Lithuania seeks to preserve historical documents at home and abroad
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Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys met with leaders at the Lithuanian History Archive to discuss ways to protect and access documentary heritage both within Lithuania and in the diaspora.
During the meeting, Budrys emphasized the importance of international collaboration to preserve Lithuanian historical sources held in archives across Ukraine, Latvia, the United States, and other countries. He stated Lithuania has a duty to encourage research and digitization of these materials.
Budrys and archive officials focused on international projects to preserve, digitize, and return historical sources to Lithuania, while also supporting scientific research. They specifically discussed increased collaboration with Ukrainian historians to study the archival heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, including plans for a joint scientific publication with the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Institute of Archeography in Ukraine. The conversation also highlighted lessons learned from Ukraine regarding the preservation of vital state documents during conflict.
The minister and archive leaders also explored opportunities to work with Latvia, as the Latvian State History Archive holds many documents significant to Lithuanian statehood, including correspondence related to Mindaugas's baptism and a letter from Gediminas dating to 1323. They aim to jointly describe and digitize these documents, and consider returning some Lithuanian-origin materials to Lithuania.
Finally, they discussed digitizing the archives of the Lithuanian American Council, the oldest Lithuanian organization in the United States, with the goal of creating a structured database of individuals mentioned in the documents and potentially using funds from the Global Lithuania program to support this work.
