Bourgeoisie As Internal Orient in the Soviet Lithuanian Literature: Roses Are Red by A

Journal of Baltic Studies

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Bourgeoisie as internal orient in the Soviet Lithuanian literature: Roses Are Red by A. Bieliauskas, 1959

Rasa Balockaite

To cite this article: Rasa Balockaite (2016) Bourgeoisie as internal orient in the Soviet Lithuanian literature: Roses Are Red by A. Bieliauskas, 1959, Journal of Baltic Studies, 47:1, 77-91, DOI: 10.1080/01629778.2015.1103510 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2015.1103510

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Download by: [Vytautas Magnus University] Date: 11 July 2017, At: 04:40 JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES, 2016 VOL. 47, NO. 1, 77–91 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01629778.2015.1103510

Bourgeoisie as internal orient in the Soviet Lithuanian literature: Roses Are Red by A. Bieliauskas, 1959 Rasa Balockaite Department of Social and Political Theory, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania

ABSTRACT In this paper, the concept of internal colonization is applied to the Soviet initiatives of re-socializing the large parts of the population and creating a socialist working class from peasantry, artisans, and residues of the bourgeoisie. The internal colonization, or the power relations between native Communists and their subalterns in Lithuania, is analyzed on the basis of Roses Are Red, a novel by Bieliauskas. Here, class is invented as substitute of race. The Soviet socialists stand for hegemonic standards of “normalcy,” whereas bourgeoisie is portrayed as subject of diﬀerence, as internal Orient and as internal colony, and the relationship between the two can be legiti- mately deﬁned as internal colonialism.

KEYWORDS Internal colonialism; Soviet colonialism; bourgeoisie; Soviet socialism; class; race; representation;

Lithuania

During our study years, in Kaunas, it was in 1967, we went to the restaurant ‘Eglė’ to celebrate our friend’s birthday on February 16. Most of the visitors in the restaurant were of middle age, very well dressed, gold jewelry, evening dress, laces, fur collars . . . I had not seen anything like that before. . . Everybody was very quiet, mysterious; there was no loud talking or songs. . . They danced very well. . . it was so weird for us . . . We began to wonder, and the waiter whispered to us, ‘it is the former high society, of the independence period, they are celebrating Lithuanian independence’, there . . . it was the ﬁrst and the last time I ever saw such a thing. (Baločkaitė 2011, 418)

Soviet internal colonialism: an internal schism The concept of “colonialism” has undergone significant transformations during recent years. Originally, the definition of colonialism referred to western European overseas expansion, where the colonist and the colonizer are of a different race and separated from each other by large quantities of water. It was believed that one cannot colonize people of his own race; that the colonies are overseas, so the great empire is at peace with its own neighbors (Thompson 2000, 91). The two components – physical distance and racial difference – shaped general understanding of colonialism, and Said himself used these arguments against proponents of Russian colonialism: “Unlike Britain or France, which jumped thousands of miles beyond their own borders to other

CONTACT Rasa Balockaite [email protected] Department of Social and Political Theory, Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy, Vytautas Magnus University, Gedimino g. 44-102, LT-44246 Kaunas, Lithuania © 2015 Journal of Baltic Studies 78 R. BALOCKAITE continents, Russia moved to swallow whatever lands or people stood next to its borders, which in the process kept moving further and further east and south” (Said 1993, 10). However, due to Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism (1951 [1958]) and her thesis of “boomerang effect” explaining the relation between two largest totalitarian regimes, the twentieth century and the lessons of violent governance learned in colonies, the concept of colonialism has been increasingly applied in different con- texts to describe power relations between people on the same continent and in the same country, resulting in concepts of continental colonialism and internal colonialism. Continental colonialism indicates that both a colonist and a colonizer are on the same continent and of the same race, but there is a developmental gap, real or imagined, between the two. The German continental colonialism, or German expansion into Eastern Europe, was analyzed by Baranowski (2010), Kopp (2009), Nelson (2009), and Langbehn and Salama (2011); Austrian continental colonialism was examined by Ruthner (2002), among others. Russian continental colonialism, that is, the Russian territorial expansion into Siberia, Caucasus, Central Asia, and into Eastern Europe, was examined by Slezkine (1994), Thompson (2000), Khodarkovsky (2002), and Bassin (2006). Internal colonialism refers to the process when elites “colonize” their own people, seeing them as different, exotic, and barbarian. Both the colonized and the colonizer are in the same country and of the same race, separated by the developmental gap alone, that is, physical distances are substituted with social distances. The concept of internal colonialism was applied by Lenin (1899 [1964]), when he argued that internal inequalities within the country play, in the process of development, the same role as external ones. Later, the concept of internal colonialism was applied by Blauner (1972) to explain race relations in the US. Hechter (1975) applied it to explain relationships between England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; and Weber (1976) argued that state building in France was similar to processes of “internal colonization.” In Russian studies, the idea of internal colonialism has been applied by Groys (1993), Kagarlitsky (2003), Viola (2009), Condee (2009), and Etkind (2011). To understand the phenomenon of Russian colonialism, it is important to keep in mind that Russian colonialism was both continental and internal. The continental colonialism includes Russia’s territorial expansion toward Siberia, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe, which was based on Russia’s economic and cultural domination over non-Russian ethnic groups. Internal colonialism refers toward processes within the borders of the state, that is, differentiation of society into two culturally distant social groups, whereas of one them feels entitled for the governance and reeducation of the latter. Etkind (2011) applies the concept of “internal colonization” toward Petrine and post Petrine Russia. Petrine reforms, he argues, inflicted schism on Russian society, between westernized elites and their orthodox subalterns. The Big Shave reform fixed the difference at the physical level – westernized nobles became recognizable by their shaved faces, and “shave” became a substitute a “whiteness.” The Russian nobility increasingly projected fantasies of sectarianism, promiscuity, and communal lifestyles on their own peasantry, seeing them as backward, irrational, primitive. Simultaneously, they felt they were not at home and estranged, and they saw themselves as aliens among “folks of their own blood” (Etkind 2011, 109). “Estate,” as Etkind argues, was invented in Russia as a substitute for “race.” Up to now, the Soviet colonialism was seen as part of and continuation of Russian continental colonialism, that is, Russian territorial expansion into neighboring territories as JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES 79

