ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the post-Soviet transition, focusing on the human experiences in relation to regional politics and identity formation. It elaborates upon the example from Lithuania, discussing its ambiguous historical condition in between the Eastern and Western world and relating it to Victor Turner's theory of liminal transition. The chapter focuses on the concept of liminality, arguing for its usefulness in explaining post-Soviet transition due to its appreciation of the role of human experience in the process. It describes the topic by discussing three different modalities of liminal condition: the temporal, formal and spatial. The chapter looks at how liminal experiences can form a paradoxical yet powerful identity narrative, unifying separate and even ideologically opposed historical episodes into a new political identity mask. It examines what all this liminal experience means to the region, arguing that, due to all the historical turmoil as well as the Soviet and post-Soviet experience, Central Eastern Europe has become a space of permanent liminality.
