Reflections of Social Issues in Lithuanian Ober Ost Periodicals Published During The First World War

Abstract

This article presents a discussion of the perception and reflection of the so-called ‘social question’ or ‘social problems’ in Lithuanian Ober Ost periodicals during the First World War. The time of this war acts as a natural bridge between two different periods, where the prewar Lithuanian context was noted to have an exclusively public discourse on social issues, while as the war was ending, the foundations started being laid for social security policy in the hands of the Lithuanian state. Despite this, the war years in Lithuania, and especially the period under German occupation, have been poorly researched in terms of social issues. First of all, it is important to ascertain how (or whether) prewar social issues were reflected among Lithuanians under the German occupation, how this population related to the new problems of the war years, and generally speaking, what the prewar social discourse tendencies (or even the fate of the social discourse) under the new circumstances were. The specifics of the German occupation, primarily the total mind control of society, coupled with unprecedented censorship, determined that these questions will be discussed on the basis of the Lithuanian periodical press in particular. Ever since the first three Lithuanian periodicals started being published at the end of 1917, it has been more or less possible to identify the coverage of particular rubrics and topics, their differences, and their tendencies in the sphere of social issues. At first, the social discourse unfolded in these periodicals very cautiously and modestly, but after the lifting of censorship restrictions on 15 October 1918, the situation changed markedly. By the end of 1918, publications were already competing against each other in terms of their coverage of topics and the openness of their opinions. Social topics in these publications became differentiated and structured, with independent discourses standing out according to different spheres, e.g. on issues such as land reform and the situation of workers.