George Matulaitis Journal

longer reaching the city. The farmers are afraid that their produce will be confiscated and do not want to go by those places where there are Bolshevik soldiers. According to what I have heard, the city people are very dissatisfied because of the high price of food. What is the use of rais- ing the workers’ daily wage by 12 to 20 rubles? Earlier you could buy 33 pounds of bread for 20 rubles; Now you can get only 4 pounds for the same price. The peasants expected to get some land from the Communists. But now that it is clear that the Bolsheviks will not allow the large estates to be broken up and have no intention of distributing land, they have cooled off towards them and are now beginning to grum- ble. And so, even the peasants are dissatisfied with the Bolsheviks, espe- cially since they have begun to requisition food here and there. The Bolsheviks have passed a Decree on Land Reform. 1 Church property and land and estates owned by the nobility have been proclaimed public property. This decree worries me, the Cathedral Chapter, and the other priests. As much as I could, I read up on Canon Law and various commentaries and interpretations concerning Church property so that I would not deviate in any way from the spirit and teaching of the Church. I consulted with the members of the Cathedral Chapter and also with those who had already experienced the Communist revolution in Russia about what we should do. On the advice of His Excellency Monsignor Michalkiewicz, I invited Mr. Wróblewski, 2 a well-known attorney in Vilnius and spoke with him about this matter. He undertook to draw up statutes for parish councils so that on, this basis, the parishioners could supervise Church property and defend it. When the statutes had been completed, I invited Monsignors Michalkiewicz and Sadowski as well as Canons Maciejewicz 3 and Steckiewicz to a meeting which, of course, included Mr. Wróblewski and me. It became clear that the ownership and supervision of Church prop- erty would be transferred exclusively to the parish councils. The pastors 178 1 It was passed on Jan. 14, 1919, forbade the buying and selling of land, and nationalized estates, large farms, and Church property. 2 Tadeusz Wróblewski (1858-1925): A Polish attorney who lived and worked in Vilnius from 1891 to 1925. He had been exiled to Siberia and on his return continued to practice law, defending many Lithuanian political prisoners. 3 Stanis = aw Maciejewicz (1869-1940): a native of Vilnius, studied at the Vilnius Seminary and then at the Academy of St. Petersburg. In Vilnius, he worked as an educator and was also known as a journalist and supporter of the Polish National Democratic Party. He was a member of the Duma and later of the Polish Parliament.