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In 1990, after 50 years of Soviet occupation, Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union. The case for the restoration of Lithuanian independence was made by Juozas Urbšys, one of the last surviving ministers of the pre-war republic, whose testimony about the Soviet invasion of 1939 resembles the work of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. These stories unite communities around transcendent goals that justify revolt and revolution. Placing Urbšys's memoirs in the same bin as these detective stories, I demonstrate how Burke's sociological criticism of literature uncovers strategies for naming the situation of Lithuania during perestroika and argue that Urbšys work served Lithuanians as functional equipment for living in 1988 paving the way for the restoration of independence in 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution aims to demonstrate that and to what extent the Soviet kraevedenie strengthened the role of Lithuanian history during the late socialism (1956-1973). The Post-Stalinist memory politics encouraged the creation of local historical narratives within the context of people's friendship and Soviet patriotism. This policy enabled a reemergence of pre-soviet Lithuanian history in the public discourses and culture that focused on medieval past and some more recent events. Established together with domestic tourism in the early 1960s, the kraevedenie institutions of Lithuanian SSR quickly turned into an essential platform for popularization of Soviet as well as national memory. This memory focus had to do with the omnipresence of history within the competences of the institution. This as well as the fact that the historical research of was performed using personal approach and continuing the krevedenie traditions of the interwar period enabled questioning of the history version of the communist party. These specific preconditions made possible to explore Lithuanian national past within the kraevedenie activities even though the main focus was devoted to the communist partisans or veterans of the World War II. It was the popularity of the "feudal" and "bourgeois" past of Lithuania that concerned the KGB the most as early as in the early 1960s. Some kraevedenie expeditions concentrated on objects of Lithuanian medieval past. A lot of interest--triggered by the former political prisoners was also paid more recent events such as the activism of the antiSoviet partisans, deportations and other repressions of the regime. Also Lithuanians living outside of the LSSR and certain important figures of Lithuanian national pantheon played a role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is part of the special cluster titled Conceptualizations of the Holocaust in Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine since the 1990s, guest edited by Grzegorz Rossoliński-Liebe. The Holocaust is the darkest page of Lithuanian history: Nearly the whole Jewish community in Lithuania was destroyed, while a part of ethnic Lithuanians participated in this destruction. This article discusses three layers and periods of the Holocaust in Lithuania that have made a considerable impact on the perception of this traumatic period in Lithuanian society. The first period deals with the Lithuanian–Jewish relations during the German occupation in Lithuania (1941–1944). The second one is related to the Soviet reoccupation of Lithuania and discussions among Lithuanian émigrés in the West (1944–1990), which shaped the history of the Holocaust in Lithuania from the ideological (Soviet) and defensive (Lithuanian émigré) perspectives. The final part of this article discusses the historiography and Holocaust memory in independent Lithuania after the 1990s. Almost thirty years of independence mark not only the re-creation of some old myths and stereotypes in Lithuania, but also new groundbreaking and open discussions in society, concerning the perception of this dark page of Lithuanian history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article analyzes the extent and features of in-work poverty in Lithuania in the aftermath of the global economic crisis of 2007-2008. It argues that the significant expansion of the phenomenon during this time period was fostered by neoliberal policies that have been shaping the welfare system in the country for more than two decades. Furthermore, it draws attention to employment conditions and seeks to understand the experiences of those who live in in-work poverty. This article reveals that, during the period investigated, in-work poverty in Lithuania was associated with being a woman, having children, belonging to single-parent household, and being employed in a precarious working environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Quality of life (QoL) has been widely researched among children with asthma in Western countries, but there is a lack of data from eastern Europe, where the prevalence is relatively low, but hospital admission rates are higher. We evaluated the overall level and major determinants of QoL in Lithuanian children aged 5-11 years with asthma.Methods: This study was carried out in six asthma outpatient clinics in the two largest cities of Lithuania from January 2015 to July 2016. The children's QoL was measured using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL) asthma module, which was completed by the child and one parent.Results: We collected questionnaires from 226 children (68% boys) with a mean age of eight (±2) years: 65% had mild asthma, 31% had moderate asthma and 4% had severe asthma. One in 10 had been hospitalised in the preceding 6 months. The mean self-reported QoL score was 74 and the parent-reported QoL score was 73. QoL was associated with asthma severity and control, shortness of breath and the child's general health, but not socioeconomic factors.Conclusion: The overall level and major determinants of QoL in children with asthma in Lithuania were comparable with Western populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Filosofija, Sociologija is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

