Informal social networks as the precondition for mass mobilization: the case of Kaunas in the late Soviet period

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Masinė mobilizacija; Sovietinis režimas; Tautinis atgimimas; Mass mobilization; Soviet regime; Lithuanian national revival.

ENThe epoch of Sąjūdis and the Lithuanian national revival can be characterized as an uneasy alliance between traditionalist forces on the one hand and pro-Western forces on the other in the context of a society dissatisfied with its material conditions. These groups were the most hostile and uncompromising about the Soviet system. For the traditionalists, the Soviet regime was unacceptable because of the loss of national sovereignty, and for the oppression of the Catholic Church and of believers more generally. On the other hand, the Western-looking part of the Lithuanian society was longing for developments similar to those in the West in the realms of democracy and individual freedoms. Both of these groups perceived the Soviet regime as incompatible with their core values, providing the national movement with the moral backbone and defining its goals. The most important resource for social-movements in a nonviolent revolution is mass mobilization. In the case of the collapsing Communist system, and in Lithuania in particular, the large part of the mobilization is explained by a nonpolitical dissatisfaction with the Soviet regime. The poor match betvveen the Standard of living and expectations of the population, coupled with the attractiveness of consumer values of the Western societies, caused dissatisfaction with the regime. At the same time, in the context of an oppressive nondemocratic regime, any activity not fitting the limits of official approval could be regarded as oppositional, and so various social networks appeared not only on the basis of value judgments but of consumer interests as well. [lvb.lt]