Kauno hipiai: tapatybės paieškos, 1966-1972

LTMonografijoje analizuojami sovietmečio Kauno hipių grupės „Company“ atsiradimo ir tapatybės formavimosi veiksniai (1966–1972 m.), atskleidę platesnius alternatyviosios laikmečio kultūros procesus. Knyga skiriama akademiniam skaitytojui, kuris domisi antropologiniais subkultūrinių grupių tyrimais ir socialinių reiškinių modeliavimu. Ji taip pat gali būti įdomi ir platesniam skaitytojų ratui. Tie, kurie domisi sovietmečio jaunimo kultūros procesais, knygoje ras faktų apie socialinį sovietmečio kontekstą, paskatinusį naujų jaunimo kultūros formų atsiradimą ir veikusį jų kaitą. Pedagogai ir socialiniai darbuotojai knygoje gali aptikti įžvalgų apie jaunimo poreikį burtis į alternatyvias grupes ir formuoti savo, skirtingą nuo aplinkos, tapatybę. [Anotacija knygoje]

EN“The Hippies of Kaunas. Soviet-Era Search for Identity. 1966-1972” traces the growth of alternative youth culture in Soviet Lithuania and its influence on Lithuanian society. The research focuses on the emergence in the late 1960s and early 1970s of a hippie group called “Company” (Lith. ‘Kompanija) in Kaunas, Lithuania. It examines the influence of Western hippie subculture on Lithuanian youth and on Soviet norms and lifestyle that contributed to the emergence of the “Company” in 1966-1969 and to the changes in the groups identity in 1970-1972. Attention is given to artistic self-expressions of the group members, to the “Company’s” organizational structure, the role of its members, patterns of change in the state’ of the group within their changing social environment, and to the “Company’s” influence on its local social environment and on the wider youth culture. The study traces the events that shaped the “Company” and were in turn influenced by it and provides a detailed ethnographic description of the group’s activities. In addition to structural anthropological / ethnological approaches (values, worldviews, symbolic expressions, and communal practices), Social Network and Systems Theory analysis were used to explore the dynamics of the cultural phenomenon. Retrospective longitudinal qualitative research data was used for analysis. Primary data are 30 in-depth interviews (500 pages, A4 format) with twelve members of the group and a review of their artwork, photo collections, diaries, and other relevant materials. The investigation includes interviews with representatives of alternative youth culture in Soviet-era Lithuania that were not connected to the “Company”, also KGB documents from the Lithuanian Special Archive, films from Lithuania’s Central State Archive documenting anti-Soviet activities of the young of Kaunas, and an overview of Soviet-era press dedicated to youth culture.Quantitative methods and Modeling were used to analyze and systematize empirical data. Hippie subculture processes in Western countries. Studies of the American hippie movement of the 1960s emphasizes the hereditary nature of local subcultural ideas. American hippies had adopted ideas of hipster and beatnik protesters against traditional values (they listened to jazz, promoted original lifestyles, and experimented with recreational drugs). Hippies who became popular in the U.S. around 1965 were interested in rock music, New Age philosophy, spirituality, and living in communes (Andrews, 2013; Miller, 1999). Ecology, rights of the individual, and freedom of artistic expression were part of the American hippie culture. American hippies and New Left college students were greatly affected by the U.S. war in Vietnam (1965-1973) and participated in mass protests and demonstrations. In the 1970s, anti-Vietnam demonstrations had spread to Western Europe and other countries. Studies show that the hippie subculture had a significant impact on American society. Hippies popularized personal freedom and pleasure but also raised concerns about the environment and engaged in ecological activism. The hippie movement had an impact on legislation in the United States (Issitt 2009). In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Western hippies’ example of personal freedom, alternative lifestyle, and love for rock music had a major impact on the youth of Lithuania and of other countries in Eastern Europe. Hippies in Kaunas were an example of the avant-garde youth culture of Soviet Lithuania. Their differences from the Western hippie culture were due to the fragmented information that they gleaned from Western media, which was banned, and from being immersed in powerful socio-cultural norms permeated with Soviet ideology.Lithuanian hippies of the 1960s in the Soviet social context. Soviet society was inherently inimical to the hippies’ mindset and creative pursuits. The group’s alternative lifestyle attracted the KGB and aggressiveness by hostile peer groups. Like all young men in the USSR, Lithuanian hippies had to serve in the Soviet army. The hippies tried various ways to avoid experiencing the brutal bullying and harassment of the Soviet army. KGB archives document many instances in 1960s Kaunas of young people, including hippies, engaging in activities that went against Soviet norms. Clandestine groups not only of high school students but also of schoolchildren resisted the Soviet occupation by distributing leaflets with anti-Soviet content and by actions like raising the Lithuanian national flag on February 16th, Lithuania’s Independence Day. Rock music, denounced by Soviet authorities, was another expression of resistance to Soviet rule in the late 1960s and early 1970s throughout in Lithuania and beyond. Followers of Jack Kerouac traveled in the USSR (the West was not accessible) calling it “living on the road”. Having no other way to support themselves, hippies in Kaunas participated in the Soviet shadow economy. [...]. [From the publication]

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