Two Lithuanian teenagers facing the prospect of conscription into the army – to resume in the Baltic nation from September – were asked for their views on national service and the military.

“Can you lock a person’s choice in a birdcage and still insist that we live in freedom?” asked Edvinas, 18. “Working towards one’s goal and defending one’s viewpoint in life, these are manly. Anyone can go to war, but not every person has an army within,” added Rokas, 17.



Edvinas and Rokas are two of the 14 men who make up “They Won the Lottery”, a photography project by Lithuanian photographer Neringa Rekašiūtė and actor and TV host Beata Tiškevič-Hasanova, launched in response to the government’s decision earlier this year to reintroduce compulsory military service following its abolition in 2008.

The callup – to run for five years from September – will enlist young men from 19 to 27 to serve nine months each. When it was announced, the Lithuanian president said the measure was necessary because of Russia’s “growing aggression” in Ukraine.

Rekašiūtė and Tiškevič-Hasanova took portraits of the men and noted their thoughts about conscription and masculinity in general. In the touching and haunting pictures, the men can be seen staring into or away from the camera, with tears streaming down their faces.



“Since the conscript army was reinstated in Lithuania, more than 37,000 people have found their names on the [Ministry of National Defence’s] list of compulsory army service,” Rekašiūtė told the Guardian.

“The men in the photographs are crying because in social media and mass media in Lithuania, the common opinion of people is that you have to ‘man up’, not to be a ‘cry baby’, not act as ‘a coward’ and go to the army. That those nine months won’t change anything in your life.

“To have a different opinion about conscription and masculinity is absolutely unpopular. We wanted to say that there is nothing wrong with tears and expressing emotions.”

Rekašiūtė said her main priority was to ignite a discussion about what masculinity is in Lithuania. Questions around sexism and gender stereotypes pervade the project.

“The Lithuanian head of parliament, Loreta Graužinienė, said that ‘women have to tend to the family and make babies, while men go to [the] army’.

“Masculinity is still understood very shallowly, in strict gendered norms; you are not a man if you don’t want to go to the army. But forcing stereotypical expectations of manliness can be dangerous. The percentage of men who commit suicide in Lithuania is very high.”

Participants for the project were found through social media. “Beata is a very popular actress and TV host in Lithuania with a big number of followers. So we used her Facebook account to recruit the men. All of them were informed of the kind of project that this would be. All of them said yes, except one,” Rekašiūtė said.



She added that the artists understood that the geopolitical climate in Lithuania “is tough at the moment” with Russia viewed as a threat to the country’s security.

“Having a tragic history related to the former Soviet Union, massive deportations of Lithuanian people to Siberia and other atrocities which were committed by the former Soviet Union are deep in our memory. So, I think that strengthening the military is an important priority in Lithuania today,” Rekašiūtė said.

“But I don’t agree with with the randomness of the conscript army. I think it is un-democratic to force people to serve in the army. So that is what inspired me and Beata to make this project. We wanted to make the other side heard too.”

The artists have been much criticised for doubting the state and questioning tradition. Military service remains an extremely sensitive issue in Lithuania.

“The first day the project came out, we were called the traitors of the country and the enemies of the state. People think it puts Lithuanian men to shame and it can be used as Russian propaganda,” Rekašiūtė said. “We wanted to give a platform to present a different view of the conscript army. But our view is on the margins.”