| Abstract [eng] |
Juozas Baltušis: the Outlook and Works of a Soviet Writer Juozas Baltušis (1909–1991) was a Lithuanian writer, politician and public figure. He also worked in the radio and the press. Some of his most popular works are the “Tale of Juza”, “Sold Summers” and the memoirs titled “What You Ate the Salt With”. J. Baltušis was a writer valued by the Soviet Government and his readers. He was given the honorary title of folk writer and was an active participant in the public Soviet life. The writer had important administrative and political positions. During his meetings with the audience, when giving public speeches and participating in TV shows, J. Baltušis promoted the achievements of the Soviet Union and criticized the rotten West and the trouble-ridden past of the independent Lithuania. His unique social status granted him certain privileges. J. Baltušis was often associated with betrayals of other writers and controversial speeches regarding the endeavors to restore the independence of Lithuania. When the reformation movement started, J. Baltušis found it difficult to adapt to the rapidly changing conditions. Thus, he never joined the Reform Movement of Lithuania and kept to his communism ideals until his death. While some of the writer’s ideas were consistent, others changed along with the political situation and the age. The Master Thesis presents an analysis of the many-sided personality of J. Baltušis by going through each of the aspects and revealing the entirety of the writer’s ideas, his value system, lifestyle and peculiarities of his creative works. The research revealed the ambivalent nature of J. Baltušis: he presented himself one way when in public and seemed completely different at home when writing his diary. The attitudes of J. Baltušis had radical differences. The research object of the Master Thesis titled “Juozas Baltušis: the Outlook and Works of a Soviet Writer“ is the lifestyle and creative endeavors of the writer J. Baltušis as revealed in his diary and public speeches. The research delves deeper into the approaches held by J. Baltušis towards relevant historic and political issues, the Soviet society and the Soviet regime and his value system. The paper also analyzes the relation between the writer and his ideas presented in public during the Soviet Time as defined in the autobiographical documents. The goals of the study are to reveal the approach to lifestyle of J. Baltušis that is evident in his public behavior and personal life, the unique formation of the image of “other me”, to review the writer’s political views and their relations to public activities, and to discuss the qualities of the creative endeavors of the writer as revealed in his autobiographical documents. Nowadays, the Soviet times are viewed simplistically and attempts are made to group all the writers into clear-cut categories. Meanwhile, attempts to encompass the contradictory entirety of ideas and behavior of people during the Soviet times are far and few between. The personality and personal belongings of J. Baltušis oppose the schematic view towards the Soviet times and help to reveal and get insights into the complex and contradictory nature of the Soviet reality. The topic is relevant due to the novel nature of the research: the paper analyzes all of the preserved diary volumes of J. Baltušis that are stored in the Lithuanian Archive of Literature and Art. The periodic publication titled Years had published only several fragments of the said diary. The analysis is based on the research of autobiographical documents carried out by Rudolf Dekker and Philipp Lejeune and the works of Rimantas Glinskis and Gitana Vanagaitė who adapted the theories formulated by the first researchers of autobiographical documents in the analysis of the diaries and memoirs of Lithuanian authors. The paper is also based on the concept of homo sovieticus and the concept of ketman derived in “The Captive Mind essay” by Cz. Miłosz. |
