Straipsnyje panaudoti charakteringesni XVI a. antrosios pusės Kauno miesto vaito knygos įrašai, kuriuose atsispindi konkretūs 1581–1583 m. įvykiai mieste. Kadangi mieste buvo lengviau pasislėpti pabėgusiems nelaisviems bajorų valdiniams (vergams), miesto vaitas juos išduodavo tik tuo atveju, jei savininkas pateikdavo neginčijamų įrodymų apie nuosavybę; dažnai miestiečiai išpirkdavo iš bajorų vergus, išpirktasis turėdavo atitarnauti naujam „savininkui“. Miestiečiai nuolat skolinosi vienas iš kito, užstatinėjo savo namus, negalintys grąžinti skolų buvo sodinami į kalėjimą, kol grąžins skolą, jeigu neturėjo laiduotojų. Amatininkai gamino plytas ir čerpes (net vilniečiams), valtis (vytines) ne tik mieste, bet ir tolimose vietovėse, dailidės statė namus ne tik mieste, bet ir bajorų dvaruose. Daug įrašų apie arklių pirkimą, įrašant jų ypatingas žymes, kad pavogus ir atpažinus būtų galima lengviau įrodyti nuosavybės teises, taip pat ir apie nukentėjusius eilinių peštynių metu, apie sąžiningus ir nesąžiningus vytinių vairininkus, laivybos sezoniškumą.

Modern theories of social change and social – political structuration have usually looked to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries as the starting point for the formation of the modern society without taking into account roles of individual with lower social status. This article addresses central problem of the linkage between human action and social structure (townsmen estate, burghers’ elites and state and urban institutions). The historical research is based on Kaunas city case in the end eighteenth and beginning of nineteenth centuries. The article first addresses the political context of transformations and their main features. Secondly, it studies the social and political action of city elected officer and lawyer. (pol. pisarz miasta,magistrata, rus. майстратовый писарь) Motiejus Požerskis (Požėra; pol. Pożerski) in social and political fields.

The present article examines the functioning of street names in Kaunas City in 1918–1940. It reveals the circumstances of the change of street names, discusses the procedure of writing street names in the street name tables and presents the main typological groups of street names and their connections with the memory culture in interwar Kaunas. In 1919, the Council of Kaunas City decided to allow street names to be written in three languages: Lithuanian, Polish and Yiddish. In 1923, the Council of the city adopted a resolution according to which street names had to be written only in Lithuanian, the state language. In 1918–1940, in Kaunas, the largest typological group of street names was of toponymic (place-name) origin (152 out of 477). Street names of personal name origin accounted for about one-fifth of all Kaunas street names (98 out of 477). Most street names of personal name origin referred to the people with high merits to the Lithuanian national culture in the 19th and 20th centuries (52); some of them were still alive during the interwar period. The street names of Kaunas city also referred to the 13th – 15th century rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, officers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (1918–1940), soldiers, volunteers, etc. Some (13) street names commemorated the persons of non-Lithuanian origin.

The aim of the article is to analyze the common political dialogue between UVO and Republic of Lithuania politics. The main reason that began the relationship between the Lithuanian establishment and UVO was Lithuanian-Polish conflict over the Vilnius region. Ukrainians and Lithuanians were not satisfied with the orientation towards the Entente states, the geopolitical situation and the value of the lost territory in search of allies. Members belonging to the UVO staged attacks, assaults and sabotage campaigns against the highest Polish state officials. As a result, the Polish secret services began to persecute the organization led by Y. Konovalets. UVO was unable to relocate the organization’s structures to the annexed territories of western Ukraine, colonel Y. Konovalets appealed to Lithuania, which were confronted with Poland – in the hope of receiving help. In Kaunas, one of the representative offices of the organization, code-named Leniwka, otherwise known as the Lithuanian-Ukrainian Society, was formed from Lithuanian intellectuals and politicians together with UVO member Ivan Revjuk. Without Prague and Berlin, Kaunas became an important center for preparing fictitious documents for UVO representatives’ travels to other countries, preparing an uprising in the annexed Ukrainian, Belarusian and Lithuanian territories of Poland, and exchanging information on the political situation in Poland after intelligence operations.

