Emigrantai iš Lietuvos SSR pakeliui į laisvąjį pasaulį (1957-1990 m.)

LTStraipsnyje analizuojamas Sovietų Sąjungoje 1957–1990 m. vykęs biurokratinis procesas, kurį privalėjo įveikti kiekvienas potencialus emigrantas į kapitalistines šalis, pradedant oficialių dokumentų tvarkymu ir baigiant kelionės bilieto įsigijimu bei skrydžiu. Tiriama lietuvių patirtis, šeimų susijungimu motyvuotos emigracijos mastas ir sovietinių institucijų priemonės atgrasyti nuo pastangų išvykti. Raktažodžiai: lietuvių emigracija, SSSR piliečių emigracija, šeimų susijungimas, politinis atšilimas. [Iš leidinio]

ENThis article discusses issues not yet investigated historiographically about Lithuanian emi gration from the Soviet Union to the West. It analyzes the emigration process starting with the seeking and acquiring of the necessary official documents and ending with the acquisition of travel tickets and the subsequent flight to the other side of the Iron Curtain. The period of more than three decades between 1957 and 1990 saw several hundred Lithuanian families and single persons emigrating from Soviet-occupied Lithuania to join their separated family members living in countries of the West. Even a greater number of families on both sides of the Iron Curtain desired this outcome, but were unable to overcome the hurdles that a totalitarian state had de liberately set up. Lithuanian emigration thus had to fit into a limited and tightly controlled framework. Its intensity depended wholly on the interests of the Soviet regime to promote a favorable image of the Soviet Union in the West and to cover up the large number of secret KGB collaborators sent to the West. In order to deter people from seeking possible emigration to the West on a more massive scale, the Soviet Union embarked on an unpublicized, complex, and continuously amended bureaucratic proce dure. The Soviet agency OVIR and Soviet security officials had free hands to stop someone’s departure for life in a capitalist country. Therefore they constantly looked for a pretext to reject visa applications; explicitly urged people not to emigrate but to seek family reunions while living in, rather than outside of, the Soviet Union; and they could block any departure at the very last moment, even when all bureau cratic formalities had been attended to, for any fictitious reason whatsoever.Thus only those most tenacious succeeded in leaving the Soviet Union; those who despite the risk dared to maintain constant contact with relatives living abroad; and those who withstood KGB terror and surmounted all barriers. Keywords: Lithuanian emigration; emigration of USSR citizens; family reunion; political thaw. [From the publication]

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