Nacionalinio muziejaus idėja ir kolektyvinė atmintis nepriklausomoje Lietuvoje 1918–1940 m
Idea of the National Museum and Collective Memory in Independent Lithuania in 1918–1940

Summary/Abstract: By analyzing the activities of museums located in Kaunas during the interwar period, the article aims to determine whether a “model” story about national history of the Lithuanian statehood and the Lithuanian nation expressing expectations of Lithuanian nationalism was presented in the Vytautas the Great Museum which was opened in 1936. In the third decade the temporary capital of Lithuania Kaunas had the following main museums: the Kaunas City Museum, the Military Museum, the M. K. Čiurlionis Gallery, and the National Museum. However, there was no national museum in Lithuania the exposition of which could present a coherent narrative about the history of the national statehood of Lithuania and the Lithuanian nation. The Military Museum had a partial function of the national museum which told the story about the history of the Lithuanian statehood alongside with the history of the Lithuanian Army. It is stated that the Vytautas the Great Museum which was opened in 1936 fulfilled the vision of the Lithuanian political and cultural elite to be a national museum of the Nation. At that time the Vytautas the Great Museum consisted of two autonomously operating museums which were located under one roof, i.e., the Vytautas the Great War Museum and the Vytautas the Great Cultural Museum. The museums exhibited a “model” story about the national history of the Lithuanian statehood and the Lithuanian nation expressing the expectations of Lithuanian nationalism. The Military Museum presented the story about historical development of the Lithuanian statehood while the Museum of Culture exhibited the history of the Lithuanian nation as an ethnic community.

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