The poster was commissioned by the Communist Party of Lithuania for the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the LSSR. These were the first elections for the Lithuanian legislature in which opposition candidates were allowed to participate.

At the end of 1988, Sajudis activists within the Lithuanian Communist Party orchestrated the removal of party leader Ringaudas Songaila and replaced him with Algirdas Brazauskas. Songaila had been obedient to Moscow. Under the leadership of Brazauskas, the party broke away from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This step raised the Lithuanian Communist Party’s authority among the population and it became a serious competitor to Sajudis reform movement in the elections.

The Communist Party of Lithuania had around 200,000 members at this time (about 6% of the population). Most supported the idea of Lithuanian independence, but were inclined to reach it gradually, ‘step by step’. Although the Communist Party did not have the same mass support that Sajudis enjoyed, it remained a power in politics, controlling material resources, the media and the printing houses. Its propaganda publications were prepared by the state publisher Mintis and printed by a special printing house at the Communist Party Central Committee. Communist Party posters avoided radical slogans. They were dominated by exhortations to unite and work together, for the good of Lithuania, to gain ‘sovereignty’ – although the concept of sovereignty was never defined. Some understood it as complete independence, others as autonomy within the framework of the USSR. The party’s candidates were mostly party leaders and intellectuals.

The photograph featured on the poster was probably taken at a meeting held in Vilnius to see off the Lithuanian Communist Party delegation to the 19th conference of the Communist Party of the USSR. First secretary of the Lithuanian Communist Party, Algirdas Brazauskas, stands at the centre of the photograph with a bouquet of flowers. He is flanked by the chairman of the Supreme Soviet of LSSR, Vytautas Astrauskas, and Algimantas Cekuolis who was active participant in Sajudis as well as a member of the Communist Party. The composition is thus occupied by representatives of both the major political powers in Lithuania at the time. They are surrounded by people clad in national costumes and national signs.
The photograph was taken by Marius Baranauskas and the composition was created by Dainius Paškevicius, then a young graphic artist.

Artist Dainius Paškevicius (b. 1958) graduated from the Graphic Arts Department of the State Art Institute in 1983. During the years of national revival he worked for the state publisher Mintis as an editor and contributed significantly to the design of posters published during that period. Currently, he mostly works as a book designer.

Photographer Marius Baranauskas (1931 – 1995) graduated from Vilnius University in 1965 where he studied journalism. He worked as a photojournalist for ELTA and NBS news agencies for many years. He published albums of his photographs, participated in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad and won many awards.