Periferinės karaimų bendruomenės. Centro ir periferijos įtakos pasidalijimas XVII–XVIII amžiais

Santrauka

The main subject of this paper is to reconstruct those aspects of social history of the peripheral Karaim communities that show their influence on Lithuanian Karaims on the whole. Our aim is to discuss the spread of the Karaim community from their religious and spiritual centre in Trakai (Troki) to the periphery of Lithuania, the formation of their living space in Panevėžys (Poniewież) and Naujamiestis (Nowe Miasto), and to reconstruct their relations with the spiritual centre in Trakai.
The research of the social aspects of the Karaim history is based on published and unpublished sources (mainly manuscripts kept at the Manuscript Section of the Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences). This research has led to the following conclusions:
The main reason for Karaims’ migration from the spiritual centre in Trakai to the periphery of Lithuania was the economic decline of this town as a result of Lithuania’s wars with Russia and Sweden.
Communal documents of the Karaims of Naujamiestis clearly show that the community of the latter appeared not earlier than in the middle of the 17th century. (The same is to be said about the Panevėžys community, despite many variations in historiography). Moreover, the Naujamiestis community became the most influential Karaim community in Lithuania in the 17th and 18th centuries mainly because of its economic prosperity and the decline of the Trakai community.
There was a competition between Karaims of Naujamiestis and Trakai because both communities tried to gain influence on the other communities of Lithuania. In fact, the Naujamiestis community succeeded in enlisting the nearby communities of Biržai (Birże), Panevėžys, Pasvalys (Poswol), Pumpėnai (Pompiany), Upytė (Upita) and were even trying to deal with the authorities separately from the leaders in Trakai. The peripheral communities were unsatisfied with the policy of authorities in Trakai (who had the moral superiority in the Council of Lithuanian Karaims over those in the periphery), especially on the matter of taxes that were paid together with Jews.
The reconstruction of the history of Karaim settlements in Naujamiestis and Panevėžys allows us to draw a conclusion that despite their existence in the periphery of Lithuania, the influence of these two communities was of great importance to all Lithuanian Karaims.