Participation in absentia of: an editor’s endeavors in Soviet Vilnius

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Daugiakultūris Vilnius; Laiškai; Literatūros salonas; Neformalus menininkų bendravimas; Valstybinė leidykla; Informal communication of artists; Letters; Literary salon; Multicultural Vilnius; State Publishing House.

ENThe article discusses the cultural opportunities and influence a person could have during a time of totalitarianism. The focus of the report is the informal communication network that writer and translator Aldona Liobytė (1915–1985) had formed. It is distinctly identified as a physical meeting place (“literary salon”) and as an epistolary communication, of which only a small part was published (1995; 2015). Liobytė played a bigger role in Lithuanian culture than one would expect from the encyclopedia entry. As a children’s author, occupying a modest position in the hierarchy of literature, she had a reputation as an authoritative assessor of cultural processes; she was known for being an educator and patron of young writers and artists whose outlook she helped to shape. She wrote folklorized plays for children based on literary works and encouraged young writers and artists to rely on folk art, thus contributing to the formation of the wave of artists who created modern art based on archaism and mythology. Liobytė also shaped theater repertoire through her ties with theater professionals. Although Liobytė’s travels were limited (she was even denied a permission to visit her brother in the USA), her literary assessments are surprisingly accurate.She, just like many other Soviet Lithuanian intellectuals, used her contacts with Poland and her knowledge of the Polish language as a bridge to the West. Her impression of the Polish theater, published in fine print on the last page of literary magazines, would introduce the reader to less ideologized repertoire and more modern means of expression than the ones of the Soviet theater. The most important issues arising while evaluating the work of this public figure are as follows: what is the thin line between collaboration and resistance against official culture? How does individual work grow and start impacting a wider audience? How does one achieve an informal authority? How can one detect and assess the invisible work of organizing culture? How can the true value of a person who has a very modest place in the literary field be revealed? What were the communication means among different cultures?. [From the publication]