Victims and collective trauma: surviving mass repression and living through the Soviet period
ENThe first major act of Soviet mass repression against the Lithuanian population was carried out during the few days from 14 to 18 June 1941. This chapter explores the survival strategies that female and male deportees employed in the places of their exile. It explores the post-war survival strategies that were employed by those men and women who were witnesses of the repressive Soviet regime but who themselves escaped direct experience of repression and exile. The chapter suggests that the memories of traumatic events have an important impact on much wider groups in society than just those who experienced them directly. Deportation distorted not only the gender roles that were generally accepted in one's homeland, but also transformed more commonly recognised traditional gender identities. Deportation and imprisonment transformed the traditional gender stereotypes that were characteristic of Lithuanian pre-war society. There is a corpus of memoirs along with some diaries kept during the Soviet period that have also survived.
