Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne

AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language ORCID id: orcid.org/0000-0001-8510-9037 Research areas: lexicology and lexicography. DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all90-09 THE IMAGE OF SOVIET LITHUANIA IN THE CORPUS OF THE IDEOLOGICAL NARRATIVE OF MODERN IDENTITY The Image of Soviet Lithuania in the Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of the Modern Identity ABSTRACT Based on data from the Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of Modern Identity, this article surveys the image of Soviet Lithuania that emerges in the 1945 Tiesa, the 1956–1957 Komjaunimo tiesa, and the 1962 Tiesa newspapers; it examines how much truth this image contains and how much consists of distorted or even newly constructed realities created by propagandists, as well as how journalistic texts of the period (re)constructed Soviet Lithuania. A semantic analysis of 798 illustrations mentioning Lithuania shows that the Soviet press sought to create an extremely positive image of an idealized Lithuania, encompassing the following main aspects: denigrating the recent past (Smetona’s, bourgeois Lithuania) and its figures; highlighting the bright Soviet present; exalting the country’s economic, cultural, and other achievements; and explicitly identifying friends and internal and external enemies. The idealistic press narrative about Lithuania employed standard Soviet-era propaganda clichés, depicting in an elevated style the life of the “happy” people of the “happy” country under the Soviet system. A semantic analysis of the sentences selected for the study shows that the official simulacrum of an ideal Lithuania was reflected in the Soviet ideological press as if in a distorting mirror; reality, however, was entirely different. Thus, we see an obvious gap between what the official Soviet press portrayed and what actually existed in drab everyday life. KEYWORDS: image, Soviet-era Lithuania, the word “Lithuania,” Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of Modern Identity, semantics. Straipsniai / Articles 227 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ ANNOTATION The article looks into the image of soviet Lithuania that can be pieced together from the material printed in the “Tiesa” from 1945 and 1962 and in the “Komjaunimo Tiesa” from 1956–1957, how much truth and how much distorted or even new reality constructed by propaganda artists there is in that image, and how journalist texts from the period (re)construct soviet Lithuania – all that in reliance of the data from the Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of the Modern Identity. Semantic analysis of 798 illustrations that contain mentions of Lithuania has shown that the Soviet press tried to project a highly positive picture of a perfect Lithuania, which covered the following key aspects: denigration of the recent past (Lithuania under Smetona, bourgeois Lithuania) and its actors; emphasis of the bright soviet present; celebration of the country’s economic, cultural, and other achievements; identification of specific friends, interior and exterior enemies. The idealistic press narrative about Lithuania employs standard clichés of soviet propaganda, exultantly portraying the life of ‘happy’ people from a ‘happy’ country in the Soviet system. Semantic analysis of the sentences selected for the study has shown that, just like a distorting mirror, the Soviet ideological press, too, reflected the official simulacrum of an ideal Lithuania, yet the reality was completely different; therefore, we can see a clear gap between what was depicted in the official soviet press and the true image of the glum reality. KEYWORDS: image, soviet Lithuania, word “Lithuania”, Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of the Modern Identity, semantics. INTRODUCTION The Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of Modern Identity (MTINT) has been compiled at the Institute of the Lithuanian Language since 2018. It is a database of journalistic texts from 1928–1998 that primarily reflects the economic and political context of the period. The corpus data make it possible to conduct studies of linguistic discourse, various images, and other phenomena. A search of Soviet-period texts in this corpus (the 1945 Tiesa, the 1956–1957 Komjaunimo tiesa, and the 1962 Tiesa newspapers) found 798 illustrations mentioning Lithuania: 331 in Komjaunimo tiesa and 467 in Tiesa. The search covered not only all forms of the word “Lithuania,” but also the abbreviation LTSR (which occurred only 9 times in the corpus). The principal official newspaper of the period, Tiesa, disseminated particularly extensive propaganda. One of its 1945 issues clearly explained the influence exerted on this newspaper by Pravda, published in Russia at the time: “Pravda,” as the leading organ of the Bolshevik Party, was always an example for the press of the working people of Lithuania and of the Lithuanian Communists. [...] During the Patriotic War, workers of the Soviet Lithuanian press learned from Pravda to cultivate among working people hatred of the German fascist invaders, love for their homeland, and determination to fight for its freedom 228 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne and independence (Tiesa, 1945–09). That the Lithuanian Tiesa closely followed the “truths” of the Soviet Pravda is clearly demonstrated not only by the newspaper’s content but also by its style: analysis of the examples collected for the study shows that some articles were translated from Russian—Lithuanian sentences contain evidence of literal translation and abound in syntactic and other errors. That Tiesa at the time was a powerful propaganda tool was also explicitly proclaimed by the newspaper itself: The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania expects the republic’s journalists, following the glorious traditions of the Soviet press and the Leninist Pravda, and employing all forms of their ideological weapon—the periodical press, radio, television, and all genres of militant journalism—to turn every issue of the newspaper [...] into a tribune for propaganda of advanced experience and to fight effectively to overcome shortcomings in work and the remnants of the past in people’s consciousness (Tiesa, 1962–03). The Soviet-period texts were selected for semantic analysis consciously and purposefully. In today’s historical narrative, the Soviet period in Lithuania, as in the other Baltic countries, continues to be interpreted in strictly negative terms, as a foreign occupation that interrupted the “normal” development of society and statehood, to which a return was possible only after independence was restored (Nikžentaitis 2013: 526). At the same time, however, it is a factual part of Lithuania’s history, a “new cultural context that covered the old one and reorganized it in its own way, affecting every person’s world, values, things, relationships, and stories” (Čepaitienė 2013: 574); therefore, this period is important for various kinds of research. Sociologists argue that it is necessary to understand it through reflection rather than reject it as foreign. The period cannot be artificially expelled from the past (memory); on the contrary, it is necessary to provide an analytical and critical examination of the period (Leinartė, Žilinskienė, Kraniauskienė, Šutinienė, Gečienė 2014: 61) and to undertake the adventure of exploring the kingdom of distorting mirrors of the recent past (Švedas 2009: 27). Thus, the Soviet period is not only a historical but also a cultural concept, which can be analyzed from a wide variety of perspectives—historical, social, anthropological, ethnological, linguistic, and others. At that time, “all