The Issue of Citizenship in Lithuania: Legislation and the ways it was perceived

Abstract

This chapter analyses Lithuanian legislation on citizenship in the period from 1988 to 1993, as well as responses of national minorities and politicians. The question of how national minorities – the Poles, Russians and Jews – perceived the citizenship issue was a vital element in their acceptance of the new political surroundings and political boundaries. There are a few questions which should be considered. Were people familiar with the existing laws, and if so, how did they become aware? How did people interpret these laws? What did they feel about the ways in which the laws were implemented, and how did they perceive the relationship between the letter of the law and the reality of the implementation of the law? This last issue is critical to my research because the way in which national minorities and Lithuanian politicians interpreted the laws, raised particular issues and specific demands concerning citizenship rights. To interpret the letter of the law one has to bear in mind the political context in which the letter of the law exists. This context influences the understanding of the letter of the law very much. Additionally, we shall consider the laws concerning the citizenship issue in the context of international law and how these were understood by national minorities (in Chapters 6–8) and Lithuanian politicians. The opinion of Lithuanian politicians is crucial because they were the policy-makers and played a key role in debates and negotiations in the early stages of the evolution of minority laws.