Suchergebnisse

If the home remained a safe space for families during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, why is it that the memories of women's domestic lives in Soviet Lithuania are so fragmented? In Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania, Dalia Leinarte deftly challenges the commonplace 'kitchen culture' idea that the home was a site of silent resistance where traditional Lithuanian values continued to be nurtured. Instead, this fascinating book reveals how the totalitarian state gradually abolished the private lives of Lithuanian families altogether. Based on over 100 interviews and an array of archival sources, this book analyses how family policy formed the everyday life of men and women and considers how the internalisation of Soviet ideology took place in the private sphere. From a well-developed after-school activity program for children to strict rules regarding the working hours of men and women, ultimately the family could not remain isolated from the regime.

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- Oral Testimony as History -- Silence as Testimony -- State Propaganda and Assistance for Working Mothers -- Reconciling Family and Work: Everyday Practices -- Gender Roles and Family Life -- Soviet Romantic Love and Friendship -- \'Maybe she was afraid because I was a political prisoner?\' by Stefanija Kučinskienė -- \'I almost wanted him to die\' by Monika Jonynaitė-Makūnienė -- \'Everyone was creating socialism, and everyone was looking at it with hope\' by Leokadija Diržinskaitė -- \'I wasn't sorry that I got divorced – I felt like a fully-esteemed person again\' by Julija Greičienė -- \'I got married to a Russian and was a member of the Party\' by Marija Popova -- \'I always had two or three jobs. But why did I work so much?\' by Apolonija Birutė Paliulienė -- \'You're different to all the other women\' by Adasa Skliutauskaitė -- \'We had so much fun in our life\' by Aušra Dilienė -- \'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\' by Aneta Šlegel -- \'Life has passed by, just like that...\' by Danutė Marija Kvasienė -- Conclusions -- Notes -- References -- Archives -- List of Illustrations -- Index.

Introduction -- Women's experiences of 1937 : everyday legacies of the purges and the great terror in the Soviet Union -- Victims and collective trauma : surviving mass repression and living through the Soviet period -- Women's experiences of repression in Czechoslovakia, 1948-1968 -- Women's experiences of 1956 : student protesters and partisans in Romania

Takes a comparative perspective on family life and childhood in the past half century in Russia and Eastern Europe, highlighting similarities and differences. Focuses on the problematic domains of the institutions and laws devised to cope with family difficulties, and discusses the social strains created by the transition from communist to post-communist national systems. In addition to the substantial historic analysis, actual challenges are also discussed. The essays examine the changing gender roles, alterations in legal systems, the burdens faced by married and unmarried women who are mothers, the contrasts between government rhteoric and the implementation of policies toward marriage, children and parenthood. By addressing the specifics of welfare politics under the Communist rule and the directions of their transformation in 1990–2000s, this book contributes to the understanding of social institutions and family policies in these countries and the problems of dealing with the socialist past that this region face