Sąjūdis Šiauliuose: periferijos pamokos politikos centrui
Sąjūdis in Šiauliai: Lessons from the Periphery to the Political Centre

Summary/Abstract: Until the seventies the anti-Soviet movement in Šiauliai had more local character. The most significant were the activities of underground organizations in Šiauliai Drama Theatre and Julius Janonis’ and Feliksas Žemaitis’ secondary schools. Since the seventies the dissidents of Šiauliai started to expand their activities. Ona Lukauskaitė- Poškienė, Mečislovas Jurevičius and the head of Šiauliai Drama Theatre literary department Tomas Venclova became active members of Lithuanian Helsinki group. Mečislovas Jurevičius, Jonas and Jadvyga Petkevičiai signed the famous “Baltic Memorandum” (also called “The 45-th Baltic Memorandum”) on August 23, 1979. A great contribution to the revival movement in Šiauliai was the creation of ecological club “Aukuras”, which was founded on June 6, 1988. Its president was Rimvydas Tamulaitis. Since then the residents of Šiauliai started to actively participate in the activities of Lithuanian Green Movement, in mass ecological protest rallies across Lithuanian and in the Baltic sea saving action organized by Kaunas environmental club “Atgaja”, headed by Saulius Gricius, and Vilnius-based club “Žemyna”, headed by Zigmas Vaišvila. The first rally organized on June 24, 1988 and directed by the initiative group of Lithuanian Reform Movement (Lietuvos persitvarkymo Sąjūdis, LPS) was a stimulus for the residents of Šiauliai to mobilize themselves.

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