Liudvika Didžiulienė

Didžiulis house in Griežionėlės (now a memorial museum)

Didžiulienė (née Nitaitė) was born on 3 May 1856 into a Lithuanian family in Robliai in the present-day Rokiškis District Municipality. She grew up in Vaitkūnai near Salos and Rokiškis.[1] Her father worked as an administrator in a manor. She was educated at home by her parents and later by private tutors.[2] She learned five languages (in addition to native Lithuanian, she learned Polish, Russian, German, French, and Latvian) as well as to play a piano.[2] From an early age, despite the Lithuanian press ban, she was exposed to Lithuanian literature, including works by Motiejus Valančius and Antanas Baranauskas.[3] In her memoirs, Didžiulienė wrote that in 1875 she completed operetta Piršlės ir veselijos (Matchmaking and Weddings) based on Lithuanian folk songs, but the work has not survived.[1]

On 25 August 1877, she married Stanislovas Didžiulis, a descendant of an old Lithuanian noble family, who shared her interest in Lithuanian language and culture.[4] The newlyweds settled in Didžiulis' estate in Griežionėlės in the present-day Anykščiai District Municipality. The marriage was difficult as Didžiulis was stubborn even despotic and unfaithful.[5] However, they had a total of nine children – five daughters and three sons grew to adulthood while one son died in infancy.[1]

Didžiulienė with her tenants around 1909

Didžiulienė was active in the local community in Griežionėlės – she taught local people reading and writing, basic hygiene, culinary, gardening. The family also helped Lithuanian book smugglers, including Jurgis Bielinis and Kazys Ūdra, to hide and distribute the banned Lithuanian publications.[6] Didžiulienė also wrote fiction and articles wis.th practical advice for Lithuanian periodicals Varpas and Ūkininkas.[7] Didžiulis collected Lithuanian books; the library eventually included about 1,000 titles.[8] In summer, their house was visited by various Lithuanian activists, including Antanas Baranauskas, Jonas Jablonskis, Motiejus Čepas, Mečislovas Davainis-Silvestraitis, Liudvikas Vaineikis.[9] In 1893, encouraged by Silvestras Baltramaitis who was impressed by her sausages, Didžiulienė published Lietuvos gaspadinė (Lithuanian Housewife), the first Lithuanian cookbook.[7] It was first published as a supplement to Ūkininkas and due to demand an expanded edition was published the same year. It was further republished in 1895, 1904, 1913, and 1927.[10] A new edition was published in 2018 and was in the top best-seller lists for at least six weeks in Lithuania.[11]

In 1896, Didžiulienė moved to Mitau (Jelgava) in the present-day Latvia so that her children could receive formal education.[7] There she established a dormitory for 12 to 14 Lithuanian students.[1] She not only rented rooms, but also taught proper manners and ensured students completed their schoolwork.[12] In fall 1896, several of her tenants, including Antanas Smetona, protested the requirement to pray in Russian at school.[13] The students were expelled and Didžiulienė was forced to downsize her dormitory – she could keep tenants only by claiming they were her relatives.[12] She obtained 500 rubles from Jonas Šliūpas for the expelled students and helped them find other schools. Eventually, she was able to reopen her dormitory.[12] During eleven years, her tenants included future President Antanas Smetona, Prime Minister Juozas Tūbelis,[14] writer Konstantinas Jasiukaitis, theater director Juozas Vaičkus, Minister of the Interior Vladas Požela, painter Justinas Vienožinskis, communist Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas (who later became her son-in-law).[15]

There was a community of Lithuanians in Mitau which centered around Jonas Jablonskis who worked as a teacher at the Mitau Gymnasium. However, in 1896, Jablonskis was reassigned to Revel (Tallinn). Didžiulienė filled in the void and organized Lithuanian cultural evenings, held literary readings and discussions, distributed illegal Lithuanian press, taught Lithuanian folk songs, encouraged others to write to Lithuanian periodicals.[16]

Didžiulienė with her husband and granddaughter in 1922

In 1906, her husband and two sons were arrested for participating in the Russian Revolution of 1905. Stanislovas Didžiulis and his son Antanas were deported to Siberia for life, though Antanas managed to escape and enroll into the Jagiellonian University in Kraków to study medicine. Another son Algirdas was deported for five years to Turukhansk.[15] Didžiulienė had to return from Mitau to the estate in Griežionėlės to take care of the farm. Her daughter Vanda married communist activist Vincas Mickevičius-Kapsukas and was also imprisoned and in hiding from the Tsarist police. Didžiulienė supported and helped her family.[15]

Despite the setbacks, she remained active in Lithuanian cultural life. She joined the Lithuanian Scientific Society, collected examples of Lithuanian folklore some of which was published in the journal Lietuvių tauta, wrote articles about poets Antanas Strazdas and Antanas Vienažindys, became friends with Jurgis Šlapelis and Marija Šlapelienė who owned a Lithuanian bookstore in Vilnius.[17] She also participated in the establishment of the Lithuanian Women's Association in June 1905, was a delate to the Great Seimas of Vilnius in December 1905, and attendee of the First Congress of Lithuanian Women in October 1907.[1]

In spring 1915, as World War I frontlines were approaching, Didžiulienė decided to visit her daughter Vanda who lived in Yalta. She brought her manuscripts with her, but they were stolen at a train station which was a severe blow to Didžiulienė who became sick for two months.[17] The visit was supposed to be temporary, but due to was lasted for nine years. Didžiulienė worked as a nurse in a military hospital and as an administrator of a Lithuanian sanatorium for tuberculosis patients.[17] After the February Revolution, she was joined by her ill and disabled husband who was released from his deportation.[17] Despite these responsibilities, she found time to write. She wrote the play Give me Freedom about women of the Crimean Tatars which was translated from Russian to Tatr and staged by a local theater.[18][19] She also published several articles in the local press using pen name Grazhdanka (Citizen).[1]

Didžiulienė finally received travel permits and returned to Griežionėlės in August 1924. Her manuscripts were once again lost in transit. She was disappointed by her reception in independent Lithuania.[20] One of her last works was a satirical poem in Polish about youthful idealists who became greedy opportunists and bureaucrats.[20] Encouraged by Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, she wrote her valuable memoirs which though unfinished were published in 1926 already after her death.[21] Didžiulienė contracted pneumonia and died on 25 October 1925. She was buried on a hill in nearby Padvarninkai. Her tombstone was designed by Bernardas Bučas.[22]

After several petitions by Didžiulis' family, Soviet authorities established a memorial museum in Griežionėlės in 1968.[23] In 2007, the public library of the Anykščiai District Municipality was renamed after Stanislovas Didžiulis and his wife Didžiulienė.[1]