Soviet Occupation Research Articles

Formation of traditions of financial support of activity and banking development on the Ternopil region’s lands

The article considers the peculiarities of the formation of traditions of financial support of private business and public associations in the lands of Ternopil region. The main trends in the formation and development of banking in the Western lands of Ukraine, including Ternopil region, are described. The main types of financial and credit companies that operated in the lands of Ternopil region in the late XVIII - early XX centuries are considered. It has founded out which banks were among the first in the city of Ternopil and region. It is investigated which institutions now function in the buildings of the first banks. The main reasons and purpose of creation of financial and credit societies by territorial communities at the end of XVIII - the beginning of XX centuries are substantiated. The role of rural cooperatives and banks in the life of Ukrainians during the Polish and Austro-Hungarian occupation is considered. The analysis of transformations of financial and credit institutions of Western Ukraine and Ternopil region after the Second World War and the arrival of the Soviet occupation regime is carried out. The main trends in the development of banking after Ukraine's independence have been studied. (The way which the structure of the banking system was presented in Ternopil region was considered). How the structure of the banking system was presented in Ternopil region is considered. The main directions and areas of activity that commercial banks have lent in large amounts, as well as those industries that are constantly underfunded by both the state and the banking sector are identified. The impact of the reform of the banking system of Ukraine in 2014-2015 on the economic activity of banking and entrepreneurial business of Ternopil region is considered. Negative tendencies in the change of the structure of bank capital were revealed – not in favor of national capital. The existence of risks of growth of foreign capital share in the banking sector of the national economy is substantiated. The main problems of development of credit unions under modern conditions (in the current circumstances) are revealed. The existence of interrelation and interdependence between the share of the national component in the capital of financial institutions and the level of development of strategically important economic and social state-building processes is proved. The main problems and ways to solve them are identified in order to expand the opportunities for financial support of national businesses and local communities.

A Glimpse of Freedom: Allied Occupation and Political Resistance in East Germany

This paper studies costly political resistance in a non-democracy. When Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945, 40% of the designated Soviet occupation zone was initially captured by the western Allied Expeditionary Force. This occupation was short-lived: Soviet forces took over after less than two months and installed an authoritarian regime in what became the German Democratic Republic (GDR). We exploit the idiosyncratic line of contact separating Allied and Soviet troops within the GDR to show that areas briefly under Allied occupation had higher incidence of protests during the only major episode of political unrest in the GDR before its demise in 1989 - the East German Uprising of 1953. These areas also exhibited lower regime support during the last free elections in 1946. We argue that even a “glimpse of freedom can foster civilian opposition to dictatorship.

The Fate of Displaced Medieval Manuscripts and Documents from the Hanseatic Cities

This review article sums up the available data on the fate of archival and library materials which were transported to the Soviet Union after WW2 from German cities Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen. The main focus is on medieval manuscripts and documents. Despite the fact that these cities were in the British occupation zone, their archival and library fonds became Soviet war trophies since in 1942–1944 these documents had been evacuated to what would later comprise parts of the Soviet occupation zone. In August 1946, they were transported to Leningrad by train. Most medieval manuscripts and documents did not remain in Leningrad. In the early 1950s, part of the trophies was handed over to the German Democratic Republic, while a considerable amount of the Hanseatic material was returned to Germany in the 1980–1990s from the Soviet Union and from independent Georgia and Armenia; yet a large part of archival and library materials remained in the Soviet Union. Unfortunately, very little is known about the time and places of their subsequent movements as published documents cover only the period of 1945–1946. Thanks to recent discoveries some displacements can be traced down to the former Soviet cities Leningrad, Moscow, Tomsk, Tbilisi, Yerevan. The review lists German trophy medieval manuscripts and archival materials discovered and identified in Moscow (Moscow State University, Russian State Library, Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts), St. Petersburg (National Library of Russia) and Tomsk (Tomsk State University). Moreover, at least two medieval manuscripts are documented as being preserved in Yerevan.

