Ateitis organization founded in 1911 united students from secondary schools and universities and seniors, who had already graduated their studies and were working. It has to be pointed out that during the interwar period organizations grew into strong social and cultural stream, which had a great impact on the life of Lithuania of the day. Although being critical of the authoritarian regime of the president of Lithuania Antanas Smetona, the members of Ateitis were still influenced by it. The authoritarian politics of Antanas Smetona regime lead to the formation of the underground activity of the members of Ateitis and the appearance of the governmental criticism. Such practice of activity was continued during the first Soviet and Nazi occupations as well. What is more, during the years of independence Kaunas became the centre of Ateitis organization. With respect to the first Soviet occupation, it can be said that a lot of damage to the harmonious working of the organization was made. The reforms of the Soviets in the educational system and the repressive measures against the members of Ateitis disrupted the communication between the members of the organization in Kaunas. In other words, the actions of the Soviets disabled the contacts of Ateitis members of Kaunas and province with the organization’s central structures working in Kaunas. Some members of Ateitis met the first Soviet occupation with the hope to adapt to the new regime. However, the hostile Soviet politics towards the members of the organization forced most of them into the active resistance to the Soviet regime. One of the ways of anti-soviet resistance was illegal activity. The members of Ateitis kept in touch with the members of other resistance organization called the Lithuanian Activists Front. The aim of Lithuanian Activists Front was the restoration of the independent Lithuanian state with the help of the Nazi Germany.

This paper presents the status of women in one of the most active post-World-War-II Lithuanian émigré organizations, the Friends of the Lithuanian Front (Lietuvių fronto bičiuliai, LFB, in Lithuanian). Its members were Catholics who kept alive the traditions of the Lithuanian resistance to the Soviet and Nazi occupations and as emigrants to the West fostered the preservation of Lithuanian identity abroad and organized activities on behalf of restoring Lithuanian independence. The paper focuses on the functions that women performed in the organization and discusses the reasons why in the LFB, as in many other Lithuanian émigré organizations, it was the men who were mainly the leaders. The paper also reviews changes in the role of women and presents brief biographies of LFB’s most active women.

Straipsnyje aptariama žymaus Lietuvos istoriko Zenono Ivinskio visuomeninė veikla išeivijoje. Ikiemigraciniu laikotarpiu susiformavusi pasaulėžiūra ir užmegzti socialiniai ryšiai lėmė jo visuomeninę veiklą išeivijoje. Išeivijoje istorikas liko ištikimas jaunystėje internalizuotoms katalikiškos pasaulėžiūros idėjoms, buvo aktyvus katalikiškos orientacijos visuomeninių organizacijų (Ateitininkų federacijos, Lietuvių fronto bičiulių, Lietuvių katalikų mokslo akademijos) narys.

From the end of the 19th century until our own day the inhabitants of Lithuania left their homeland in three major waves of emigration. Different waves meant different identities. The issue of how representatives of different emigration waves communicated with each other has not yet received much investigation in Lithuanian historiography. This paper discusses only one fragment of a broader theme: the relations among Lithuanian Catholics of different waves during the late 1940s and early 1950s, when Lithuanian Catholics from the so-called "greenhorn" and "DP" waves ended up in the same place at the same time. In constructing their Lithuanian-American Catholic identity these people gave their language and their faith unequal value: the "greenhorns" gave priority to their Catholic religion, whereas the "DPs" emphasized their Lithuanian language. In this way, language and faith became competing factors in the ethno-religious identity of Lithuanian Catholics living in the United States. These competing groups of Lithuanian-American Catholics also relied on distinct social network models: the "greenhorns" congregated around their parishes; the "DPs" formed Lithuanian communities writ large.