The Academic Tradition Atnaujinta: 2011-09-29 16:11:34

In the state of Lithuania, established after World War I and called by the historians the First Republic, Kaunas had the exceptional status of the provisional capital. Due to unfavourable conditions of international politics after Lithuania had lost its historical capital Vilnius, the city at the junction of the two rivers Nemunas and Neris became the centre for political, economical, cultural and intellectual life of this little country during the two decades of independence.

The driving force of Kaunas was the university founded in 1922 and named after Vytautas the Great in 1930, due to the social patriotic spirit of the time, which was based on the mystified symbols of the city’s distant, glorious past, inspired by the youthful Lithuanian nationalism.

While paying tribute to the old romantic tradition, this lone Lithuanian university at the time also became the hotbed for the elite of the modern new Lithuania, reborn in a new form ethnically.

The actual significance that the interwar university has had to the country and the city is difficult to fully comprehend and explain: the university has not only nurtured a constellation of honourable scientists, doctors, lawyers, engineers, writers and public figures, but also helped the creative potential of Lithuania unfold completely in the European intellectual space.

Even back in those days, Vytautas Magnus University was already famous for its spirit of community. First and foremost, this was reflected in the abundance of all kinds of corporations, congenial associations which brought together the students and the professors, diverse activities which were a direct testament to the spirit of Kaunas as a true European academic city.

Academic atmosphere of Kaunas is responsible for a relentless outpour of creative, liberal, humanist, progressive and innovative ideas of the 30s. Even under the conditions of nationalist authoritarianism of the times, the belief in democratic values, free creative expression, social solidarity and civic responsibility never ceased to exist.

While the World War II had erased Lithuania as an independent country from the geopolitical map for five long decades, its academic-intellectual traditions persevered. They were kept alive and continually developed by VMU Alumni and professors, scattered all around the free world.

Common socio-cultural experiences and visions of the First Republic during the Soviet times were so-called modern bridges connecting and uniting inhabitants of the occupied Lithuania with their compatriots living in exile. The innovation-friendly, persistently creative spirit of the pre-war university and the patriotic aura of the provisional capital remained alive in the memories and hearts of the people of Kaunas even in the hardest years of totalitarian oppression, reinforcing their sense of true identity, community and unbreakable resistance. 

The last decade of the 20th century began with Lithuania breaking free from the clutches of the totalitarian regime. Just like during the interwar period, Vytautas Magnus University and the Kaunas Monumental Christ’s Resurrection Church became the two brightest symbols of spiritual rebirth for the new independent country, as well as an important part of Kaunas’ history that gave meaning to faith in the future and hope for freedom in the collective memory of the nation.

Vytautas Magnus University, re-established with hard work of the Lithuanian intellectuals and the Diaspora in 1989, was one of the many higher education schools functioning in Kaunas (currently known as Aleksandras Stulginskis University, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences), all of which originated one way or another from the old Vytautas Magnus University after it was closed in 1950. However, its mission is exceptional and influential to this day – not just to connect the past with the future, continuing the intellectual traditions of the interwar, but also to reflect the needs and challenges of the nowadays: develop the science and culture of the country, ensure their global spreading, strengthen international academic relations, nurture creative, free, critically thinking personalities, encourage the association of the society with citizenship, values of liberal democracy and the generation of ideas or initiatives which would be important to the city of Kaunas, the country, the continent and the world. 

Excerpts from “The academic city of liberal thought” by Modestas Kuodis in the book “Revelations of Kaunas”, 2009 (Kaunas: VDU).