I would like to thank wholeheartedly all of the contributors to this volume. At first we discussed the concept. It took less time than expected as the topic seduced us to commence writing immediately about what we had been reflecting on so much privately and publicly. Behind these thoughtful articles lie already given lectures and talks at conferences, public reactions to political events. The content speaks for itself. The diversity of identity among the authors, hailing as they do from different countries and contexts, created a multi-national dimension and multi-cultural perspectives on how values, memory, and identity have been transforming and have been trasnformative during the last thirty years in Eastern and Central Europe. One of the authors (as the reader will notice in the last chapter) has walked by foot from Tallinn to Vilnius in order to repeat the famous Baltic Way of the year 1989. Though such an act speaks for itself and requires no further comment, I would nevertheless deign to humbly add, as the symbolic spirit of this volume: what passion!
My gratitude also goes to the VIBS Managing Editor J.D. Mininger for his support of the project.
Tomas Kavaliauskas