<p>The present article focuses on images of the post-Soviet transition represented in the Lithuanian and Latvian cultural press. It proved to be a multifaceted process of change and an intense, dynamic, and comprehensive transformation. The collapse of the Soviet Union was one of the main factors in the development of all post-Soviet states. In addition, the national movement (known as “the Singing Revolution” or Awakening) resulted in the restoration of independence in Lithuania and Latvia after almost fifty years of Soviet occupation. It also manifested itself as a reconstructive process, as one of the main tasks was to recover authentic memory, and to restore the heritage of the first Republic and the interwar period. The Lithuanian and Latvian cultural press of the period from 1988 to 1992 employed various phrases to describe ongoing events. A certain type of poetic representation and symbolic imagery of the transition appeared in contemporary reflections. Most of them were metaphors from the natural environment (flowing river, sprouting grass, stone, growing child, injured animals, limited space, etc.). The aim of this article is to introduce and compare some of the major semantic and poetic conceptualizations conveyed through these cultural and political images.</p>