“The physical resemblance is the same, but we are different people,” says Stasys Pūtvis, the great-grandson of Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis, but looking at him, you can really think that you have met a nobleman of that time, a landowner, a social and cultural figure, a writer, a bookseller, a pioneer of fishing In Lithuania, one of the founders and ideologues of the Lithuanian Rifle Association.
Childhood around celebrities
“That resemblance to my great-grandfather became apparent only with my mature age. And in his youth, it seems to me, he didn’t even smell like Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis. On the other hand, most of his photos have survived from a more mature age,” reflects Stasys and says that he didn’t specifically try to look like his famous great-grandfather.
The people of Kaunas are well aware of the street named after V. Putvinskis-Pūtvis in the center of Kaunas, in Naujamiestis, where the distinguished Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis’s house was, and nearby, on Laisvės avenue, in October 1926, his ideologically matured and 1919 the Lithuanian Rifle Association was founded. The great-grandson of V. Putvinskis-Pūtvis, Stasys, also walks the streets of Kaunas every day.
Even though he grew up during the Soviet era, Stasys knew from his family that his great-grandfather Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis was a man of merit to Lithuania and the founder of the Riflemen’s Union from his conscious childhood. “Exclusive respect for him prevailed in the family. And I, as a child, have felt it since I was little, – Stasys Pūtvis returns to his childhood memories. – I didn’t know my grandfather Stas Pūtvis-Putvinskis – he died in a camp in Gorky at that time. My grandmother, Darija Dalė Zubovaitė-Putvinskienė-Pūtvienė, made up for the lack of a grandfather, who actually saved me from the Soviet kindergarten: she took care of me, raised me, educated me”.
S. Pūtvis remembers very well how his grandmother took him everywhere, and he communicated with exceptional people, the luminaries of that time: he regularly visited the house of the artist, collector, public figure Antanas Žmuidzinavičius and his wife, a dentist, the former commander of the rifle women, Marija Putvinskaitė-Žmuidzinavičienė; to the son-in-law of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, the patriarch of architecture and architectural history, Vladimir (Vladis) Zubova and his wife Danutė Čiurlionytė-Zubovienė; to museum curator Valerija Čiurlionytė-Karužienė, singer Beatričė Grincevičiūtė, naturalist Tadas Ivanauskas.
“All of them were already of a mature age, but they had a really, really big influence on me as a child. I still remember that impression. V. Čiurlionytė-Karužienė directly introduced the work of her brother Mikalojaus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. A. Žmuidzinavičius used to visit the gallery of MK Čiurlionis, he showed his gifted sets of folk art and instilled in the consciousness that all Lithuanian art is based on folk art. I understood those things well from a young age,” Stasys Pūtvis shares his memories, whose great-grandfather’s words were also important in shaping his personality, although they were not destined to meet in person.
“I had to learn about Soviet communism and other similar things, and at home I read the writings of Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis, which particularly clearly showed me that all that Soviet science is a complete fiction, a propaganda theory without any moral basis. During the Soviet era, many people lived a double life, because it was impossible to protest openly against that tainted ideology: it was necessary to officially recognize it, but in reality to live according to completely different values”, the interviewer reveals the difficult dilemma of the era.
Born far from Lithuania
Stasys Pūtvis is a child of exiles, born far from Lithuania, in Yakutsk, where his parents Rimantas and Irena met and got married. They were deported to Siberia from different parts of Lithuania, and they started a family already when they were released from the camp at the mouth of the Lena.
“I was nine months old when in 1957 my parents returned to Lithuania with me. All my conscious childhood passed in Kaunas. Grandfather from the father’s side, Stasys Pūtvis, was a volunteer, then the minister of agriculture, and the mother’s father, Pranas Tamulevičius, was an officer of the Lithuanian army, he served in the Vytenis regiment, had the rank of captain, he was also exiled, but returned from Siberia”, – famous women tell about their roots descendant of the family.
