64
PARTISAN REVIEW
cations, mostly directed at informing the world about the state of the
largely persecuted Catholic Church. Lithuania had no influential intellec–
tual loners conveying the truth to their compatriots. There were a few
courageous fighters who were more appealin g as personalities than as
critics or thinkers. The Polish or Czech or even Russian situations, with
their long
samizdat
traditions, were totally different. Free information
circulated mostly through Lithuanian cmigrc circles in the West, and its
way into the country was slow, second-hand, limited to a small circle of
intelligentsia. On the whole, educated Lithuanians favored the so-called
"legal" forms of resistance, based on the widespread notion that in con–
tributing to Lithuanian culture and language, they might have a lasting
impact on the national consciousness. It is not at all surprising that poets,
once regarded as the "consciousness" of society and praised for their
works with historical dimensions, were themselves Party members much
honored by the official establishment. Belief in "legal" forms of resistance
may well account for the fact that during the resurgence movement the
leadership was taken up primarily by well-known cultural activists rather
than former dissidents. Few of the "dissidents" of 1989-91 ever engaged
in "free-speaking" activities before the transformations in Eastern Europe .
In the early 1990s, censorship gradually loosened its grip , and the
more radical layers of the cultural establishment, notably writers, raised
voices against the ruling regime and fueled future public debate. The re–
treat of the Soviet power granted them full right to speak their minds.
The time came to pay back the former establishment for the long years
of humiliation and suppression . And yet how many of them were
themselves free of common prejudices, able to break with the myths of
the past? Regretfully, just a few.
Still, it would be just to say they appeared on the scene at the right
moment. People were casting about for open words and emotions.
Writers provided them.
In
a miraculously short time the circulation of
literary publications went up. The leading literary weekly circulated sev–
enty thousand copies. Intell ectuals spoke at mass rallies and appeared on
television. Some were eventually elected to parliament. Foreign visitors
were shocked at the number of literati holding key posts in the political
establishment. Later, there was a rapid decline. "Prometheus unbound"
fell into repetitiveness and self-glorification. Yesterday's men, elevated to
the status of national heroes, seemed to enjoy their role without a bit of
self-irony. The space open for self-reflection shrank to nothing.
During the years of transition, nationalism was undoubtedly a driving
force, bringing Lithuania back to a place on the European map from
which it was wiped away by the Soviets in 1940. Throughout all these
years, nationalist feelings survived, echoing the period during the end of
