![]() ![]() Twelve-year-old Audra grew up in this world of oppression, forced to smuggle a book given to her by her mother when Cossacks arrested her parents. Reading these smuggled books about their language and culture were ways to give people hope to remember their country as it was when it was free, and to fight against the yoke cast upon them by the Tsar. The ban on books, as well as forbidding the Lithuanian language, its schools, and the passing on of its culture were ways for the Tsar to force the people to forget their past and to look towards a Russian future. Despite the law, thousands of book carriers risked their lives to smuggle banned books to their people in Lithuania. To this end Cossack soldiers roamed towns and villages, ruthlessly arresting, killing, imprisoning, or sending to Siberia anyone found with books written in the Lithuanian language. The people were expected to turn their backs on their Lithuanian heritage and become obedient Russian citizens. In 1893 Lithuania was ruled by Russia with an iron fist. ![]() (Includes an “Acknowledgements” section with more information about Lithuanian book carriers). ![]()
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