Trumpas Vytauto Raudeliūno rankraštinio archyvo katalogas
A Brief Catalogue of Vytautas Raudeliūnas’ Manuscript Archive

Summary/Abstract: The article is dedicated to the remembrance of Vytautas Raudeliūnas (1930–2002), law historian of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The scientist’s biography and the fate of his personal library and collection of manuscripts are presented and discussed. Many people remember V. Raudeliūnas as an expert of law history, demanding lecturer, and erudite. As independent Lithuania’s social life was close to him, he actively participate in numerous cultural events and the country’s political life. Of particular importance is his participation in the activities of the Anti-communist Congress (2000) and Vilnius International Public Tribunal process “On the Evaluation of the Crimes of Communism 2000”. V. Raudeliūnas was one of public prosecutors. The scientist’s works outlived their author. After V. Raudeliūnas’ death, his friends R. Firkavičius and dr. A. Baliulis prepared and published Žagarė’s estate law books in 2003, and in the latest volumes (2009) of Lithuanian Encyclopedia we can still find V. Raudeliūnas’ articles. After V. Raudeliūnas’ sudden death, his archive and library (more than 11,000 books) went into possession of lawyer Zenonas Kerutis, his close friend and colleague from “The 27th Book Lovers’ Society”. In 2004–2005 the author of the article made the primary inventory of the collection of manuscripts. V. Raudeliūnas was a thorough researcher and bibliophile; consequently, the amount of his archive is impressive, and the author had to go through a huge number of manuscripts, frequently regrouping and renumbering them. Specialists, of course, are mostly concerned about the fact whether V. Raudeliūnas managed to prepare for the publication the second edition of the second Lithuanian Statute on which the scientist had been working for some decades. He thoroughly collected relevant information, systematized scientific literature, and published research articles on this issue. However, a serious heart disease prevented the completion of this tremendous work. The archive could be divided into four parts: a) manuscripts; b) microfilms; c) photographs; and d) huge paper rolls. Manuscripts comprise the major part of V. Raudeliūnas’ archive and are kept in 41 “standard” cardboard boxes. They consist of draft and final copies of some publications, copies and transcripts of different documents, descriptions of research visits to the archives of other countries as well as correspondence with colleagues. Next to this, unique and worth publishing material is also present. Microfilm section of Raudeliūnas’ archive is also important. Microfilms are kept in eight cardboard boxes, and they contain 72 tin boxes with microfilm rolls (from three to thirty four in each of them). Microfilmed are the copies of the Lithuanian Metrica and the Lithuanian Statute and literature about them as well as the archival material of Lithuanian Tribunal and of other countries...

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