Požiūris į Lietuvą „Draugo“ dienraštyje 1988–1990 metais

Abstract

This article analyzes editorials published in the U. S. Lithuanian daily Draugas during the period of perestroika and the Lithuanian Sąjūdis at the end of the 1980s. Political changes in the Soviet Union directly influenced events in Lithuania giving rise to a civic movement towards liberation from the U.S.S.R. and leading to the reestablishment of independence on March 11, 1990. At that time Draugas was the only Lithuanian daily outside Lithuania’s borders, with a large readership in many Lithuanian communities the world over. For these reasons we may consider it to have been one of the most influential opinionmakers in the Lithuanian diaspora. Lithuanians all over the world followed the developments from 1988 to 1990 very closely, and Draugas was an important source of information. We chose to analyze its editorials because they best reflect the periodical’s position on this or that issue. They show what the editors regarded as the most important news and what they thought was less significant. Our investigation seeks to disclose the way Draugas editorials described Lithuania’s road to freedom in the late 1980s; how they presented Mikhail Gorbachev and evaluated the politics of perestroika; how Draugas reacted to the political changes occurring in Lithuania; and how these changes tied in with one of the diaspora’s self-described missions—to assist the occupied country in its struggle for independence.