Disagreements and Compromises over the University of Lithuania in the 1918–1920s

Abstract

The article discusses the origins of the University of Lithuania to mark the centenary of its establishment. The purpose of the article is to disclose the fundamental disagreements and compromises of politicians and intellectuals on founding the University of Lithuania in Kaunas through the analysis of the political discourse of the 1918–1920s. The following conclusions have been made in the article. 1) The main disagreement between the politicians and the academic community focused on the issue whether the university needed to be founded for the state, or both for the state and society. 2) The ruling majority (the Christian Democrats) at the Constituent Assembly sought to open a Catholic university of humanities. The minority opposition (the Popular Peasants, Socialist-Populists, and Social Democrats) did not agree with that idea and aimed at a secular and versatile university with faculties of natural science and exact science. 3) The compromise was reached as a secular and versatile university was founded with faculties of natural science and exact science with considerable autonomy. It set favourable legal pre-conditions for the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy to grow into a Catholic university in the future. 4) From its opening in 1922, the University of Lithuania became quite an international place where professors from foreign countries including Latvia worked and shared their knowledge. 5) In 1922–1939, four professors of the University of Latvia were awarded degrees of Honorary Doctorate of the University of Lithuania (later Vytautas Magnus University) for their scholar contribution to the University.