Having linked his life with architecture, Stasys Pūtvis does not hide that he was encouraged to choose architecture studies by his relatives: the already mentioned Vladys Zubovas, Rimgaudas Slavinskas. After graduating from the then Vilnius Institute of Engineering and Construction, Stasys returned to Kaunas and worked at the Polytechnic Institute, then at Komprojekte. After the start of the Revival, he actively got involved in the activities of Persitvarkymos Sajūdis, participated in the founding convention.
Along with the political changes, the work activities of Stasios Pūtvis also changed. “Architect Alfredas Jakučiūnas invited him to the Cultural Heritage Department at the Kaunas Municipality, which was being established at that time. I switched from a practicing architect to heritage protection – it was such a cultural manifestation of Sąjūdis, and at that time I imagined my activities in this field the best. At the same time, I designed and took care of monuments and graves. I collaborated a lot with Jonas Varanavičius, who managed the company Palikimas. It was established in order to manage and maintain Lithuania’s military heritage. A lot has been done in this area. For about two years, I managed the “Palikimo” company myself, but in 1999 financing stopped, the company of the Deputy Minister of Culture Naglios Puteikis was liquidated. I returned to the Urban Planning Department of the Kaunas City Municipality again, and worked as a ward architect until the end of my working life,” says the interviewee.
Architectural curtsey to the insiders
Stasys Pūtvis not only knew about his great-grandfather’s works and merits from childhood – he also created a monument dedicated to Vlad Putvinskis-Pūtvis, which was unveiled in the center of Kelmė, next to St. Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis, one of the founders of the Sagittarius Union and an ideologue, is buried in the Kelmė cemetery.
“I aimed for that purposefully. I didn’t just design – together with Vytautas Dudėnas and Stasius Ignatavičius, we initiated the creation of such a monument. I was very happy that the sculptor Stasys Žirgulis agreed to cooperate. He was a great authority for me. It was close to my heart and pleasant work”, – the architect is happy with the result, who fought quite a bit because of the fact that on Laisvės ave. A commemorative plaque dedicated to Vlad Putvinskis-Pūtvis would appear in the building marked with number 34 in Kaunas, where the central headquarters of the Lithuanian Rifle Association is still located today.
“Thanks to the sculptor Stasios Žirgulis and Danutė Rūkienė, who was at that time a member of the Naming and Commemoration Commission, it was possible to include this work in the program approved by the Kaunas City Municipality, and in 2014 the board was unveiled,” the interviewee, who also designed the monument to the officers killed in the Soviet and Nazi genocides at the Kaunas Aukštųi Šanųi soldiers’ cemetery, is happy with the memorialization of his great-grandfather. “My grandfather Stasys Pūtvis is immortalized there,” adds the architect.
The history of the changed letters
Stasys introduces himself with the surname Pūtvis, like his father and grandfather. Naturally, the question arises, where did the surname of great-grandfather Putvinskis disappear?
According to Provaikaitis, changing one’s surname and making it Lithuanian during the interwar period was quite popular. “There were Putvinskis for many years, my great-grandfather Vlad was also a Putvinski. During the wave of nationalism, the Putvinskii became the Pūtvii. The main initiator was my grandfather Stasys. When he finished his term as a minister in the Government, he collected material about his ancestors and came to the conclusion that he needed to change his surname. This he finally did in 1939, practically the penultimate year before his arrest. His brother Vytautas did the same. And everyone was deported to Siberia with the two surnames Putvinskis-Pūtvis – to make it clearer who they are,” says S. Pūtvis about the change.
The family situation of his uncle Vytautas, the brother of grandfather Stasios, was somewhat different: while living in exile, the letter “ū” in the surname disappeared, because Cyrillic does not have such a letter, and when he returned to Lithuania, the surname Putvis was written in the documents in Lithuanian – according to the Russian version. “All the descendants of Vytautas became Putvii. My father, Rimantas, demanded on principle that “uh” be written – as in the original, according to grandfather Stas’s surname, Pūtvis,” explains the interviewer.
