Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania

If the home remained a safe space for families during the Soviet occupation of Lithuania, why is it that the memories of women’s domestic lives in Soviet Lithuania are so fragmented? In Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania, Dalia Leinarte deftly challenges the commonplace ‘kitchen culture’ idea that the home was a site of silent resistance where traditional Lithuanian values continued to be nurtured. Instead, this fascinating book reveals how the totalitarian state gradually abolished the private lives of Lithuanian families altogether.Based on over 100 interviews and an array of archival sources, this book analyses how family policy formed the everyday life of men and women and considers how the internalisation of Soviet ideology took place in the private sphere. From a well-developed after-school activity program for children to strict rules regarding the working hours of men and women, ultimately the family could not remain isolated from the regime. Family and the State in Soviet Lithuania is the first book to explore family policy in the Soviet Baltic states and is therefore a vital resource for scholars of Soviet and gender history.

Leinarte's book is an important contribution. It is based on impressive source material… any area specialist, gender researcher or forensic sociologist will be enriched., Focusing on women's lives in Soviet-era Lithuania, Leinarte pinpoints Soviet family and labor policies as two aspects that impinged most strongly on their existences and examines relevant ideological precepts, legal mandates, and policy directives., In this book, Dalia Leinarte presents the first detailed study of family policy and gender relations in Soviet Lithuania. Based on both meticulous archival research and sensitive oral history, the work is an impressive achievement. It effectively integrates political, legal, social, and cultural perspectives to produce an analytical survey that is wide-ranging, perceptive and insightful. It is a story of legal principles betrayed, intractable contradictions between policy intentions and outcomes, moral confusion and controversy, and everyday struggles for sufficiency and security. Engagingly and accessibly written, it will be of the greatest interest to scholars and to students at all levels in Soviet and East European studies, social history, women’s history and gender studies., Written by a leading feminist scholar, this meticulously researched and clearly written book explores gendered Soviet family policies and the ways they were experienced. Drawing on a wealth of material, including archival sources, letters and newspapers, it traces the construction of “a New Soviet Woman” in Lithuania and related issues, such as Soviet marriage and divorce, battles with tradition, and the Soviet understanding of gender equality. This outstanding, path-breaking work is essential reading for anyone interested in gender issues in the USSR.

Dalia Leinarte is Professor of History at Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania, and Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College, University of Cambridge, UK. She is the author of Adopting and Remembering Soviet Reality (2010).