Republican imagination of Simonas Daukantas and his historiographic innovations.

Šio straipsnio tikslas - atskleisti Simono Daukanto Lietuvos istorijos koncepcijos savitumą. Daukanto Lietuvos istorijos pasakojimą ir vertinimą iš esmės grindė respublikoniškos vertybės. Griežtai nepritardamas bet kokiai socialinei ir asmeninei priespaudai, engimui ir išnaudojimui, Daukantas rašomoje Lietuvos istorijoje įžvalgiai susiejo socialinius-ekonominius ir politinius procesus. Pavienius istorinius įvykius ir asmenybes Daukantas vertino naujoviškai, tad jo požiūris kai kuriais atžvilgiais tebėra aktualus ne tik kaip istorijos didaktikos pavyzdys, bet ir dabartiniams Lietuvos istorijos tyrimams. Atliekant tyrimą pasitelkta politinės minties ir istoriografinė analizė.Historian Monika Baar has presented new insight on Daukantas’ historiography. M. Baar has researched the historiography of Central-Eastern Europe in the 19th c. Although the comparative perspective has obvious advantages, it did not provide an opportunity to more widely and in depth assess the importance and relevance of Daukantas’ historical work, particularly to take into account the new assessment of some historical processes, events, and personalities that Daukantas proposed. The goal of this article is to reveal the uniqueness of Daukantas’ conception of Lithuanian history, as well as show that significant processes, events, and personalities in Lithuania’s history are understood and assessed by Daukantas in a new way, based on the historiographic possibilities of his time. The Republican values of Daukantas were the key basis for writing and assessing Lithuanian history. Republican values, categorical rejection of any social and personal oppression, exploitation, helped Daukantas to insightfully connect in Lithuanian history the socio-economic and political processes and events. Daukantas, in a modern way, treats the links between the establishment of serfdom in Lithuania and the great geographical discoveries, the process of and reasons for the weakening of Lithuania’s political power, as well as presenting his original assessments of the Lithuanian rulers Vytautas and Mindaugas and political figures such as Konstantinas Ostrogiškis. The historiography of Daukantas should be assessed not in line with the understanding and criteria of modern-day science, but based on analogues from his own era. It is particularly important to take into account the new interpretations, presented by Daukantas for the first time, which had (and of which some still do) have an enduring value