The years of Soviet occupation: independence lost and won

Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Dovilė Sagatienė

Abstract Since 1990 Lithuania has been claiming that what happened there during Soviet occupation is genocide, as per the 1948 Genocide Convention, which embodies universal justice for suppressed nations and other groups. Due to Soviet actions in Lithuania throughout the periods of 1940-1941 and 1944-1990, the country lost almost one fifth of its population. The application of Lithuanian national legal regulations regarding this issue has been recently discussed in the framework of another postwar international legal instrument – the European Convention of Human Rights (1950). The goal of this article is to examine the main debates, which were revealed by the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Vasiliauskas v. Lithuania (2015) and Drėlingas v. Lithuania (2019), regarding the killings of Lithuanian partisans, including the recognition of the significance of partisans for the Lithuanian nation, the foreseeability of genocide “in part,” as well as the punishment for complicity in killing Lithuanian partisans.


Author(s):  
Aliaksei Kazharski ◽  
Andrey Makarychev

The article analyzes historical monuments as instruments of Russia’s attempts to impose its aesthetic hegemony in the post-Communist world. Drawing on case studies from the Czech Republic and Estonia, it argues that this hegemony is precarious and vulnerable due to inability to deal with the inherent ambiguity and complexity of historical events and figures. The Russian approach regards historical truth in absolute terms and is underpinned by a zero-sum game understanding of historical narratives. It does not tolerate a multiplicity of perspectives on history and has no appreciation for postmodernist deconstruction of historical symbols. This conflicts with a more diverse, reflexive and inclusive politics of memory as an intrinsic element of cityscapes of Prague and Tallinn where some of the controversial monuments connected with the Soviet occupation have been removed. Russia’s reaction to these changes reveals an inherently vulnerable nature of its aesthetic hegemony which is deeply dependent on recognition of the absolute nature of its historical truth that the monuments are supposed to embody.


Author(s):  
Laila Niedre ◽  
Gunta Ošeniece

The purpose of this article is to reveal the Latvian cultural space of the 1930s, how it appears in present-day reminiscences of Baltic Germans, people with German heritage residing in Latvia, or their descendants. The data consists of extended interviews recorded as a part of the Latvian Academy of Culture project “Latvija – Heimatland” (2017–2019). One of the project objectives is to register and explore the reminiscences of this social group. The article analyses the accounts of 22 people residing in Latvia and 14 in Germany. These are accounts of events experienced either by themselves or their family members. It covers a time when the community of Latvians and Germans residing in Latvia was polarised by national interests, and the decade ended with Baltic Germans emigrating, followed by the Soviet occupation of Latvia. The Latvian cultural space of the 1930s is indirectly described by quotes from the respondents that relate to the resettlement in 1939 (Umsiedlung in German). The reminiscences illuminate cultural space components such as social practices, symbols, languages, and their use, traditions, and cuisine. The individual memories of Baltic Germans and their descendants significantly contribute to how the Latvian cultural space of the 1930s is already seen through collective memory, which includes monuments, written work, and art. They outline the lifestyle of this specific minority group, diversity of cultures, and interaction between them in Latvia, as well as a theme of Latvia as the lost motherland.


2021 ◽  
pp. 375-395
Author(s):  
Kathryn Weathersby

This paper examines some of the ways the US-centric framework of Anglophone Korean studies has distorted scholarship on post-colonial Korean history. First, an over-emphasis on the American role in the division of Korea has exaggerated the possibility that the US and USSR could have compromised to create a unified government for the peninsula. The Soviet documentary record reveals that Moscow was determined to obstruct such an outcome if it endangered Soviet security. Second, by focusing on the serious damage the American occupation inflicted on the South, scholars have understated the control Soviet occupation authorities exercised in the North.


Author(s):  
Daiva Tamulevičienė ◽  
Jonas Mackevičius

Appropriate product costing helps not only to estimate the cost of production correctly but also to evaluate the activity results, forecast product prices, make reasonable economic decisions. The article analyses the development of product costing in Lithuania from 1918 to 2019. The following stages of development of product costing were distinguished: 1) between the world wars when Lithuania was independent and during the Second world war (1918–1944); 2) during the years of Soviet occupation (1944–1990); 3) after reinstating the independence of Lithuania (1990–2019). The most important provisions of normative documents related to product costing of every stage were analysed, opinions, statements and suggestions how to improve product costing by different Lithuanian authors were evaluated.


2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrejs Veisbergs

The period of German occupation in Latvia came after twenty years of Latvian independence and a year of Soviet occupation. The shifts in the translation policies at these critical junctions were incredibly fast. The independence period was marked by a developed translation industry, a variety of the source languages, a variety of kinds of literature, with a broad scope in the quality of the translations. When the Soviets came, they quickly nationalized the publishers, ideologised the system and reshaped the pattern of what was translated. Russian was made the main source language, and other languages were minimized. The share of ideological literature grew exponentially, reaching one third of all books. Soon after the German invasion, the publishers regained their printing houses and publishing was renewed. The percentage of translations was similar to that of the independence period, with German literature making up 70% of the source texts. Most of the other source texts were Nordic and Estonian. Translation quality of fiction was generally high and the print runs grew. There are surprisingly few ideologically motivated translations. The official policies of the regime as regards publishing in Latvia appear to be uncoordinated and vague, with occasional decisions taken by “gate-keepers” in the Ostministerium and other authorities according to their own preferences. There was a nominal pre-censorship, but the publishers were expected to know and sense what was acceptable. In turn the latter played it safe, sticking to classical and serious works to translate and publish. Some high class translations of Latvian classics into German were also published during the period.


Author(s):  
Roman Boldyrev ◽  
Jörg Morré

Introduction. The paper deals with the issues of the propaganda system in the Soviet Occupation Zone in Germany (SOZ) between 1945 and 1949. Based on de-classified documents from Russian Archives propaganda organization, channels and methods of propaganda units of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAG) became a subject to study. The authors emphasize on control means towards German mass media and implementing the Soviet propaganda monopoly in East Germany. Methods and materials. The authors consequently analyze the main channels and methods of positive USSR image broadcasting: radio, press, SMAG propaganda unit lectures, people’s education system, activities of society for Soviet cultural studies, acquaintance trips of German delegations to the USSR, presentations of Soviet exhibitions and films. Analysis and Results. The authors come to a conclusion that the Soviet propaganda in East Germany had a low efficiency. It failed to establish a complete monopoly of Soviet propaganda units in East Germany. The SOZ population could access the propaganda from West Germany and West Berlin, which broadcast a radically negative image of the USSR. Besides, the units and institutions of the Group of Soviet Occupation Troops in Germany (GSOTG) created their own image of Soviet people, which was different from the ideal and broadcast one. Thus, it turned out to be impossible to provide the unification of the broadcast and perception of propagandist materials devoted to the USSR and its population. Soviet propaganda in Germany had gone through the transition by the late 1940s: division of Germany in two states appeared to be a reality, and the establishment of socialist society on Stalin’s model took place in East Germany. Ideological revisiting of the Soviet social constitution, and so its supremacy over the bourgeois one was to replace the conventional image of the country of total welfare and happiness.


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