The clandestine Lithuanian schools ( or ) were illegal primary schools organized primarily in the Kovno Governorate, and to the lesser extent in Vilna and Suwałki Governorates, of the Russian Empire during the Lithuanian press ban (1864–1904). They were taught by teachers known as . It was a form of resistance to the Russification policies enacted after the failed January Uprising of 1863 against the Russian Empire.
All private schools in the Vilna Educational District were outlawed in December 1862. The intent was to replace them with government-sponsored primary schools that would teach in Russian and would promote the Eastern Orthodox Church thus facilitating Russification. Lithuanians, encouraged by the Catholic clergy, boycotted such schools and organized their own clandestine schools that taught basic literacy skills in Lithuanian. Such schools were illegal and persecuted by the Tsarist police. Based on available data, from 1872 to 1906, the Tsarist police discovered 349 clandestine schools in the Kovno Governorate and 332 schools in the Vilna Governorate. Based on the "temporary rules" of April 1892, school teachers and hosts faced the maximum punishment of 300 rubles or 3 months in prison. Despite prosecution, clandestine schools were wide spread which is reflected in relatively high literacy rates in the area.
In the context of the Russian Revolution of 1905, private schools were allowed again on 1 May 1905, however clandestine schools are known to have continued until World War I.
Closure of private schools Russian-language education in the Western Krai was introduced gradually from the beginning of the 19th century. Following the collapse of the November Uprising, it was already present throughout the region, primarily in the form of secondary schools, while the number of Russian-language elementary schools remained small.
In 1850s, Lithuania had several types of primary schools. Education in native language was allowed only in private parish schools which were attached to nearly every church. Such schools were primarily intended to teach the Catholic catechism and were particularly promoted by the bishop of Samogitia Motiejus Valančius. Some of these schools were organized by local nobles. In 1857, Kovno Governorate had 197 private parish schools with about 6,000 students. Such schools increased in number after the emancipation reform of 1861 which effectively abolished serfdom.
Since Lithuania lived in pre-uprising moods and the private schools harbored anti-Tsarist teachers, the Governor-General of Vilna ordered to close all private schools in the Vilna Educational District, that were opened without an official permission and where the Polish language and Catholic religion were being taught, on 23 December 1862. This order did not apply to the Suwałki Governorate (then part of the Congress Poland) where private schools continued to operate (though, according to press reports, Tsarist police started persecuting private schools at the end of the 19th century).
Government schools + Legal primary schools as of 1 January 1893 School type Vilna Governorate Kovno Governorate Schools Students Schools Students Primary schools of the Ministry of National Education 218 14,232 340 22,960 Other lower properly organized educational institutions 7 602 20 1,329 Church parochial schools 50 2,003 62 2,871 Non-Orthodox confessional schools 661 13,741 257 5,808 Literacy schools run by Orthodox clergy 390 5,348 696 14,387 Total 1,326 35,926 1,375 47,355
The emancipation reform necessitated a reform to educate the masses of newly freed serfs. Therefore, in January 1862, Tsar Alexander II of Russia issued an order to organize . The Uprising of 1863 delayed the opening of the people's primary schools by a year or two. In 1864–1866, Kovno Governorate opened about 150 such schools.
In March 1863, the Tsar ordered for the people's primary schools to teach in Russian, except for catechism which could be taught in the native language (Tsarist officials pressured to teach the catechism in Russian as well). In January 1864, governor-general Mikhail Muravyov-Vilensky declared that using Polish language was a "political manifestation" and forbade its use in schools. Further, during 1864–1865, Tsarist authorities developed a long-term Russification program that included the Lithuanian press ban. The teachers could not be the unreliable Catholics; they had to be Russians or Orthodox priests. Recognizing the needs of the Lithuanian population, the Tsarist officials did not immediately prohibit teaching Lithuanian, though it had to be taught in the Cyrillic script and not the traditional Latin alphabet. In practice, Russian teachers did not speak Lithuanian and thus could not teach it.
Lithuanians started boycotting Russian primary schools and stopped paying taxes for their upkeep. Government schools were relatively few. While the number of primary schools grew by ten times in the empire between 1856 and 1896, it remained nearly flat in Lithuania. In 1897, there was one legal primary school for every 5,783 residents in the Kovno Governorate (every 1,412 residents in the Vilna Governorate). Additionally, government schools were expensive for a student to attend (clandestine schools were cheaper). The legal schools were to be financed by the people; the government provided very little if any funding. For example, in 1889, the state budget provided only 4,400 rubles to schools in Kovno Governorate, while local residents paid 76,787 rubles.
