VLIK Media in the West: ELTA bulletins and Radio Broadcasts to Occupied Lithuania

Abstract

Abstract. Based on archival sources, diaspora periodicals, and memoirs, this article examines two questions that have not been raised in historiography until now: 1) how the dissemination of information about occupied Lithuania, inspired by the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania (VLIK), functioned in the West; 2) how the transmission of information via radio waves to occupied Lithuania was organised: which stations specifically spoke on behalf of VLIK, what content the Committee broadcast, and what kind of response it received. VLIK served as the primary centre for the collection and coordination of the dissemination of information about occupied Lithuania. Between 1945 and 1991, bulletins from the Lithuanian Information Agency “Elta” were produced in eight languages and distributed across various countries. For two decades, VLIK had access to radio airtime, producing Lithuanian programmes on radio stations in Madrid (1955–1965, 1969–1976) and Manila (1970–1974). By providing Western media with current information, VLIK played an important role in the anti-Soviet media landscape.