available propaganda means were used to disseminate Soviet ideology—the press, television, radio, school textbooks, compulsory lectures, fiction, and journalism” (Leinartė 2022: 278). Thus, the aim of this article is, by conducting a semantic analysis of sentences selected for linguistic study from the Soviet propaganda press, to examine what image of Soviet Lithuania emerges in the press of the period, how much truth it contains and how much consists of distorted or even newly constructed realities created by propagandists, and how the journalistic texts of the period (re)construct Soviet Lithuania. Figuratively speaking, “by penetrating the ideological and political thicket and looking at it critically, one can discover important facts characteristic of that period” (Čepaitienė 2013: 555). To achieve this aim, the following tasks are set: 1) to conduct a semantic analysis of the sentences collected for the study; 2) to reveal the main features of the image of Soviet Lithuania Straipsniai / Articles 229 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ that emerge; 3) to show what linguistic means were employed in the Soviet-period press to disseminate propagandistic “truth.” Here, image is understood in a narrower sense than stereotype or concept, that is, as a generalized mental image of a prior perception and/or experience residing in a person’s consciousness¹. The methods used in the study are descriptive-analytical; semantic and stylistic sentence analysis was also employed. In analyzing the image of Lithuania, the study examines the relations among words in phrases and sentences, and the semantic, lexical, and syntactic valency of a word in the broadest sense. The image of Lithuania was analyzed by combining structural and cognitive approaches to semantics: after examining the semantics of the relevant word or word combination and its relations with other words, the meaning created by the sentence as a whole was considered. Linguistic analyses of Soviet-period texts are greatly lacking in Lithuanian linguistics, although in recent decades the period itself has been analyzed particularly actively by historians, literary scholars, sociologists, and specialists in other fields. Historians have studied this period of Lithuanian history especially extensively and from diverse perspectives: Soviet-period historiography has been described in detail (Švedas 2009), as have figures of Lithuania at the time (Tinins 1994); adaptation and resistance in Soviet Lithuania have been analyzed (Putinaitė 2007), as have the mentality of society (Juknevičius 2022), the Sovietization of Lithuania (Pocius 2018), the (de)construction of the nation in Soviet Lithuania (Laurinavičius 2013), homo sovieticus in the press of a liberalizing Lithuania (Venclauskienė 2016: 143–162), and everyday life and ideology in the late Soviet period (Vaiseta 2014). Sociologists study Soviet family policy and the consequences of Soviet ideology for present-day Lithuanian society (Leinartė 2022); Soviet-period memory in life histories and everyday experiences in rural communities have been explored (Leinartė, Žilinskienė, Kraniauskienė, Šutinienė, Gecienė 2014; Šutinienė 2020: 7–28); much has been written and debated about nostalgia for the Soviet period (Klumbtytė 2004: 63–83; Šliavaitė 2010: 93–116; Ramonaite 2013: 265–285); and the distinctive features, formation, and strategies of adaptation to the system of the first Soviet-era generation have been analyzed (Žilinskienė, Kraniauskienė, Šutinienė 2016). Ethnologists examine how holidays were celebrated at that time (Čepaitienė 2013; Paukštytė-Šaknienė 2016: 9–31). The Soviet period has also attracted the attention of literary scholars: phenomena and concepts of Soviet Lithuanian literature have been described in detail (Kalėda, Kmita, Satkauskytė 2019); the genesis of Soviet Lithuanian literature and the aesthetic and cultural attitudes of the period have been discussed (Satkauskytė 2015); the image of the family in Soviet Lithuanian literature has been analyzed (Jakonytė-Kvedarienė 2015); the historiography of Soviet censorship has been studied (Šedait y tė 2017: 84–102); and the effect of censorship at the time on the development of society and culture has been described (Sabonis 1992). Of course, only part is mentioned here ¹ For more on the concept of image, see Vaičiulytė-Semenienė, Čižik-Prokaševa, Gritėnienė, Liutkevičienė, Gaidienė 2022: 17. 230 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne of the more important studies of the Soviet period; in fact, many more have been conducted, and there is no doubt that we will have such studies in the future as well. It is hoped that this linguistic analysis of the image of Soviet Lithuania will supplement the field of Soviet-period research and prove valuable and interesting not only to philologists but also to historians, sociologists, cultural researchers, and specialists in other fields. 1. THE DARK BOURGEOIS PAST VS. THE BRIGHT SOVIET PRESENT The examples selected for the study show that one of the aims of the ideological press was to belittle and blacken bourgeois Lithuania as much as possible: to “expose the nationalists’ chatter about the ‘independence’ of bourgeois Lithuania,” constantly remind readers “how helpless and weak the statehood of bourgeois Lithuania was,” and that “prewar Lithuania had no true freedom at all; Lithuanian independence was ‘illusory’” (Tiesa, 1945–12), while its citizens merely struggled and lived in poverty: 1) The rule of the Christian Democrats Lithuanialed the working people to poverty. At the same time, it created the broadest conditions for usury for capitalists and bankers (Tiesa, 1945–12). 2) All working Lithuania was shackled by the chains of nationalist slavery, the country was immersed in hellish darkness, bathed in blood and tears... (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–12). 3) How could one fail to remember the peasants of prewar Lithuania? They produced plenty of butter, while subsisting on buttermilk themselves, thinning their borscht with skim milk (Tiesa, 1962–12). These examples show how Soviet ideologists, employing vivid words and metaphors (“usury,” “chains of slavery,” “hellish darkness,” and so on), sought to rid themselves of the bourgeois past and trample it underfoot. The public sphere was used to erase and replace the historical past, legitimize the new order, and create visions of a “bright” communist future (Lankauskas 2006: 51–52). The newspapers of the period often compared the “high” achievements of the Soviet era with the “low” indicators of prewar Lithuania: 4) During the years of the Soviet system, despite the severe wounds inflicted by the war on our national economy, Lithuania created a powerful socialist industry, whose output already exceeds the prewar production level almost sixfold. Lithuania created a whole series of new industrial branches that had not existed before (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). When comparing Soviet Lithuania with bourgeois Lithuania, efforts were made to emphasize how uneducated, backward, and benighted Lithuania had been at that time (the peasants had never seen a combine harvester, young people had no opportunity to study at institutions of higher education, and so on): Straipsniai / Articles 231 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ 5) At present, there are more than 16,000 tractors in the republic’s agriculture, counted in 15-horsepower units. Until 1940, in Lithuania there were only one thousand tractors. The Lithuanian peasant had no idea about a combine harvester. This clearly demonstrates the changes that took place in the republic during the years of the Soviet system in mechanizing agricultural production (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 6) It is enough to recall that now Lithuanian SSR about 6 times more young people study in higher educational institutions than in the final years of bourgeois rule in Lithuania years (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–12). Considerable attention in the ideology and press of the period was devoted to figures of bourgeois Lithuania: they were disparaged and humiliated in every way; wealthier farmers were called kulaks and bloodsuckers, while defenders and patriots of the nation were called kulak and bourgeois nationalists, scum of the Lithuanian nation, weeds of the nation, and so on: 7) This is how, by bandit-like means, the fascists wanted to create in Lithuania the illusion of the electability of the people’s executioner, “President” Smetona (Tiesa, 1945–12). 