Political reconsideration of the Soviet past: attitudes and actions of the Lithuanian elites
- DOI
- 10.5922/2079-8555-2013-3-9
- Pages
- 86-97
Abstract
Different political elite groups of post-communist Lithuania offer different accounts of the Soviet past. Even twenty years later, after the collapse of communism Lithuanian politicians (with the exception of certain conservative anti-nostalgic leaders allied with some populists) still do not have a unified and coherent view on the Soviet political and social practices, truths, and methods. However, conservatives are very consistent in their restrictive views about the past and are willing to engage in propagating decision-making that prevents them from repeating the actions of the past. Social democrats, liberals, and populists are much more internally divided and tend to display lukewarm attitudes towards the Soviet past and its political reconsideration. Yet, the present analysis of the adopted laws and public policies, alongside a study on the attitudes of political elites make it possible to conclude that anti-nostalgia, the negative assessment of the Soviet life-style, criticism of it and attempts to keep the former Soviet decision makers out of Lithuania’s public administration are key ways of treating the past in Lithuania. All efforts to accommodate a more permissive attitude towards the Soviet past and civil servants whose career began under the Soviets do not find much support within the Lithuanian elite.
Reference
1. Bauman, Z. 1999, In Search of Politics, Stanford, Stanford University Press.
2. Boyd Carolyn, P. 2008, The Politics of History and Memory in Democratic Spain, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, no. 617, p. 133—149.
3. Gaidys, V. 2005, Lietuvos gyventojų partinės preferencijos 2004—2005 m. Praeities ir dabarties vertinimas, ateities lūkesčiai’ in Lietuva, Vilnius, Europos Sąjungoje, pirmieji metai (Firidas).
4. Eyerman, R. 2001, Cultural Trauma: Slavery and the Formation of African American Identity, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
5. Heisler, M. O. 2008, Challenged Histories and Collective Self-Concepts: Politics in History, Memory, and Time‘, ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, no. 617, p. 199—213.
6. Kratochwil, F. 2006, History, action and identity: Revisiting the “second” great debate and assessing its importance for social theory, European Journal of International Relations, Vol. 12, no. 1, p. 5—29.
7. Matonyte, I. 2006, Why the Notion of Social Justice is Quasi-Absent from the Public Discourse in Post-Communist Lithuania, Journal of Baltic Studies, Vol. XXXVII, no. 4, p. 388—411.
8. Matonyte, I. 2009, Ex-nomeklatura and ex-dissidents in the post-communist Parliaments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Viesoji politika ir administravimas, no. 29, p. 28—40.
9. Matonyte, I. 2013, «Elites» Games in the Field of Memory: Insights from Lithuania’. In: Mink, G. Neumayer, L. (eds.) History, Memory and Politics in Central and Eastern Europe. Memory Games, London, Palgrave Macmillan, p. 105—120.
10. Ramonaite, A. 2003, The end of the Left-Right dicourse in Lithuania? Lithuanian Political Science Yearbook 2002, p. 23—45.
11. Smelser, N. J. 2001, Psychological trauma and cultural trauma. In: Jeffrey, C. A., Smelser, N. J. Cultural trauma, California, California University Press.
12. Smith, R. M. 2003, Stories of peoplehood: The politics and morals of political membership, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
13. Unikaite, I. 2007, Rinkimų kampanijos sąsajos su rinkimų rezultatais: LR Seimo rinkimų (1996—2004 m.) atvejis [Election Campaigns links with election results: the case of Lithuanian parliament elections (1996—2004)], Kaunas, Vytautas Magnus University.
14. Xue, H., Wooley, M. 2008, Collective Memory and Nostalgia. A New Perspective on Affective Design Strategy for the Chinese Market, Seoul, IASDR 2009 (International Association of Societies of Design Research) conference paper.
15. Velikonja, M. 2009, Lost in Transition: Nostalgia for Socialism in Postsocialist Countries, East European Politics and Societies, no. 23, p. 535—551.
16. Walzer, M. 1994, Thick and thin: Moral argument at home and abroad, Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame Press.
17. Winter, J. 2000, The generation of memory: Reflections on the “memory boom” in contemporary historical studies, Bulletin of the German Historical Institute, no. 27, p. 69—92.
18. Žalimas, D. 2006, SSRS okupacijos žalos atlyginimo įstatymas ir Rusijos Federacijos atsakomybės tarptautiniai teisiniai pagrindai, Politologija, Vol. 4, no. 44, p. 3—53.