“The Scar Will Always Be There”: The Post-Soviet Melancholia in Gundega Repše’s Novel 'Conjuring Iron'

The article discusses the cultural and narratological aspects of melancholic understanding of history in postmodern Latvian fiction. The first part of the study offers a brief overview of Latvian fiction of the 1990s and early 2000s with a special attention to the interrelated questions of history, trauma, and representation. The second part shifts from cultural contextualization to defining melancholic temporality and highlighting narrative ways of expressing it in fiction which addresses trauma, collective and individual, from a posttraumatic place in time. The third part analyzes the indirect and disjointed engagement with Soviet occupation in Gundega Repše’s novel Conjuring Iron (2011). This is done by focusing on the poetics of unnarrated as a sign of prolonged mourning and by thinking about the epistemology of a fragment.

The Literary Experience of God in Death’s Vicinity in the Works of Freedom Fighter Bronius Krivickas

Bronius Krivickas (1919–1952), a Lithuanian poet and fiction writer, a fighter against the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, reflects carefully the main ideas of existentialism: Søren Kierkegaard’s concept of individual freedom, Martin Heidegger’s notion of being-toward-death, the concept of a limiting situation developed by Karl Jaspers. In the worldview of B. Krivickas’s literary works, these ideas are associated with the context of Catholic philosophy and theology.This article investigates the notion of God within the existential limiting situation (especially the situation of death) in the literary works by B. Krivickas. The main critical perspective is the theology of literature.
 In the context of the dramatic experience of World War II, B. Krivickas’s short stories, a symbolist play A Tale About a Princess, and poetical prose works interpret God as being perceived through human conscience and a human longing for spiritual harmony. God is being thought of as the ultimate metaphysical mystery.In the period of Lithuanian fights for freedom, B. Krivickas’s poetry reveals an intense partisan self-consciousness. The poetry interprets the fight against the Soviet aggressor as a sacrifice for the nation’s freedom and compares it indirectly with the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ. According to the logic of existentialism, B Krivickas’s poetry claims that a human being is absolutely free, even if this means to choose freedom at the cost of life.God becomes the personal you for the fighter seen in B. Krivickas’s poetry. The main theme of the fighter’s dialogue with God is an existential complaint. The fighter experiences deep theodic dilemmas. He has no doubts about the righteousness of the war against the Soviet occupation, but he has deep doubts about the divine permission for evil to exist in the world. The faith of the poetic fighter is just his will to believe, his desire to believe. Thus the poetic figure of the fighter acquires both patriotic and religious heroism.

The Sovietization of Rainis and Aspazija: discourses and rituals in Soviet Latvia in celebration of the two poets

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to analyze the Sovietization of the Latvian poets Rainis and Aspazija by using as evidence the organization of their celebration and ideological messages. The research base consists of press and archival materials and the analysis is based on a discourse-historical approach. After the Soviet occupation, Rainis became a quasi-religious figure in Soviet-Latvian ideology, confirming the legitimacy of the Soviet regime. By contrast, the discourse concerning Aspazija changed from describing her as a reactionary poet during the Stalinist period to a discourse of feminine poet in the 1960s.

Kārlis Cemiņš – mākslinieks un pedagogs

Kārlis Celmiņš (1894–1973) is one of the less famous Latvian artists. He was born in Cēsis as the fifth, the last child in his family, the only son. He received an artistic education at Stroganov School of Arts in Moscow. Still studying at this school, Celmiņš took part in the IV Exhibition of Latvian Art in Riga in 1914. After he had finished school, he was drafted into the Russian Empire’s army, where he was assigned a painter decorator of his regiment. Celmiņš returned to Latvia in 1918. After working as a teacher of drawing in Madona for two years, he moved to Jelgava. There he worked as a teacher of arts in Jelgava Classic Gymnasium. During the time of independent Latvia, Celmiņš actively took part in Jelgava’s artistic life. He regularly displayed his works at society’s “Zaļā Vārna” and other exhibitions and organized exhibitions himself together with students of the gymnasium. Celmiņš had many-sided artistic interests. He was not only painting and drawing but also doing graphics, applied arts, making silver jewelry, and writing poems in his leisure time. The monument devoted to the Latvian soldiers who fell in action in 1916–1917 was made after the artist’s project. Almost all works of the master were destroyed in the ruins of Jelgava during the war in 1944. Celmiņš felt very sorry about this loss. The artist and his wife and children moved to Dundaga after Jelgava was destroyed, but when the war was over, they settled in Tukums. There Celmiņš worked in a ceramics workshop as a decorator of ready-made plates and dishes. In 1946 the artist was invited to work at the School of Applied Arts in Liepāja. The rest of his life Celmiņš spent in this city. The artist painted portraits, landscapes, still-lifes, and decorative compositions with plants, flowers, and the sea all his creative life. He did his works with oil, watercolours, colour chalks, and pencil. The life of the free-thinking artist was not easy during the Soviet occupation. Many people did not understand the art of Celmiņš. At the end of his life, the master organised several personal exhibitions in Liepāja, Jelgava, Cēsis. Many interesting paintings of flowers done with watercolours, pastel, and colour oil chalks were displayed in his last exhibition, “Flowers” in 1973. Those were the paintings of gladioli, irises, calla lilies, and other flowers made during the last years of his life. Celmiņš died in Liepāja on 16 October 1973, leaving a wide range of works of his individual, unique style.

