Povilas Višinskis () was a Lithuanian cultural and political activist during the Lithuanian National Revival. He is best remembered as a mentor of literary talent. He discovered Julija Žymantienė (Žemaitė) and advised Marija Pečkauskaitė (Šatrijos Ragana), Sofija Pšibiliauskienė (Lazdynų Pelėda), Gabrielė Petkevičaitė (Bitė), Jonas Biliūnas, Jonas Krikščiūnas (Jovaras), helping them edit and publish their first works.
As a biology student at the Saint Petersburg University, Višinskis conducted anthropological research on Samogitians which included detailed anthropometric measurements. After the university studies, he returned to Lithuania earning a living as a private tutor in various locations (near Pašvitinys, Kurtuvėnai Manor, Šiauliai). Višinskis directed and played the main role in staging the first Lithuanian-language play America in the Bathhouse (Amerika pirtyje) in 1899. When advertisements for another play printed in Lithuanian using Latin alphabet were confiscated by police as violating the Lithuanian press ban, Višinskis sued and obtained a favorable judgment from the Governing Senate in 1903.
He contributed some 86 articles and 120 short correspondences to various Lithuanian periodicals, most notably Varpas, Ūkininkas, Naujienos, that were published in East Prussia and then smuggled into Lithuania. After the death of Vincas Kudirka, these newspapers suffered financial losses and frequent staff changes, and he stepped in to fill the leadership gap. He raised funds and addressed other printing issues, essentially becoming an unofficial editor of Varpas and leader of its contributors. He was an ardent opponent of the Tsarist regime and one of the first to declare that full independence was the ultimate goal of the Lithuanian National Revival. This ultimate goal was adopted by the Lithuanian Democratic Party, which he co-founded in 1902. After the lifting of the press ban in 1904, he moved to Vilnius and worked on publishing Lithuanian literature. He strongly supported the Russian Revolution of 1905, but advocated against armed resistance. He edited the first issues of Vilniaus žinios and Lietuvos ūkininkas, but quickly resigned due to ideological differences with their publishers. In 1905, he established Šviesa publishing company to publish Lithuanian books. The company operated until 1913 and published about twenty books. He died in 1906 of tuberculosis that he was first diagnosed with in 1896.
Biography Šiauliai Gymnasium
Višinskis was born in 1875 in near Užventis, Kovno Governorate, Russian Empire. His parents were free peasants (i.e. not former serfs) and owned about of land, but a good portion of it was unusable for agriculture. Višinskis was the youngest of five children. In 1884, his neighbor invited his brother with the family to help on the farm. The brother's wife was Julija Žymantienė who later with Višinskis' encouragement became the well-known writer Žemaitė. In 1885, after studies with a village tutor at home, Višinskis started the preparatory class at the Šiauliai Gymnasium. His parents hoped that he would become a priest. The tuition cost 35 rubles and dormitory cost another 120 rubles annually. It was a large sum, placing a financial burden on the family.
In Šiauliai, Višinskis became acquainted with the illegal Lithuanian press, including the newspapers Aušra and Varpas, and shared it with Žymantienė. Despite strict control by the school, he also read banned Russian authors, including What Is To Be Done? by Nikolay Chernyshevsky, works by Russian literary critic Vissarion Belinsky, Narodnik Nikolay Mikhaylovsky, Polish positivist Aleksander Świętochowski, fiction by Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and others. He began sympathizing with Narodniks and their slogan "going to the people" in an attempt to teach the peasants to lift them up from poverty and misery.
In summer 1891, manor owners in Užventis invited Višinskis to tutor their children, including Marija Pečkauskaitė who later became known as Šatrijos Ragana. She borrowed the pen name from one of Višinskis' letters where he called her ragana (witch). Višinskis introduced Pečkauskaitė to the Lithuanian National Revival, Narodnik ideas, and encouraged her to write the first poems and short stories. They developed a friendship and feelings that grew into tender love. From 1891, Višinskis worked as a tutor and supervisor of a student dormitory managing to pay the school tuition on his own. In 1894, Višinskis graduated from the gymnasium, but refused to follow his parents' wishes to study at the Kaunas Priest Seminary. Instead, he decided to study biology at the Saint Petersburg University. Angered and disappointed, his parents refused to support him financially.
In summer 1894, while waiting for paperwork from Saint Petersburg, Višinskis with schoolmate Vincas Kalnietis set out on foot to Kalnietis' village near Kamajai. Žymantienė gave him her first work Piršlybos (Matchmaking). On their trip, Višinskis and Kalnietis visited Gabrielius Landsbergis-Žemkalnis but received a rather cold welcome. In Joniškėlis, they visited Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė whose brother was a student at the Šiauliai Gymnasium. Višinskis gave her Žymantienė's manuscript. Petkevičaitė took the work to Jonas Jablonskis and Vincas Kudirka, who edited the work for grammar and spelling, changed the title to Rudens vakaras (Autumn Evening), and published it in farmer's calendar for 1895 under the pen name Žemaitė thus launching her literary career. From Joniškėlis, they went to find schoolmate Antanas Vadapalas, who he was at his sister's wedding to Kazimieras, brother of Jonas Vileišis. Finally, they visited Povilas Gaidelionis near Saločiai. There Višinskis learned about a man who drowned in Mūša and a local priest who tried to locate the body with a help of a miracle. His short correspondence mocking the superstitions was published in Ūkininkas in November 1894 – his first contribution to the Lithuanian press.
