Still not-yet Europeans? Lithuanian collective identity construction in the national public discourse of 2004-2011

ENIn case of Lithuania, “Europe” or “West” has long been imagined in the national collective identity as a safety and prosperity zone, where small nations can obtain protection from the Eastern imperial powers (Russia). European identity of the Lithuanians has always been strong in geopolitical and cultural terms of “belonging to Europe”. Each national movement and fight for independence against the occupant Russia (tsarist or Soviet) in the nineteenth/twentieth century embraced the idea of being part of Europe. European element was also evidently present in the fight for independence in 1988-1993 (when the last Soviet soldier left the state) at the time of the fall of the Soviet Union, when a motive to return to Europe and break away from the Soviet terror was an inherent part of Lithuanian freedom. Europe and the independence of Lithuania were then, as always, closely interrelated. Such a massive support of the society for the fight for independence and for taking pro-European course evidenced how deeply civilizational European identity predominated in the national understandings of Lithuanians. This course was further supported until joining the European Union in 2004, even when former communists (subsequent social democrats) governed the state. This can be explained by a long and intense post- -war resistance movement against the Soviet rule and the collective memory (pride) of the interwar sovereignty. Therefore, “Europe” and “Russia” are the most significant landmarks for collective identities of the Central Eastern European countries, including Lithuania. They have always been more than mere territorial or geographical images. And, therefore, they both had been playing a historical, geopolitical, cultural, and moral guide-role in the construction of national collective identities. [Extract, p. 24-25]