They say that every generation has its war. As an aging millennial, born into Lithuania’s post-1990 democratic success story, I thought that the climate crisis and Covid would be enough for my cohort. Then, on Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, and along with many of my compatriots, I understood that nothing would be the same. Lithuanian language publications were banned and replaced by Cyrillic. Book smugglers became national heroes for illegally bringing Lithuanian books into the Russian empire and keeping the language alive.

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