Ilona complains that practically almost all of the roads are blocked in Vilnius this summer. "You never know how you're going to get home here. They're always closing down some road or alley, for repairs," she says. She is 26, has a master's degree in communications and is working on another one in art theory and criticism. Ilona speedily navigates her way through the one-way streets of the Lithuanian capital. She is a bit hesitant when the subject turns to the future of the young Baltic state. "So many of my girlfriends have left me and gone to Western Europe," she says. "I don't have anyone left to talk with." But she understands those who chose to leave. "You have to understand," she adds, flashing a smile after yet another detour along her way home, "they felt that all of the roads here were blocked."
Fifteen years after gaining independence from Russia, and two years after joining the European Union, the big story in Lithuania seems to be the huge waves of emigration washing over the country. More than 10 percent of the three-and-a-half million citizens of Lithuania have packed their bags and left, in so doing turning the Baltic state into the EU member state with the highest emigration rate: parents are leaving their children with grandparents "until further notice"; young academics are moving to London and Brussels in a search of the "European life"; rural women are sending husbands to work abroad "to send money home, just like the neighbors do." For Lithuania, it appears that joining the EU gave its citizens the green light to leave the country.
Despite the late hour, a soft northern light still radiates in Vilnius. At home, Ilona talks about her girlfriends who left. "One girl who studied philosophy with me at university left to work in Brussels. Another friend went to London. My best friend, Ilma, threw in the towel right after she finished her university degree, when she was offered a job appearing at events dressed in a chicken costume. She moved to Dublin, where she works at a fitness center and earns a lot more than she was making here."
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To a large extent, Lithuania's story is also that of its smaller neighbor to the north, Latvia. Its 2.3 million residents also have been emigrating in sizable numbers since joining the European Union. It is estimated that approximately 70,000 Latvians have emigrated, primarily to Ireland, in the past two years. The monthly minimum wage in the two Baltic states is among the lowest in the EU - $145 in Latvia and $185 in Lithuania.
Estonia, the smallest of the three Baltic states, has been successful in preserving its population stability, mainly due to its success at drawing investments from neighboring Finland, and the development of a high-tech industry in Estonia.
Life for the Lithuanian nation has never been easy. Situated at the strategic crossroads between East and West, the small country - the southernmost of the three Baltic states - has seen numerous conquerors, from a range of empires. Lithuania has been occupied, fleetingly or for decades, by many armies that deployed over its hills - green in the summer, snowy white in the winter - its immense pine forests and the strategic coastal strips along the Baltic Sea. The Poles arrived here in the 16th century, in collaboration with what was then the extensive Lithuanian empire. They were followed by Prussia, the Austrian empire and the Russian czar. Napoleon passed through Lithuania in the 19th century on his way to Russia, and because of the city's large Jewish community, described Vilnius as "the Jerusalem of the East."
Open wounds
On the eve of World War II, Lithuania found itself caught between two superpowers - Germany and the Soviet Union - which conspired to cede the country to Moscow, only to fight it out on its soil two years later, when Hitler tried to conquer Russia. But the past 60 years - since the end of World War II and the renewed occupation of the state by Soviet forces - are those that were most chaotic for the residents of Lithuania. The brutal Soviet occupation left open wounds.
Since receiving its much-longed-for independence, the state has gone through numerous tumults and upheavals. Governments have risen and fallen; the public has shifted its support from left to right and back to left. As in most of the newly independent states, new records of corruption have been set in politics and industry. And the state, which had been part of the Soviet bloc, with a well-defined ideology, language, culture and politics, found itself dealing with the difficult birth pangs of independence. It wasn't long before the young country's leaders decided on the direction they wished to take - seeking membership in the EU.
To that end, Lithuania joined the U.S.-European NATO alliance, which constituted a demonstrative step against Moscow. In parallel, the country gave itself a complete face-lift, complete with impressive economic growth, low inflation, balanced monetary policy and progressive legislation - to become more attractive to EU officials. The efforts paid off. Despite warnings of the country's lack of preparedness, the EU decided to open the door to Lithuania - and to nine other states - and gave it the green light to join the bloc. Citizens of Lithuania came out en masse to vote in favor of joining the union, and the state became part of the EU in May 2004. Britain, Ireland and Sweden opened their borders to citizens of the new member states.
Aside from the positive economic influences of joining - investment is flowing in from the West and the economy is rapidly growing (at an annual rate of 8 percent) - the negative migration is now perceived as a key threat to the country. "Over 10 percent of Lithuanians have already left the country," says Prof. Leonidas Donskis, an eminent philosopher who hosts a weekly program on Lithuanian television. "This is a dramatically high number for a country as small as ours."