In 1989–2000 archeological investigations in the courtyard of the castle revealed a level of cultural layers that formed after the destruction of the first castle in 1362 up to the construction of the second - the stone - castle. This period should be ascribed to the third stage of the site of Kaunas castle, during which wooden-clay fortifications were built (pic. 1). The fortifications were situated within the perimeter of the southern walls that surrounded the courtyard of the castle destroyed in 1362. After the destruction of the first castle, within the limits of the former wall perimeter the debris mound formed covering the remains of the walls. These mounds were later used in the construction of the woodenclay fortifications (Pic. 2). Most probably, the mould was used as a base for wooden fortification walls covered with clay. The discovered remains of the fortifications show that there used to be three parallel fosses dug in the north-south direction with a row of stakes between the second and the third fosse (Pic. 2). In the southwest corner of the castle site a rectangular wooden building was constructed measuring 9.5–10 meters in width. Its walls could have been constructed of vertically positioned balks covered with a thick layer of clay. If the building performed any defensive functions, it most probably also had the second story. The building was positioned in the north-south direction and stood ca. 5 meters to the south of edge of the slope descending to the Neris river. The length of the building is impossible to determine, since the Neris most probably washed its northern end away, and the remains of the southern end were destroyed during the construction of the southwest tower of the stone castle. The building was divided into two main internal chambers: the western room was ca. 3.6 meters wide, and the eastern one – ca. 5.3 meters wide. There also could have been a wooden defensive wall standing on the western debris mound between the western wall of the building and the slope of the Neris river. […]

Archeological and historical data provide knowledge about smelting and processing of colored metal in Kaunas. As soon as in the 15th century in Kaunas there already worked goldsmiths, in the second half of the 16th century bells were cast, at the beginning of the 17th century - probably artillery cannons were cast. The first known bell craftsman, Martin Hoffman, at the end of the 16th century worked in Kaunas where he cast two known church bells. During archeological investigations performed in Kaunas City Hall Square and the territory of former Bernardine monastery, two colored metal foundries were discovered (Pic. 1). The found samples of colored metal, product chips, and a bell mould prove that colored metal was smelted there. The foundry discovered in City Hall Square stood in the yard of barns built at the end of the 16th century - the beginning of the 17th century. The remaining subterranean part of the foundry consists of a brick ash shaft with ventilation and cleaning openings, and a stairwell in the western part of the shaft. The metal smelting chamber and moulding pit did not remain (Pic. 2-6). Above the round shaft there stood a burning chamber where wood was burned, and the ashes went into the shaft. Heat torrefied the smelting chamber where raw material was put. The mould of the product stood in a pit situated behind the smelting chamber (Pic. 7). The remaining part of the foundry can be seen in the internal yard of the Communications Museum of „Lietuvos telekomas“ (Pic. 8). […]

The article discusses the events of 1792-1793 in Kaunas pavietas (an administrative district). The author strives to clarify the attitude of the nobility of Kaunas pavietas towards the confederation that was adversarial to the reforms of the Four-year Seimas (parliament) and the Constitution of May 3, 1791, as well as the changes in that attitude. The pavietas confederation is viewed through the following prism of the union of nobility: which way (forced or by the initiative of local nobility) the confederation was created in Kaunas pavietas, what people formed the authorities of the confederation, and what was the manifestation of the activity of these authorities. The confederation of Kaunas pavietas is also compared to other confederations of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The formation and the activity of Kaunas confederation is analyzed on the basis of the information provided in the documents registered in the book deeds of Kaunas land court, the excerpts from Kaunas confederation book of deeds kept in the Superior Archive of old document in Warsaw, the diary of the commander of the Russian army Michail Nikitich Krechetnikov, the correspondence of the organizers of Lithuanian confederation brothers Jozef Kazimierz Kossakowski (the bishop of Livonia) and Szyman Marcin Kossakowski (general lieutenant of the armies of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia, later - field hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania), the documents of the general confederation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (universals, protocols of daily activity), the books of the Supreme Confederation Court, and other sources. [...]

