.

The role of Kaliningrad Region in Lithuanian-Russian relations after the dissolution of the Soviet Union

The process of dissolution of the Soviet Union has led not only to the geopolitical changes in Europe and in the world, but also to the fact that the issue of the Kaliningrad Region became the subject of interest from Baltic states. The Russian exclave has been the subject of debate and political controversy both in Russia and in Lithuania. Initially it was a result of the militarization of Kaliningrad Region and speculation regarding the change in its status. Later, the issue of Kaliningrad Region appeared primarily in the context of the enlargement of the European Union to the east. The importance of the Russian enclave for Lithuania should be considered not only in terms of geopolitical location, but mainly in the context of political, economic and military conditions.

Biography of one of the priests (members of the Society of Jesus) living and working in the Vilnius region in the first half of the 20th century; persecuted by the Soviet authorities for his pastoral activities; one of the confessors and spiritual directors and the author of one of the first studies on the life and spirituality of Sister Wanda Boniszewska CSA – a Polish mystic and stigmatic.

The article outlines the central tenets of Lithuania’s new foreign policy, which is anchored in its ambition to play a pivotal role within the NATOfocused Eastern Partnership, particularly with regard to Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova. The aim is to foster democratization in these regions and facilitate their prospective integration into NATO. The authors present two key arguments. First, Lithuania’s capacity to influence NATO decisions is limited in at least four domains: economic, political, organizational, and military. Second, Lithuania’s efforts to assert its stance, as exemplified during the Vilnius summit, did not consistently align with the interests of major NATO members, specifically the United States and Germany.