During the firsts years of post-Soviet period there were essentially no adequate scholarly attempts focused at studying systematically the emerging problems in collective and individual) memory. The scholarly interest in the issues of collective (social) as well as cultural memory became more significantly expressed in the second decade after the reestablishment of Lithuania's independence. The author of the article discusses the problems related to recent collective memory studies and attempts to assess how far the studies of collective memory of the Soviet era have progressed in Lithuania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of the article is to try to distinguish the modern public management doctrine of substantive provisions, policies and trends, and to find out how modern developments and innovation management principles can be applied to the Lithuanian health care in the system on the basis of the modern social science methods of analysis. The new public governance as a governance theory and practice of evolutionary result today is not sufficiently defined and can be analyzed on the basis of contingent considerations and mostly limited to the first practical implementation of the processes of data. However, the theoretical concept of public management doctrine is based on not only the individual assumptions or analysis, because the new public management does not rule out the previous public management doctrines, vol. y. remains certain traditional public management, new public governance normative standards and regulations to coexist with the newly interpreted incremental nature management evolve during isolated line of the governance practices. Among the new forms of crosssectoral integration crucial role of the public sector qualitative changes when new management networking, mixed structural units of the formation and development facilities. Essential public governance changes in the purpose of being a connective indicators, processes, oriented to the sector of activity forms and the standardization of procedures requires urgent political support, the highest governing bodies, academic bodies to participate actively joining the partnership program and project design, information technology, opportunities for exploitation, evaluation criteria and development of control methods in order to consolidate the activities of publicity and transparency-inducing mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of the article is to try to isolate the basis of modern strategic management methods of analysis of the strategic management of the doctrine of substantive provisions, policies and trends, and to find out how modern strategic management principles can be applied to the Lithuanian health care system. Strategic changes in the implementation and management principles of the EU and Lithuanian health systems today are not easily solved problem. Health sector management changes at this time has a significant impact on time because of changes in the results (positive or negative) become apparent only after a certain period of time. Therefore, it is essential to determine the change in strategy, execute them properly. Classical axiom says that the policy and strategic objectives are often not implemented, not that they generally can not be achieved, but because of changes in trends and tendencies are poorly formulated a n d planned. The implementation of public administration changes, it is important to realize that the public management today is not only rational political systems, but also in the global system level, changing the public organizations, the state of internal and external factors interfaces. In defining the strategic changes in the health sector modernization tasks need to identify the most important contemporary management processes change the circumstances, the structure, the identification of theoretical models and their application possibilities. Strategic management as the management theory and practice of evolutionary result, today there are insufficiently characterized, and can be analyzed on the basis of contingent considerations and mostly limited to the first practical implementation of the processes of data. For a more efficient and democratic public administration, the most important tasks in today's global environment becomes strtaeginio management structure improvement, vol. y. a variety of structural, functional, management innovation and technological elements of educational, health workers motivation and behavioral traits. One of the strategic parts management is a unique place in a complex public policy management process, the formation and implementation of various experience and practice in the assessment of different models, methods and procedures of design and implementation of public programs and projects and decisions. The principles of public policy category is the policy process, policy field, politics, political culture, policy decisions, policy models, methods and procedures, political program. Find the objective of the modern state of strategic management system instability, the decisions made ineffective, engulfed