Листи Володимира Левинського до Володимира Дорошенка за 1950–1953 рр. з архіву Української вільної академії наук у США

The purpose of the publication is to involve in scientific circulation preserved letters dating from 1950–1953 of Volodymyr Levynsky (1880–1953), a member of the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party in Galicia to Volodymyr Doroshenko (1879–1963), the bibliographer, publisher and editor, director of the Shevchenko Scientific Society Library, historian of the liberation movement and culture, a USDRP activist from the Dnipro Region and one of the leaders of the Union for the Liberation of Ukraine. The letters were discovered by the author in the fond of «Volodymyr Doroshenko (1879–1963), bibliographer, literary critic, public and political figure» (F. 76), stored in the Dmytro Antonovych Archives- Museum of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in New York (USA). The research methodology is based on the application of the principles of integrity of the study of historical sources and objectivity. Comparative-historical, typological, descriptive, anthropological, biographical and psychoanalytic methods were used, which made it possible not only to get an idea of the addressee’s personality, but also to cover the life, social and scientific activities of Ukrainian emigrants under Soviet occupation of Austria in the postwar period. Scientific novelty. These letters of V. Levynsky, created by him in the last years of his life in Vienna (Austria), are published for the first time. Letters are autographs. First of all, they reveal the physical and internal psychological state of the addressee, as well as the relationship between Ukrainian emigrants, detailing their individual biographical data and creative plans. Conclusions. V. Levynsky’s letters have significant informational value. Their introduction into scientific circulation will contribute to the study of the biography of the figure and greatly expand the historical knowledge about the life and activities of Ukrainian political emigration in the postwar period in Europe.

Paskutiniai vokiečių okupacijos mėnesiai Lietuvoje: gyventojų bėgimas į reichą ir politiniai lūkesčiai 1944 metais

THE LAST MONTHS OF THE GERMAN OCCUPATION IN LITHUANIA: ESCAPE OF THE CIVILIAN POPULATION TO THE REICH AND POLITICAL EXPECTATIONS IN 1944 The article analyses the situation in Lithuania in the last months of the German occupation, focusing on what preparations were made for the evacuation of the population in the spring and summer of 1944 and how it proceeded, and the impact of the actions and propaganda of the German authorities and the deliberations of Lithuanian underground organisations regarding the political and military situation and the end of the war on the numbers of war refugees (around 80,000 people left in July–October, with the exception of the Klaipėda region, which was deserted after the Germans retreated) and citizens’ political expectations. The research is based on historiography, official and underground publications, diaries and memoirs. During the war, there was no political centre in Lithuania that processed reliable political information and provided it to the public. Although, starting from 1943, there were institutions and organisations to take care of war refugees flooding in from the USSR, when the Red Army crossed the Lithuanian border in early July 1944, local government was no longer coordinating population movements. The German occupying authorities and the Lithuanian government, consisting of general advisers, had prepared plans for the evacuation of the population and property; however, until the very last minute, no one risked taking the initiative to implement them. People in Lithuania were still quite optimistic in the summer and autumn of 1944. Quite a few believed that the front would stabilise at the German border, and that the Soviet Union ‘will run out of steam’ and suspend hostilities. Optimism was encouraged by official German propaganda, and the fact that in August–October, military action ‘stuck’ in Lithuania for two and a half months, as the Red Army stopped in order to replenish its supplies. Moreover, influential Lithuanian underground organisations did not believe that the country was on the brink of a long Soviet occupation, and did not discuss the situation of the civilian population. Lithuanian underground organisations, from Social Democrats to Nationalists, which were unequivocally optimistic about the international situation, believing the promises of US and British politicians to restore prewar borders, used the press and proclamations to shape expectations in society that the Soviet occupation would be temporary. Politicians leaving Lithuania expected to return soon, thus leaving the people with the hope of rapid political change.

