"Laiškas pakvietė kelionėn": buitinių skundų praktika sovietinėje Lietuvoje
LTStraipsnio tikslas – ištirti buitinių skundų praktikų sovietinėje Lietuvoje, kuri pradėjo plisti nuo XX a. šeštojo dešimtmečio vidurio. Remiamasi Sheilos Fitzpatrick ir keleto kitų istorikų moksline hipoteze, kad skundų ir prašymų autoriai tapdavo tokiais neformalių ekonominių santykių subjektais, kokie sovietinėje blato praktikoje buvo globėjas ir klientas. Ši hipotezė toliau plėtojama pasitelkiant lietuvišką medžiagą. Analizė rodo, kad blatas kaip neformali šešėlinė veikla buvo prieinamas tik privilegijuotiems sovietinės visuomenės nariams, o skundų ir prašymų praktika tapo valdžios įteisinta surogatine blato forma, kuria naudojosi eiliniai (neturintys išskirtinių socialinių ryšių) Lietuvos gyventojai. Straipsnyje taip pat nagrinėjamas skundų ir prašymų pobūdis, turinys ir rašymo priežastys.
ENIn Soviet post-war society many letters / complaints which had little to do with ideology or police were written. People who wrote those complaints did not intend to report or Punish anyone. Rather they were concerned only with solving their own everyday life problems and improve it. Purely personal interests of those who wrote letters show that messages like those were simply grievances about everyday life. Often complaints became an officially legal form of blat (connections) and were promoted by those who did not have any strong social connections. Those who used blat resorted to personal connections, while the writers of complaints used official institutions. The authorities in Soviet Lithuania encouraged those who wrote complaints. Soviet citizens who saw some evil in society were urged to address higher institutions of power. The 2 August 1958 resolution passed by the Central Committee of the USSR "On serious shortcomings in dealing with ordinary people's letters, grievances and reports" was to encourage people to complain about social evil. It attracted attention to the importance of the control dealing with grievances.One of the most important party and government chains, which was to ensure people's confidence to write letters was the State Control Committee of the Council of Ministers of the Central Committee of the Lithuanian Communist Party. Soviet ideologists used written complaints for their own purposes. With the help of the letters received the print journalists were able to paint a picture as though people participated actively in creating laws. Writing complaints formed an egotistic individualism of Soviet men and women. A masterly use of Soviet demagogue and knowledge of its importance in everyday life, as well as the understanding of the practical use of the relationship between the guardian and the client, the writers of complaints identified themselves with the victims who suffered constantly and created an environment of those who needed protection. In the early 1970s complaints and requests became a common practice for many people. Although people suspected who wrote letters to the authorities, there were many more than it seemed.
