Išeivija minties ir veiksmo kryžkelėse: vieno ginčo istorija

Abstract

The task of this paper is to describe a uniquely interesting dispute among émigré Lithuanian intellectuals that played itself out in the publications of the liberal “Santara-Šviesa” and the centrist Academic Scouts. This controversy deserves to be regarded as a symbolically important episode in the development of the younger academic generation’s mentality and ideology. It involves two social scientists – Vytautas Kavolis and Thomas Remeikis – who for a period of several months publicly expressed their differences on issues dividing the attitudes of otherwise closely related intellectual and social currents of thought. Kavolis was the acknowledged leader of thinkers who joined in the “Santara-Šviesa” movement. Remeikis, a professor of political science and a tireless investigator of mid-twentieth century developments in Lithuanian politics, was an authoritative senior in the Academic Scout Movement, especially when he began to edit the journal “Mūsų Vytis”. He and his co-editor and colleague Algirdas Avižienis both picked up the gauntlet thrown down by “Santara-Šviesa” and sought to elevate the intellectual level of the Academic Scouts’ periodical as well as to prove the universal significance of the ideas they advanced. Their discussion not only raised the quality of Academic Scouts’ thought but also showed the productivity of friendship among the disputants.