The Lithuanian Encyclopedia Published in Boston as a Unique Cultural Phenomenon

The 37-volume Lietuvių Enciklopedija [Lithuanian Encyclopedia], which was published in South Boston, Massachusetts by the Lithuanian Encyclopedia Press from 1953 until 1985, is a unique cultural phenomenon. It is the only known example in the world of a general (universal) encyclopedia published by an ethnic community in their native language, while living in the diaspora. During that time, Lithuania was occupied and annexed by the Soviet Union. There was no freedom of expression or freedom of the press there. Lithuania was no longer even a nation on the world map. This monumental intellectual and administrative project was made possible by a large group of refugee intellectuals who fled Lithuania, mostly in the summer of 1944, from fear of Communist persecution and possible deportation to Soviet gulags if the Soviet Union re-occupied and re-annexed Lithuania. In addition to providing universal knowledge about the world, they had to speak out and write the truth about their country, its history, its society, language, and culture because their brethren behind the Iron Curtain could not. One of the goals of the encyclopedia as stated by the editor-in-chief Vaclovas Biržiška in the introduction to the first volume was to be a weapon “to help smash the Iron Curtain” and, once that curtain had fallen and Lithuania had reestablished its independence, it would provide the rejuvenated nation with a source of information about how Lithuanians lived in the diaspora throughout the free world. It accomplished its mission in full. Other encyclopedias published in Lithuania today used the Boston Lithuanian Encyclopedia as their base.