Antanas Tyla on the change in civil identity.

Lietuvos istorikas Antanas Tyla (1929-2018) yra atkreipęs dėmesį į nenagrinėtą lietuvių pilietiškumo temą. Straipsnyje pristatomi iškilaus mokslininko biografijos duomenys, aptariama įvairialypė jo veikla. Pateikiami originalūs tyrinėjimai, pagrįsti daugybe naujų šaltinių, rastų Lietuvos ir užsienio archyvuose. Pilietiškumas, jo tapatybės kaita atskleidžiama bėgant amžiams, pasitelkiant du laikotarpius. Tai XVI a. vidurio-XVII a. Lietuvos Didžiosios Kunigaikštystės amžius ir laikotarpis nuo 1795 m. iki 1918 m. vasario 16 d. Straipsnis skiriamas artėjančiam akademiko A. Tylos jubiliejui.The life of Antanas Tyla covers three eras: he was born and raised in independent pre-war Lithuania, during the Soviet years he became a professional historian and engaged in research work that continues even today: he reads papers, publishes texts and delights the public with his new discoveries. Sixty-three years have passed since his first publication in 1955 until his newest release in 2018. This makes him the longest actively working historian in Lithuania. He has examined two periods in particular from various aspects: the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the middle of the 16th century until the end of the 17th century, and the Lithuanian national liberation movement of the 19th-early 20th centuries out of the grip of tsarist Russian oppresion. Antanas Tyla’s comprehensive research of these periods shows the change in historic civil identity, the direct link between civil-mindedness and statehood, and citizen activity, the main forms having been military duty, the payment of taxes and the development of business. Two of his monographs have been very significant in exposing these matters: The Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Second Half of the 16th Century and Mid-17th Century (2012) and The Treasury of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania During the Twenty Years' War (1648-1667) (2010). The Lithuanian state in the second half of the 16th and 17th centuries, known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, had in unison with Poland maintained its statehood, which it lost after the annexation by Russia in 1795 (losing its name, territorial integrity and own government). It also lost its civil-mindedness. What followed were 120 years of oppression. During this time, the public role of the estates changed - the nobility lost its national character, the Lithuanian nation formed on the basis of the peasantry, who resisted assimilation with great determination, defending their right to their native language (book-smugglers and secret schools). Amid the atmosphere of the Great Vilnius Seimas, the peasantry implemented political resolutions in the volosts (districts), while intellectuals joined societies and created new provisions for civilmindedness. The years 1917-1918 were considered a time of maturing civil self-awareness and expression. Antanas Tyla described this time in his book Lithuania on the Threshold of February 16 (2004). Having raised the goal of Lithuanian independence at the Laussane conference, a democratic forum was organised in Lithuania - the Lithuanian Confederation, which went on to form the statehood institution, the Lithuanian Council which declared the Act of Lithuanian Independence of February 16, 1918. Under the complicated conditions of German occupation, the bond of the Lithuanian population with the Lithuanian Confederation and the Lithuanian Council aroused their civil self-awareness, and the identification of citizens with the idea of the State. In the words of the professor, they were converted from inhabitants of an occupied country with no rights into citizens of the Lithuanian state. Evidence of this lies in the range of discovered documents - letters, petitions and declarations from across the whole country and various social layers expressing solidarity with and trust in the Lithuanian Council, acknowledging it as the only government institution representing Lithuanians