About me

My name is Ruslanas Iržikevičius.  I was born in Lithuania and live in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.  I am currently working at one of the foreign representations here.  My work consists of monitoring political and economical developments in Lithuania.I represent a perestroika generation whose inspiration and dream of the democratic and independent Lithuanian came true in 1990.  Few years later I left my homeland to spend almost a decade in the UK, starting my stay in London and concluding in Scotland, with a Master Degree in History from the University of Edinburgh. 

 

Hence, I spent my childhood and teens in the Soviet Union, which evolved from Brezhnev’s stagnation to Gorbachev’s perestroika resulting in the total collapse of the USSR.  I feel privileged living through the moments when the history was in ‘making’ and to some extent taking my tiny part in making this happening.

I remember the happiest day of my life, the declaration of Lithuanian independence and the proudest moment when I was amongst thousands of simple folk who gathered in the front of the Parliament to defend the newly born symbol of liberty against the Soviet tanks.

Then witnessing the first steps of the democracy-building later leaving the UK to form as a adult in the oldest democracy in the world, getting educated there and return to a totally different motherland.  To return to the country, which still spoke my language but was not a part of the ‘Former Soviet Union’ anymore.  The transformation was incredible!

This ‘total transformation’ was crowned with Lithuania’s admission to NATO and the European Union in 2004.  The historical justice was restored, Lithuania returned to the place where it always belonged.

With all its faults and imperfections Lithuania is firmly on the path of consolidating its democracy further and rightfully regarded as a full success story.  I am extremely lucky to be able closely observe this unprecedented transformation and in addition to share this with readers of Lituanica.

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