8) The German occupiers and their lackeys [...], fleeing Lithuania, left behind here their agents—the Lithuanian-German nationalists. These scum of the Lithuanian people, through killings, looting, and the burning of farms, seek to obstruct the work of restoring Soviet Lithuania reconstruction (Tiesa, 1945–06). In Lithuania’s principal official newspaper, Tiesa, not only were the so-called kulaks relentlessly denounced, but all of “kulak bourgeois Lithuania” was disparaged and humiliated: 9) The kulak Gaidamavičius (Bajorai village, Želva district) exploited his neighbors for many years in bourgeois Lithuania and grew rich from their blood and sweat. During the German occupation, this bloodsucker became especially emboldened (Tiesa, 1945–03). 10) Kulak bourgeois Lithuania was a paradise for kulaks, landowners, speculators, exploiters, large Smetona-era officials, but hell for workers and peasants. On the blood and sweat of working people, splendid mansions grew in the cities, while workers and peasants lived in poverty in cramped and filthy hovels (Tiesa, 1945–07). 2. ENEMIES AND FRIENDS OF SOVIET LITHUANIA Analysis of the sentences selected for the study shows that postwar Lithuania had two principal enemies: within the country, supporters and defenders of Soviet rule had to fight the rampaging “bourgeois nationalists,” while the principal external enemy was Hitlerite Germany. 232 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne 2.1. Internal Enemies At that time, the most vicious enemies of Soviet Lithuania were explicitly identified as “Lithuanian-German nationalists” and “nationalist bandits,” against whom the Young Communists and the entire Lithuanian nation had to fight: 11) The cause of the entire nation places before every working person of Lithuania the task of exterminating more quickly the despicable scum—the Lithuanian bourgeois nationalists of every stripe and the remnants of their bandit gangs (Tiesa, 1945–06). 12) Lithuania’s working people rallied even more closely around the Communist Party and the Soviet government, supporting all their measures in the struggle against the bandit underground. Lithuania’s peasants, all working people, increasingly resolutely joined the struggle against the nationalist bandits, until those bandits were finally crushed (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). The postwar Lithuanian partisans were portrayed as the complete opposite of the Soviet hero (Communists, people’s defenders, and so on); they were internal enemies, ghosts of the past, because they were unable to adapt to the new Soviet order and attempted to live according to the old one (Putinaitė 2007: 113). 2.2. External Enemies Immediately after the occupation, the Soviet-period press spoke particularly unfavorably about Germany. Hitlerite Germany was most often condemned and criticized; it had shackled Lithuania in the chains of fascism, the German invaders had inflicted “wounds on agriculture,” “oppressed the culture of the Lithuanian nation,” “killed about half a million people in Lithuania” (Tiesa, 1945–03), and so on. Representatives of Hitlerite Germany were called Hitlerite barbarians, fascist and Hitlerite beasts, Hitlerite murderers, scoundrels, bandits, and the like; they terrorized, plundered, and destroyed our country: 13) More than 400,000 citizens of all nationalities of Soviet Lithuania—Lithuanians, Jews, Russians, and Poles—and about 160,000 Soviet prisoners of war were murdered and tortured by Hitlerite murderers in Lithuania (Tiesa, 1945–07). 14) Our patriotic women maintained contact with the partisans and, armed themselves, went into the forests to destroy the fascist beasts [...], inspiring their sons, husbands, and brothers to fight for the freedom of Soviet Lithuania and all humanity (Tiesa, 1945–03). In public propaganda, Lithuania’s inhabitants were instilled with the idea that some capitalist countries were also not very friendly toward our country, that their inhabitants sometimes even harmed us, while Lithuania strove to catch up with or even overtake such states: Straipsniai / Articles 233 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ 15) When, after Soviet rule had been suppressed, food products were scarce in Lithuania for a time, American businessmen did not miss the opportunity. Under the guise of supposed “aid,” they began sending to Lithuania lard and pork fat of questionable quality. Many people were poisoned after consuming these products (Tiesa, 1962–09). 16) Let the Danes still far surpass Lithuania in fishing, but Lithuania’s fishermen are clearly moving faster (Tiesa, 1962–12). Thus, as the sentences analyzed show, Lithuania’s external and internal enemies are identified clearly and without circumlocution. Soviet Lithuania fights its internal enemies and also fights its greatest external enemy, Hitlerite Germany; unfriendly capitalist states are disparaged, or efforts are made to catch up with and even surpass their economic achievements. 2.3. Friends of Soviet Lithuania During the first postwar years, having identified Germany, Russia, and later the Soviet Union as Lithuania’s principal enemies, the press described them as guardians of Lithuania’s security and freedom, making it possible for Lithuania to grow and prosper: 17) Only under the Soviet system did the Lithuanian nation acquire its true freedom, for the first time gaining the possibility of uniting all its lands into a single Lithuania’s Soviet Socialist Republic, from old Vilnius to Klaipėda (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 18) In Soviet Lithuania the Lithuanian nation acquired its true independence because it ceased to be a plaything in the hands of its own landowners and capitalists and foreign imperialists. Soviet Lithuania is a sovereign state (Tiesa, 1945–12). 19) The Soviet system in Lithuania, by revealing great possibilities for our country’s economic and cultural prosperity, thereby also created the most suitable conditions for our intelligentsia to grow and improve, so that its fruitful work might serve the welfare of its own country, the Soviet Motherland (Tiesa, 1945–07). The press of the time constantly reminded readers that, by maintaining friendship and cooperating with the peoples of the Soviet Union, Lithuania received much assistance and support from them: 20) Received from the Ordzhonikidzegrad locomotive factory are Lithuania’s spare parts for agricultural machinery for machine–tractor stations (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–03). 