In this article, the author discusses the activity of the company „Auto" that maintained public transport in Kaunas from 1924 to 1927 on buses. The company signed a conession agreement with the Board of Kaunas at 10 May 1924, but it began to carry passangers on 2.09.1924. The author supposes that initially the public transport was profitable to the company. However, since 1925 the company began to incur losses for unknown reasons. „Auto" tried to gain profit manipulating tickets: once, at the beginning of the 1925, when the company printed tickets abroad without numeration; second time - at the end of the 1925, when „Auto" tried to print the tickets i Lithuania without the acknowledgment of the Board of Kaunas. Both tries failed as they were noticed and the author supposes these tries did not give profit to the company. The collapse of the „Auto" may be dated as soon as 1926. the decision of the court of 1927 only formalized the existing status quo. All property of the „Auto" was distrained and sold to satisfy the claims of the creditors. Some of the buses were transferred to the workers to satisfy their claims. The company, now ruled by its workers, managed to live at least one years (1927-1928). The history of the company after 1928 is unknown. The author concludes that the rise of the price of tickets did not give the expectable profits to the company. The only source of increasing profits could be cutting down sakaries for the administration. However, „Auto" did not event thought about it. The author also states that one of the reasons of the bancrupt of, Auto " could be the annual sum of 100.000 litas to be paid on behalf of the Board of Kaunas. That sum could be too big for the company to be paid.

After the World War I, the relationships of Lithuania with its neighbors were tense. Since the main state institutions, the military command, the biggest artillery warehouses and important bridges were located in Kaunas, in 1926–1928 the creation of anti-aircraft defense plans was started. In 1926 Lithuanian army did not have any flak cannons that are most suitable for anti-aircraft defense. Therefore it was decided to use aviation, field artillery and heavy machine-guns instead. In 1926–1928 the most comprehensive plans for anti-aircraft defense of Kaunas city were presented by the Artillery commander and the commander of the 2nd Military district. The plans contained the positions of field artillery, heavy machine-guns, and observatories. However, the implementation of the plan was complicated because of the lack of anti-aircraft projectiles, bipods, and tracing and aiming equipment. While the anti-aircraft defense plans were being prepared, Lithuanian aviation was the only force able to defend Kaunas city from enemy aviation raids. A better defense of Lithuanian cities became feasible only in 1935 when anti-aircraft defense corps was formed.

This article discusses historical and architectural features of the Palace of Trade Industry and Craft. It also includes a short survey of the establishment and the activity of this institution. The attention is focused on the history of the building of the Palace of Trade Industry and Craft located in K. Donelaitis street. Using various illustrations and documentation, future construction sites, building projects, construction work, and the attitude of the society of that time to the erection of this palace are discussed. The article also presents a detailed architectural-artistic analysis of the facade and the interior. The author of the building was an architect V. Landsbergis-Žemkalnis, frescoes were painted by P. Kalpokas, stained glass was created by the founder of the Lithuanian school of modern stained glass St. Ušinskas, two large bronze vases and a decorative statue „Pramonė" (Industry) was created by Br. Pundzius, and L. Strolis decorated the lobby of the Palace with a ceramic vase “Flora”. Thus, the Palace of Trade Industry and Craft became a significant example of the synthesis of architecture and art and one of the most prominent public buildings in inter-war Lithuania. During German occupation the frescoes by P. Kalpokas were destroyed. The Soviet power ordered to give the building to a library. Today the palace still houses three departments of the library. During the Soviet times a part of the interior was restored, but P. Kalpokas's frescoes still remain out of order.