„Tamista esi nerealus žmogus“: keletas štrichu kairiojo inteligento ir istoriko Stasio Matulaicio portretui / “You are Unrealistic Man”: Some New Personal Traits for the Characteristic Portrait of Leftist Intellectual and Historian Stasys Matulaitis

Abstract

The article presents the main facts from the biography and scientific activity of historian Stasys Matulaitis with a special focus on the final years of his life. Matulaitis’ public speech delivered on 10 November 1950 in the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic which was targeted against the head of the institute Juozas Žiugžda as a falsifier of history is one of the examples of attempted resistance to the policy of control and indoctrination of historical memory undertaken by the totalitarian system. A former long-year Bolshevik and advocate of the Soviet system convinced in the rightness of his activities, Matulaitis took a critical approach towards his earlier position and became an unpersuadable opponent of the Soviet regime. The metamorphoses of Matulaitis’ life reflect the dramatic changes of the epoch. The present article evaluates the evolution of Matulaitis’ attitudes in the context of the attitudes of various other leftist intellectuals who admired Bolshevism for a certain period of time in their lives or leftist intellectuals who were simply sympathizing with the USSR towards Soviet regime and their disappointment with it. The article comes with some previously fully unpublished Matulaitis’ texts of anti-Soviet content: the act of finding of anti- Soviet texts (Matulaitis’ proclamation Citizens and Diary), written by the employees of the State Museum of History and Revolution of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, Matulaitis’ Diary written at the end of 1950 and a proclamation Citizens as well as his anonymous letter to the editorial office of the newspaper Tiesa. Keywords: biography of Stasys Matulaitis, Soviet historiography, historian’s relationship with the totalitarian regime, effect of ideology and censorship on the studies in history, the conflict in the Institute of History in 1950. Summary The article presents the main facts from the biography and scientific activity of historian Stasys Matulaitis with a special focus on the final years of his life. The twists and turns of the life of Stasys Matulaitis, a leftist by ideological orientation, were tightly linked with important events in Lithuania’s public and political life. A personal, intellectual and political biography, which was influenced by those events and itself influenced them (as well as acted through them) encompassed the tension, drama and controversy that shaped the history of Lithuania of the second half of the 19th century–the first half of the 20th century. Certain little known (or barely known until recently) aspects of evolution of attitudes of Stasys Matulaitis as a historian and politician after World War II are especially noteworthy. Matulaitis’ public speech delivered on 10 November 1950 in the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic targeted against the then head of the institute Juozas Siugžda as a falsifier of history is one of the examples of attempted resistance to the policy of control and indoctrination of historical memory undertaken by the totalitarian system. A former long-year Bolshevik and advocate of the Soviet system, Matulaitis took a critical approach towards his earlier position and became an unpersuadable opponent of the Soviet regime. The strong personality, especially productive on the creative dimension, would often draw the attention of nearly all governments within whose jurisdiction he lived owing to his peculiar and independent positions, which he had no fear of demonstrating in public. The final conflict with the representatives of the official government in Lithuania under the Soviet occupation, which occurred at the end of 1950 in the Institute of History, Matulaitis being its certain “guilty party”, could easily come to a tragic end for him. He succeeded in avoiding another arrest and deportation; however, he spent the last years of his life in a state of constant nervous tension and in straitened circumstances. The documents enclosed to this article do not only reflect the personal opinion and experiences of their author; in addition to his resentment against the system of that time, they contain rather accurate characteristics and facts which were about to fall into oblivion. The metamorphoses of Matulaitis’ life reflect the dramatic changes of the epoch. The present article evaluates the evolution of Matulaitis’ attitudes in the context of the attitudes of various other leftist intellectuals who admired Bolshevism for a certain period of time in their lives or leftist intellectuals who were simply sympathizing with the USSR towards Soviet regime and their disappointment with it. The article somes with previously fully unpublished Matulaitis’ texts of anti-Soviet content: the act of finding of anti-Soviet texts (Matulaitis’ proclamation Citizens and Diary), written by the employees of the State Museum of History and Revolution of Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic, Matulaitis’ Diary written at the end of 1950 and a proclamation Citizens as well as his anonymous letter to the editorial office of the newspaper Tiesa. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15823/istorija.2015.24