21) Ukrainians send excellent tractors to our fields and supply us with various industrial goods—the youth of Lithuaniaenthusiastically went to Soviet Ukraine to dig new mines, build new highways... (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 234 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne 22) Soviet Lithuania also receives large quantities of mineral fertilizers from the fraternal republics every year (ibid.). Of course, Lithuania’s best and most reliable friend was the “fraternal Russian nation.” Propagandistic discourse constantly spoke of the eternal, indestructible friendship between the Lithuanian and Russian peoples: 23) The great Russian nation sent to Lithuaniametal, coal, machinery, and building materials—everything needed not only to restore but also to propel forward at a rapid pace the Lithuanian SSRnational economy (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–03). 24) We are grateful for the liberation of Lithuania to all the fraternal peoples of our country, above all to the great Russian nation, which made the greatest sacrifices in the struggle against Hitler’s gangs and accomplished the greatest feats in the Patriotic War (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). In order to glorify the fraternal Slavic peoples, especially the Russians, Lithuania’s history was also carefully invoked: 25) The greatest battle in the history of Lithuania, the 1410 battle with the German Teutonic Knights at Žalgiris, was won because fraternal Slavic peoples, first and foremost the Russian nation, came to the aid of the Lithuanians (Tiesa, 1945–03). 26) Throughout all twenty-four years of his rule as grand duke, Gediminas waged unceasing war against the German knightly dogs; from these wars Lithuaniaemerged victorious in alliance with Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians (ibid.). It is emphasized that friendly relations were also maintained with other socialist states: 27) The Lithuanian SSR Academy of Sciences also has close ties with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other research institutes […] (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–09). 28) Polish friends expressed a desire to organize in Poland an exhibition of paintings by Lithuanian artists, which are now on display at the Lithuanian SSRArt Museum, and to exchange new works of music and literature systematically (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–08). 3. THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW HISTORY Analysis of the selected examples shows that one of the aims of totalitarian Soviet ideology was to explain continually in the press that Lithuania had voluntarily joined the union of fraternal republics and that, at the end of the Second World War, the Red Army had not occupied Lithuania, as it had the other Baltic states, but “liberated” it: Straipsniai / Articles 235 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ 29) However, the German invaders could not seize Lithuania, because the Lithuanian nation, having chosen the Soviet system in 1940 and joined the Soviet Union, had become inaccessible to the German invaders (Tiesa, 1945–03). 30) After the Red Army liberated Soviet Lithuania, by March 1 of this year the Soviet authorities had returned to the landless and smallholders the land seized by the German occupiers and kulaks (ibid.). The analysis of the texts confirms historians’ claim that “after the loss of independence in 1940, Moscow’s colonial regime soon undertook to rewrite Lithuania’s history” (Lankauskas 2006: 50). Today we already know the truth about communist totalitarianism, the genocide it carried out, “the comprehensive control of citizens’ actions and thoughts, the persecution of dissidents, and the policy of the ‘merging of socialist nations’” (Brazauskas 2010: 8). We also know about active armed resistance to the occupation, in which “about 100,000 people, or about 4 percent of all Lithuanians, actively participated or actively supported it”; this resistance movement was 10–15 times more intense than in Latvia and 30–60 times more intense than in Estonia (Anušauskas 2004: 241, 252; Kuodýtė, Tracervskis 2013: 34). Yet the postwar official organ Tiesa published a completely different “truth” in 1945: 31) Only a small handful of contemptible degenerates and traitors sold their honor and conscience to the German plunderers, helped the Hitlerite executioners enslave Lithuania, and destroy the Lithuanian nation (Tiesa, 1945–07). 32) Only the last fool can now fail to understand that the days of the kulak nationalists in Lithuania are numbered, that the hour is inexorably approaching when these weeds of the nation will be torn out by the roots from Lithuania’s life (Tiesa, 1945–09). Such sentences reveal that there were all kinds of citizens in the new Soviet Lithuania after all: not only those who had faithfully devoted themselves to the new order and diligently carried out the will of the authorities, but also “fools,” “contemptible degenerates,” “weeds of the nation,” and so on. Soviet-era journalism sought, in an elevated style, to reflect the “joy of Soviet Lithuania at regaining freedom” (Tiesa 1945–03); Soviet rule and the Communist Party were glorified, and their merits extolled: 33) We, the collective farmers of Soviet Lithuania, as the true and full-fledged masters of our land and our country, express our greatest joy at the regained freedom and at the complete liberation of our native Soviet Lithuania from the fascist yoke. We express infinite gratitude to our great leader and teacher, Comrade Stalin, and to the heroic Red Army under his leadership (Tiesa, 1945–03). 34) The rapid and comprehensive development of the national economy and culture of Soviet Lithuania is the result of the Communist Party’s and the Soviet government’s Leninist national policy and of the friendship among the peoples of the Soviet Union—a major achievement of the socialist system (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 236 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne As the examples selected for the study show, the press constantly generated “the propagandistic din characteristic of those times” (Brazauskas 2010: 27). Naturally, the propagandistic press did not even mention many painful events of that period. Today we know that the Sovietization of Lithuania was accompanied by terror: thousands of people were imprisoned, interrogated, or killed by NKVD units, and “in 1941–1952, about 132,000 residents of Lithuania were deported to places of exile in the interior and northern parts of Russia [...]” (Leinartė, Žilinskienė, Kraniauskienė, Šutinienė, Gečienė 2014: 28). The situation of the Catholic Church of Lithuania was also deplorable: it was forcibly pushed out of public life, bishops were repressed, monasteries were closed, religious community buildings were nationalized, and so on.² None of this was mentioned even once in the Soviet-era press. 4. SOVIET LITHUANIA FLOURISHING AND GRATITUDE FOR EVERYTHING The press of the period prudently sought to (re)construct an image of “the good life.” It was claimed that life in Soviet Lithuania was better than in many capitalist countries: 35) The members of the delegation of Lithuanians from Uruguay were particularly delighted by the conditions enjoyed by the youth of Lithuania. “I fully understand,” writes Comrade Rasikas, “that young people now have what they did not have in any capitalist country” (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 36) As the fishermen’s reports announce, about 140,000 tons of fish will be caught in Lithuania this year, that is, already only five times less than in Denmark. From 83 times less to 5 times less! Moreover, readers should be reminded that Denmark has incomparably better fishing conditions than Lithuania (Tiesa, 1962–12). Propagandists pragmatically enumerated numerous achievements of Soviet Lithuania: ever-improving industrial, economic, and other indicators³: 37) Soviet Lithuania is growing stronger day by day, both economically and culturally (Tiesa, 1945–06). 