Searching for the Origins of Sąjūdis

The book takes a new look at the history of the birth of the Sąjūdis and seeks to address the dilemma of how a well-organized and effective social movement of several hundred thousand members could have been formed in a supposedly passive and conformist Soviet society. The book discloses the circles of non-Soviet society that operated before Sąjūdis - the ethno-cultural movement and the Catholic underground, youth subcultures, circles of artists and scholars, discussion clubs, green and heritage preservation movements. Based on rich empirical material, applying historical and sociological methods, the book analyzes the social context in which the idea of Sąjūdis arose and how it was realized, who were the forerunners of the Sąjūdis in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda and other places in Lithuania.