Tuesday, May 14 6:00 p.m. Kaunas restaurant “Miesto sodas” (Laisvės al. 93) will present the monograph “Kaunas hippies” by Egidija Ramanauskaitė, a senior researcher at Vilnius University’s Kaunas faculty, which received huge support from like-minded people at the Vilnius book fair. The Search for Identity 1966-1972′.
“For all those who value the ideas of personal and creative freedom”, says the author and invites to a discussion with the heroes of the study – Arkadijs Vinokurus, Jurgis Penkinskas, Jonas Šneideraitis, Kristupas Petkūnas, Arūnas Kurus, participants of the Kaunas hippie community “Company”, bigbyte group “Raganiai” ” leader Natans Gitkind and guests of the event. The spirit of the 1970s will be remembered by the creations of hippie youth – poems, songs, and their favorite music.
Our editorial staff has already managed to purchase this book – it is no secret that it was this book that inspired us to interview one of its heroes, Arkadijs Vinokuras, in the May issue. You can also read this text online.
E. Ramanauskaitė, the author of the book “Company”, met the Kaunas hippie community back in 2002, when the 30th anniversary of Romo Kalanta’s death was commemorated in May and a concert dedicated to the youth music of the 1970s was held. At the concert, the big-byte group Raganiai, which participated in the company, played at the concert. “For almost two decades, we have been in contact with the members of the hippie company – Džyza, Kristupas, Visvaldas, Daevius, Only You, Arkadijs, Moksleivus, Ričardas, Algis, Natans, Jokūbs and Leščius. This made it possible to collect detailed material about events significant to the group, the social environment related to these events, which shaped the worldview of the group, and to assess the impact of hippie youth on Soviet society,” says the author. Analyzing the group of hippie youth “Company”, she reveals the social processes of the mentioned period as if through a magnifying glass, focuses on the problems of alternative youth culture, the existential values of a person.
The research presented in the book published by the Vilnius University Publishing House is based on abundant historical sources, documents of the band members (diaries and examples of artistic creation), memories of contemporaries, detailed interviews with the company participants, which revealed the living environment of the youth at that time: anti-hippie youth groups and underground businesses, western big-city music clubs spread of culture, “Kerouacian” trips to the “Soviets”, “rescue campaigns” from the Soviet army, relations with the KGB, conditions for the formation of a subcultural group in rebellion against “double life” and restrictions on personal freedom. “The like-minded members of the city garden company were united by their interest in Western youth music and the desire to follow the hippie lifestyle,” explains the anthropologist. It is interesting that their values were influenced by the acquaintance and friendship with the director and actor of the Latvian pantomime theater Modri Tenisons, whom the friends of the company considered their guru. “What did the hippies do?” He was interested in existential philosophy, Western youth music, wrote poems that he liked to read in the circle of like-minded people in the City Garden, wrote lyrics, music and played in bands, published individual music newspapers, tried to live in communes and discussed independent Lithuania in narrow circles”, answers E. Ramanauskaitė .
The ideological breakthrough occurred in the 1970s, after a trip to Tallinn popsession (which never happened because it was banned by security officials) the company’s participants were interrogated by the KGB – then they really realized that their values and creativity were opposed to Soviet ideology. The climax of the conflict was in 1971. February 20-21 Organized by Kaunas Polytechnic Institute students popsession. Despite the fact that the security forces broke into the dress rehearsal, the event could not be banned due to the gathered crowd of several thousand. “Although the security guards checked the bands’ repertoire and forbade the performance of Western bands, “Raganiai” and other big-byte bands performed the planned program. Then the organizers of the event – the students of the KPI pop club “Smūtkeliai” – suffered, and the “Witches” were forced to return the keys to the institute’s rehearsal rooms, all dance halls in the city of Kaunas were closed to them, with the exception of the workers’ club of the “Pergalė” factory with a bad reputation”, the author of the book shares historical material.
The death of Romo Kalanta in May 1972 became the breakthrough of Kaunas’ youth rebellion against the regime, but the demonstrators had to experience KGB violence, and the hippie youth could no longer choose in the City Garden. “Although the destinies of the company’s participants were different, and their life paths scattered them to different countries, the hippie experience left a mark – they still communicate with each other,” says the author of the book. According to her, the interest in the hippie culture in society is not waning. “Participants of the company contributed to the preparation of R. Kalanta’s memorial events, Kaunas Capital of Culture 2022. exhibition “1972: breaking through the wall”, have become the heroes of cultural and scientific publications, artistic and documentary films”, says the anthropologist.
At the event, it is expected to receive witnesses of the events of that time from their environment – artists, participants of big-byte groups and everyone who did not avoid coming to the City Garden during this memorable period. The participants of the presented research will share their memories – Arkadijus Vinokuras, Jurgis Penkinskas, Jonas Šneideraitis, Kristupas Petkūnas, Arūnas Kuras and Natanas Gitkindas, the leader of the bigbyte group “Raganiai”.
The book “Hippies of Kaunas. The Search for Identity 1966-1972” is available for purchase here.
Tags: memory Kalantines book Kaunas hippies search identity presentation
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