MetaFilter posts tagged with lithuania

1989, revolution in Eastern Europe

Kattullus — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:49:20 -0800

The BBC World Service has put together a special report on the 1989 revolutions in Eastern Europe (they also have a simpler portal). There is a wealth of material, including TV reports on key events from the BBC archives, interviews, a map timeline, a report on Catholicism's role in the 1989 revolutions, a first-hand report of what it was like to gather news in East Germany during that time and much more.

World Cup 2010: Little guys play too

salishsea — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:21:17 -0800

What`s great about the World Cup of football is that everyone gets a chance to qualify, against all odds. This week was a fascinating week of World Cup qualifying matches around the world. But while the world's attention was focused on Portugal and Argentina and France and Cameroon and England, among others, a small victory was won in a dusty forgotten corner of UEFA Group Seven. On Wednesday the Faroe Islands recorded their first cWorld Cup win , a 2-1 victory over Lithuania. The Faroes are a devoted squad, and although this was their first FIFA sanctioned World Cup win, they have had other extradordinary victories, including the 7-1 drubbing of Aland in the 1989 Island Games final. It was Bergur Magnussen`s greatest moment, scoring six second half goals for his side.

The Lithuanian Press Ban, 1864-1904

mdonley — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 12:17:27 -0800

From 1864 to 1904, the Russian Empire tried to quelch the nationalism of Lithuanians by ordering all Lithuanian texts to be printed with Cyrillic characters instead of in the Latin-derived Lithuanian or Polish alphabets. But they didn't count on the Knygnešiai - the Booksmugglers. Working in Lithuanian-speaking areas of East Prussia, now the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad and parts of the Polish voivodeship of Warmia and Masuria, and with texts printed locally and sometimes from as far away as the United States, many thousands of people over the decades worked to transmit books, leaflets, journals, and other written works over the heavily guarded border, risking imprisonment and exile to Siberia; over three thousand people were caught. A harrowing recollection of what it was like to dodge the military patrols can be found here. The movement also was assisted by a network of clandestine "village" lessons in the language outside the school system, organized through local churches and civic organizations. The Lithuanian National Movement, active before independence, used the language to resist Russification and, later, promote the cause for an independent state. When Lithuania became independent again in the early 1990s, the back of the 5-lita banknote featured an image of a sculpture of a woman teaching a child to read Lithuanian in defiance of the press ban. The anti-Lithuanian language effort had been part of Tsar Alexander II's Russification campaign across all of the lands Russia had absorbed through the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After the Uprising of 1863, St. Petersburg attempted to create a divide between the Polonized Catholic nobility, the szlachta, and the Lithuanian-speaking rural populations in order to allow Russian language and culture to supplant the Catholic, Latin heritage left behind by the Commonwealth. Today, Lithuanian is spoken by between four and five million people, has made a cameo appearance on CSI: New York, and, like everyone these days, has a podcast. Lithuanian has also been the focus of much attention in linguistics circles for its links to Proto-Indo-European (PIE), the theoretical progenitor to all the Indo-European languages. Some early texts in Lithuanian can be found at the University of Texas at Austin's Linguistics Research Center here. Check out some Indo-European roots yourself with this Google Books preview of the American Heritage Dictionary of Indo-European Roots. And this year, Vilnius hosts the European Capital of Culture title together with Linz, Austria. It's a quick hop from most of Europe and an amazing destination for anyone into the culture and history of the region.

Poland's Cultural Heritage in nifty flash site

peacay — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:12:57 -0800

"Commonwealth of Diverse Cultures: Poland's Heritage is an international educational exhibition which presents the history of tolerance and cohabitation of various ethnic groups in the territory of Polish-Lithuanian Commowealth and is addressed primarily to foreigners all around the world". This is achieved via a very beautiful flash site.

Otters in Lithuania

meech — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:41:48 -0800

The best/worst in Lithuanian music: the catchy Otter in Love, DJ Dago's rave music, Suopis ir Rambynas' folk music and Mr Valdas Karklelis and his creepy and [NSFW] pervy writhing . All these videos are linked by one company (who had something to do with Karkelis' new website). I think maybe this is parody except maybe it's not. I can't tell. Valdas Karklelis seems real - his Geocities page and odd TV appearance make me believe in him. Can any Lithuanians explain what is going on?

The 25 Member EU

MidasMulligan — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 17:26:39 -0800

The European Union welcomes 10 new members! As I write this, the celebrations have started as Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia become members of the EU today. While some folks are gonna party like crazy, others are warning of doom and gloom. What do you think? Will this have significant effects on global culture, politics, and economics - or will it merely represent a paper change within the rarefied world of European diplomats, with little other than localized effects on day to day life?

vilnius in old photographs

scody — Thu, 29 Apr 2004 15:48:37 -0800

Vilnius in Old Photographs, including panoramas, monuments, and environs, as well as an informative history of photography in Lithuania. Part of a larger virtual exhibition of Lithuanian cultural heritage.

Badmichelle — Tue, 21 May 2002 12:26:10 -0800

Good news for Lithuanian girls: ob-gyn tests no longer required in order to get a driver's license. Because, after all, an equivalent test isn't required for Lithuanian men.