A Corner of Lithuania Frozen in Time (via The New Yorker)

When he was 18, Viktor left his hometown Jakubiskes to join the Soviet army. He later found a job and a new start in Vilnius. Viktor returns to Jakubiskes every summer to tend his parents’ house. He has fond memories of his childhood here, when there was a large group of young people. None of his old friends live here anymore.
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Read this great article on newyorker.com, about an award-winning photojournalist’s journey to a small town just an hour’s drive south of Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius, to an area know by the name of its largest town “Dieveniškės” – a narrow panhandle, or “appendix” that pushes into the countryside of neighboring Belarus.

A Corner of Europe Frozen in Time

BY MICHAEL CASPER, JANUARY 19, 2016

Stanislav on his horse in Norviliskes, with the border in the background. The European external border runs directly through one of his potato fields, which he is no longer allowed to till.
Stanislav on his horse in Norviliskes, with the border in the background. The European external border runs directly through one of his potato fields, which he is no longer allowed to till.

About out an hour’s drive south of Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius, the country’s narrow panhandle, locally known as the “appendix,” starts to push into the countryside of neighboring Belarus. The joke in Lithuania is that, while drawing the borders of the region, Stalin set his pipe down on the map—no one was brave enough to move it, so improbable borders were drawn around its perimeter. But while the boundaries between Soviet republics were fluid, today this sliver of Lithuania, known by the name of its largest town, Dieveniškės, is separated by security fences from Belarus, with its entrenched Soviet ways, and by awkward geography from the relative progress of the rest of Lithuania. With its scattering of tumbledown villages, many of whose residents speak a mix of Polish and Belarusian, the region lives according to its own rhythms.…Read more on newyorker.com…