Ieskats latviešu folkloristikas terminoloģijas attīstībā

Latvian literary terminology and folklore studies terminology have many connections. Both areas have been comparatively understudied; especially, systemic and comprehensive analysis of folklore terminology should be carried out in broader research, which would require in-depth studies of emergence, loan, choice, use, inheritance, and succession of terms. This article mostly deals with historical or chronological aspect, providing a view into some essential lexicographic, monographic, and other resources of terms. The article aims to provide a view into the development of Latvian terminology in the 20th century (more precisely – from the beginning of independent Latvia until the restoration of independence after the Soviet occupation), paying attention to several resources of terminology. To reach the aim, a number of essential term sources of the field, which have had an impact on future terminology use and development, have been selected; characteristic of the resources is given, and specific examples are provided to illustrate the tendencies of the field’s terminology development. The publications, personalities, events, and discussions of the time help to understand what has happened in the newest terminology development period. The article draws from the following essential resources of terminology, which have had an impact on the Latvian folklore studies terminology: “Latvian Encyclopaedia” (Latviešu konversācijas vārdnīca, 1927–1940), “Introduction into Latvian Folk Poetry” (Ievads latviešu tautas dzejā, 1940) by Ludis Bērziņš (1870–1965), “General Conceptions about Folk Poetry” (Pamatjēdzieni par tautas dzeju, 1937) by Anna Bērzkalne (1891–1956), “Latvian Folklore” (Latviešu folklora, 1948) by Jānis Niedre (1909–1987), the Terminology Commission’s 8th Bulletin (1950), “Language of Latvian Folk Songs” (Latviešu tautasdziesmu valoda”, 1961) and “Works in Folklore Studies” (Raksti folkloristikā, 1968) by Arturs Ozols (1912–1964), “History of Latvian Folklore Studies” (Latviešu folkloristikas vēsture, 1989) by Ojārs Ambainis (1926–1995). The theoretical framework of the research consists of the studies in terminology theory and history by Māris Baltiņš and Valentīna Skujiņa, and the folklore studies history research by researchers at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia (Māra Vīksna, Dace Bula, Rita Treija, Anda Kubuliņa, Baibas Krogzeme-Mosgorda). Also, the minutes of the Latvian SSR Academy of Sciences Terminology Commission available at the Latvian Academy of Sciences archive have been studied.

