The Formation of a new society in Klaipėda region after 1945

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Atvykėliai; Gyventojai; Klaipėdos kraštas [Klaipeda region]; Klaipėdos regionas; Naujakuriai; Rytų Prūsija [East Prussia]; Sovietų valdymas; „memelianderiai"; East Prussia; Klaipėda Region; Memellanders; Non-native speakers; Population; Settlers; Soviet rule.

ENThe purpose of this article is to investigate the main population groups of one part of the former East Prussia, i.e. Klaipėda Region, which were involved in the formation and development of a new Soviet society in Klaipėda region. The chronological framework of the research encompasses the first 15 post-war years before 1960. Such time sampling is based upon the developments that took place between 1958 and 1960 when the local population, including ca. 7,000 Memellanders, left for Germany and the remaining part of the populace lost its distinction and eventually dissolved in the community of Klaipėda region. The research source base includes interviews or family histories collected amongst the KlaipÎda region inhabitants in 2016-2018, memoirs and reminiscences of the people who lived in the region in the postwar period as well as numerous documents from the Lithuanian Central State Archives recording diverse aspects of political and economic life in Klaipėda region during the post-war years. The research methods include the analysis of empirical materials and the oral history methodological approach which was employed for the purpose of gathering interviews with the local population and systematization of the collected data. More than 90 stories of the Klaipėda Region inhabitants were collected including those of the indigenous inhabitants of the region, Prussian Lithuanians, or Lietuvininkai, and Germans that stayed in Klaipėda region in the aftermath of the war, Lithuanian settlers and non-native speakers, mostly Russian speakers, representing life experiences in Klaipėda region after 1945 and the shaping of their cultural and historical memory in the post-war period. The spoken life stories have been supplemented with visual materials, such as photos from family albums, which record details of everyday and public life and provide an eloquent illustration to oral memories. [Extract, p. 174-175]