“I was proud to be a Pioneer, and I learned from the Soviet children’s literature that a good Pioneer is studious, honest, and respects adults,” he says, switching between Lithuanian and Russian as he speaks over Skype from a dimly lit room in his flat in Vilnius after a week of new season premiere performances. He attended parades, marching competitions, and spent time at Pioneer summer camps. From age 14 to 28, young people could join the All-Union Leninist Young Communist League, commonly known as Komsomol.ĭmitry Denisiuk, a 55-year-old actor with the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania, was an enthusiastic Pioneer. Nine-year-olds could progress onto the Young Pioneer organisation, where they would be given a red neckerchief to wear with their school uniforms. Members would wear a ruby-coloured star badge with a childhood portrait of Lenin on it. From the age of seven to nine, they could join the Little Octobrists. Pictured here is from the last in Vilnius in 1990 Mandarins in summerįor those children who were raised to become members of the Communist Party, there were several options. There was a stark difference between the official narrative and the leadership’s actions,” Dalia says, adding: “She taught me human values: honesty, respect, consideration, and love towards other human beings.” Display of military might was a staple of the October Revolution parade. “My mother early on became disillusioned with communist ideals. Although her mother was a member of the Communist Party, she never instilled communist values in her daughter. “We did not have many food choices, and I recall long lines waiting to buy bananas or books,” she adds, looking into the distance as she remembers her childhood.ĭalia’s father was an electrician, and her mother was a high-ranking official at the Ministry of Interior. “It was an event when my mom brought foreign chewing gum from her work trips. “My childhood was a happy one, for I had nothing to compare it to,” she says, speaking via Zoom from her home in Vilnius. “I felt proud walking at the front of the parade,” the 49-year-old retired crime prevention chief at Lithuania’s Ministry of Interior explains. Posters of Soviet leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leonid Brezhnev hung from state buildings and local flower shops displayed buckets of red carnations as Communist Party leaders and common citizens gathered to watch the International Workers’ Day parade on Lenino Prospekas (Lenin Avenue).ĭalia Kedaviciene recalls marching in the parade with a Pioneer drum when she was 10 years old. Sigita Kraniauskienė plays kanklės, a Lithuanian folk instrument, dressed in Soviet school uniform Foreign chewing gumĭuring the 1980s, on May 1, the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, would be decorated with Soviet flags. “Although there is no unified term, researchers choose adjectives that show the dramatic change,” explains Sigita, whose research focuses on this generation that straddled two social and political systems. Sociologists, like Sigita, and historians have not agreed on a title to define this generation born in the late 1960s and 70s but the Last Soviet Generation, the Transitional Generation and the Threshold Generation have all been used. Suddenly, a generation that had grown up under communism, found itself entering adulthood in a newly independent, capitalist state. Thirty years ago, on December 26, 1991, the Soviet Union, of which Lithuania was a part, was dissolved. We grew up behind the Iron Curtain, being prepared to become ordinary and submissive Soviet citizens,” she adds.īut it did collapse. “Nobody expected the Soviet Union to collapse soon. “I tried to imagine how Swedish people lived on the other side of the Baltic Sea,” she says. Sigita Kraniauskiene, a 50-year-old sociologist and senior research fellow at Klaipeda University in Lithuania, recalls collecting such “treasures” during her childhood and wondering how Westerners lived. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 Ten films to watch about the history of the Israel-Palestine conflict list 2 of 4 India-Pakistan rivalry: Whatever happened to ‘cricket diplomacy’? list 3 of 4 Photos: A look back at 1973’s October War list 4 of 4 How the October War changed the world end of list
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