Aušra

The other editors, Martynas Jankus and Jonas Andziulaitis, did not engage in polemic writing and the controversies calmed down.

Varpas (literally: The Bell) was a secular newspaper, while Šviesa 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.

Basanavičius did not envision Aušra as a political publication; in the first issue he declared that the newspaper would deal only with cultural matters.

It published on many different subjects like agriculture or reports from Lithuanian communities in the United States, but history was the most popular.

The foreword of the first issue began with a Latin proverb, Homines historiarum ignari semper sunt pueri, or People ignoring history remain children forever.

One of the main aims of Aušra editors was to gain the usage rights to Lithuanian language and to revive its prestige.