corruption reasons, recently, it is possible these problems a whole are presented as a state political system errors, narrow party interests dominance of administrative capacity, all kinds of resources (financial, human, information, technology et al.) lack of the public mistakenly identified priorities, it is not privatization, program and project management weaknesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The society of Lithuania encounters unprece-dented emigration crisis in Europe since World War II. Moreover, Lithuania stands out as a country with one of the lowest confidence levels between the EU countries. Major democratic civil society institutions (the Government, political parties and the Parliament) are all at the end of the list of institutions rated by confidence level. Finally, while the national average income and asset growth over the past 2 0 years has been truly impressive, the emigration d id not stop, neither decreased. In the framework mentioned above the article provides a comprehensive analysis of the causes of emigration and through strategic synthesis methods suggests effective strategic decisions to stop the emigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contradictions inherent in new media representations of sexual minorities in two bordering post-Soviet countries, Belarus and Lithuania. These nations are divided by their non/membership of the European Union and, being at the western periphery of the former Russian imperial centre, remain directly affected by the Russian mediascape and its information flows. While both countries' state media closely adhere to the Russian establishment's homophobic discourse, the role of new media remains largely uncharted. This article uses discourse analysis to (a) examine the influence of Russian media on each nation's digital discussions about sexual minorities and (b) explore new media's potential to mediate the intersection of sexual minorities and nation-building in two post-Soviet states. The analysis is centred on a set of online media publications (including their 'comments' sections), generated by the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 being won by Conchita Wurst, a drag performer with a beard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper showcases the contextual development of age diversity in one post-Soviet country – Lithuania – and explores the theoretical grounding and empirical evidence of the role of work characteristics (work-scheduling autonomy (WSA), decision-making autonomy and social support) in the age–individual performance linkage. The individual performance was conceptualized in terms of task, adaptive and proactive performance. Based on empirical findings from multisource data (non-managerial employees and their direct supervisors), this study contributes to the existing literature by showing that high WSA and social support can buffer the negative age effect on performance and that the age–performance pattern depends on the performance criteria used and is not universal. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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Copyright of Lituanistica is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Lituanistica is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Lituanistica is the property of Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Publishers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Lithuanian folk song festival of the Vilnius Cultural Capital of 2009, Millennium, serves as an exaggerated case study of the general trend of state-sponsored folk music festivals attempting to foster nationalist spirit through the mystification of ancient culture. Celebration and state sponsorship of the "authentic" Lithuanian folk song tradition is not a recent phenomenon. However, since Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, the traditions surrounding the genre of Lithuanian folk music have come to serve a new, "enchanted" function within Lithuanian nation building, as a result of the flourishing of the festival as a new major cultural form. This transformation mirrors the change witnessed by contemporary society in the conceptualization and function of the nation-state under "millennial capitalism" as defined by Jean and John Comaroff. The Lithuanian Ministry of Culture funds the promotion, practice, and public performance of Lithuania folk music, not only to preserve a contestable notion of the country's "ancient" national past, but also to help launch Lithuania into the future as a financially strong and nationally stable European Union member state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regardless of social life period, the mass media not only united people but also gave them actual information about different aspects of social living. As for the village, it is useful to remember that in the interwar Lithuania rural themes dealt with a number of editions, such as "Žemės ūkis", "Sodyba", "Sodžiaus menas", "Ūkininko patarėjas" and others. It may be interesting to know, that the farmers were also encouraged to read from the first sight with the village unrelated magazine "Kultūra", claiming, that far-mer should be a well educated person. Realities of current Lithuania's rural life is reflected in daily newspapers "Vals-tiečių laikraštis", "Ūkininko patarėjas", as well as in regio-nal newspapers and others. The scientific problem. Some of Lithuania's life pe-riods (for instance, interwar) in the scientific literature have been analysed fragmentary. Also, there is a lack of systemic rural issues in the media studies. Therefore, it is important