Saint Petersburg University In September 1894, Višinskis began studies of biology at the Saint Petersburg University. His roommate was Vincas Kalnietis, a classmate from Šiauliai, who studied law. At the time, the university had 2,768 students of which 536 studied biology. Of them, only about 5% were sons of peasants (others were sons of nobility or government officials). Višinskis attended lectures of botany by Andrey Beketov, anatomy by Peter Lesgaft, histology by Alexander Dogiel, organic chemistry by Nikolai Menshutkin, geology by Vasily Dokuchaev, and other famous professors. He struggled with chemistry and physics, the latter he failed and was required to repeat the first year. He also attended meetings of the Russian Anthropological Society and the Imperial Russian Geographical Society.
He continued to participate in Lithuanian cultural life, writing his first fiction Paparčių žiedai (Fern Flowers) during the Christmas break in 1894. He gave the work to Pečkauskaitė to read and she sent it to Varpas to publish. He also contributed articles to Varpas. For example, in spring 1895, he translated an articles from Novoye Vremya and wrote a report on the All-Russian Exhibition of Printing both of which addressed the Lithuanian press ban, while a year later he wrote about the Czech National Revival and Matice česká. Višinskis joined the Lithuanian and Samogitian Charitable Society, but it was conservative and dominated by nobles. Therefore, he leaned towards the illegal Lithuanian student organization. He recruited several members, firstly Petras Avižonis, to help edit and critique works by Pečkauskaitė and Žymantienė and thus established an informal Lithuanian literary circle. The writers sent him their first works for feedback and edits before submitting them for publication. He encouraged Pečkauskaitė to write on social issues in literary realism style, but her strength was in impressionist expression of spirituality. In Saint Petersburg, Višinskis discovered another literary talent – poet Pranas Vaičaitis who studied law. Višinskis sent three of his poems to Varpas even though the editors discouraged submissions of poetry as too many of the submitted poems were too amateurish.
Each year, the university organized a competition of scientific papers on a given topic. In 1896, the topic was anthropological characteristics of one of the nationalities inhabiting the Russian Empire. With encouragement and support from professors and Eduards Volters, Višinskis set out to write a paper on the Samogitians. He acquired equipment necessary to take anthropometric measurements, a box camera for taking pictures, and a permit from the Kovno Governor to tour Samogitia. In late May 1896, he traveled to his native Ušnėnai to start the fieldwork. His questionnaire contained 64 questions and 45 measurements. He visited 31 locations, including Varniai, Tverai, Plungė, Salantai, Mosėdis, Ylakiai, taking about 170 photographs and measuring 67 men and 55 women. During the trip he met Sofija Pšibiliauskienė who later became a known writer under the pen name Lazdynų Pelėda. At the same time, he had a falling out with Pečkauskaitė who rebuffed his advances. They continued to correspond, but the letters were more distant and more focused on her literary work.
Winters in Crimea
He struggled financially. He tutored whenever he could find work or a break in a full class schedule. He ate poorly, often drinking just tea instead of a meal, which negatively affected his health. In October 1896, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and was sent to Crimea to recover. He found a place with Toropovs at their manor on the road from Yalta to Sevastopol until the end of January 1897. He spent that winter in his native Ušnėnai, returning to Saint Petersburg only for exams in April. At the same time, Višinskis translated Pečkauskaitė's Pirmas pabučiavimas (First Kiss) from Polish to Lithuanian. He spent the summer of 1897 in Lithuania. He organized a meeting of a small group of students with Stasys Matulaitis, editor of Varpas, in Šiauliai. He then brought Matulaitis and Avižonis to meet Žymantienė in person. A few days later, he met Jonas Jablonskis who visited Žymantienė. Višinskis also continued to work on his anthropological research, taking additional measurements in the Raseiniai area. He returned to Saint Petersburg only to be diagnosed with tuberculosis in September 1897.
Višinskis once again traveled to Crimea to recuperate. He found a job in Yalta tutoring the son and nephew of Nikodim Kondakov, a noted art historian. It was a well-paid position (40 rubles a month plus full room and board) and he was able to send some money to his parents who were in debt. Višinskis continued to work on his anthropology paper, which was due in December, asking Žymantienė to send descriptions of some local dishes and traditions as well as samples of Samogitian folk art, including 75 samples of home-weaved fabric. His 133-page work had five chapters: historical overview, geography (including borders, waters, geology, climate, fauna, flora), physical characteristics (anthropometric measurements), material culture (buildings, tools, food, clothes, occupations), and spiritual culture (character, beliefs, superstitions, games, dances). The last chapter was the longest. The paper was left unfinished due to lack of time and study material. For example, he planned but failed to describe wedding traditions or songs, listed 29 dances without describing them, provided raw measurement data without a summary of findings. Despite the shortcomings, the work placed third in the contest. The study was first partially published with an introduction by Vincas Krėvė-Mickevičius in 1935. The full text, but without measurement data, was published in 1964 in Višinskis collected works. The full work was finally published in 2004 by Gintautas Česnys.