Classical Philology in Early Soviet Lithuania: Between the European Tradition and Reality (translated by Živa Borak)

Abstract

The scanty intelligentsia that stayed in Lithuania after annexation by the USSR had to revitalise classical studies under the severe circumstances of the post-war terror, by which it was forced to demonstrate the advantages of the Soviet system. The minutes of the Department of Classical Philology, kept in the Vilnius University Archives, bear witness to the University life at that time, betraying a peculiar Soviet ‘second sophistic’ where nobody, not even the speaker, was expected to believe what was said. Nonetheless, the Department remained an important cultural factor in its efforts to preserve the European dimension of the Lithuanian culture.