Polish scientist will be patron of Lithuanian award

The Institute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Kaunas has established an award of Juliusz Bardach. The award is supposed to be given to master and doctoral works, the topic of which is the history and heritage of the Grand Duchy if Lithuania.

The “patron” of the award is the great Polish historian Juliusz Bardach because those, who have initiated the idea did not want the award to be associated with some “mythical” hero from the history of the Grand Duchy, but they wanted a real person, the memory of whom is still alive. “He lived in Vilnius. He belongs to the tradition of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Taking it all into consideration, he is suitable. He was a modern man. We didn’t want the award to have the name of some prince.” – dr. Rūstis Kamuntavičius, the principal of the Institute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania explained PL DELFI.

Doyen of Polish historians of the law

Juliusz Bardach has been called the doyen of Polish law historians. He was born in 1914 in Odessa, in an assimilated Jewish family. Later, he graduated from the University of Stephen Báthory in Vilnius. There, he had his doctoral thesis dissertation; the thesis was about adoption in the Lithuanian law in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. After the war, he taught on the Warsaw University. He is the author of almost 600 scientific works. Majority of them is dedicated to social and political systems and the judicial law of Poland in the Middle Ages. He was also carrying out a research on the history of the political system, the law system and the political thought of the historical Lithuania and the Inflanty Voivevodship (the Polish Livonia).

He devoted two collections of papers to Lithuania and Belarus: Studies on history and the law of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 14^th to 17^th century (Studia z dziejów ustroju i prawa Wielkiego Księstwa Litewskiego XIV-XVII w. )(1970) and About old and contemporary Lithuania (O dawnej i niedawnej Litwie) (1988).

In 2002 he received the Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta. He died in 2010.

Heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

The Institute of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was established in 2009 in Kaunas. The basic aim of this non-profit public utility institution is examining, taking care of and promoting the heritage of the Grand Duchy.

“We do not limit the activity of the Institute to the history of the Grand Duchy. We are even more interested in what the influence of the tradition of the Grand Duchy on the 20^th century and our times was, and how the influence worked.” – dr. Rūstis Kamuntavičius explained PL DELFI. In the opinion of the principal of the Institute, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sensation in the world scale and even today it can serve as an example of tolerance in matters of religion and national identity.

Natural and legal persons from Lithuania and Poland are founders of the Institute. The basic founder is the University of Vytautas in Kaunas. Its workers are also present on the list of founders as natural persons. There are, among others, distinguished intellectual and social activist, professor Egidijus Aleksandravičius, the head of the Department of Political Science of the University of Vytautas, dr. Andrzej Pukszto. There are also Jan Malicki, the head of the College of Eastern Europe Studies of the Warsaw University and the famous reporter and journalist Jacek Jan Komar.

First award will be granted in February 2014

The award will be given to the best master or doctoral work that deals with the matters of national, legal and cultural heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 19^th – 20^th century, or analyses the problems, associated with the history of at least two countries of the former Grand Duchy – Belarus, Lithuania, Poland or Ukraine. The works can be written in Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian and English.

The ceremony of handing in the award for 2013 will take place in February 2014. “For now we plan to give one award for the best work. We do not exclude the possibility of giving more awards in the future, for instance one for the best master thesis and one for the best doctoral thesis. We have been organising such an event for the first time, so it is difficult to say anything for sure. We will see.” – says the headmaster of the institute.

Those who have invented the award also want to establish a cash prize. “Along with an honorary award we are planning to give a cash prize. For now, we don’t know the exact sum.” – added dr. Rūstis Kamuntavičius.

Source: http://pl.delfi.lt/kultura/kultura/polski-naukowiec-patronem-litewskiej-nagrody.d?id=61057399

Tłumaczenie Emilia Zawieracz w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Emilia Zawieracz within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.