Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality

Life Stories of Lithuanian Women, 1945 – 1970
Erscheinungsjahr 2010
ISBN: 978-90-420-3062-6
Verlag: Brill | Rodopi

Buch, Englisch, Band 24, 234 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 390 g

Reihe: On the Boundary of Two Worlds

For millions of people, the Soviet experience meant not only living through the torment of Stalinism and the GULAG, the unbelievable destiny of men and women during the 1917 Revolution, civil war, and the Second World War, or those breathtaking, gigantic Socialist construction projects. Many citizens of the former Soviet Union lived “ordinary lives in ordinary times”, where the fate of men and women depended not on armed coercion, but Soviet ideology and propaganda. Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality contains the stories of ten women, talking about their lives in Soviet Lithuania, one of the annexed Baltic republics. The book gives a compelling account of how, in the last years of Stalin’s rule, after 1945, during the so-called “Khrushchev Thaw”, and in the beginning of the “Stagnation Era”, Soviet ideology transfused the everyday life of women and dictated just about every major aspect of their lives. Based on interviews, the journalistic press of that era, as well as other material, the book reveals how propaganda shaped women’s understanding of family and work responsibilities, child care, interpersonal relationships, romantic love, and friendship.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Leinarte, Dalia

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
Part I: Conducting Interviews in the Post-Soviet Space
Oral Testimony as History
Silence as Testimony
Part II: Women, Work, and Family in Soviet Lithuania
State Propaganda and Assistance for Working Mothers
Reconciling Family and Work: Everyday Practices
Gender Roles and Family Life
Soviet Romantic Love and Friendship
Part III: Life Stories Of Lithuanian Women
Stefanija Kucinskiene: “Maybe she was afraid because I was a political prisoner?”
Monika Jonynaite-Makuniene: “I almost wanted him to die”
Leokadija Diržinskaite: “Everyone was creating socialism, and everyone was looking at it with hope”
Julija Greiciene: “I wasn’t sorry that I got divorced – I felt like a fully-esteemed person again”
Marija Popova: “I got married to a Russian and was a member of the Party”
Apolonija Birute Paliuliene: “I always had two or three jobs. But why did I work so much?”
Adasa Skliutauskaite: “You’re different to all the other women”
Aušra Diliene: “We had so much fun in our life”
Aneta Šlegel: “If the state gives you full care then it goes without saying what kind of person you should be and how you should see things”
Danute Marija Kvasiene: “Life has passed by, just like that.”
Conclusions
Notes
References
Archives
List of Illustrations
Index