38) The working people of Lithuania can see with their own eyes that, despite certain shortcomings—which we ourselves openly discuss and are determined to eliminate—our life improves every year and every month (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). ² For more on Lithuania during the years of the Stalinist regime (1944–1953), see vle.lt. Available online: https://www.vle.lt/straipsnis/lietuva-stalininio-rezimo-metais-1944-1953/ [accessed 2024-02-12]. ³ For more on Lithuania’s economic reform, economic growth, construction, and industrialization during that period, see Tininis 1994: 102–109. Straipsniai / Articles 237 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ The new Soviet world in Lithuania “was not created by its own people but had been received as a gift” (Putinaitė 2007: 51). The press of the time conducted a broad propaganda campaign claiming that Lithuanians who had received such an “incredible” and “miraculous” gift were well-fed, happy, and free, because from then on they would live “under the great banner of Lenin and Stalin” (Tiesa, 1945–12). Thus, the citizens of Soviet-era Lithuania were supposed to feel indescribably happy and grateful for the new life they had received. The mass-circulation press of Soviet Lithuania taught its citizens not to be ashamed of their feelings toward the Red Army, Comrade Stalin, the Party, the Soviet Union, its fraternal peoples, and especially the great Russian people. Feelings of gratitude, joy, love, and so on were also displayed in the propaganda press of the time: 39) Dear and beloved Comrade Stalin! On the fifth anniversary of the establishment of Soviet rule in Lithuania, the Lithuanian nation sends you, our beloved teacher, leader, and liberator, its first word of infinite gratitude, love, and greetings. We are happy to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the establishment of Soviet rule in Lithuania during the days of the greatest triumph of the Soviet state, after the world-historical victory won by our great Soviet Motherland over the German fascist plunderers, the fiercest enemies of all humanity (Tiesa, 1945–07). Adjectives and adverbs were used to express various feelings: 40) We send a warm greeting and express our gratitude to the heroic Lithuanian partisans who crushed the rear of the German plunderers (Tiesa, 1945–06). 41) The working people of Lithuania, like all Soviet people, endorsed the decision of the June Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee with great satisfaction [...] (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–09). Particularly ardent feelings of official gratitude were expressed toward the Red Army. In 1945, the official organ Tiesa devoted especially much attention to it: it glorified it, thanked it, urged the citizens of Lithuania to support this army with all their strength so that fascist Germany would be crushed sooner, and constantly reminded readers of the Red Army’s merits to Lithuania: 42) These wise words of Comrade Stalin oblige us all—workers, working peasants, and intellectuals of Lithuania—to redouble our efforts to help the Red Army [...] (Tiesa, 1945–03). 43) Honor and gratitude to our splendid Soviet Lithuanian partisans and the soldiers of the Lithuanian formation of the Red Army (ibid.)! Thus, the press of the time clearly shows how a totalitarian regime knew how to impose ideocratic rule on the population, relying on ideological control of thoughts and feelings that dictated what people had to think, governed their emotional lives, and established a code of conduct (Walicki 2005: 535). Yet not everyone “fit” into the image of a joyful and happy Soviet world constructed by propaganda: it excluded resistance members, people repressed by the regime, as well as 238 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne “people who remained on the sidelines of Soviet life and did not rejoice in it” (Putinaitė 2007: 49). 5. PLANS AND COMMITMENTS The press of the time was full of information about how diligently and exemplary plans were fulfilled and exceeded during the Soviet era. Historians even call the Soviet public sphere optimistic because it “was filled with information about the Party’s and collectives’ constant achievements, plans exceeded without respite, and the joy of Soviet life” (Vaiseta 2014: 150):4 44) The working people of the Lithuanian SSR exceeded the timber-preparation plan (Tiesa, 1945–07). 45) The plan for implementing the Fourth War Loan of the Lithuanian SSR was fulfilled at 125 percent. The spring sowing plan was exceeded (ibid.). 46) The industrial enterprises of the Council of the National Economy of Lithuania fulfilled the eight-month plan at 108 percent (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–09). To make the “gigantic achievements” appear even more convincing, the press constantly provided people with concrete figures: how many enterprises had been built, how much grain had been threshed, how much funding had been allocated for various purposes, and so on: 47) In Soviet Lithuania, 547 enterprises of the metal, timber, light, food, and construction-materials industries, more than 500 local (district) industrial enterprises, and 130 producers’ cooperative artels have already been restored (Tiesa, 1945–12). 48) The budget of Soviet Lithuania allocated substantial funds for social welfare. This year they nearly doubled compared with the previous year and reached 146.5 million rubles (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). To achieve the greatest possible effect on readers, the Soviet-era press even employed the adjective “sacred,” associated with religion; it proved especially useful to propagandists when speaking about fulfilling commitments: 49) The sacred duty of all working peasants of Lithuania is to contribute actively to the restoration and settlement of the agricultural districts of Klaipėda, Šilutė, and Pagėgiai (Tiesa, 1945–03). 50) Dear working peasants of Lithuania! It is our sacred duty, together with all the peasants of the Soviet Union, to supply our Red Army with bread and other food products (ibid.). ⁴ The everyday reality of that period is perfectly revealed through the accounts of ordinary citizens of the USSR in Svetlana Alexievich’s book: “We fulfill and exceed the plans, but there is still nothing in the shops” (Aleksijevič 2016: 48). Straipsniai / Articles 239 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ The official discourse of the time constantly reminded people who had given Lithuania “true independence”; citizens were urged not to forget that all the country’s achievements had been attained only because Lithuania had become one of the republics of the Soviet Union: 51) The Stalin Constitution granted Lithuania true independence and statehood, united all Lithuanian lands under one banner of freedom, and ensures all its citizens a peaceful and meaningful life (Tiesa, 1945–12). The press of the time not only rejoiced in Lithuania’s various achievements but also called for constant improvement; at times, it criticized those who failed to fulfill their targets, worked unsatisfactorily, and so on: 52) The technical-supply, Chief Metal-Supply, and Chief Oil-Supply organizations of Lithuania worked particularly unsatisfactorily (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 53) The resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania noted that individual communists and Young Communists themselves failed to set an example of diligence, and that their conduct sometimes did not meet the requirements of the moral code of the builder of communism (Tiesa, 1962–09). The propaganda press of that time appeared to criticize many things, but it consciously avoided some problems and remained silent about them. For example, the sentences selected for the study contain not even a hint of empty shop shelves, the constant shortage of goods, the then-developed practice known as “blat,” or the entrenchment of bribery and speculation. Soviet-era newspapers did not forget to emphasize how the kulaks of bourgeois Lithuania “exploited their neighbors for many years and grew rich from their bloody sweat” (Tiesa, 1945–09), yet the fact that working people exceeded plans by 125 percent or more was not considered exploitation. 