General Tadas Kosciuška in the historical consciousness of the American Lithuanians (the 20th century)

The article reviews the Lithuanians’ attitude towards Tadas Kosciuška (Kościuszko), the leader of 1794 rebellion as well as presents the estimation of his descent and nationality. These issues received close attention from the Lithuanians residing in the USA, especially during the pre-war period. They sensitively reacted towards the Polish emigrants’ explicit statements that the USA Independence War hero General Tadas Kosciuška was of Polish descent, a citizen of Poland. The American Lithuanians in their press, in their gatherings and in their reports to the USA authorities tried to deny the General’s Polish origin. There turned up quite a number of Kosciuška’s phony relatives from Lithuania to claim the General’s inheritance about which little was known. All these things sparked a keen interest in the General’s descent among the American Lithuanians. Therefore, they even attempted (e. g. J. Hertmanavičius, J. Koncevičius-Končius, A. Šalna) to prepare a detailed study in the English language to prove T. Kosciuška’s Lithuanian origin. This initiative was supported by the Lithuanian representatives in the USA, the main reason being the fact that T. Kosciuška himself mentioned his Lithuanian descent in some of his letters. Unfortunately, because of unknown reasons, we do not have this "Lithuanian" study either in the English or Lithuanian languages up to now. During the Soviet period, the issue of national identity was not appropriate in historians’ works as T. Kosciuška’s Lithuanian origin was associated with the citizenship of the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian (GDL). Historian R. Jasas collected the material about the General’s biography and his relations with Lithuania; however, the historian’s death terminated the research, and the monograph was not publishedVytauto Didžiojo universitetasŠvietimo akademij