The Making and Breaking of Soviet Lithuania: Memory and Modernity in the Wake of War

by Violeta Davoliūtė

Appearing on the world stage in 1918, Lithuania suffered numerous invasions, border changes and large scale population displacements.The successive occupations of Stalin in 1940 and Hitler in 1941, mass deportations to the Gulag and the elimination of the Jewish community in the Holocaust gave the horrors of World War II a special ferocity. Moreover, the fighting continued after 1945 with the anti-Soviet insurrection, crushed through mass deportations and forced collectivization in 1948-1951. At no point, however, did the process of national consolidation take a pause, making Lithuania an improbably representative case study of successful nation-building in this troubled region. As postwar reconstruction gained pace, ethnic Lithuanians from the countryside - the only community to remain after the war in significant numbers - were mobilized to work in the cities. They streamed into factory and university alike, creating a modern urban society, with new elites who had a surprising degree of freedom to promote national culture. This book describes how the national cultural elites constructed a Soviet Lithuanian identity against a backdrop of forced modernization in the fifties and sixties, and how they subsequently took it apart by evoking the memory of traumatic displacement in the seventies and eighties, later emerging as prominent leaders of the popular movement against Soviet rule.

Genres: Soviet Union, History

232 pages, Hardcover

First published December 18, 2013

Reviews

[Virga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Glausta ir gera sovietmečio kultūros istorija. Daug įdomios medžiagos, labai kokybiškas interpretavimas - istorikė ne tik pasakoja, bet ir lygina, susieja, apibendrina, žodžiu - galvoja, o ne pasakoja. Man tikrai patiko. Ypač 7-8 dešimtmečių kultūros analizė ir kaip Davoliūtė ją įdeda į Europos kontekstą. Daug to laiko literatūros ir kitokio meno pasidaro įdomesni, kai supranti paskatas.

[Gogolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great summary of Lithuanian History in the 20th century. It's a shame the book has not been translated into Lithuanian.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating Public History oriented look at Lithuanian history in the twentieth century. Social movements, the central focus on the city of Vilnius, it's all covered in great detail and is a great read.