'THE LABOURER OF ABUNDANT HARVEST' - A LETTER OF A RUSSIAN TEACHER TO HIS COUNCELLOR ('Robotnik wielkiego zniwa' - Nauczyciel z gimnazjum w Szawlach i jego list do zwierzchnika (1865r.)

This article includes a letter written by an older history teacher at a high school in Szawli /nowadays Siauliai in Lithuania/. It is a document written in 1865, kept in archives of the Vilnius library. The author of the letter - a Russian by birth, educated in an Orthodox seminary and a graduate from the Pedagogical Institute of Petersburg - was delegated to work in so called West Districts of the Russian Empire, inhabited by citizens who spoke no Russian and were mostly Roman Catholics. Teachers of Russian origin, like the author of the quoted letter, considered themselves missionaries, 'sheperds and harvesters', the 'harvest' being russification of the Polish and Lithuanian nation, eradication of Polish and Lithuanian languages and providing Russian publications. The letter also contains formal complaints and reports about people circulating books in Polish and Lithuanian languages. Such work in the time free from lessons at school was mentioned in the letter from an average teacher to his councellor - curator in Vilnius District. So this is not a letter as such, but the report.