Self-identification: sociological research data
ENThe end of the 20th century, which saw major political breaks and significant changes in the map of Europe, the fall of the Soviet Union, the return of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia to the community of free nations, the unification of Germany, disunification of Yugoslavia, and the separation of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, has increased attention to the issue of social identity. For example, nations of the Baltic States, which have regained their statehood, had to self-identify as inhabitants of free states, but not of the former large Soviet empire. This is not an unambiguous process. The Soviet period had a song “Where the Homeland Starts…” from the then popular movie “Seventeen Moments of Spring”. It emphasized the fact that the homeland starts at the threshold of home. But that homeland had naturally to be understood as the Soviet Union. Another popular song directly stated that “Your address is not a house, a street; your address is the Soviet Union”. An idea was promoted to many people who came to Lithuania from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus that everything belonged to them. To many Lithuanians that ideological pressure only caused resistance, which was especially active during the period of “the singing revolution”.
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