How to remain independent and keep a cheerful mood - this is what Vaižgantas' whole life is about, with its unwritten rules and principles. With the lifting of the ban on the press, the shackles of external subjugation are beginning to fray, but centuries of oppression leave marks that do not disappear on their own.

The "scraping away" of the plaques of slavery becomes the core of Tumas' cultural work even when the idea of an independent Lithuanian state seems to be only a brave and noble dream.