1. Case-study No. & Title:
No. 265. Program for protecting the cultural identity of Karaim in the Republic of Lithuania (1988-2000)

Keywords:

2. Author information:
2.1 Author’s name
Natalia Kasatkina

2.2 Institutional Affiliation and Contact Details:
Chief of the Center for Sociopolitical Studies of Vitautas the Great University's Institute of Diplomacy and International Relations

E-mail: natalija@osf.lt
Tel.: +3702652603

2.2 Date recorded
28/05/2001

3. Good Practice Information Sheet
3.1 Local Level Good Practice
The program for protecting the cultural identity of Karaim in the Republic of Lithuania (1988-2000) consists in returning and restoring the monuments of the Karaim culture; in developing and strengthening Karaim public and confessional organizations; supporting publishing projects and distributing information on the cultural identity of Karaim.

3.2 Location:
The towns of Vilnius, Trakai, and Panevezhis, Republic of Lithuania.

3.3 Minority/Target groups:
Karaim: according to the last statistical data this group consists of about 250 persons.

3.4 Major Actors Involved:

3.5. Budget allocated by local government authorities and/or by other actors
The above-mentioned DANMC provides financial support for various Karaim cultural societies’ programs every year. This financial support was 3600 lits in 2000 ($900). The religious community of Karaim, recognized as one of the traditional communities of Lithuania, receives each year a state subsidy from the budget. In 2000 the subsidy's sum was 10200 lits ($2550).

The greatest financial effort, however, was made in the period 1997-1998, on the occasion of the celebrations of the 600-anniversary of the settlement in Lithuania of two historically significant diasporas: the Tartar and the Karaim. In the town of Trakai the Kenesa (Karaim church) was restored and the Museum of Karaim Ethnography was reconstructed with the financial support from both the town and state budget. The state budget also supported other activities such as conferences, concerts, and various performances. In Panevezhis the town authorities financed the installation of a memorial sculpture in the place of an earlier destroyed Kenesa. The Kenesa of Vilnius was returned to the Karaim religious community in 1993 and was also restored with financial support from the state budget.

3.5 Timeframe

3.6 Local level good practice relation to national level ethnic policy
After restoring the state independence (11 March 1990), special attention was given in Lithuania to the positive and peaceful development of a multinational civil society.

Lithuania adopted the so-called zero option of the Law on Citizenship according to which Lithuanian citizenship was granted to all persons of non-Lithuanian nationality, irrespective of their term of residence and motives on arrival in the territory of Lithuania.

Moreover, national minorities' rights are included in special laws and other legal documents in the Constitution. The Law on National Minorities (adopted in 1989 and emended in 1991) proclaims that the state, protecting the interests of national minorities, guarantees its support in development of national culture and education, the right to study and receive the information on the native language, the right to profess any religion or to not profess any.

4. Good Practice Description
Karaim first appeared on the territory of present-day Lithuania in 1397-1398 during the war with the Golden Horde when the Prince of Lithuania Vitautas the Great settled about 380 Karaim families in Lithuania. The first Karaim was established in Trakai, later on Karaim established new settlements in Birjai, Pasavalis, Panevezhis. Trakai, however, always remained the administrative and religious center of the Karaim in Lithuania. All the Karaim of Lithuania and Poland were under the jurisdiction of the Karaim religious center in Trakai.

In the Soviet period Karaim communal houses in Vilnius, Trakai and Panevezhis were closed. In Trakai the buildings of the shelter for old Karaim and the religious school were nationalized. In Trakai, Vilnius and Panevezhis the Kenesa were closed. The Karaim culture museum, situated in the apartment of professor Hadzhi Grey Khan Shabshala in Vilnius was destroyed.

According to the last statistical data available about 250 Karaim presently live in Lithuania. Trakai remains their cultural and religious capital. Karaim live also in Vilnius and Panevezhis. According to the data available in 1997 the mean age among Karaim is 44.9 years. The number of Karaim able to speak their native language has been steadily decreasing. Turkic ethnic identity and the Karaism were the basis of very old and extraordinarily strong traditions without it would be difficult for a small community to retain its cultural values and the way of life.

The one element of this ethnic identity that survives today is the Karaim language, belonging to the western Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic language family. This language is used in everyday life and in religious practices of the Karaim, but it now belongs to the category of disappearing languages. Therefore the importance of publications in Karaim is obvious, and above all grammar textbooks.

Founded in the spring of 1988, the Karaim Cultural Society (KCS) has taken active steps to organize and make possible the printing of some publications. In 1989 KCS and the Fund of Culture of Lithuania published the collection of Karaim poetry ("Karaj jurlary "). With the financial support of the Fund of Open Lithuania in 1996 the chairman of the Karaim religious community of Lithuania and senior priest M. Firkovich published a practical grammar of Karaim language (its Trakai dialect) "Mien karajce urianiam " (I am learning Karaim). During the last years in Lithuania many publications devoted to culture, history, and customs of this people have appeared. In November 1991, in Vilnius and Trakai an international conference took place that was devoted to the famous researcher of the Karaim culture, and the founder of the Karaim museum, a prominent public figure H. Shabshal, (it was the 30^th anniversary of his death).

Other important elements of Karaim culture are the family and religious practices. Among the family traditions, the wedding ritual with all its components was most fully kept. Effective ways of cultural activity and continuity of traditions are concerts and actions of folklore ensembles in which children and youth are actively involved. The activities of such ensembles are financed by various official bodies (the Ministry of Culture, Department of National Minority Affairs, departments of culture of cities' self-government in Trakai, Vilnius, Panevezhis).

The religious calendar regulates the life of Karaim community during the year. Karaism is recognized as one of the traditional and historical confessions of Lithuania. All the Karaim of Lithuania are members of their religious community. Religious holidays unite its members. In this respect the restoration of the Kenesa in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, was of great importance. One of the newest Kenesa in Lithuania, the Kenesa of Vilnius, was built in 1911, in 1993 it became again the property of the religious community of Karaim. Today in Lithuania two Kenesa are functioning – one in Trakai and one in Vilnius.