Kauno gatvėvardžiai 1918–1940 m.
Street Names in Kaunas in 1918–1940

Summary/Abstract: The present article examines the functioning of street names in Kaunas City in 1918–1940. It reveals the circumstances of the change of street names, discusses the procedure of writing street names in the street name tables and presents the main typological groups of street names and their connections with the memory culture in interwar Kaunas. In 1919, the Council of Kaunas City decided to allow street names to be written in three languages: Lithuanian, Polish and Yiddish. In 1923, the Council of the city adopted a resolution according to which street names had to be written only in Lithuanian, the state language. In 1918–1940, in Kaunas, the largest typological group of street names was of toponymic (place-name) origin (152 out of 477). Street names of personal name origin accounted for about one-fifth of all Kaunas street names (98 out of 477). Most street names of personal name origin referred to the people with high merits to the Lithuanian national culture in the 19th and 20th centuries (52); some of them were still alive during the interwar period. The street names of Kaunas city also referred to the 13th – 15th century rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, officers of the Lithuanian Armed Forces (1918–1940), soldiers, volunteers, etc. Some (13) street names commemorated the persons of non-Lithuanian origin.

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