Paper short abstract:

The situation of ISKCON in Lithuania under the Soviet regime is revealed, focusing on the life as a Krishna devotee under the threat of KGB. Using a historical narrative method, the formation of ISKCON is retraced as well as how the movement came to Lithuania from Russia through Estonia and Latvia.

Paper long abstract:

The paper focuses on the origins and early development of the Hare Krishna community in Lithuania until 1989, when the collapse of the Soviet Union began. The aim of the paper is to reveal the situation of ISKCON in Lithuania under the Soviet regime until its official registration in 1989, focusing on the life as a Krishna devotee under the threat of KGB. Using a historical narrative method, the formation of ISKCON is retraced as well as how the movement came to Lithuania from Moscow, Russia through Tallinn, Estonia and Riga, Latvia.

The community developed within the underground under the threat of the KGB repressions where it existed until the beginning of the Sąjūdis (the Reform Movement of Lithuania), when public community activities became possible, such as public programs, book distributing and founding of official temples. The ideas and practices of ISKCON were a form of resistance to the Soviet regime and the communist ideology. It did not emerge as an open opposition towards the communist ideology, but its actions appeared more as an attempt to exist in a suppressive sociocultural environment. The Lithuanian ISKCON community played a significant role in the development of ISKCON throughout the Soviet Union, because after the imprisonment of Armenian activists, Lithuanian members organized secret printing and distribution of the ISKCON literature throughout the Soviet region. The presentation depicts a very different ISKCON that, compared with today, lacked an organizational structure and functioned without the guidance by senior foreign ISKCON members.