You Have Been Warned: Managing Threats to State Security in Lithuania under Soviet Rule

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

Abstract

In Soviet Lithuania (and elsewhere) from the 1950s to the 1980s, the KGB applied a form of "broken windows" policing, or profilaktika, to incipient threats to state security. Petty deviation from socio-political norms was regarded as a person's first step towards more significant state crimes, and as a bad example for others. As long as petty offenders were found to be confused or misled rather than motivated by anti-Soviet conviction, their mistakes could be corrected by a KGB warning or "preventive discussion." Successful prevention avoided the costly removal of the subject from society. This represented a complete contrast to the Stalin years, when prevention relied largely on eliminating the subject from society. Preventive discussions were widely practised in many different circumstances. KGB internal evaluations concluded that these discussions were extremely effective in preventing further violations. This was the front line of the Soviet police state; it was also a front line of the Cold War because the foreign adversary was seen as the most important source of misleading or confusing influence. My work in progress aims to understand the origins and operation of profilaktika, including how and to whom it was applied and when it was effective.

Author

• Mark Harrison, U of Warwick (UK)