The Impact of Language and Culture on Sąjūdis
The Impact of Language and Culture on Sąjūdis

Summary/Abstract: This article is a short introduction to how interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives can be developed for analyzing the phenomenon of national mobilization. The successful mass mobilization in Lithuania demonstrantes that Soviet mental programming was not successful in changing, using Rorty’s terminology, the most parochial terms in the final vocabularies of Lithuanians. National identity was preserved during the period of occupation, and provided the grounds for collective action. The success of mobilization (in the “noisy phase”) was closely connected with national values that were preserved during the period of Soviet occupation (the “quiet phase”), using various unobtrusive practices of contention in the context of bureaucratic nationalism, when state institutions in Lithuania were employing people who were nationally conscious. This, when a political opportunity emerged, allowed a rapid mass mobilization led by Sąjūdis.

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