to discuss this issue in the scientific community. The theoretical insights of research problem are based on review of scientific literature, sources of internet sites and of mass media (all presented in the literature list of this article). Relevance of the topic relates to the need of continually analysis how the media highlights various aspects ofru-ral life in the historical development of the phenomenon. Novelty of article reveals by presenting the role of edition "Ūkininko patarėjas" in different historical periods of Lithuanian rural life. The object of investigation - content of edition "Ukininko patarejas" of interwar and current Lithuania's period. Research aim - to examine and compare the reflection of rural life realities of interwar and current Lithuania in editions of"Ukininko patarejas". Research goals: • To perform the content analysis of interwar edition "Ukininko patarejas" (1930 year). • To review some newspapers of 2012 year edition "Ukininko patarejas" and perform content analysis of those publications. • To highlight the features of interwar and of current Lit-huania's edition "Ukininko patarejas". Research methods: review of scientific literature, content analysis of mass media texts. Research process. In order to reach the research aim and goals, the research method - content analysis of the selected texts has been employed. Editions of "Ukininko patarejas" of interwar period and current time have been chosen for the analysis (respectively of 1930 and of 2012 years). According to researchers (Walliman and others) content analysis is an examination of what can be counted in the text. A quantitative approach is taken by counting the frequency of phenomena within a case in order to highlight its importance in comparison with other cases. Sequence of analysis is the following: selection of articles according to the title, content analysis of selected articles, their ascription to the main categories and presenting by the original extracts. Generalization. Content analysis of selected publications has shown a variety of main categories and different number of articles within them. Authentic extracts help us to understand why some of the themes are leaders. For example, "Diversities" category which includes about third of the articles and provides the readers with useful and actual information on a wide range of rural life issues. Significance of economic category of articles appears in this, that even in five articles of edition has been presented a speech by Interwar period Lithuania's Minister of Agriculture J. Aleksa. The speech was delivered at the Annual Congress of Agriculture House Representatives. It is unsurprising that articles about stockbreeding and dairying, as well as agriculture compound about third part of edition "Ukininko patarejas" published in 1930. Supposedly those rural branches were traditional interwar rural business. Some of sections as "question - answer" or announcements (about sales, job search, advertisements of banks, insurance companies, etc.) are relevant today. Review of current edition of "Ukininko patarejas" and comparison of revealed categories of articles represent a view of current rural realities. Editorials, category "Lithuanian sky" and others highlight current time rural news, also newspapers focus on the views of readers (reviews, news, etc.). The newspapers are richly illustrated, significant space of them is occupied by advertisements and announcements. Frequency of newspaper (comes out 3 times a week) and run (over 17 thousand) show its marketability and proximity to rural people. Despite some differences of interwar and current Lithuania edition "Ukininko patarejas", it can be argued that this newspaper informs rural people about rural and public life issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main task of the research: the current events of central and mediate migration of citizens from town to countryside in cultural environment and its development. To solve the problem, the community of military aviation was chosen because it is linked up to lifestyle from town to countryside in different aspects which participate in this process. That is why this theme is new and relevant. The object of the work: the relationship between the staff of the military aviation and the culture of the town and the countryside. The goal is to analyze the integration of military aviation community in the town, countryside and suburb living, the assumption and influence of this integration of military aviation community and its country lifestyle, to compare the features of military aviation and countryside community, as well as to trace the shift of aviators' lifestyle in years 1991-2012. Methods: observation, interview, analysis, comparing, concluding. The facts: for this work the author's selected 1991- 2012 empirical material was used. All the times the military aviation has been making a big influence towards the culture of our country and the suburb and town living. Being educated, thrusting, especially in interwar times, aviators with their personal standards and occupation encouraged the shift of lifestyle. Most of the interwar and nowadays aviators are from the countryside. Although the aviation is really modern, the airfields are in the countryside location. That is why there is the reason to search for more typical cultural countryside features ofLithuanian military aviation aviators' and their shift of lifestyle in 1991-2012. The communities of aviators and countryside people have similarities in ideas and fundamental activity. The most important value is to have one goal and work in the same crew. The recent