cover image Lithuania Awakening

Lithuania Awakening

Alfred Erich Senn. University of California Press, $40 (238pp) ISBN 978-0-520-07170-4

The mass demonstrations that shook Lithuania in 1988 touched off a national rebirth, triggering a public outcry for an end to a half-century of Soviet rule. Senn, a University of Wisconsin historian, visited Lithuania in '88, and his detached, eyewitness account of that pivotal year provides a key to understanding the nationalist and ethnic ferment sweeping the Soviet Union. We watch as Stalin's murders and deportations become a topic for open discussion; as ecological concerns and rock music galvanize Lithuania's youth; and as people clamor for making Lithuanian the official language and for teaching the nation's history in the schools. One arm of the protest, Sajudis, evolved from a discussion group to a mass movement, while another faction, the Freedom League, demanded national independence, setting the stage for the recent showdown with Gorbachev. Photos. (Nov.)