In 1939, almost a third of Lithuania's current territory, was part of Poland. After Second World War, these territories were included as a part of the Republic of Lithuania that was in the USSR.
As in all states in USSR, Russian was the mandatory language taught in schools. National minorities were taught their mother tongue as a second language. When Lithuania regained independence in 1991 declared Lithuanian as the National language. Poles and other minorities were left outside the society, in an invisible refugee camp. The lack of knowledge of the language of the new homeland became a fence separating minorities. Not knowing the official language, they could not handle official matters and were dependent on the help of others. Lack of knowledge of national thumb started to economically divide new society by selecting possible employment.
Poverty, lack of prospects, and lack of work meant that successive generations changed their places of residence, moving to the cities, possibly to Poland, and then to the European Union. Young people massively sought work in the West. Lithuania faced one of the largest economic emigrations in the region. People who remained in the countryside were mostly the elderly or those with a limited possibility of leaving.
Following the invisible line of the border of the Second Polish Republic was an excuse to show former communist society after 30 years of freedom. People, places, and events describe a fragment of the mixed reality of modernness dominated by traditions. Empty villages populated mainly by elderly people recalling old times. Fields with remainings of sovkhozes, big communist farms that employed locals. The overwhelming mood of loss. The mental borders that still influence the life of the last generation of people who remember the time before the war.
Midsummer night celebration in Kernave, the historical capital of Lithuania placed couple kilometers from the former Polish borderline. 23rd of June is the most important holiday in Lithuania. It originates from the pagan celebration of the Midsummer night when during the shortest night of a year, unmarried people were asking their gods to help them find a husband or a wife. They were making and floating gallons, burning fire, and looking for the fern flower in celebration of the goddess called
An Abandon and destroyed house in Vilnius Rejonas (county)
Family scene on the field.
Midsummer night celebration in Kernave, the historical capital of Lithuania placed couple kilometers from the former Polish borderline. 23rd of June is the most important holiday in Lithuania. It originates from the pagan celebration of the Midsummer night when during the shortest night of a year, unmarried people were asking their gods to help them find a husband or a wife. They were making and floating gallons, burning fire, and looking for the fern flower in celebration of the goddess called