"When I was a boy, all the best meat went to Moscow. … We used to say that Lithuania had exploding pigs. After the explosion, only the ears, tail and feet were left."

A guide explains Soviet-era life to a tourist bicycling through the "Baltic backwater."

 

Mom remembers how the Soviets exported Lithuanian products—butter, pork, and geese—to Russia. In turn, trucks labeled "Food for Starving Lithuania" arrived from the Soviet Union. The trucks were filled with watermelons.