Paper Short Abstract:

This presentation discusses the kinds of stories and identities that dominated in the Vilnius Region among local people during the Interwar period, the Soviet times and exist nowadays. The methodological problems that arose during the anthropological fieldwork will be discussed as well. 

Paper Abstract:

During the 20th century, the Vilnius Region belonged to the Russian empire, Poland, SSRS and Lithuania. All these countries conducted very different policies towards local inhabitants. Sometimes they manifested as discrimination on a daily basis against a certain group of people. They were subjected to brutal repressions (such as the extermination of local Jews, collectivisation, deportation to Siberia or forced repatriation to PLR after World War II). Local people were voiceless and powerless against these states and forces. 

Under such circumstances, many people avoided clearly expressing their identity and instead identified themselves as “locals” (pol. tutejszy) and created stories about themselves as locals. 

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, under new cultural and political circumstances, people (especially the young generation, born after 1990) again, began to unwrite their identity and stories about themselves. 

During my presentation using social memory (Assmann 2006) and identity theories, I would like to discuss the kind of stories and identities that dominated in the Vilnius Region during the Interwar period, during Soviet times and exist nowadays. I will also include methodological problems during my fieldwork.

The data I will present was collected during my anthropological fieldwork in rural areas of the Vilnius region (from 2017 - 2019 and again in 2024), focusing on biographical interviews, observation, and participant observation among the young people I studied.

This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No S-PD-24-572024-01-22 (Identities of National Minority Youths: From Regional to Supranational (the Case of Šalcininkai District)).