Kristina Ūsaitė. The World Lithuanian Youth Association in Exile, 1950 – 1980

March 10, 2014

Using archival and published sources as well as historiography, the monograph discusses the ideological background of the World Lithuanian Youth Association (WLYA) and analyses various aspects of establishing the WLYA, emphasising the role of the Lithuanian World Community (LWC) and other ideological youth organisations in exile it played in the process. The book also reconstructs the evolution of the WLYA during the 1960s to 1980s.

The author is interested in existential and every day problems of the newly established organisation, its attempts to mobilise youth of Lithuanian origin under the conditions of emigration, emphasising the non-ideological nature of the organisation. Ūsaitė shows the relationship of the WLYO with the LWC and other Lithuanian émigré organisations, and with its sister associations, the Lithuanian youth associations (LYAs), established in other
countries.

The monograph discusses the conditions of establishing LYAs and its activities. It tries to reconstruct the development of the relationship between LYAs and the Lithuanian Communities or institutions that functioned as such, as well as between LYAs and other youth organisations of other nationalities in North and South America, Europe and Australia.

Translated by Deimantė Bandzevičiūtė