Comparative analysis of quantitative indicators of Polish Constitutions

The process of development of Polish constitutionalism is considered in the work. The first legal act, which had the features of the Constitution were the Articles of King Henry of Valois. The reason for preparing this document was the need to conclude an agreement between the heir to the French throne and the Polish nobility, who wanted to preserve their rights and freedoms. The content of this document was influenced by the Great Charter of Freedoms «Magna Garta» of 1215, which reflected the mechanism of limiting state power through the establishment of material and procedural requirements for its implementation. In order to conduct a comparative analysis of the Constitutions adopted in Poland, the method of quantitative indicators proposed by O. L. Kopylenko and B. V. Kindyuk was used, which calculated the number of signs in different articles, chapters, sections, parts of regulations. According to this methodology, the Articles focused on the work of the Seimas – 17%, military issues – 6.7%, the judiciary – 5.6%. In jurisprudence, it is common to distinguish four main stages of the formation of constitutionalism: I generation – the end of the XVIII century. — the beginning of the XIX century; II generation — the period after the First World War; III generation — the stage after the end of the Second World War; Generation IV – the time after the collapse of the USSR. Based on this classification, the Polish Constitutions belong to the first generation: the Constitution of May 3, 1791; Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw of 1807; Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. The Constitutions of the first generation include: the Constitution of May 3, 1791; Constitution of 1807; Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. The constitutions of the second generation were adopted in the period after the end of the First World War, they reflected the processes of democratization of social and democratic life of countries and enshrined a significant amount of socio-economic human rights. Based on this classification, this group includes: the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic of 1919; Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1921; Constitution of the Republic of Poland of 1935. The constitutions of the third generation were adopted in the period after the end of the Second World War, and their content reflected the doctrine of the liberal model. Formally, this group included the Constitution of the Polish People’s Republic of 1952, but it was adopted during the Soviet occupation and introduced the Stalinist model of constitutional relations in the country. Generations of the IV generation were adopted after the collapse of the Soviet empire and reflected a new stage of state formation. In Poland, such a constitutional act was the 1997 Constitution of the Republic of Poland, which was to ensure the transition from a socialist model to a market democratic state governed by the rule of law, the stabilization of national statehood and the proclamation of accession to the European Union. The next stage of the study is a comparative analysis of the quantitative indicators of the Polish Constitutions, which showed that the total number of signs during this historical period varied from the minimum in the Articles of Heinrich Valois — 14 640 zn. to the maximum — 89 524 zn. in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland in 1997. An important indicator of the structure of constitutional acts is the number of articles (articles), which varied in a fairly wide range from 12 in the Constitution of 1791 to 243 in the Constitution of the Republic of Poland in 1997. Key words: Polish constitutionalism, quantitative indicators, comparative analysis, Articles by Heinrich Valois, total number of characters.

The Debate about Soviet Genocide in Lithuania in the Case Law of The European Court of Human Rights

Abstract Since 1990 Lithuania has been claiming that what happened there during Soviet occupation is genocide, as per the 1948 Genocide Convention, which embodies universal justice for suppressed nations and other groups. Due to Soviet actions in Lithuania throughout the periods of 1940-1941 and 1944-1990, the country lost almost one fifth of its population. The application of Lithuanian national legal regulations regarding this issue has been recently discussed in the framework of another postwar international legal instrument – the European Convention of Human Rights (1950). The goal of this article is to examine the main debates, which were revealed by the European Court of Human Rights in the cases of Vasiliauskas v. Lithuania (2015) and Drėlingas v. Lithuania (2019), regarding the killings of Lithuanian partisans, including the recognition of the significance of partisans for the Lithuanian nation, the foreseeability of genocide “in part,” as well as the punishment for complicity in killing Lithuanian partisans.

Juozas Urbsšys and the Case for Lithuanian Independence

ABSTRACT In 1990, after 50 years of Soviet occupation, Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union. The case for the restoration of Lithuanian independence was made by Juozas Urbšys, one of the last surviving ministers of the pre-war republic, whose testimony about the Soviet invasion of 1939 resembles the work of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. These stories unite communities around transcendent goals that justify revolt and revolution. Placing Urbšys’s memoirs in the same bin as these detective stories, I demonstrate how Burke’s sociological criticism of literature uncovers strategies for naming the situation of Lithuania during perestroika and argue that Urbšys work served Lithuanians as functional equipment for living in 1988 paving the way for the restoration of independence in 1990.

