When the Enemy Is Everywhere: The Soviet Postwar Retribution in Lithuania

• In Event: Defining Enemies in the USSR during World War II and in Its Aftermath

Abstract

This paper focuses on the ways in which enemies were defined and redefined in the aftermath of the Soviet reoccupation of Lithuania. Soviet forces in Lithuania faced large-scale armed resistance of the local population, which affected Soviet repressive practices and targets for repressions. At the same time, as this paper argues, wartime collaboration with the Nazis, in particular involvement in the Holocaust, remained important criteria for defining enemies in the postwar period. Based on statistical evidence, as well as close reading of several dozen Soviet investigation files, this paper studies the evolution of targets and practices of Stalin’s postwar retribution in Lithuania – both on the republican, and on the regional and local levels.

Author

• Emilia Koustova, U of Strasbourg (France)