Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality: Life Stories of Lithuanian Women, 1945 - 1970

Description

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. Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality : Life Stories of Lithuanian Women, 1945 – 1970 Contents 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 “Maybe she was afraid because I was a political prisoner?” “I almost wanted him to die” “Everyone was creating socialism, and everyone was looking at it with hope” “I wasn’t sorry that I got divorced – I felt like a fully-esteemed person again” “I got married to a Russian and was a member of the Party” “I always had two or three jobs. But why did I work so much?” “You’re different to all the other women” “We had so much fun in our life” “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” “Life has passed by, just like that...” Conclusions Notes References Archives List of Illustrations Index