Suchergebnisse

The article is concerned with the dissemination of the Stalinist official ideology in Soviet Lithuania in 1944–1957, the manifestations and impact of the personality cult of Stalin on society, and the causes of its late dismantling. In the Stalinist years Lithuania was a new periphery of the USSR that lost no time in taking over the centre "experience" in all spheres, forcibly moved closer to political and social standards of the state whose part it became. Due to the scanty membership of the LCP and the short time period Stalinist ideology proliferation did not acquire "national" specific – propagandists' practical needs were satisfied by short ideological texts translated from Russian and adapted, while the Stalin personality cult, the main component of the period, was also expressed by images flourishing in the Soviet Union and standardized forms, except the original contribution of Lithuanian poets. At the beginning of 1956 the Stalin cult was officially denounced in the USSR, in Soviet Lithuania it was falling into decline slowly and "peacefully", not publicising the crimes committed by the Stalinist system. Respect for this name was expressed until November 1961, i. e., only the removal of Stalin's mummy from the mausoleum in Moscow finally signalled to the leadership of Soviet Lithuania that at last it was necessary to change the names of kolkhozes, streets and newspapers, and to dismantle monuments. Such slow disappearance of the Stalin cult (avoiding criticism of the system itself and not publicising its "shortcomings") helped to suppress public hopes, preserved the regime's stability, and gave time to grasp the direction of the evolution of the system. Slight public interest in future political changes after 1956 shows that the post-war reprisals bore fruit – the situation in Soviet Lithuania was 178 Stalininis režimas Lietuvoje 1944–1953 m. controlled and larger "excesses" were avoided. On the other hand the indifference of Lithuanian society for the future of the SSSR demonstrated that it was not permeated by Soviet ideology and Soviet patriotism. The Stalinist system that was brutally enforced as though "jumped" over the consequent stage of the public indoctrination therefore during later Soviet time it was faced with the weaknesses of its own ideology and the vitality of "bourgeois nationalism".

The article is concerned with the dissemination of the Stalinist official ideology in Soviet Lithuania in 1944–1957, the manifestations and impact of the personality cult of Stalin on society, and the causes of its late dismantling. In the Stalinist years Lithuania was a new periphery of the USSR that lost no time in taking over the centre "experience" in all spheres, forcibly moved closer to political and social standards of the state whose part it became. Due to the scanty membership of the LCP and the short time period Stalinist ideology proliferation did not acquire "national" specific – propagandists' practical needs were satisfied by short ideological texts translated from Russian and adapted, while the Stalin personality cult, the main component of the period, was also expressed by images flourishing in the Soviet Union and standardized forms, except the original contribution of Lithuanian poets. At the beginning of 1956 the Stalin cult was officially denounced in the USSR, in Soviet Lithuania it was falling into decline slowly and "peacefully", not publicising the crimes committed by the Stalinist system. Respect for this name was expressed until November 1961, i. e., only the removal of Stalin's mummy from the mausoleum in Moscow finally signalled to the leadership of Soviet Lithuania that at last it was necessary to change the names of kolkhozes, streets and newspapers, and to dismantle monuments. Such slow disappearance of the Stalin cult (avoiding criticism of the system itself and not publicising its "shortcomings") helped to suppress public hopes, preserved the regime's stability, and gave time to grasp the direction of the evolution of the system. Slight public interest in future political changes after 1956 shows that the post-war reprisals bore fruit – the situation in Soviet Lithuania was 178 Stalininis režimas Lietuvoje 1944–1953 m. controlled and larger "excesses" were avoided. On the other hand the indifference of Lithuanian society for the future of the SSSR demonstrated that it was not permeated by Soviet ideology and Soviet patriotism. The Stalinist system that was brutally enforced as though "jumped" over the consequent stage of the public indoctrination therefore during later Soviet time it was faced with the weaknesses of its own ideology and the vitality of "bourgeois nationalism".