popular lifestyle in the suburb matches the wave of nowadays migration, when city people move to live in the countryside. New blocks of houses are built, a lawn is cut in west European style, and exotic flora is grown. In this way the attitude towards the land is gone, communal works and interests. There is no such a thing like a community. The observable phenomenon is a garden which is grown around a city people's homes. So it can be named as the feature of mediate countryside and suburb living. This type of lifestyle was recorded by ethnologists too. This way of lifestyle is suitable for aviators as well. There are different reasons why aviators move to suburbs. It depends on the state of a family, a location of the work and the needs. Aviators who have the countryside lifestyle are closely connected with agriculture, traditions which are cherished in a family, the way of working and healthy food. Although it is not mentioned, the aviators choose a traditional countryside way of living when around a house there is a garden and a growing land. So, searching for the decisions how to keep the development of countryside lifestyle, it is important to know that our community has country-style features in traditions, living and intellection. It is also proved in the military aviators' community research. It is said that this community is educated, motivated, having its own mentality, traditions, norms and rules of behaviour. So while planning the development ofLithuanian countryside and town lifestyle, it is important to analyze the cultural aspects which reveal the ethnical features of the country and help to make the decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article reprints several Soviet-era documents from the period 1990 to 1991. Articles include "On Restoring the Independence of the Lithuanian State," issued March 11, 1990 by the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Lithuania, "Appeal to the People of the Republic of Lithuania," issued on March 31, 1990 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, an address to the Soviet Union by Gorbachev on February 7, 1991, and excerpts from "Message to the Soviet People from the State Committee for the State of Emergency," issued August 18, 1991 by the Soviet Union's Committee on the State of Emergency. All have been reprinted under arrangements with the Web site www.soviethistory.org.

An account of the author's experiences in Vilnius during the "January Days" of 1991 when Soviet troops, backed up by tanks, seized several strategic buildings in the Lithuanian capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article presents an examination into the divergences manifested between the collective memory of Lithuanian history under the control of the Soviet Union and in its academic scholarship on socialism and its history. Additional analysis is given connecting the question of historical memory with issues of ethnic identity and its implications on citizenship and national belonging. Case examples are provided exploring the depiction of work and money in the Soviet history curricula of Lithuanian schools, highlighting the co-existence of the two contradicting narratives regarding the "good times" and "bad times" of the nation's communist past.

The article presents an examination into the role of women as loci of social memory regarding historical trauma in post-Communist Lithuania. Introductory comments are given discussing the social interconnectedness of gender, meta-narrative and nationalism within Balkan states such as Lithuania. Case examples are listed of personal accounts of women experiencing deportation and politically resisting the actions in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Details are given analyzing both the circumstances of the accounts as well as the social-historical role the women played within them.

This article compares three popular explanations for changes in female employment in post-socialist countries: retraditionalization, reserve army of labor, and revalued resources. Although these explanations are complementary in many ways, the retraditionalization thesis seems the most accurate explanation. In the early 1990s, gender-role attitudes were highly traditional, a tendency that might have contributed to the huge decrease in female labor force participation. Despite the changes, the comeback of the male-breadwinner family model is unlikely, since the acceptance of women's working roles is rapidly increasing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Lithuania, the first country to secede from the Soviet Union, the term Soviet has been used in public space to refer to the vanished Soviet empire and to experiences of colonization and resistance. However, in 1998, the “Soviet” symbol was successfully revived in the Lithuanian consumer food market as a brand name for meat products—primarily sausages. In this article, I argue that the market is a political arena in which values, ideologies, identities, and history are being shaped. The marketing and consumption of “Soviet” sausages is a form of political engagement that negotiates current power relations and inequalities. The meanings and practices surrounding “Soviet” sausages tell an intriguing story about broader processes of change. The “Soviet” sausage renaissance in Lithuania implies a critique of the postsocialist neoliberal state and constitutes an attempt to create an alternative modernity that is both post-Soviet and European. