Panemunė: The scenic highway that saved Europe's banned language

For almost 40 years, daring smugglers transported almost 40,000 Lithuanian-language books into the nation every year when it was forbidden underneath Russian rule.

Following the mild bends of the Nemunas, Lithuania’s largest river, the Panemunė highway stretches for greater than 100km and marks the previous border between Lithuania and East Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Thought-about essentially the most romantic highway in Lithuania by locals, it travels previous a sequence of Seventeenth-Century castles, Renaissance-era mansions and postcard-worthy cities.

Panemunė was constructed within the early thirteenth Century alongside a sequence of early medieval fortresses and castles designed to guard the Grand duchy of Lithuania from the invading Teutonic forces coming from Prussia. By the 1800s, it had developed into a serious commerce and journey route because the fortresses turned mansions for the the Aristocracy, and smaller cities grew round them.

Among the many highway’s many regal points of interest are the Fortress of Panemunė, a Seventeenth-Century manor full with intricate frescoes and a park with cascading ponds that is been reworked right into a lavish lodge and artist residence. Ten kilometres east of the fort, Raudone (“The Purple Fortress”) is a Sixteenth-Century fortress that was partially destroyed throughout World Struggle Two however has since been rebuilt and now affords horseback using, archery classes and a weekly meals and humanities truthful.

An extra 20km east, the traditional metropolis of Veliuona and the fort hill of Seredzius come into sight, the place a 30-minute hike up the wood steps to the highest of the luxurious inexperienced hill reveals sweeping views of the Nemunas river under. Because the highway unfurls in a single last sweeping bend earlier than the town of Kaunas, the towers of the Raudondvaris Fortress emerge. Constructed the place the Nemunas and Nevezis rivers meet, this sprawling Seventeenth-Century property now incorporates a live performance corridor, labyrinth park, museum and a restaurant.

“The Panemunė highway is usually known as the ‘paradise highway’ in Lithuania: it boasts distinctive surroundings, wealthy historical past and numerous cultural experiences starting from the [Honey Valley]; boat journeys alongside River Nemunas; [and] native dandelion wine tastings; to artwork and historical past museums, meals festivals and cultural occasions within the Renaissance mansions alongside the highway,” stated Eglė Speičienė, founding father of the native journey company TavoGidas. Due to the various castles, rolling hills and boutique wineries positioned alongside the Panemunė, Speičienė says some travellers liken the highway to France’s famed Loire Valley.

Nevertheless, gorgeous surroundings and dreamy castles aren’t the one factor Panemunė is thought for. The highway can also be the place a novel Lithuanian motion passed off within the late nineteenth Century that might assist form the nation’s character: e-book smuggling.

From 1865 to 1904, the Lithuanian language (which is definitely associated to historic Sanskrit and diverged hundreds of years in the past) was banned underneath the tsarist Russian rule, which managed giant swathes of the nation on the time. The ban prohibited the printing, possessing and distributing of any publications in Lithuanian with the Latin alphabet – however as an alternative of making an entire Russification of the nation, it had the other impact.

A big community of resistance publishers, e-book smugglers and distributors sprang up and greater than three million books, scientific papers, textbooks and newspapers have been printed in Lithuanian in East Prussia and the US, which every had giant populations of Lithuanian émigrés. In keeping with historian Vytautas Merkys, throughout this 39-year-period greater than 40,000 Lithuanian-language publications have been smuggled into the nation every year, reaching villages, parishes and cities throughout the nation by way of the Panemunė highway.

Panemunė’s proximity to each East Prussia and Poland, (the place the books entered) helped it function an entry level into the nation for book-smugglers. Tilžė (now Sovetsk, Kaliningrad) was one of many details the place smugglers crossed, and the highway’s last level, the town of Kaunas, served as Lithuania’s capital from 1919 to 1940 and was a centre for cultural resistance towards the Russians.

“Basically, Panemunė was the primary artery via which the Lithuanian printed press and books reached the nation. River Nemunas was a vital level for crossing into the nation. Some e-book smugglers swam throughout, carrying bundled-up books on their our bodies, whereas some transported books hidden in steamboats or paid retailers to assist,” defined Vaidas Banys, a historian and educator. “[These] banned books, newspapers and spiritual texts reached deep into the nation.”

In keeping with Banys, these e-book smugglers have been key to saving the Lithuanian language. They steadily carried as much as 80lbs of printed Lithuanian books and different publications, smuggling them from East Prussia and different border areas throughout the Nemunas river, then transporting them alongside the backroads of Panemunė in horse-drawn carts hidden amongst stacks of hay, furnishings and even empty coffins.

“All routes have been intricately linked, and no e-book smuggler labored alone. It wasn’t simply the one who smuggled the books throughout the border or carried them on their our bodies. There have been individuals who would carry the printed supplies for a leg of the way in which, additional distribute the prohibited press, finance the printing or provide native communities, parishes and colleges,” Banys stated. “There [wasn’t] a ‘typical’ e-book smuggler profile, both: folks concerned within the printing and transporting of the books got here from all backgrounds – from easy peasants and religious girls to landowners, clergymen, retailers, bankers and docs. The community spanned hundreds of people and organisations. That, ultimately, was why the Russians finally gave up and lifted the ban – the community was so huge and well-connected that it was not possible to destroy.”

In keeping with Banys, crossing the border was essentially the most harmful a part of the journey. If caught, e-book smugglers may very well be shot on sight by Russian officers, imprisoned, tortured and banished to Siberia.

“A e-book smuggler needed to know the smallest particulars – when the border guards could be altering, which of them may very well be bribed, which trails or river crossings have been watched extra carefully. Even contained in the nation, they needed to be cautious who to belief, transport the books and press – utilizing double flooring in carts and packing containers, paying Jewish retailers aboard the Nemunas steamboats, hiding the books underneath haystacks and merchandise,” Banys added. “The severity of the punishment, when caught, additionally relied on the form of books they carried: non secular supplies have been thought of much less of an offense, and a e-book smuggler would possibly get away with a advantageous or just a few years of imprisonment. Newspapers and literature that promoted the concepts of freedom, democracy, Lithuanian nationwide id and the like often carried a loss of life sentence or deportation to Siberia.”

In keeping with Banys, these e-book smugglers did not simply save the language – they helped solidify Lithuanian id, and, finally, its battle for independence.

“Though lots of the fates of the e-book smugglers have been tragic, their contribution and their reminiscence stay important. Throughout the years of the language ban, one e-book smuggler from Kėdainiai was caught by the Russian officers and overwhelmed so severely he went mad. Even when the ban was lifted, this man would nonetheless wander round with books on his again, and folks would inform their children: look what our language has price us; examine it and cherish it,” Banys stated.

When the Lithuanian language ban was lifted in 1904, Juozas Masiulis, one of many distinguished e-book smugglers, opened his personal e-book retailer within the city of Panevezys. The store is now Lithuania’s oldest bookstore. It is nonetheless operational in the present day, and yearly on 16 March, the nation commemorates the Day of the E-book Smugglers.

The river ferry close to Vilkija – the one remaining Nemunas ferry – is now a well-liked attraction alongside the Panemunė highway, and travellers can expertise what it will need to have been wish to cross the river on smaller boats. In Kaunas, the ultimate cease alongside the Panemunė highway, guests may see the Wall of the E-book Smugglers – a monument honouring those that perished on their perilous journeys.

Right this moment, this scenic drive lives on as a dwelling testomony to Lithuania’s wealthy tradition, complicated historical past and defiant spirit.