Collecting Art in the Turmoil of War: Lithuania in 1939–1944

Summary The article deals with the growth of the art collections of the Lithuanian national and municipal museums during WWII, a period traditionally seen as particularly unfavourable for cultural activities. During this period, the dynamics of Lithuanian museum art collections were maintained by two main sources. The first was caused by nationalist politics, or, more precisely, one of its priorities to support Lithuanian art by acquiring artworks from contemporaries. The exception to this strategy is the attention given to the multicultural art scene of Vilnius, partly Jewish, but especially Polish art, which led to the purchase of Polish artists’ works for the Vilnius Municipal Museum and the Vytautas the Great Museum of Culture in Kaunas, which had the status of a national art collection. The second important source was the nationalisation of private property during the Soviet occupation of 1940–1941. This process enabled the Lithuanian museums to enrich their collections with valuable objets d’art first of all, but also with paintings, sculptures and graphic prints. Due to the nationalisation of manor property, the collections of provincial museums, primarily Šiauliai Aušra and Samogitian Museum Alka in Telšiai, significantly increased. The wave of emigration of Lithuanian citizens to the West at the end of the Second World War was also a favourable factor in expanding museum collections, as both artists and owners of their works left a number of valuables to museums as depositors. On the other hand, some museum valuables were transported from Vilnius to Poland in 1945–1948 by the wave of the so-called repatriation of former Vilnius residents who had Polish citizenship in 1930s. The article systematises previously published data and provides new information in order to reconstruct the dynamics of the growth of Lithuanian museum art collections caused by radical political changes, which took place in the mid 20th century.

REPRESSION AGAINST SOVIET REPATRIATES AFTER WORLD WAR II: FORMATION OF THE POLICY OF OBLIVION IN THE USSR

Summary. The purpose of the study is to analyze the causes and features of the repressive policy of the Soviet government towards its own citizens, who, for various reasons, found themselves in the status of displaced persons outside the USSR during the World War II. The study also aims to identify the features of the formation of a policy of oblivion in the Soviet Union on the forms and methods of repatriation and repression against repatriates.The research methodology is based on the application of general scientific and special historical methods. The author adheres to the scientific principle and principles of historicism, systematization, verification, objectivity and value approach to the studied phenomena. Interdisciplinary research is focused on the involvement of historical-comparative and historical-system methods, techniques of microhistorical analysis. The scientific novelty lies in the continuation of studies initiated by domestic and foreign researchers, in particular, the repressive policy of the Soviet government towards its own citizens who were repatriated to the USSR after the Second World War from the western and the Soviet occupation zone.Conclusions. The Soviet leadership made every effort to return its own citizens who found themselves in Europe after the end of World War II as displaced persons. The degrading conditions of repatriation and filtration demonstrated the attitude of the Soviet regime towards repatriates. The Soviet totalitarian state did everything to isolate post-war Soviet society from "unreliable elements", for which purpose enormous funds were spent and considerable human and material resources were used. The myth of "a wonderful life in a socialist society" created for decades continued to be maintained after the war, and therefore it was dangerous to admit into Soviet society those who posed a partial threat to the myth. Citizens who had to go through repatriation and humiliating procedures of checks and filtrations, in fact, the war ended only at the gates of checkpoints. Above them, and their relatives, for several decades hung the brand "was in the occupied territories", which, in fact, in many ways limited the normal existence in Soviet realities. Repression against Soviet repatriates is another criminal page of the Soviet regime that deserves a comprehensive study and return from oblivion.

Pharmacy in Latvia during the occupation regime of Nazi Germany (1941-1945).

The study covers the period of World War II after shift of occupational powers in Latvia when Soviet occupation was replaced by the occupation regime of Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941 and retained until first half of 1945. Due to this shift gradually Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Belarus were merged into a single administrative area and designated as "Ostland". Soviet officials left the pharmaceutical industry, which they had tried to apply to the communist ideology from June 1940 to June 1941 creating confusion and chaos. The renewed Pharmacy Board of Latvia had to deal with the restoration of supervision and a partial return from the communist to the capitalist regime. The research provides an insight to adaptation and development of the pharmaceutical industry in Latvia during Nazi Germany occupation regime, highlighting as essential indicators the administrative operation of Pharmacy Board of Latvia and its cooperation with German authorities, the availability of medicines, process of reprivatisation of pharmacies and changes in the number of pharmaceutical employees. The research issue raised is topical, since it is this period that reflects the industry's ability to adapt and perform work in fundamentally different and severe circumstances, which include both resource deficits and the transition from one regime to another. The collected evidence shows the efforts to stabilize the pharmaceutical industry in many terms. One example was the attemptions to ensure the rational dispensing of medical products to the pharmacies and hospitals, with the greatest degree of austerity, because the supply and consumption of medication was extremely complex issue throughout the war.

