Lithuania/ 1. Historical perspective: cultural policies and instruments  

Throughout the Soviet period, the organisation of cultural life and the implementation of cultural policy objectives were ideologically influenced by the Communist Party which ruled all spheres of state and public life. Cultural administrative processes were guided by the norms imposed by an authoritarian and centralised management structure.

Due to these conditions, strictly centralised management of culture prevented the establishment of democratic forms of cultural self-government, as all decisions were directly subjected to the party nomenclatura. The Soviet cultural policy was based upon stringent lines of command in the administration and was under the ideological control of the Communist Party. Broad networks of libraries, cultural centres and cinemas functioned in the big cities and rural areas and this phenomenon served as an instrument of the Party's political efforts to propagate communist ideology using cultural institutions. A system of privileges enjoyed by selected artists and cultural activists included financial as well as general living advantages. This was used as a means of enticing artists into the ruling circles and imposing an attitude of obedience and subservience.

Lithuanian culture of the Soviet period had certain forms of resistance which expressed its own national cultural identity and artistic freedom through art. There were plays, works of fine arts, books of poetry and prose that eluded ideological control. Moreover, the party ideologists in Moscow regarded Lithuania and other Baltic States to be closer related to the Western European culture and therefore more susceptible to its influence; which allowed it to attain a greater cultural and artistic diversity.

A new phase in the development of national culture policy started with "perestrojka" and the political and social movement for Lithuania's independence Sąjūdis during the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1990, the Lithuanian Cultural Congress took place. It set the guidelines for national cultural development, adopted a number of resolutions that formulated strategic trends for cultural life.

The debates on state cultural policy took on great importance at the time. In the mid 1990s, the discussions on cultural policy issues were related to the creation of Principles for Lithuanian Cultural Policy - a legal document geared at specifying long-term goals and tasks for the Lithuanian cultural policy as well as cultural development guidelines. Heated debates over cultural policy involved artists, philosophers, politicians, and cultural administrators. Discussions were focused on such issues as cultural democratisation, protection of the national cultural heritage, guaranteeing freedom and diversity of creative activity, cultural self-governance. However, preparation of this document was a complicated and time-consuming process. The Principles for Lithuanian Cultural Policy were finally adopted by the government in May 2001.

The development of Lithuanian culture in the 1990s faced new problems, such as privatisation of culture institutions, lack of management experience in free market processes, reform of the administrative system, changing status of culture institutions, etc. New culture organisations (NGO's, private sector) appeared during this time.