KGB Semiotics: Between Soviet Universalism and 'Local Peculiarities'

• In Event: Identifying the Enemy: Secret Policing and Censorship in a Frontline Soviet Republic

Abstract

The paper discusses the contribution by the Soviet security to constructing the Soviet ideological discourse in Lithuania. The KGB was a kind of “expert” in nationality issues advising the party leadership which line to follow in nationality policy related matters. The Chekist perception of nationalism in the republic, and how the KGB itself understood and measured signs of anti-Soviet activities and nationalist beliefs, influenced security practices. In the paper KGB annual plans and reports will be analyzed through content analysis, placing the concepts of „anti-Soviet“ and „nationalism“ in the general Soviet ideological context.

Author

• Saulius Grybkauskas, Lithuanian Institute of History (Lithuania)