Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė

Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė around 1935

Gabrielė Marija Jadvyga Petkevicaite (born March 18 ^{. Jul} / the 30th March  1861 ^greg. Gut Puziniškis at Smilgiai in Panevėžys District Municipality ; † 14. June 1943 in Panevezys ) was a Lithuanian - Russian writer and political activist. Your pseudonym Bitė (bee) became part of the name.

Life

Petkevičaitė belonged to a Lithuanian noble family . Her father was a doctor and director of a hospital in Joniškėlis, Pasvalys district . Her mother died of typhus when she was 9 years old , so Petkevičaitė took care of her five brothers despite her handicap from a crooked spine . She was tutored at home by Laurynas Ivinskis and other private tutors. She then attended the Academia Petrina in Jelgava , graduating in 1878. After that, she worked with her father in a pharmacy . She also gave private lessons and used Lithuanian books in Latin script , which were forbidden.

Petkevičaitė met Povilas Višinskis , who encouraged her to become a writer. In 1890 she began to write for the Lithuanian monthly magazine Vargas (The Bell), especially since Vincas Kudirka complained about the lack of correspondents. The newspaper was banned in the Russian Empire because of its Latin script , so that it was first printed by Martynas Jankus in the Prussian Ragnit , then in Tilsit and finally in Bittehnen and brought across the border to Russia by organized book smuggling . In 1893 she founded the Žiburėlis Society to provide financial support to students in need . Her first novel was published in 1894 as a serial (and in 1900 as a book). Her literary work focused on social inequality , which would decrease with increasing humanity . Together with Povilas Višinskis, she performed the first Lithuanian play Amerika pirtyje (America in the Bathhouse) in Palanga in 1899 . Encouraged by the success, she wrote several plays together with the writer Žemaitė under the common pseudonym Dvi Moteri (Two Women). In 1907, Petkevičaitė organized the first Lithuanian Women's Congress with others and founded the Lithuanian Women's Association with others in 1908. After her father's death in 1909, she settled in Vilnius and worked in the editorial department of the daily newspaper Lietuvos žinios .

During the First World War , Petkevičaitė returned to her hometown and trained as a medical assistant to help the sick according to her father's wishes. She kept a diary that was published in 1925 and 1933. At the invitation of Juozas Balčikonis , she became a teacher at the Juozas Balčikonis Gymnasium in Panevėžys in 1919 . Together with Juozas Zikaras , she designed a school uniform for girls, which was soon introduced throughout Lithuania and worn until around 1990. In 1920 she was elected to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania , which she inaugurated as Age President. Her teaching materials on world literature were published in 1922 and 1924 as a two-volume textbook. In 1924 she gave up her teaching post for health reasons. Her two-part novel Ad Astra (1933) and other patriotic books portrayed the emergence of national consciousness.

Aftermath

Lietuvos paštas special stamp issued on the occasion of the 150th birthday (2011)

On the occasion of Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė's 150th birthday, the board of directors of the Lithuanian Seimas donated the Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė commemorative medal “Service to Lithuania” ( Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės atminimo medalis “Tarnaukite Lietuvau” ), with the Legal entities are honored for their contribution to national self-awareness and cultural awareness. The award ceremony takes place every year on March 30th, Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė's birthday, in Panevėžys. The medal and a certificate are presented by the spokesman for the Seimas or a person appointed by him. Each year a maximum of four prizes are awarded in the following four categories:

• Promoting traditions of parliamentarism, citizenship and democracy;
• philanthropic activities;
• Spreading the volunteering culture in Lithuania;
• socially relevant journalistic work.

From 1983 to 1990 the board of the "Smilgių" collective farm (Panevėžys Rayon) awarded the Gabrielės Petkevičaitė-Bitė Literature Prize ( Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės literatūrinė premija ). In 1996 the Panevėžys Rajong Municipality renewed the Prize, and since 2008 it has been awarded by the Panevėžys Library. The award is given to a fiction or journalistic work that artistically reflects the reality of life in Lithuania - especially in rural areas - convincingly, addresses moral and spiritual questions and / or deals with humanistic ideas in a contemporary way that are expressed in Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė's life and work. The amount of the prize money is determined by the Gabrielės Petkevičaitės- Bitės Fondas ( Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės Fondas ), which was established by the Panevėžys Rajong Municipality in cooperation with the Lithuanian Writers ' Union . The prize is awarded every May in the birthplace of Gabrielė Petkevičaitė in the Puziniškis Manor.

Busts of Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė were revealed in Panevėžys (by Bernardas Bučas ) in 1971 and in Joniškėlis (by Antanas Dimžlys ) in 1994 . In Joniškėlis a grammar school ( Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės gimnazija ) is named after her.

Web links

• Virtuali paroda Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė dailėje (Virtual Exhibition "Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė in Art")

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė - Virtuali paroda ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on December 16, 2016). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Gabrielė Marija Jadvyga Petkevičaitė Bitė (accessed December 16, 2016).
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Encyclopedia Lituanica (Volume IV): Petkevičaitė, Gabrielė.
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Knygnešė, rašytoja Gabriele Petkevičaitė (accessed December 16, 2016).
5. ↑ Winner since 2012 on the pages of Panevėžio kraštas virtualiai (Lithuanian).
6. ↑ Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės atminimo medalis “Tarnaukite Lietuvai” on the pages of the Seimas (Lithuanian).
7. ↑ Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės literatūrinė premija on the pages of the Panevėžys library (Lithuanian).
8. ↑ Monument to writer Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė in Joniškėlis on "Pasvalios e.gidas" (English).
9. ↑ Gabrielės Petkevičaitės-Bitės gimnazija website