 thumb|auszra issues 10 & 11 published in 1884 auÅ¡ra or auszra (literally: dawn) was the first national lithuanian newspaper. the first issue was published in 1883, in ragnit, east prussia, germany (newspaper credited it as ) east prussia's ethnolinguistic part - lithuania minor. later it was published monthly in tilsit (present-day sovetsk). even though only forty issues were published and the circulation did not exceed 1,000, it was a significant event as it marked the beginnings of the lithuanian national rebirth that eventually resulted in an independent lithuanian state (1918â1940). this period, between 1883 and 1904, when the lithuanian press ban was enforced by tsarist authorities, has been referred to as the auÅ¡ros gadynÄ (the dawn period). due to financial difficulties the printing was discontinued in 1886. ==history== after the russian authorities denied permission to publish a lithuanian newspaper in vilnius, jonas Å liÅ«pas proposed to publish it in east prussia, germany. however, he was perceived as too radical, and jurgis mikÅ¡as, the printer, invited jonas basanaviÄius to become its first editor. during its three years of existence, auÅ¡ra had a total of five editors. after mikÅ¡as had to resign due to personal reasons, Å liÅ«pas was entrusted to oversee future publications. however, he ran into conflicts with basanaviÄius, who was living in bulgaria. Å liÅ«pas also had issues the german authorities due to his involvement in nationalistic movements and had to leave prussia in 1884. the other editors, martynas jankus and jonas andziulaitis, did not engage in polemic writing and the controversies calmed down. soon mikÅ¡as ran into debt and could no longer support the newspaper. the printing was discontinued. after auÅ¡ra was discontinued, new lithuanian-language periodicals appeared. varpas (literally: the bell) was a secular newspaper, while Å viesa was more conservative and was a religiously oriented publication. the newspaper was published outside lithuania proper because of the lithuanian press ban that had been enforced by the authorities of the russian empire since the uprising in 1863. it was prohibited to publish anything in the lithuanian language using the latin alphabet; the government wished to force the people to use grazhdanka, a cyrillic alphabet. printing in the latin alphabet was organized abroad, mostly in lithuania minor; knygneÅ¡iai (literally: book smugglers) would carry the printed materials across the german-russian border. this was one of the ways auÅ¡ra would reach its readers. the other way was in sealed envelopes. ==content== more than 70 people contributed to auÅ¡ra. the writers, or au
East_Prussia History_of_Lithuania_(1795a1918) Lithuanian-language_newspapers Publications_established_in_1883