Donskis, one of the thousands of Jews living in Lithuania - a poignant reminder of a community that numbered some 320,000 before the Holocaust - agrees that emigration is the most serious problem now facing Lithuania. "Until a certain point," he says, "the authorities were claiming that only members of the lower class were leaving - but now it is obvious that academics, members of the free professions - 'the future of Lithuania' - are leaving the country, too." He feels that "this is the price that Lithuania is paying for the rapid changes it is undergoing. Living in Lithuania is like living in a society that is changing at a faster pace than history is."
Donskis and other experts offer several explanations for the colossal waves of emigrants leaving Lithuania. "It's not only because of financial motivations," says the professor. "Psychological and personal reasons are also a factor. People have got fed up with corruption here, with an old guard government that caters to those with connections. And people are tired of the lack of faith that stems from the fact that everything here is always in flux - these people emigrated for themselves, in an attempt to provide good opportunities for their children."
They are finding the security they seek in Western Europe, he says. Lithuanian emigre communities there have flourished in recent years, mainly in the English-speaking countries. If you were wondering why Lithuania was awarded "douze points" by Ireland in the latest Eurovision, it is because Dublin claims one of the largest Lithuanian communities in Europe, numbering over 100,000. "For many people, Brussels simply replaced Moscow," notes Donskis, "and they are exploiting the opportunities available to them."
Even Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis, whom Lithuanians consider "the hero of the revolution" against the Russians, does not spend much of his time in Lithuania anymore. The man whose pictures appeared worldwide as he exhorted the masses against the background of Soviet tanks now spends most of his time in Brussels, as a member of the European Parliament. When he is in Lithuania, he cloisters himself in his modest office in Vilnius, surrounded by photographs showing him with world leaders in the wake of the revolution against Soviet occupation.
'Poisoned legacy'
he music professor admits that the Sajudis movement - which led his country to independence from the Kremlin - made a few mistakes in the years after liberation, and he regrets that they were not more attentive to the critical voices within the country. He feels that Lithuania's future lies in better integration into the EU, thereby maintaining the rights of the state within the competitive bloc. Fifteen years after liberation, Landsbergis still blames the "poisoned legacy" of the Soviet Union for most of what ails Lithuania.
"I remember the enthusiasm with which we were seized during that year of liberation. I remember how excited we were at seeing hundreds of thousands of young people and adults who, despite Soviet repression, went out into the streets to support the idea of independence," says Landsbergis. "But the sense of liberation we experienced was so sweeping, impressive and complete that we failed to comprehend that hundreds of thousands of people going out into the streets are not 3 million people; they are still not the entire population."
If you could go back in time and speak to the citizens of Lithuania, a moment after gaining independence, Landsbergis is asked, would you change anything? "Maybe I should have emphasized the danger from within," he says. "I spoke about how we are entering a period of changes during which we would be threatened by the Soviets. I asked the crowd hundreds of times 'Are you ready for confrontation?!,' and everyone answered me 'Yes, we're ready!' - but back then I was thinking about pressure from the outside, from the Soviet empire. I wasn't thinking that opposition to our movement might arise within our country."
Landsbergis is referring to the former Communist movement, which somewhat surprisingly notched up victories (only somewhat, since it repeated a pattern established in countries that gained independence) in the democratic elections held after independence, and which continues to play an important role in the country's politics.
Landsbergis says that Lithuania's future rests solely on its successful integration into the EU, and he feels that the emigration problem will be resolved either when the emigres return home, or when immigrants from other countries arrive in Lithuania to take advantage of its opportunities. "People are only beginning to understand the inherent potential of being part of the EU. The way I see it, they voted in favor of joining out of fear. I often say that they were simply afraid of another government sending them to Siberia [as happened to the Lithuanian elites following the Soviet occupation - A.U.]. Now they are discovering the opportunities, and we are forced to go through a not-so-easy period," he admits.
Awaiting the real estate sharks
Indeed, a visit to Vilnius shows that it is a bit frozen in time. Beyond the polished old city of the Lithuanian capital, beyond the colorful alleys and cobblestone streets, Lithuania is lined with massive Soviet-era tenement blocks and concrete residential towers. Between them and the city, along the hills on which Vilnius is built, one sees rotting wooded houses that seem to be devoured by the runaway vegetation through which one glimpses the occasional broken window or pipe. These houses are waiting for the real estate sharks of the West to come and invest in the new member states of the EU.
Toward the end of the conversation, Donskis takes pains to inject a little optimism. "I believe Lithuania is going to be changing a great deal. I believe that in another 10 or 15 years, it will be a much better country to live in, like the countries of Western Europe today. You can call me an optimist, but I'm an optimist because I saw the genuine despair brought on by years of occupation - despair from which it is only possible to move forward."
The optimism also creeps into the words of Ilona, who is not considering leaving. Although she studied for a while in Copenhagen she returned to Lithuania to try to promote film culture. "In fact, I feel I can make progress here. There are opportunities for me," she says. A month after this interview was conducted, she telephoned this writer, and a trace of despair crept into her voice. "We have no one who can screen the films we've managed to acquire for the film festival we organized," she says. "All of the projectionists have gone to work in England."W
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