Deeply Entangled with Contemporary Period of Independence: The Place of Postsoviet Transformation on the Map of Social Memory in Lithuania

Abstract

‘Postsocialism’, ‘postcommunism’, ‘transformation’, and more or less synonymous words have a connotation of temporality. Scholars and policymakers understood that the tran­sitional period was bound to be difficult for the citizens. Now many of them consider that the period of transformation is over in Lithuania, a member state of the EU and NATO since 2004. However, we do not know when (and whether) the period of trans­ formation has ended from the perspective of the citizens of Lithuania. Therefore, this article aims to answer the following question: what periods or breaks associated with the post­Soviet transformation emerge (if they do) in the social memory in Lithuania? The period in social memory is conceptualised as a distinct block of time delineated by breaks, understood as homogenous, and labelled by a name. Qualitative interviews col­lected in Jonava, Panevėžys, and their vicinities in 2021 are analysed using the Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). It is concluded that the transformation is intertwined with the current period of Independence. On the one hand, some of the research participants talked about the time of ‘overturn’ or ‘turmoil’, sometimes comparing it to the years after World War II, the beginning of the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania. On the other hand, the broad period of restored Independence is much more defined in the memory: it is perceived as a more or less homogeneous time of gradual change and is often com­pared with the broad period before the major break – the Soviet era.