Pregnancy, Motherhood And/as/or Dissent: The Soviet Micro-rhetorics of Gender

ABSTRACT Scholarship on the rhetoric of reproduction, childbirth, and motherhood has mostly focused on a U.S. context. Drawing on oral histories that we collected from a small group of Estonian women who gave birth during the Soviet occupation of Estonia, we argue that women’s experiences of childbirth in Soviet maternity hospitals and during the postpartum period can be interpreted as micro-rhetorical interactions through which arguments about the worth or value of a particular identity are communicated implicitly and intangibly. The gendered nature of these micro-rhetorical interactions helps to explain the often observed-upon gap between the official Soviet rhetoric of gender equality and the persistently patriarchal nature of Soviet society. Ultimately, we argue that examining the rhetoric of pregnancy and childbirth in an authoritarian political context also necessitates rethinking the functions of and possibilities for rhetorical agency.

Education, Special Needs, and Autism in the Baltic States: Policy Mapping in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

The Soviet occupation of the Baltic States followed by joining the United Nations (UN) and European Union make these countries an interesting point of comparison in the development of autism and education policy. This study investigates how policies changed following the transition and how the right and access to education are facilitated for autistic children by performing a path dependence analysis. All Baltic States created new education policies following the transition out of the Soviet era, with their accession to the UN and their appetite to follow internationally available guidance. The right to education for all children in was adopted in all education systems. Education facilities for children with disabilities were implemented in all countries. Afterwards, all countries started towards the development of more inclusive systems. Nevertheless, the majority of policies did not specify for autism, yet covered special education needs in general. A development in Latvia should be noted, where various special education needs are outlined in national policy, along with provisions and professional assistance required to address them in mainstream or special classrooms. Ultimately, education policy flourished after the transition. Their development caught up to other European Union countries and they are currently working on implementing inclusive education.

Main milestones of life of Blessed Klymentiy Sheptytsky (1869-1951) through the prism of historiography

In the article, the biography of Blessed Father Klymentiy (Casimir) Count Sheptytsky (1869-1951) has been reconstructed in the “reference-encyclopedic” version on the basis of the achievements of diasporic and contemporary domestic historiography. Given the historiographical disproportions in the coverage of his biography, which has been reflected in relatively little attention to the early period of life and the creation of new “myths”, the periodization of main stages (milestones) of life and consistent reconstruction of biography of Casimir / Klymentiy Sheptytsky have been conducted. His family environment, education, worldview formation and evolution have been described, the peculiarities of his social and political activity in the regional societies and the Austrian parliament have been shown, the motives and circumstances of the choice of monastic life have been clarified. The activity of Klymentiy Sheptytsky on the revival and development of Studite monasticism in Galicia, support of Andrey Sheptytsky’s initiatives on the development of the Greek Catholic Church in different state-political regimes (Austria-Hungary, ZUNR, the Second Commonwealth, the first Soviet occupation, German occupation and formation of the USSR) and the spread of its influence outside Galicia, in the east, have been analyzed. The tragic page of the last years of Klymentiy Sheptytsky’s life from arrest and exile to death has been covered. A number of “unresolved” issues in his biography that require the search for new sources and more detailed scientific studies have been identified, including the cheirotonia of a bishop.

Depiction of Lenin and Stalin in Estonian Art as an Indicator of Shifts in the Soviet Authoritative Discourse

The paper provides an analysis of changes in depiction of Soviet leaders by Estonian artistsduring the period of Soviet occupation of Estonia. More specifically, changes in theiconography of Lenin and Stalin are viewed in light of Alexei Yurchak’s concept ofperformative shift of the Soviet authoritative discourse.
 During the over 40-year period of Soviet occupation conventions of depicting Leninand Stalin underwent several notable changes that more or less reflected shifts in the Sovietpolitics as well as the developments in Estonian arts. The paper argues that changes in thedepiction of the leaders amounted to the fundamental meaning and message of these works ofart. Especially from the end of the 1960s, an increasingly playful and ironic undertoneprevailed.
 In using the depictions of the Soviet leaders in Estonian art to test the aforementionedtheoretical constructions, the paper however concludes that changes in the official discoursein Estonian arts did not wholly conform to the performative shift as described by Yurchak.