Particularities of the behavioural models of the last Soviet generation

ENLithuanian society was part of the Soviet modernisation project for 50 years. In 1991, the Soviet regime fell and the transformation of society under Western democratic values and market economy began. Drawing on the findings of biographical interviews, this chapter analyses the behaviour patterns of the last Soviet generation, the influence of different adapters and inter-generational relationships. The author examines how adaptation models were transmitted between generations at the end of the Soviet period and in the newly independent Lithuania after 1991. Particular attention is paid to the last Soviet generation, their accommodation within the Soviet system and their adaptation to social and political changes in Lithuania after 1991. Analysis of these life histories illuminates the impact of the Soviet regime and the Sovietisation process on family values, family practices and inter-generational relationships. The author explores the role of different adaptors in resisting, accommodating and adapting to these systemic transformations, and assesses the indelible imprint of the processes involved on Lithuanian family life, which is still evident more than a quarter of a century after the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991. The study explores how the last period of the Soviet era (under Gorbachev) shaped the last Soviet Lithuanian generation at the end of twentieth century and its transformations in the twenty-first century. [Publisher annotation]