6. ALMOST IDEAL CITIZENS OF SOVIET LITHUANIA The semantic analysis of the sentences shows that the press of the period shaped the concept of an active, energetic, diligent, friendly—indeed, ideal—citizen of Soviet Lithuania⁵. The official press of the time declared how important it was for working people to be active and involved in public life. The press clearly shows how intense and demanding the ordinary person’s life was: they were constantly encouraged to fulfill and exceed plans and commitments, to participate actively in the construction of communism, in socialist life ⁵ According to S. Alexievich, the plan for communism was insane: to remake the “old person” and produce a new type of human being—the homo sovieticus—in the laboratory of Marxism-Leninism (Aleksijevič 2016: 11). 240 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne and competition, to improve and increase output, develop agriculture, Soviet peoples’ friendship, and so on: 54) Together with all the Soviet people, the working people of Soviet Lithuania are building socialism, expanding and improving industrial production, commissioning new plants, factories, and power stations, strengthening socialist agriculture, and raising the level of the people’s material well-being and culture (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). An illusion was created that working people were free and consciously chose such an intense and active life of their own accord. Yet the sentences found in the press clearly show that, by manipulating the name of the working people, the authorities spoke and decided on their behalf (“we unanimously decided,” “we undertake to,” and so on): 55) Having gathered at the First Republican Congress of the Working Peasants of Lithuania, we unanimously decided to develop socialist competition for the successful fulfillment of the 1945 agricultural work plan. We undertake to fulfill the 1945 spring sowing plan as quickly as possible and at a high agro-technical level [...]. We call on all working peasants of Lithuania to join socialist competition by assuming specific commitments (Tiesa, 1945–03). Tiesa constantly reminded readers of the working people’s main tasks: tirelessly strengthening the friendship of the Soviet peoples and striving to ensure that not only beloved Soviet Lithuania but also “the great socialist Motherland—the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics” flourished (Tiesa, 1945–12). Therefore, the Soviet press continually addressed the citizens of Lithuania, urging them to gather their strength and undertake concrete activities: 56) Peasants of Soviet Lithuania! Let us exert all our strength and help restore our beloved Soviet Lithuania more quickly; let us help the Red Army finally crush loathsome German fascism and raise the banner of victory in Berlin (Tiesa, 1945–03). 57) Our people must gather strength for new, still greater achievements: after all, in devastated Lithuania countless tasks await us (Tiesa, 1945–06). In the postwar public discourse, the ordinary working person was constantly “strengthened” through metaphors of struggle⁶. Examples from the press of the time show that even after the war had ended, the people of Soviet Lithuania still had to participate constantly in the struggle for increasing industrial ⁶ According to philosophers, in the first years and even decades of the Soviet state’s existence, “the mood and even the terminology of war permeated peaceful work as well. People did not work but ‘fought for the harvest,’ waged war ‘on the front for preparing grain reserves,’ and so on (Juknevičius 2022: 109). S. Alexievich writes similarly about life under socialism: ‘[W]e are essentially people of war. Either we fought or prepared to fight. We never lived otherwise. Hence our military psychology. Even in peacetime everything is military: a drum beats, a flag flutters... the heart cannot contain itself in the chest...’ (Aleksijevič 2016: 12). Straipsniai / Articles 241 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ production, improving product quality, reducing their cost, and so on. 58) The first reports received from the collective and state farms of our republic indicate that the agricultural workers of Lithuania are prepared to participate actively in the nationwide struggle for a new rise in agricultural production and to contribute their share of labor to achieving the task set forth (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). 59) It must be the matter of honor of all the republic’s collective and state farms to follow the example of the patriotic leading collective farm “The Road to Communism” and to respond to the greeting of the CPSU Central Committee and its appeal with an intense struggle to achieve high indicators in livestock production throughout Lithuania (ibid.). Although the press demonstrated an active and tireless struggle, real life at the time contained much stagnation, alienation, intellectual ossification, and emptiness; it is not without reason that scholars of the period call the society of late Soviet Lithuania a “society of boredom,” characterized by fruitless, meaningless toil (Vaiseta 2014: 16). Propaganda constantly emphasized the importance of strengthening the labor and moral education of Soviet Lithuanians by drawing on the examples of intellectuals, Young Communists, and communists: 60) The resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Lithuania noted that individual communists and Young Communists themselves failed to set an example of diligence, and that their conduct sometimes did not meet the requirements of the moral code of the builder of communism. There are still people in the district who avoid socially useful work (Tiesa, 1962–09). 61) The task of the Lithuanian intelligentsia is to make the broadest possible use of all the opportunities broadly provided by Soviet rule, to create a culture that is national in form and socialist in content, to educate the working people of Soviet Lithuania in the spirit of Leninist-Stalinist friendship among the nations, and to cultivate love for their Soviet Motherland and the fraternal Soviet peoples, above all the great Russian people […] (Tiesa, 1945–12). Thus, although the Soviet-era press constantly reminded readers how happy and free the people of Soviet Lithuania were, reality was different: ordinary people suffered because they “had to be happy as members of Soviet society, while personal happiness was not necessary for that,” and, moreover, people “were forced to accept abnormal things as normal and self-evident” (Putinaitė 2007: 23, 49). It is not without reason that scholars claim that the concept of duality of lifestyle most clearly characterizes the Soviet era—“the distinction between public, official, and private levels” (Čepaitienė 2013: 554); in other words, overtly dual practices: conduct conforming to the canon 242 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne ritual behavior conforming to it and the “normal life” conducted under cover (Vaiseta 2014: 37)⁷. 7. PROPAGANDINIŲ „TIESŲ“ RAIŠKA Kinship terms were used to express propaganda in the Soviet press: citizens of Lithuania were called daughters and sons, the peoples of the Soviet Union were described as a fraternal family, Russia as the great elder brother, and so on: 62) As candidates for deputies of local Soviets, the working people of Lithuania nominated their best sons and daughters, who had demonstrated boundless devotion to the cause of communism (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 63) The entire fraternal family watches the development and flourishing of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia with great attention and affection. Our brothers and friends, who have joined the elder brother, help us everywhere and always (Tiesa, 1962–03). The authors of propaganda articles abundantly used comparisons and epithets, calling Lithuania splendid, glorious, beloved, and so on: 64) Trampled by the German boot, Lithuania will rise from the ashes again, like a flower toward the sun (Tiesa, 1945–03). 