According to him, grandfather Stasys Putvinskis-Pūtvis even consulted with linguists about the spelling of the surname, because the surname Pūtvis is derived from the name of the area Pūtvė in Šilalė district. There was also the mound Pūtvė, one of the most important in the 14th century. the beginning of Lithuanian castles in the land of Karšuva. “According to historical sources, in the 14th century the crusaders attacked, and there are even a few mentions of Pūtves Castle in historical sources. The name comes from that area. In addition, the ancestor Petras Putvinskis, who came from Pūtva, in 1780. came behind us to Šilo Pavėžupis, to the Graužikis estate, because he married Radavičiūtė, and since then the history of Pūtvii is associated with this region of Žemaitija”, – Stasys Pūtvis knows the history of his ancestors well.
Sagittarius – not for advertising
Stasys Pūtvis has also taken the shooter’s oath, but he never overemphasized it and did not use it to promote himself. “Because I never wanted to become a living monument to my great-grandfather. This bothered me, and I tried to avoid this”, the great-grandson of the ideologue of the Sagittarius Union reveals the reason.
While Stasys was younger, his father Rimantas Pūtvis was a kind of representative of the clan and family – it goes without saying that a representative of the Pūtvi family was needed in the shooting environment. “And now it is even more surprising that some people identify me with Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvius. The physical similarity is the same, but we are different people, our activities are also completely different: I have always considered myself an architect, and ideologically I belong to the shooters’ guild,” Stasys, who also belongs to the Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis club, which gathers one of the Descendants of the founders of the shooters union, restorers of the organization and veteran shooters.
Stasys Pūtvis does not hide that the year 2023 is special for him, because this year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis, and even after so much time has passed, his famous great-grandfather is remembered, respected, and the ideas of marksmanship are experiencing a golden age. “I would think that the ideas put forward by Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis, the awakening of citizenship and the Sagittarius Union founded by him are especially important at this time, in the face of Russian aggression. Concentration and participation of citizens in resistance, unifying citizens, national patriotic ideology is necessary for the survival of the nation. This is extremely important today. Apart from Putvinskis, in my understanding, no one else has created anything like this,” Stasys Pūtvis is convinced.
He has no doubts that every citizen should read the writings of Vladas Pūtvinskis-Pūtvis, and he hopes that in the near future these writings will be republished and more accessible to the public at the initiative of historian Mindaugas Nefs. “Having such an ideological base, it must be used. And this is important not only for the Sagittarius Union, it is important for every citizen of Lithuania, especially when there is so much talk now about the education of citizenship and its importance”, the interviewer adds.
When asked if he would like to sit down with his great-grandfather today and talk, Stasys Pūtvis says he has no such illusion. “And I have always felt a spiritual connection with him since childhood, because what he created and left is deeply embedded in me, and I will never escape from it. That inner connection with him exists constantly,” says the great-grandson of Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis.
Photo by Valdas Kilpis.
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Additional information:
June 24 is the day of the shooter, and June 27 is the day of the foundation of the Lithuanian shooters’ union.
The Lithuanian Rifle Association (LŠS) is a state-supported voluntary, civil self-defense society organization that strengthens the state’s defense power, develops citizenship and national awareness, develops state defense educational activities, and provides assistance to the police and civil security.
It is a unique organization without analogues, because the LŠS unites people who are indifferent to the defense and life of the state. Shauliai operates according to a separate law and statute of the organization adopted by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Despite the tasks assigned directly by state institutions, LŠS is an organization of free people who devote their time to the defense and strengthening of the Motherland.
Every citizen of Lithuania can voluntarily become a member of the organization and realize himself by acting in the fields of warfare, sports and culture. Today, about 14,000 people are indifferent to the ideas of Saul throughout Lithuania. citizens from the age of 11.
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Contact person –
Head of the Communications Department of the Lithuanian Rifle Association Aušra Garniene Mob. phone: +370 616 27810, e-mail mail: ausra.garniene@sauliusajunga.lt
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– 2024-04-04 17:47:03
