Meile Matjosaityte Luksiene

Meilė Matjošaitytė Lukšienė (1913–2009) was born in Vienna (Austria). During World War I, she lived in Voronezh with her mother, Julija Janulaityte. In 1918, they moved to Vilnius. In 1931, she graduated from Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium. That same year, she entered the Faculty of Physics and Chemistry of Vytautas Magnus University, but in 1932 she asked to be transferred to the Faculty of Humanities, where she studied Lithuanian literature. Lukšienė Matijošaitytė graduated in 1938 and worked as a teacher in various gymnasiums. From 1942 to 1949, she worked as an assistant at Vytautas Magnus University (in 1946, the university was renamed “Kaunas University”). In 1949, after the Faculty of Humanities was transferred from Kaunas to Vilnius, Lukšienė Matijošaitytė continued teaching at Vilnius University. On 1 September 1949, she became a senior lecturer at the Department of Lithuanian Literature, and on 29 October 1951, she was appointed head of the department. During the period of the Khrushchev Thaw, she attempted to free, at least to some extent, the studies and research of Lithuanian literature from the dogmatic interpretation schemes imposed by the Soviet Stalinist ideology. Immediately after the events in Hungary and the gatherings to commemorate All Souls’ Day in Vilnius, she found herself the target of ideological attacks by party structures operating on various levels.
On 9 December 1957, Lukšienė filed an application to resign from her position as head of the department, allegedly due to her failing health. Her request was granted, but she continued to work as an associate professor there. After a repeated case of ideological criticism at a meeting on 11 February 1959, the university’s party bureau decided, among other things, to “recommend to the Rector’s Office to take measures to strengthen the team of the Department of Lithuanian Literature.” The direct consequence of this decision was the order of the Rector of 8 July 1959, by which Lukšienė was dismissed from her position at the university, allegedly because she did not take part in the competition for the position of an associate professor. The political reasons for the dismissal were confirmed by two surviving documents. The first document was the character reference letter of 3 October 1959 prepared by the Rector’s Office of the university and the party bureau, which read the following: “When public organisations criticised the work and the mistakes of the entire department, Lukšienė did not demonstrate the necessary self-criticism and determination to correct and eliminate them.” The second document was the report of the Rector presented at the XII Congress of the Lithuanian Communist Party of 2 March 1960, where the Rector spoke about political measures that had been taken at the Department of Lithuanian Literature and hinted that “Lukšienė and Rabačiauskaitė were dismissed as not being fit to work at the university”.
From 1959 to 1997, Lukšienė worked as a senior research fellow at the then Pedagogical Institute (until 1973, it was referred to as the Institute of School Research). In 1988, she became a member of the Sąjūdis steering group and became known as the creator of the national school concept. In 2004, she received one of the most prestigious UNESCO awards – the Jan Amos Comenius Medal – for her personal contribution to scientific and practical consolidation of education as the basis for building a state.

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