Magazine from Kaunas ‘Į’ #4: Multicultural Kaunas

For the past half a century Kaunas has been convinced that it is the most Lithuanian city in the world. In comparison to Vilnius, Klaipėda, or Panevėžys, Kaunas does have the largest population of Lithuanians. Although that is not entirely true. Until the Second World War, the city had a very varied mix of nationalities and is now slowly regaining this position.

In this issue we try to give an overview of multicultural Kaunas. Jews, Russians, Poles, Germans, Indians, Tatars, and Italians express themselves in all sorts of different ways. Kaunas is not as homogeneous as it proclaims to be, which is not very surprising but, nonetheless, interesting.

Something else that we encountered while preparing this issue was that while trying to discover other, non-Lithuanian cultures in Kaunas we were presented with how those cultures view themselves. What we considered to be the Lithuanian norm, was thrown back at us. Other cultures have revealed a different side of Kaunas, which is slightly unusual, but exciting and familiar. We discovered Indians playing cricket and a Rwandan woman singing about Kaunas in her mother tongue.

In concluding this issue, we present a story about Ramybės Park – a former cemetery, which during the Soviet era, was leveled to the ground and has now become a no man’s land. People of different cultures, who live and work near the park, open up about their lives. Every story is different and comes from a different perspective, even though the topic is the same. This is the lesson of this issue – different views and experiences create the city.