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis is the property of Klaipeda University, Institute of Baltic Region History & Archaeology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper analyses the causes, consequences, and policy implications of Lithuanian emigration following the country’s European Union (EU) accession in May 2004. After placing Lithuanian emigration in its historical context, the study assesses the recent dynamics, including the driving forces and characteristics of Lithuanian emigration at both the international and domestic level. The study finds that the primary determinants of this movement are both demand- and supply-side factors. On the demand side, the labour shortages, decline in the working age population, and desire for cheaper labour in Western European countries function to attract Lithuanian labour. Concurrently, lower wages, higher unemployment, and the generally less developed economic conditions in Lithuania are encouraging Lithuanians to take advantage of the greater mobility that came with EU accession. The expanding networks linking migrants and potential migrants are facilitating this out-migration, as well as the social mind-set by which emigration is a perceived solution to socio-economic difficulties. This study concludes that the consequences of this new emigration reality are mixed. The free movement of workers has helped to relieve pressure on the domestic labour market, drive down unemployment, place upward pressure on wages, and increase the remittances rate to Lithuania. However, concern is not ill-founded; recent emigration has introduced labour market shortages, placed greater demographic pressure on the country, and increased the likelihood of brain drain. This study argues, therefore, that while Lithuanian emigration cannot and should not be stopped, Lithuania does have policy alternatives as a sending-country that will help to mitigate the costs of emigration and maximize the benefits for the country’s long-term development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reflects on the unique experience of social and technological development in Lithuania since the regaining of independence as a newly reshaped society constructing a distinctive competitive IST-based model at global level. This has presented Lithuanian pattern of how to integrate different experiences and relations between generations in implementing complex information society approaches. The resulting programme in general is linked to the Lisbon objectives of the European Union. The experience of transitional countries in Europe, each different but facing some common problems, may be useful to developing countries in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Lithuanian lower class as it participates, and is a function of, media and politics within Lithuania. Lithuania's poor are only indirectly represented in Lithuania's media and politics, the article indicates, and they are represented in a manner that is distorted, the author adds. Topics include the structurally predetermined bias inherent in Lithuania's media and political system and the exclusion of members of the lower class from shared political and social dialogue in Lithuania.

This article examines the political and economic development of the three Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The three small, post-communist nations have achieved a high level of trade, democracy and development. Yet all three still struggle with their past, specifically relations with Russia and Russians living within their borders. Energy politics are a prime source of tension with their powerful neighbor.

This article focuses on the analysis of those main constituent elements of the common discourse of the Neo-pagan movement in post-soviet Lithuania trough which we can grasp an understanding of Lithuanianess constructed in that movement. First, an analysis is provided of how Lithuanian neo-pagans construct their understanding about Lithuanianess trough their interpretation of traditional Lithuanian culture and the construction of neo-pagan belief. Second, suggestions are made as to what that understanding can tell us about the reasons why the movement exists in contemporary Lithuania and what is its meaning considering the wider context of post-soviet Lithuanian society and culture. In the article the author takes the view that ethnicity and nationalism, or to be more specific, national identity, is socially constructed and is not a natural given (Eriksen 1993: 69; see also Smith 1984; Smith 1994; Brubaker 1998; Lindholm 1993). In the contemporary modern world, ideas about ethnicity and nationalism are often employed by different social-cultural groups as a powerful strategy to ground their aspirations and goals. It enables them to claim a legitimacy and authenticity for their identity. Lithuanian neo-pagans do this in their own way. Interpreted, and, at the same time, re-/created traditional Lithuanian culture is one of the most important elements and sources through which specific Lithuanianess is constructed in the Neo-pagan movement. The image of traditional culture understood by Lithuanian neo-pagans is multiple rather than monolithic, without clear contours and form. The substantial bulk of their rhetoric is not so much the concept of traditional (ethnic) culture as such, but primarily the categories of "conventionalism" and "authenticity" which extend the boundaries of the imagined traditional culture. The analyses of empirical data show that Lithuanian neo-pagans relate "authenticity" with ethnic tradition which, according to their opinion, is, or almost is, free of any foreign influence. According to neo-pagans, "authenticity" means peculiarity and distance from other systems of value and ideology. In the view of the