ABSTRACT
Since 1988 the political pendulum in Lithuania has swung from one extreme to the other and back again. In 1988 and 1989, after almost a half century of running Lithuania as a satrapy of Moscow, the Lithuanian Communist Party (LCP), seeing its control of Lithuania slipping away, broke with Moscow and sought a new constituency in a multiparty system. The LCP's challenge to Moscow in 1988 and 1989 constituted a natural development in the history of the party in Lithuania. Begun as a tool for Moscow, the party sought to sink roots in the republic, and as an unexpected result, it began to absorb unorthodox and even heretical thoughts. The political turmoil in 1988 left the party leaders most obedient to Moscow the most confused. When Mikhail Gorbachev began to tinker with the system, the LCP's leadership felt abandoned. The growing force in Lithuanian politics in 1988 and 1989 was Sajudis.
