Abstract

People of Lithuania – politics, schoolchildren, students, sport enthusiasts and the best fans (as Lithuanian president D. Grybauskaitė has remarked) were introduced with A. Poviliūnas monograph “Olympic Lithuania in 1918-2008: Turning Points, Stages, World Contexts”. The official opponent Prof. Dr. Habil. E. Martišauskienė has stated this study to be “a creation of epochal significance that exceeds dated period into depth – because roots of Olympic Movement are sought in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Vilnius University, when Olympism ideas, as it seems, were only a vivid flash in the history of humankind <...>. Monograph exceeds dated period into width, as well. Not only the development of Olympic Movement is presented, and, metaphorically stating, structured according to “Olympic clock”, but wide historical, social, political, economical, juridical, ecological, cultural, educational sport view, without even mentioning concrete persons, archival material, unique personal experience while leading the activity of Lithuanian National Olympic Committee, is also represented. The holistic and interdisciplinary form of the monograph presupposes to reader a possibility individually to see an authentic view of Olympic Movement development and it will never lose its topicality because will lead to seeing the fundamentals of Olympic Sport institutions practice from the time eminence and one’s self-experience when developing Olympic Sport directions and promoting Olympic spirit.” Monograph value increases because under author’s “guidance Olympic education system was formed and approved, and successfully integrated into general education system. Olympic education allows school-aged youth to participate in Olympic festivals in schools, cities, districts and country and such attendance is followed by participation in summer and winter European Olympic festivals and World Youth Olympic Games. Monograph also indicates the importance of sport professionals’ training, refresher courses, organizing national and international conferences and local specialists’ sending to participate in international events. Those aspects form educative basics of these works.” Work scope has great ideas and high goals. A. Poviliūnas analyses national sport as unique phenomenon of society activeness that gives a sense to life and even changes political regimes. This feature gets the highest attention in this study. The accent of this work – Olympiads cycles and sport events calendar. These objective criteria were the power, which directed Lithuanian sport and ensured an international status for national activeness. Activeness level was different depending on various historical periods. The history of sport organizations and Olympic sport disciplines is thoroughly and methodically described; difficult conditions, under which an active part of Lithuanian society and Lithuanian exile organizations had worked and functioned, are revealed as well. Each society creates distinctive balance that consists of three sport sections. A. Poviliūnas reveals how this balance is implemented in Lithuania and how it is determined by national and international conditions. Invaluable monograph (dissertation) part is composed of material settled for introducing with re-establishment of Lithuanian National Olympic Committee (LNOC) in 1988. Verf.-Referat