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Paper short abstract:

The paper looks at the Lithuanian Paganism that emerged in the public discourse related to folk culture revival in Soviet Lithuania, and the treatment of Pagan techniques and technologies of mediation of the sacred.

Paper long abstract:

The Soviet anti-religious policies not only attempted to suppress religion, but also shaped it. So far, most attention has been paid to the shaping of the dominant Christianity and Islam, while pre-Christian and pre-Muslim religions increasingly visible in the public discourse of the time mostly have been seen as an expression of anti-religious policies that were directed against the majority religions. The interest in Paganism and its depictions during the Soviet period found its expression in academic research, as well as in arts, literature and popular discourse related to folk culture revival, and also shaped understanding of religion and imagining of Paganism in particular. Among other aspects, the understanding and imagery of Paganism included a variety of views towards Pagan techniques and technologies of mediation of the sacred.

The paper looks at the Lithuanian Paganism that emerged in the public discourse related to folk culture revival in Soviet Lithuania. Produced by professional ethnographers, folk dance specialists, various amateur revivers and other authors and aimed at folk culture revivers and wider society, this discourse tended to include practices and notions that had been excluded from Paganism as conceptualized in the academic discourse focused specifically on Lithuanian/Baltic religion, mythology and worldview. Indeed, the analyzed discourse was abundant in terms related to magic and references to practices of magic that were considered as a pre-religious or para-religious technique of mediation of the sacred in academic research on Baltic/Lithuanian Paganism of Soviet and post-Soviet period.