For the first decade, teachers were brought in from other parts of the empire; they were criticized as "half illiterate" and of low morality. The , which admitted only Eastern Orthodox believers, was opened only in 1872. The quality of education at the government schools was low; most students needed additional tutoring before they could continue their education at gymnasiums. Additionally, the government schools promoted the Eastern Orthodox Church which was against the Roman Catholic faith of the majority of Lithuanians. Other religious groups (Jews, Old Believers, Lutherans) also organized their own education.
Clandestine schools Organization
The first clandestine Lithuanian schools appeared in 1864–1866. However, the tradition of teaching children to read was not new. Informal, semi-legal village schools (known as ) existed before. Some of the closed private schools reorganized into the clandestine schools. Some of the clandestine schools were organized by the clergy who saw the need to continue religious education. In many places, priests required children to be able to read before they received the First Communion. Clandestine schools were promoted by activists of the Lithuanian National Revival who published various articles on the topic in the banned Lithuanian press, e.g. in Aušra, Varpas, Ūkininkas.
Lithuanian attendance at the official primary schools dropped significantly after the Kražiai massacre in 1893. In 1902, Bishop of Vilna Stefan Aleksander Zwierowicz published a letter urging Catholics to withdraw their children from Eastern Orthodox schools. As a result, he was exiled from the diocese while about 2,000 children dropped out from the Russian schools.
Initially, the children were tutored one-on-one at home by friends or relatives, but it was more efficient for several parents to come together and hire a teacher (known as from Polish or "director"). Such schools were cheaper, closer, and overall more convenient for the parents and the students than the government schools. The schools usually had 10–15 children ages 6–15 who studied for three to six months per year. However, there were larger schools with as many as 40 students. Some schools continued during summer, particularly when herding farm animals. Students usually attended the clandestine schools for one to four years.
Curriculum and conditions The main purpose of the clandestine schools was to teach reading, specifically reading printed texts so that the children could read prayer books. Reading was taught by the rote memorization of syllable by syllable (). Children had to memorize 350 syllables. Then they were taught writing, counting, and religion. Writing was seen as important to boys so that they could deal with government paperwork or write letters if conscripted to the military; it was not seen as important for girls.
Occasionally, the clandestine schools taught other subjects, such as basic arithmetic, drawing, penmanship, history, geography. Majority of the schools also taught Russian or Polish languages. According to data collected by the historian Vytautas Merkys, the Tsarist police discovered 130 clandestine schools in 1883–1904 that taught the Lithuanian language. Of those schools, 58 taught only Lithuanian, while others taught a combination of Lithuanian, Polish, and Russian. Overall, the quality of the education was low due to primitive conditions and lack of qualifications among the teachers.
The schools usually met at a house of one of the parents. Occasionally, the schools rented rooms or used the home of its teacher (this was more common in towns). Due to their clandestine nature, the schools did not have specialized furniture or equipment. For example, instead of a blackboard many schools used doors or headboards. Students used primitive supplies, such as quills made from geese feathers, home-made ink, clay or wooden tablets. Misbehaving students were subject to corporal punishment, for example, kneeling on gravel, standing in a corner, strikes with a ruler, or wearing a tablet of shame.
Teachers Teachers were usually peasants who were self-taught or who graduated from government primary schools. After the abolition of serfdom, many peasants lost their land and searched for employment. One of the available jobs was teaching children which usually provided free housing, food, and payment of 0.5 to 1 ruble per student per month. However, such jobs were only available during the winter months. For some teachers it was the only way of making a living due to disabilities. Sometimes teachers were better educated, e.g. dropouts from priest seminaries or Veiveriai Teachers' Seminary, former soldiers, or church organists. Many of the teachers were women.
There were some efforts to improve teachers' competencies. Courses for teachers were organized in Kupiškis and Subačius. Priest Jonas Katelė in Panemunėlis organized clandestine schools and taught their teachers. Teachers often had contacts with the Lithuanian book smugglers or were smugglers themselves.
A few prominent Lithuanian activists worked as teachers in the clandestine schools, including Gabrielė Petkevičaitė‑Bitė, Povilas Višinskis, Jonas Biliūnas, Marija Kuraitytė-Varnienė.
Textbooks The clandestine schools used various available texts to teach children to read. Some were able to obtain Lithuanian alphabet books (either published before the press ban or smuggled from East Prussia). Others used prayer books or Polish primers. Occasionally, schools used government-sponsored Lithuanian primers printed in the Cyrillic script.
Notable alphabet books were published by (1859), which was particularly popular in Suvalkija, and Mikalojus Akelaitis (1860). The first modernized primer was published by Liudmila Malinauskaitė-Šliūpienė and Jonas Šliūpas in 1884. It replaced traditional religious texts with secular ones, but did not offer pedagogical novelties. Varpas held a contest for a new primer; it was won by Antanas Kriščiukaitis who introduced the synthetic phonics in 1895. In total, about half a million of Lithuanian alphabet books were printed in East Prussia in 1864–1896.