Naujieji miesteliai Lietuvoje XX a. 7-8 dešimtmečiais

Abstract

The article aims to review the main conditions that determined the presumptions of small towns’ systematic appearance and development in Lithuania. The development was influenced by the Land Reforms in 1919-1939, 1940 and 1944 as well as by ideological standards. In the Soviet Lithuanian Republic, regional planning started in 1956. The urban processes were especially urged by the growth of industry and collectivisation of agriculture. By 1967, there was no administrative scheme of planning and small agricultural towns developed spontaneously. Later, economical socialism regulations determined the development of an urban agricultural sector. Three structural types of unification were defined: linear, sectional and quarter-type. Though Lithuanian agricultural settlements were built on the base of the socialism directives, they had some characteristic features. Directives of socialism and political, economical situation, impersonalised creations were represented in the same way as striving towards the Western ideas (during an informational blockade) and contraposition towards assimilation threats. Another important feature of Lithuanian agricultural settlements was determined by the absence of deportations. Volunteer colonists preferred bigger towns to agricultural settlements (unlike expatriates in Siberia, Kazakhstan or elsewhere). In the 7-8th decades, illustrative examples of Lithuanian agricultural settlements were Dainava (Ukmergė D.), Klausučiai (Jurbarkas D.), Skaistgirys (Joniškis D.), and Kabiškės (Vilnius D.)..