| Abstract [eng] |
The article discusses Justas Paleckis, chairman of the presidium of the Soviet Lithuania Supreme council, activities during late Stalinism. The paper puts forward the premise that from 1944 to 1953 Paleckis was balancing between indigenous (local) communism and attitudes characteristic of some Central European national communists. To be more precise, Paleckis tried to emphasize the specifics of the historical development of Lithuania and its differences from other Soviet republics in which the formation of the Soviet regime started earlier. According to him, the statehood tradition made Lithuania a unique republic and this circumstance should be taken into account when making Lithuania Soviet. Paleckis was convinced that in order to render Soviet power more attractive to the Lithuanians it was necessary to cooperate with nation's cultural elite, that is, with the interwar Lithuanian intelligentsia. In his writings and speeches Paleckis made efforts to organically merge the liberation of the Lithuanian nation from the 'yoke' of the exploiters, with no less important liberation from the 'national yoke' or national revival of Lithuanians. The social and national “liberation”, according to him was crowned with the establishment of the socialist order in Lithuania. Such 'organic' understanding of history was characteristic of other national communists of Central Europe. Finally, Paleckis tried to incorporate national elements into the system of symbols of Soviet Lithuania. The Lithuanization of the symbols of Soviet power was to strengthen the legitimacy of the power. However, the analysis showed that Lithuanian party leadership did not support Paleckis' ideas and efforts. Paleckis was often strongly criticized in communist forums. In general, it can be argued that in the late Stalinism the "window of opportunity" for national communism in Lithuania was finally closed. Unification and russification tendencies have become increasingly prevalent in politics. Thus, in a such political - cultural context, Paleckis represented the type of communist that should be called an indigenous Lithuanian communist. |
