Lithuanian pharmacists in professional and social activities at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

At the end of the 19thcentury and the beginning of the 20thcentury, Lithuanian pharmacists established their organizations in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and other places in the Russian empire. Living and working in a Russian environment, however, they enshrined national patriotic ideas, were active participants in social activities, wished to unite all Lithuanians living in czarist Russia to struggle against denationalization, induce people to return to their motherland and work for its good. This presentation deals with the path for a career of Lithuanian pharmacists in czarist Russia and their national patriotic activity. They chose a job in a pharmacy not as a mission of life but due to political, social and economic reasons. They mostly were peasants’ children who disobeyed their parents in order to study at the clerical seminary or youths expelled from gymnasiums because of resistance to the Tsarist government. In 1911-1912 and in 1918, a group of Lithuanian pharmacists in Moscow published the newspaper „Pharmacists’ Affairs”. The paper propagated national ideas and encouraged Lithuanian pharmacists to return home and work for the benefit of their country. Lithuanian pharmacists played important role in the formation of modern Lithuanian society and were one of the most numerous parts of Lithuanian intelligentsia.