Vacys Milius’s activity in the field of regional ethnography

Straipsnyje aptariama įvairialypė Vacio Miliaus veikla Lietuvos kraštotyros draugijoje. Jis buvo metodinių patarimų, kaip rinkti etnografijos medžiagų, anketų rengėjas, visuomeninių muziejų vadovų konsultantas, aktyvus kraštotyros ekspedicijų dalyvis ir vadovas, kraštotyros leidinių redaktorius ir bibliografas. Atskleidžiamas Miliaus indėlis ir jo reikšmė 1961 metais įkurtos Lietuvos kraštotyros draugijos, jos veiklos raidai. Šiuo aspektu jo veikla analizuojama pirmų kartų.The article is focused on the activity of Vacys Milius in the Lithuanian Society of Regional Ethnography. Since its establishment in 1961, the Society’s activity reached its peak with complex field trips to the region of Vilnius, a territory formerly occupied by Poland, organized by its Vilnius branch. Field trips to the environs of Zervynos, Merkinė, Dubičiai, Gaidė and Rimšė, Kernavė and elsewhere involved a large group of scholars (led by Norbertas Vėlius, separate groups were led by Vacys Milius, Aloyzas Vidugiris, Česlovas Kudaba, Antanas Tyla and Rimvydas Kunskas), culture and education workers and students. The field trips of regional ethnographers held in the 1960s and 1970s awakened national self- consciousness; moreover, historical, ethnographic, folklore, linguistic and other material collected during these trips became the basis for the research on different localities. Milius spent more than fifty years collecting ethnographic material, supervising the collectors of this material and preparing ethnographic questionnaires. A separate field of the activity of regional ethnography was publishing work. Milius was a member of the editorial boards of the almanac Mūsų kraštas (Our Land) and local monographs, wrote articles for these publications himself, prepared and published a bibliography of ethnographic questionnaires in Kraštotyra (Regional Ethnography). Another important initiative by Milius was the launching of a series of ethnographic sources commissioned by the Lithuanian Society of Regional Ethnography by Mokslas Publishers in 1992. It included the publications The Residents of Šilalė. Works and Customs by the regional ethnographer Vladas Statkevičius, The Village of Budriai by the regional ethnographer Ignas Jablonskis (scientific editor of both books - Vacys Milius) and The Village of Raitininkai 1850-1950 by Vladas Ulčinskas (scientific editor Jonas Mardosa). Vacys Milius can be rightly considered a methodologist and organizer of the collection of ethnographic material, a competent advisor and authority. Everyone was fascinated by the scholar’s wide outlook and the features of his personality - tolerance and ability to appreciate the achievements of others, diligence and modesty