The Russian Empire (or Empire of Russia) was a state that existed from 1721 to 1917 in Eastern Europe, Central Asia and North America. The country was the largest contiguous empire in modern history in the mid-19th century. It was dissolved after the February Revolution in 1917. The state was regarded as autocratically ruled and was inhabited by about 181 million people.
Lithuania is a Baltic state in northeastern Europe and is home to approximately 2.8 million people. Vilnius is the capital and most populous city of Lithuania. The country borders the Baltic Sea, Poland, Belarus, Russia and Latvia. Lithuania only gained independence in 1918, which the country reclaimed in 1990 after several decades of incorporation into the Soviet Union.
The Soviet Union (SU or USSR) was a state in Eastern Europe, Central and Northern Asia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It emerged from the so-called Soviet Russia, the successor state of the Russian Empire. The Russian Soviet Republic formed the core of the union and at the same time its largest part, with further constituent republics added. Their number varied over time and was related to the occupation of other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Soviet republics that existed only for a short time (Karelo-Finlandia) or the division or merger of Soviet republics. In addition, there were numerous autonomous republics or other territorial units with an autonomy status that was essentially limited to linguistic autonomy for minorities.
Before its formal dissolution, the USSR consisted of 15 Soviet republics with a population of approximately 290 million people. At around 22.4 million km², it was the largest territorial state in the world at the time. The Soviet Union was a socialist soviet republic with a one-party system and an absence of separation of powers.
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic (LiSSR) was one of the union republics of the Soviet Union for the first time from 1940 and again from 1944 - after the end of the German occupation in the Second World War. LiSSR was founded on the basis of falsified elections after the occupation of the country by Soviet troops, who had been stationed in Lithuania since October 1939. The first years after the expulsion of the German occupiers in World War II and the restoration of Soviet power were marked by a partisan war and mass deportations of the Lithuanian population to the interior of the USSR. Russian-speaking populations were settled on a large scale, especially in the cities. On March 1, 1990, the Lithuanian government declared the country's independence, which was not recognized by the USSR until September 6.
No Home to Go To? This historical legacy of the DP Community
First Generation
This right up here is almost exactly what we went through, and actually I think I know her [...] also we had to leave, everything was harnessed to a horse [...] and transferred to a train and then [...] ended up going on the ship
Second Generation
[My parents] were torn away by the war [...] They were farmers [...] and things were actually going quite well for them [...] My parents knew that because of their economic success as farmers [...] they would have to leave, otherwise they would have been shipped off to Siberia and would have frozen to death there. And so, they left [...] They tied their cow to the wagon [...] and travelled from Lithuania to Germany […] Most of my friends are Lithuanians [...] It’s like a large extended family. Even if you’re not friends, you suddenly have this connection [...] Her parents were in the same situation […] So we share a similar background, the experience of being driven out of your own country because of a war … I mean, this is a huge catastrophe [...] There is this frugal, resourceful, hard-working mentality, that all of these people have, people who came over and had to adapt in order to survive, […], and who had to start again from scratch, usually both with the language and with their careers, in order to become established, build a house, find friends [...] Most of us also talk about the kind of values that our parents passed onto us, because they had to start again.
They came for different reasons … my parent’s generation came because of the war […], before that, many came for economic reasons. Many came here to find a job [...] The group that came here following independence, most of them came for economic reasons [...] This group from the Second World War, they were under the impression that they would only be here temporarily [...] My father [...] thought […], the war will be over […], we will go back [...] This is why they took such care to preserve their language, while the previous generation [...] just wanted to fit in, they didn’t want to go back. They are all Lithuanians, but people often speak about, […], how different they are, because they came for different reasons and so they had different priorities.
Third Generation
While I was growing up, there was actually some kind of Lithuanian activity every day of the week […]. We went to the Lithuanian church, then there was the youth group, [...] the Lithuanian dance group, choir, Saturday school, the Lithuanian basketball club[.]
In many ways it was exactly what I pictured and in other ways it was very much not what I pictured. It was the first time [...] that I felt the most American [...] Also for the first time I realized that there’s like different types of Lithuanian [...] you know I spent my whole life growing up here being told by my parents and my grandparents – Oh, we’re 100% Lithuanian [...] And then you go there and you’re like, wait a minute, these people are far different from me [...] I definitely am still Lithuanian but it’s definitely different than the modern Lithuanians living there.
Diversity and Change
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