Lacunae in the politics of memory: remembering the Soviet deportations from Lithuania

Abstract

This article is a primary exploration of memory about deportations from theWestern borderlands of the Soviet Union, and particularly from Lithuania, inthe 1940s. Its aim is to pinpoint the main issues and to give a general overviewof questions for further research. In the first place, I analyze the specifictraits of memory on deportation and offer a short overview of the history offorced displacement in the USSR. The central point of the article is an analysisof the stories told by former Lithuanian deportees. They were interviewedin the course of the project "European Memories of the Gulag" (http://museum.gulagmemories.eu) and provided valuable – if often contradictory – insightson ways of coping with and remembering the experience of being uprooted.Such testimonies provide a solid starting point for research on thememory of deportation that could challenge the homogenizing view of stateproducedsources about forced displacement. In conclusion, possible theoreticalapproaches to the study of this memory are suggested.