Diaspora as Homeland Changing Agent: The Case of the Friends of the Lithuanian Front

Abstract

Abstract. The article examines the efforts of the Lithuanian diaspora to make an impact on post-1990 Lithuania. The main object of this research is the Friends of the Lithuanian Front (FLF), an association formed in the Lithuanian diaspora after the Second World War, which united people of a Christian worldview who identified themselves with the anti-Soviet and anti-Nazi resistance. After Lithuania regained its independence in 1990, the FLF tried to introduce to Lithuanian society the intangible heritage accumulated in the diaspora. The transnational relations that the FLF formed in the previous period were used for that purpose. They made it possible to establish organisational structures in Lithuania to set up contacts and cooperation with Lithuanian politicians. The concepts of sociology, “social remittances”, and “political remittances” were used to interpret historical data and reveal the efforts of the
Friends of the Lithuanian Front to acquaint Lithuanian society with the concept of integral democracy and influence the politics of Lithuanian history and memory.