Juozas Kozakevičius'attitudes of public activities and preparation motives of the "Century chronicle"

There are only a few memoirs devoted to Panevėžys region until 1915. The most widely known is „The Century Chronicle" of Juozas Kozakevičius, copies of which are stored in the Wróblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the Library of Vilnius University. Due to its long chronology (the 6th decade of the nineteenth century - the 4th decade of the twentieth century), wide geographic coverage, the variety of topics, and a set of illustrations of various profiles of the time, and the abundance of publications, these memories are attractive and informative for the researchers of various historical aspects. This article aims to present the biography of J. Kozakevičius, his main attitudes to the public activities. The author also aims to analyze the circumstances of writing the "Century Chronicle", its structure and content. J. Kozakevičius was born in 1858 in Biržai. In 1870 he graduated from Biržai Folk School. In 1874, at the age of 16, he starts his scribe's career. He worked in Biržai, Stumbriškis, Velžys, Pumpėnai. Since 1882 he works as accountant in Panevėžys mutual credit society. There he worked until his retirement in 1922. He was actively involved in community activities and has been continuously collected to the Panevėžys Dūma. Broad, intense, long-term social activity and a tendency to document it has enabled to write memoirs of different walks of life. The author sought to commemorate the events of the period in which he lived and the people of that time; to express their views on the past and the life of today. A specific feature of the memoirs, and their value is increased by the fact that there is described a community life of one of Lithuanian towns, while this sector of the past rarely gets place in the pages of Lithuanian authors' memoirs