LT[...] Šis Lietuvių literatūros ir tautosakos instituto (LLTI) leidinys, žinoma, nėra nauja sovietmečio lietuvių literatūros istorija, greičiau tokio darbo pradžia; jis savotiškai apjungia enciklopediją ir istoriją, straipsnių rinkinio ar kolektyvinės monografijos žanrus. Veikalas apima istorijos, sociologijos, politologijos, estetikos ir kitus giminingus požiūrius į tyrimo objektą - sovietinio laikotarpio lietuvių literatūrą. Tai, kas enciklopedijoje pasakoma konstatuojant, čia aptariama gerokai plačiau, nebūtinai vienareikšmiškai, nevengiant probleminių temos aspektų. Kai kurios svarstomos temos dar mažai tyrinėtos ir autoriai turėjo ne tiek apibendrinti ankstesnius tyrimus, kiek atlikti naujus. Apskritai visas šis projektas gimė iš pastarųjų metų LLTI Šiuolaikinės literatūros skyriaus darbo: ilgalaikių programų "Sovietmečio literatūros istoriniai tyrimai (2012-2016)" ir "Literatūra kaip socialumo liudininkė: estetika, atmintis, mentalitetas vėlyvuoju sovietmečiu" (nuo 2017), atskirų mokslininkų monografinių tyrinėjimų, organizuotų sovietmečio seminarų, vietinių ir tarptautinių konferencijų, stažuočių, darbo archyvuose ir žodinės istorijos rinkimo bei interpretavimo. Veikalas skiriamas tiek akademinei bendruomenei, tiek studijuojantiems ar su sovietmečio kultūra susipažinti norintiems žmonėms. Sykiu tai lietuvių sovietologų nuveiktų darbų apibendrinimas: kokie svarbiausi šio laikotarpio reiškiniai, kokios raktinės sąvokos. Tiesa, dauguma reiškinių ir sąvokų būdingi ne tik sovietmečiui. Apie humorą, groteską ar lyčių santykius galime kalbėti aptardami bet kurios epochos literatūrą, o šiuo atveju mums įdomu, kaip tie dalykai funkcionavo būtent sovietmečio ideologinėmis sąlygomis, kiek jie buvo nulemti ideologijos ir politinių aplinkybių. [...]. [Iš Įvado]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Sovietmečio literatūra; Cenzūra; Socialistinis realizmas; Sovietinė literatūros kritika; Sovietiniai rašytojai; Lithuanian literature of the Soviet period; Censorship; Social realism; Soviet Lithuanian writers; Literary research of the Soviet era.
ENWith the end of Soviet of censorship in Lithuania, it seemed that a new history of Lithuanian literature - the one that everyone "knew" and that had been suppressed, distorted, represented in terms of class struggle, written according to "the one true method", and planted full of perkūnsargiai1 - would be written immediately. It did not seem like such a difficult task. Fulfilling this expectation, a collection of articles titled XX amžiaus lietuvių literatūra (Twentieth century Lithuanian literature) appeared in 1994. This collection explores Lithuanian literature, including that of the Soviet period, from multiple angles, dealing with questions such as resistance and conformity, and generational shifts. Vytautas Kubilius's controversial XX amžiaus literatūra (Literature of the twentieth century, 1995) appeared one year later. There were even complaints that literary history contains too much history and not enough literature - that it is preoccupied with social and ideological contexts rather than aesthetic assessments. We can now see, however, that Lithuanian literary scholars' concern with social issues in their analyses of Soviet-era works has only intensified in subsequent years. But it is also evident that the longing for a "correct" literary history has remained unfulfilled. This was not the anticipated account of the Soviet period, and it was hoped that more people would be willing to do the job. This stage was, to some degree, completed by the appearance of the Lietuvių literatūros enciklopedija" (Encyclopedia of Lithuanian literature) in 2001.Eventually, expectations for a qualitatively new history of Lithuanian literature of the Soviet period seemed to have subsided. Or perhaps it was understood that empirical "knowledge" is not enough and that new theoretical approaches are necessary if a fresh perspective on a fairly recent period is to be achieved, and that there is also a need for many smaller research projects that would fundamentally re-think the functioning of the literary field as a whole, and re-evaluate key authors and canonical works. As a result, a good number of individual monographs and studies, analyses of how literature was controlled during the Soviet period, and numerous recollections of and discussions about Soviet-era Lithuanian literature, were published. Historians such as Vilius Ivanauskas, Aurimas Švedas, and Mindaugas Tamošaitis have analysed literary turning points in their works. Although yet another collection of articles - "Tarp estetikos ir politikos: lietuvių literatūra sovietmečiu" (Between aesthetics and politics: Lithuanian literature of the Soviet period, 2015) - was published, there still remains a feeling that, as a whole, the literature of the Soviet period - its complexity and its contradictions - is yet to be fully grasped. This publication by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore is not, of course, a new history of Lithuanian literature of the Soviet period, but rather the beginning of such work. It is an encyclopedia and a history, and combines the genres of collective monograph and collection of articles. This volume applies historical, sociological, political science, aesthetics, and other approaches to Lithuanian literature of the Soviet period. Things that would be merely stated in an encyclopedia are here discussed more broadly, though not necessarily unambiguously, and without avoiding problematic aspects of the topic.Because some of the themes discussed here have not yet been extensively researched, authors did not so much need to summarize previous studies as carry out new ones. In general, the project was born out of the long-term work of the Lithuanian Literature and Folklore's Department of Contemporary Literature and such long-standing research programs as "Historical Studies of the Soviet Period Literature (2012-2016)", "Literature as a Witness of Sociability: Aesthetics, Memory and Mentality in the Late Soviet Period (from 2017)", individual research studies, seminars about the Soviet period, local and international conferences, research trips, archival work, and the collection and interpretation of oral history. The work "Lithuanian Literature of the Soviet Period: Phenomena and Concepts" is intended for both the academic community and those who are studying or want to become familiar with Lithuanian culture of the Soviet period. At the same time, it is a summary of all the work done by Lithuanian sovietologists, and seeks to answer the questions: what were the most important Phenomena of the period and what are the key concepts related to it? Most of these phenomena and concepts are not, of course characteristic only of the Soviet period; it is possible to discuss humour, the grotesque, or gender relations in the literature of any other epoch or region. But in this particular work we are interested in how these things functioned under the ideological conditions of the Soviet period and to what extent they were determined by ideology and political circumstances. We do not, therefore, attempt to provide definitions of monosemantic notions (social realism, grotesque, humour, myth, Aesopian language), but, rather, plunge into the phenomena themselves, i.e. the context of Lithuanian literature in the Soviet period. [...]. [From the publication]