XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries Ave. the most popular form of Lithuanian leisure time was going out into the city for a walk. Women were not allowed to do everything, but men were allowed to visit brothels and take advantage of night entertainment, hum, an employee of the Lithuanian History Institute, told LRT RADIO. m. Dr. Joozap Paskauskas. According to him, both elites and workers flocked to the popular resorts, but they were not awaited by the most pleasant procedures, for example, the requirement to drink a bucket of mineral water a day.
- What is interesting to you about Lithuanian leisure time in the XNUMXth century? late-XNUMXth century Ave. topic?
- That period was interesting because it was a time of modernization. Society was changing, that aspect of everyday life is the most interesting to me. Leisure time united everyone - everyone wanted to have it or had it.
– Through the topic of leisure, you also examine the changing spaces of the home.
- Yes, the topic of leisure may seem easy to define, but when you start working with archives and look for sources, it becomes clear that leisure in the XNUMXth century. late-XNUMXth century Ave. no one wrote much, did not reflect on it. I wanted to understand how different social groups - the lowest class, the middle class and the elite of society - spent their free time. It was the home spaces that helped us understand this better.
For example, workers in Vilnius lived in very cramped quarters, about eight people crowded into a one-room apartment. They weren't even relatives, they just rented an apartment together. Obviously, they did not allow free time at home, because there were no pleasant conditions for it. The workers spent their time somewhere in the streets, squares, suburbs, etc.
On the other hand, those who lived in eight-room apartments had a separate study, dining room, children's rooms, and maids' rooms. For them, home represented the whole world, they didn't have to go to the city. Such people tried to create their own world that would fit in the house. Representatives of some professions (doctors, lawyers, writers) also worked at home. They only went out to the city on certain occasions.
- Did you leave the house for elite leisure?
- Yes, it included theater, entertainment, events in the city, resorts. Richer people had decided where they were going, so they didn't splurge. The representatives of the elite looked down on the workers wandering the streets and thought that they were uneducated, unable to plan and decide about the future. Each person of that time had different hobbies, starting with embroidery, ending with collecting postcards, badges, newspaper clippings.
- Is the XNUMXth century late-XNUMXth century Ave. is a time when mass culture and mass leisure pursuits emerged? Once there was no free time.
- XNUMXth century help In Lithuania, especially Beautiful and in Vilnius, the boom of capitalism exploded. Factories were built, cities expanded, they became centers of attraction. Regarding this period, one can consider the beginnings of the middle class. The middle class was small, but the perception of how to plan and create one's lifestyle was changing.
The notions of nobility that prevailed earlier were displaced, workers began to consider how to spend their time, how to use it. Due to the changing economic circumstances, this time was very intense, but short. It was discontinued in 1914. the war started.
It is still possible to talk about the modern concept of leisure, when people realize that their working hours must be rationed, and after them you have to decide for yourself where you will go - whether to a pub, to read a book, or to the forest to sing with friends.
- What did the resorts of that time look like, what did they offer?
- Resorts appeared before the First World War, the main ones were Druskininkai, Birštonas, Palanga. It is true that they did not belong to the territory of Lithuania then, but Lithuanians perceived the areas as part of their country. Since the XNUMXth century Ave. it was the center of attraction for the nobility and elite. Famous poets, such as Adomas Mickevičius, used to go to the resorts for summer.
However, with the approach of the First World War, the composition of visitors to resorts began to change. The middle class began to dominate, townspeople rested in resorts. From the remaining sources it can be understood that the traditional visitors of the resorts resented this, they did not like the changing order and the new arrivals. Later, the urban class also resented the same, because workers eventually started going to the resorts. Thus, the resorts became accessible, the circle of their visitors greatly expanded.
Spas were a place of wellness, people of that time had great faith in medicine and trusted doctors, they did not shy away from experimenting. However, not all wellness treatments were pleasant. For example, it was not uncommon to drink a bucket of mineral water a day.
- What was it like? cinema?
- Cinema was primarily an urban phenomenon, because there were the most people who could pay money or understood the significance of innovation for culture. Cinema immediately became the most popular form of both culture and leisure - around 1910. There were eight cinemas in Vilnius, and more cinema tickets were bought than all other forms of entertainment (theatre, ballet, circus) combined.
More enterprising people immediately realized the power of cinema, so they started renting cinema projectors, filmstrips and traveling around the province. They tried to accommodate religious holidays, such as indulgences, when the towns were full of people, and showed films with religious content there. Priests also encouraged going to such seances, because the moving image amazed people, and sometimes scared them. For example, in the first screening of a movie in Paris, a train was shown coming, and the whole audience ran away because they were afraid that the train was going to run into them.
- How did the living conditions change the perception that you can't sleep with adults and see sexual practices? It seems like such a normal requirement to separate children from their parents, but that option only came about when the middle class came along?
- The middle class sought to introduce boundaries everywhere: between private and public life, husband and wife, bedroom and dining room, reception and family room. There was an awareness that children should not see everything, that there is also a private life, a private space. And it was kept as a treasure.
- Your thesis contains a chapter called "Entering the City". What kind of entertainment was there?
- In general, going out into the city, going for walks was the most popular form of leisure at that time. On the other hand, there were not necessarily bright things in the city. For example, some workers gathered in gangs, started behaving like hooligans, and there were even outbreaks of violence. This was due to the obvious inequality. In addition, it was a common practice for men of that time to visit brothels, where schoolboys became men, where they experienced certain initiations.
"No one controlled it?"
- The authorities controlled only to make sure that there would be no epidemic, etc., but no one punished the men who visited there. And women at that time had to be symbols of the hearth of the home, they could not go out anywhere, especially alone. Not everyone enjoyed night entertainment either - mostly night clubs, restaurants was men's entertainment.
In Vilnius, the most famous was Shumano restaurant, which operated in the area of the current Bernardina Garden. It is full of stories that huge fortunes and legacies were stolen there. Warsaw's satirical newspapers wrote that the Lithuanian landlords there covered the floor with champagne corks, that everyone drank until dawn and then had nothing to pay.
- Who went to the theater?
- Theater was a more traditional form of entertainment that has been operating in Vilnius since ancient times. XNUMXth-XNUMXth centuries Ave. Vilnius always had its own troupe, artists from other places also came. Of course, it was the entertainment of the society's elite - the elite could afford to go to the theater, understand what was being shown there, what was being staged. XNUMXth century in the second half, plays of a different nature, lighter, appeared, so the audience began to change at the same time. But the theater still remained the entertainment of a certain elite, but with the advent of cinema, the theater could not compete with it. By the way, since the theater directors who worked in Vilnius were of a high level (they also went to Warsaw or Petersburg), the audience could enjoy quality theater.
- What could gourmets try at that time? For example, did families go into town for a nice meal?
- The whole family didn't come. If a husband and wife went, the children were left at home. There were about 10 higher level restaurants in Vilnius. One of the most famous restaurants operated in the Vilnius Nobles' Club of that time, located near the current Bernardin garden. XNUMXth century the railway appeared, so gourmet products reached Vilnius, for example, caviar from Siberia, fresh fruits from warm countries.
Violeta Melnikienė, LRT RADIO show "Everyday Culture", LRT.lt
