Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines the histories of two interrelated phenomena of a political border between two former Soviet republics Belarus and Lithuania, and of cross-border informal petty trade in this border region. These histories mainly fall within the post-Soviet period. The book discusses the Soviet history of the Belarus Lithuania border region. It focuses on those features of the Soviet history which are relevant for understanding the development of cross-border practices after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The contemporary history of this geographical territory undermines widespread historical optimism about the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc in general as the main factor for the disappearance of impermeable political borders in Eastern Europe. These borders were considered to be an attribute of the previous political system driven by a strong will to keep its citizens inside the Iron Curtain perimeter.