neo-pagans, the core of Lithuanian identity has to be rediscovered in those "layers" covered by subsequent later influences "from outside", brought mainly by the Christian civilization and culture which is considered alien to Lithuanians. Purportedly, "authenticity" must not be reconstructed, but solely revived (Romuva: Senovės Baltų Religija Šiandien 2001: 9), because in the neo-pagan's opinion "the old native Lithuanian worldview" never ceased to exist and persists in the deep structures of the so-called "Baltic archetypes". According to some informants, this means that a retrieval of "old Baltic/Lithuanian" tradition is the passing from an unconscious state of memory to consciousness. That is, the tradition is much ephemeralized and its boundaries became unclear. In the neo-pagan discourse the traditional Lithuanian culture is sacralized in ephemeralizing a materiality of "authentic tradition", which expands from the "authentic" clothes, appearance, arms, customs, behavior, folklore etc., to the "images" encoded in the "Baltic archetypes/layers". The sacredness and purity of traditional culture is rendered through: a time dimension (traditional Lithuanian/Baltic culture is remote in time and mainly pre-Christian), a sensual dimension ("a successor of tradition" is supposed to "feel" its authenticity, purity and immediacy) and a national dimension ("the authentic" practice of tradition is possible only to a Lithuanian).… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immediately after Lithuania regained independence in 1991 there were increased attempts of the diasporas 'to come back home'. Expatriates, hyphenated Americans of Lithuanian background, ethnic tourists from America in search of their 'links', and other returnees were faced by the 'transitional' dilemmas of the post-communist Lithuanian realities. Returnees settled in Lithuania, but how much did they identify themselves with native Lithuanians, became "one of us". Were they and are they migrants of nostalgia rather than returnees? The aim of the article is to delineate the profile of the nostalgia-based- model of Lithuanian national identity, shared by Lithuanian transmigrants, in particular, those expatriate refuges and their offspring, who, at the end of World War II, fled the Communist regime and moved to the West. Most of these political émigrés developed a strong moral imperative 'to be of use to Lithuania' which crystallised into a missionary-like identity 'to come back to Lithuania when it will be free of Communism', a complex of identity strategies developed in the diaspora and transplanted in the home country. The problems of in-placement, the re-rooting and re-homing of the transnational, up-rooted and displaced Lithuanian migrants, are the focus of this chapter: the transnational model of Lithuanian identity, transplanted to foreign soil and brought back by the Lithuanian transmigrants. Key questions to be answered are: what is brought back to Lithuania by the returnees in terms of social capital and heritage; what are the shapes of identity among transmigrants in a transitional society; how identities that are brought back from the country of domicile are challenged? To answer these questions, first-hand accounts of the ongoing processes of social and cultural accommodation of individuals of Lithuanian background coming to Lithuania from the diasporas in Northern America, mainly the U.S. and Canada, are used. Categories of returnees, as well as dimensions of return, are pointed out. Potential and actual returnees have been observed and interviewed on the both sides of the Atlantic. During the period of 2002-2005, particular sites of their networking in Vilnius and Chicago, as well as other sites of the Lithuanian diaspora activities, have been explored. The returnees and their offspring were studied along their interest groups and networks showing their diversity in terms of generation, class, cultural background, occupation as well as their ethnic/national identity, as defined by informants themselves. The identity of the Lithuanian transmigrants encompasses strategies of retention of nation-ness in terms of culture, heritage and ethnicity defined in diaspora and transplanted again in the country of departure. The core of the diaspora's commitment to retaining nation-ness is expressed in the sense of duty and mission to retain 'the culture', once challenged by the Soviet regime, with the attendant aim to liberate the country from Communism. Governed by the formula of „how to be a Lithuanian in the free world“, inscribed in the Lithuanian Charter of the 1949, as well as being strongly enculturated into the explicit ethno-nationalism of diaspora life, returnees have brought to post- communist Lithuania a nostalgia-backed missionary identity. Their standard of nation-ness included both the „obligation to return“ to and „to be of use to“ Lithuania. From one point of view, their professional skills, knowledge of civic participation, moral qualities, are all shared in different niches of society including Parliament and the Presidency. From another angle, it is clear that the diaspora idealists, by becoming „missionaries“, were keen to implement their own Lithuanian culture-codifying standards in a country, „devastated by communism“.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the status of Lithuania and its people during its first two years of independence from the Soviet Union. Problems involved in bringing Lithuanian society out of its Soviet thralldom; Economist arguing for `economic self-sufficiency'; Economic problems; Political struggles; Lithuanian politics' past cooperation with the KGB.