65) During the occupation, German colonists, like hungry rats, streamed by the thousands into Lithuania and hurried to settle on the lands of the working peasants of Lithuania, imposing their yoke on the working peasants (ibid.). Metaphors were used abundantly to name and represent communism and fraternal friendship among the peoples and to highlight achievements: 66) The working people of Lithuania tirelessly strengthen our beloved Motherland through their devoted labor—the stronghold of peace and friendship among peoples throughout the world. The Lithuanian nation is certain of its future. Together with all the fraternal peoples of our multinational Soviet Motherland, it is building the bright palace of communism (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). 67) Along this broad Soviet highway, Soviet Lithuania advances within the family of Soviet peoples (Tiesa, 1945–09). 68) The light of science and culture is spreading ever more widely through Soviet Lithuaniain its cities and villages (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–03). ⁷ To this day, Lithuanians themselves assess the Soviet era rather ambivalently in the public sphere: both an unequivocal rejection of the Soviet era and nostalgia for the Soviet past are recorded (Čepaitienė 2007: 36–50). Perhaps one of the many reasons for longing for that period is the idealistic image of Soviet Lithuania created by propaganda over many decades. Straipsniai / Articles 243 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ Official Soviet propaganda devoted considerable attention to various formulaic slogans: 69) Long live the Soviet working peasants of Lithuania! Long live Soviet Lithuania! Long live the Lenin–Stalin Party—the organizer and inspirer of the great achievements of our Motherland (Tiesa, 1945–03)! 70) We will make every effort to ensure that the Pirčiupis tragedy never happens again and that peace is preserved. Long live Soviet Lithuania! Long live the Soviet Union (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06)! The texts of the period abound in pathos and Soviet clichés: 71) The soldiers who spoke various languages brought freedom to Lithuania; yet one heart beat in their chests—the heart of a Soviet patriot—and they had one goal in life, indicated by the Lenin–Stalin Party: to love the Motherland selflessly and fight for its happiness. With hearts full of gratitude to the liberating soldiers, the people of Soviet Lithuania helped the Red Army day after day and joined in restoring the national economy destroyed by the German plunderers (Tiesa, 1945–07). Clichés were widespread in the Soviet-era press because individuals tend to accept them as self-evident. Repeated clichés acquire the status of naturalness and normality. Clichés penetrate consciousness so deeply that people often accept them without even reflecting on them; they shape thought and positions and gradually prepare people to think, speak, feel, and act in a particular direction (Zijderveld 1979: 4, 10). The abundant use of deverbal abstracts and certain syntactic constructions indicates that some of these propaganda texts were translated from Russian: 72) In military garrisons in Lithuania, a whole series of revolutionary soldiers’ demonstrations took place in 1905 and 1906 (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–08). 73) The greeting states that the Party Central Committee and the Soviet government have no doubt that, following the example of the “Road to Communism” collective farm, which demonstrates how enormous the reserves for a sharp increase in livestock production are, all Lithuanian republic collective farms, as well as collective and state farms in the other Baltic republics, will follow suit (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). 74) The youth of Soviet Lithuania, the Komsomol members, will spare neither their youthful energy nor their strength; they will make a substantial contribution to the common cause, because they are firmly convinced that the successful implementation of the sixth five-year plan will further raise the well-being of the Soviet people and constitute another major step toward the dawn of communism (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1956–03). 244 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne 75) Lithuania’s rural working people will achieve new accomplishments in crop and livestock farming and will solve well and quickly the task of substantially increasing livestock production (Komjaunimo tiesa, 1957–06). GENERALIZATION An analysis of the examples collected for the study shows that the Soviet press sought to create an exceptionally positive image of an idealized Lithuania. Such images were particularly popular at the time because “the reflection of factual reality in Soviet [...] literature was regarded as a failure to understand the historical process, a failure to see concealed essential tendencies” (Mažeikis 2010: 300). The enormous circulation figures of the Soviet press also had a major influence on entrenching the image of an ideal Lithuania⁸. The image of an ideal Lithuania created in the Soviet press encompassed the following principal aspects: disparagement and vilification of the recent past (Smetona’s, bourgeois Lithuania); in contrast to this period, the bright and beautiful Soviet present was foregrounded; the country’s friends and enemies were highlighted; and its economic, cultural, and other achievements were emphasized. Reading the official journalism of the period creates the impression that a considerable portion of Lithuania’s citizens at the time had become integrated with the Soviet system, lived under the influence of its ideological principles, and thought according to the discourse it had shaped⁹. Thus, the semantic analysis of the sentences selected for the study shows that the official simulacrum of an ideal Lithuania was reflected in the Soviet ideological press as if in a distorting mirror¹⁰, and only after regaining freedom did we begin to realize that it was merely “the distorted charm of the Soviet paradise” (Putinaitė 2007: 17). CONCLUSIONS In contemporary (post)socialism studies, historians, sociologists, ethnologists, and literary scholars devote the greatest attention to the Soviet period, but this historical period is also important to linguists. When analyzing press texts from the Soviet period, one must constantly bear in mind the fact that people at that time lived ⁸ The importance and influence of Pravda in the lives of ordinary citizens of the USSR is also demonstrated by the following fact: Communists used this newspaper to teach their children to read (for more, see Aleksijevič 2016: 25). ⁹ When armed resistance had been crushed, “the nation’s most basic instinct of self-preservation compelled it to adapt to the conditions of the occupation regime” (Brazauskas 2010: 8) ¹⁰ A simulacrum is an image that creates a nonexistent reality, erasing the distinction between what is “real” and “unreal,” “actual” and “imagined” (Baudrillard 2002: 9). Straipsniai / Articles 245 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ as if they were leading double lives: one—a life constructed and sustained by communist ideology through propaganda in the public sphere; the other—a domestic world not displayed publicly (cf. Lubecka 2013: 92). Thus, when viewing the press of that period from the perspective of the twenty-first century, we see an obvious contradiction between Soviet propaganda and reality. Totalitarian ideology permeated all the press of the time. The official propaganda press created an exceptionally positive image of a Sovietized ideal Lithuania. This idealistic narrative about Lithuania made extensive use of standard Soviet-era propaganda clichés and kinship terms; in an elevated style (using metaphors, comparisons, and epithets), it depicted the life of the “happy” people of the “happy” country under the Soviet system. The ideal image of Soviet Lithuania consists of the following main aspects: denigration of the recent past; a bright, flourishing new Soviet Lithuania set against “dark,” “wretched,” and “backward” bourgeois Lithuania; the highlighting of the country’s friends and enemies; and its economic, cultural, and other achievements. In the press of the postwar years (especially in the 1945 Tiesa), fascist Germany was clearly identified as Lithuania’s principal external enemy, while the greatest internal enemy was the gangs of bourgeois nationalists, against whom a fierce struggle was waged. According to the press ideologues, Lithuania maintained fraternal relations above all with the great Russian nation; a strong friendship was also being forged with the other peoples of the Soviet Union and with the socialist states. Through its mass-circulation press, Soviet Lithuania taught its citizens not to be ashamed of their feelings toward the Red Army, which had “given” Lithuania freedom; toward Comrade Stalin, the Soviet Union, and its fraternal peoples, especially the great Russian nation. The propaganda press of the time openly displayed feelings of gratitude, joy, love, and others. The so-called “bright” Soviet future was constructed in the propaganda press by devoting special attention to working people. An illusion was created that, in socialist society, the people of Lithuania were well fed, happy, and free. Thanks to them, Lithuania itself was developing so rapidly; therefore, the press constantly emphasized how important it was not only to fulfill but also to exceed plans and commitments (this was not regarded as exploitation), and to participate actively in building communism, socialist life, and socialist competition. The illustrative examples examined clearly show that propaganda sought to demonstrate how intense, active, and productive the lives of Lithuania’s working people were at that time. The ideological press conducted a broad propaganda campaign; however, when we view the Soviet press from today’s standpoint and know the historical truth, we see an obvious gap between what the official Soviet press depicted and promoted and what actually existed in the gray everyday life of Lithuania. 246 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC Sovietinės Lietuvos vaizdinys Moderniosios tapatybės ideologinio naratyvo tekstyne SOURCES AND LITERATURE Aleksijevič Svetlana 2016: Second-Hand Time: The Last of the Soviets, Vilnius: Kitos knygos. Anušauskas Arvydas, ed., 2004: Development of the Resistance and Methods of Resistance. – Civil Resistance in Lithuania and Poland: Connections and Peculiarities, 1939–1956, Vilnius: Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre. Baudrillard Jean 2002: Simulacra and Simulation, Vilnius: Baltos lankos. Brazauskas Algirdas 2010: And Then We Worked for Lithuania, Vilnius: Knygiai. Čepaitienė Aušolė 2013: Ethnography of Life: Places, Structures, and Time. 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Žilinskienė Laimutė, Kraniauskienė Sigita, Šutinienė Irena 2016: Born in Socialism: The First Soviet-Era Generation, Vilnius: Vilnius University. The Image of Soviet Lithuania in the Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of the Modern Identity SUMMARY In 2018, the Institute of the Lithuanian Language launched the Corpus of the Ideological Narrative of the Modern Identity. A search across the Corpus’s texts from the Soviet era (the “Tiesa” from 1945 and 1962 and the “Komjaunimo Tiesa” from 1956–1957) has Straipsniai / Articles 249 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ netted 798 illustrations that contain mentions of Lithuania. The article aims to analyse the sentences from the Soviet propaganda press selected for the linguistic study and to look into the image of soviet Lithuania that can be pieced together from the material printed in the press of the period, how much truth and how much distorted or even new reality constructed by propaganda artists there is in that image, and how journalist texts from the period (re)construct soviet Lithuania. When you analyse texts of press articles from the soviet period, you always need to keep in mind the fact that people back then used to live double lives, so to speak: one life constructed by the communist ideology as created and maintained in the public eye; the other one, an undisclosed private life of one’s home; therefore, as we look at the period press through the lens of the 21st century, we can see a clear confrontation between the propaganda and the realities of the Soviet era. Semantic analysis of the selected sentences has shown that the soviet press tried to project a highly positive picture of a perfect Lithuania. This picture is painted with standard clichés of soviet propaganda, exultantly portraying the life of ‘happy’ people from a ‘happy’ country in the Soviet system. The ideal image of soviet Lithuania consists of the following key aspects: denigration of the recent past; juxtaposition of the ‘dark’, ‘poor’, and ‘backward’ bourgeois Lithuania to the bright and flourishing new soviet Lithuania; identification of the biggest friends and interior and exterior enemies; celebration of the country’s economic, cultural, and other achievements. In the post-war press (the 1945 “Tiesa” in particular), the main exterior enemy of Lithuania was fascist Germany; its biggest interior foe was bourgeois nationalist gangs, which were the target of brutal hostilities. Ideologists argued that Lithuania maintained brotherly relations with the great Russian nation first and foremost, and was building strong friendship ties with other peoples in the Soviet Union and with other socialist states. The press of soviet Lithuania with its large run educated its citizens not to be ashamed of the warm feelings of gratitude, love, support, and other emotions towards the Red Army that had ‘given’ Lithuania its freedom, towards comrade Stalin, the Soviet Union and its brotherhood of nations, and the great Russian nation in particular. Soviet press placed a considerable emphasis on Lithuania’s progress, always accentuating the importance of delivering and exceeding the plans and obligations, actively participating in building communism, social life, and race. The illustrative examples covered by the analysis clearly show that the Lithuanian people of the period lived a very intensive and active life. The period’s ideological press was engaged in a large-scale campaign of propaganda, saying that Lithuanian people living in the socialist society were well-fed, happy, and free, even though the reality was completely different; ergo, we can see a clear gap between what was depicted in the official soviet press and the true image of the glum Lithuanian reality. Submitted on 13 January 2024 AURELIJA GRITĖNIENĖ Institute of the Lithuanian Language 5 Petro Vileišio St., LT–10308, Vilnius, Lithuania [email protected] 250 Acta Linguistica Lithuanica XC