Siberia, Caucasus, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. The seminal work of applying postcolonial paradigm toward Baltic states is Baltic Postcolonialism (2006), edited by V. Kelertas, including contributions by D.Ch. Moore, P. Peiker, K. Racevskis, among others. Here in this volume, the postcolonial condition is understood as a period after Russian domination over their continental territorial expansions in the Baltic states. However, it is necessary to make a distinction between Soviet continental colonialism and Soviet internal colonialism. Whereas the continental colonialism was directed toward accession of new territories, internal colonialism was directed against the residues of bourgeoisie within the territory of the state. After the Revolution, the Soviet authorities initiated the processes within their territories that might be legiti- mately called “internal colonization”–attempts to re-socialize, both by force and by education, a large part of the population within the territory of the state to destroy residues of the bourgeois regime and to create a new society. This had to be achieved by fostering industrialization and urbanization (Sunny and Siegelbaum 1994; Brunnbauer 2008), introducing new rites and rituals (Bogdanov 2009; Lane 1981), controlling linguistic developments (Kelly 2002; Gorham 1996), shaping new habits of domestic life (Reid 2005), and modeling human behavior according to the idea of kul’turnost’ (concept, referring to the ideal type of the Soviet subjectivity) (Kelly 2002). Soviet internal colonialism inflicted both a chronological schism as a radical rejection of the past and a social schism as the division between adherents and opponents of the Soviet socialism. Here, the racial superiority of the colonizer was replaced by the superiority of the socialist working class. Simply speaking, the idea of race was replaced by the idea of class. Following Said’s quote that “. . . The Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience, . . . a collective notion of identifying ‘us’ Europeans against all ‘those’ non-Europeans” (Said 1979, 7), it could be said that the bourgeoisie has helped to define the Soviet identity as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience, a collective notion of identifying “Us, Soviets” against all “Those non-Soviets.” Different groups such as the former nobility, clergy, haute and petite bourgeoisie, and partially peasantry were seen, to rephrase the famous dictum by Chakrabarty, as “not yet Soviet subjects,” placed into an “imaginary waiting room of history” (Chakrabarty 2007, 8). The Soviet mission civilizatrice was to “proletariatize” them, both by violence and by education, and to create a new socialist working class.

Roses Are Red by A. Bieliauskas as plot story of Soviet internal colonialism Lithuania became a part of the Soviet Union in 1940. After WWII, along with the large- scale economic and political reforms, the Soviet authorities initiated re-socialization of indigenous population, both by violence and by education, in order to make the whole country socialist. The early Soviet years were characterized by open antagon- ism, militant resistance, and direct physical coercion. However, with Khrushchev’s ascent to power in 1953 and open condemnation of terror as method of rule, the Soviet authorities began to seek new, more consensual ways of governance. In the Baltic states, they initiated the processes of korenizatsiia1 (nativization of elites), a policy of promoting representatives of the titular nation into the local government. The policies of korenizatsiia were meant to create social strata of native Communists, to harmonize the relationship between the Soviet regime and the population and 80 R. BALOCKAITE

increase the legitimacy of the Soviet rule in Lithuanian territory. The process of korenizatsiia signified a shift from external toward internal power relations, from external toward internal colonialism. The mission of the newly shaped Soviet elites, or the native Communists, was to educate and to “civilize” their own subalterns, to fight against residues of the bourgeoisie, and to make the whole country socialist. Such a plot is presented in the novel Roses Are Red by Alfonsas Bieliauskas (1959). The book was awarded the National Prize of the Lithuanian SSR in 1959; later editions were published in 1986, 1972, and 1977. In 1967, the novel was made into opera under the same name, Roses Are Red, and performed at the Kaunas Musical Theater for several years. The protagonist of the novel, Vytas Čeponis, was raised by his uncle Žabūnas, who himself was stuck in the loveless marriage with an unattractive woman from the petite bourgeoisie. After spending the war years in Russia, Vytas returns home as a mature socialist and gets involved in public activism or, specifically, in Soviet internal colonialism – fighting against residues of the bourgeois culture, promoting socialist values, and attracting new members into the Komsolmol. Vytas’ character unfolds via his relation with his petite bourgeois foster family and his romantic affair with Asta, the belle of haute bourgeoisie. The novel contains three relatively stable subject positions, or generalized “types”2 – theNormal(theSovietactivist),theNoble(hautebourgeoisie),andthe Savage (petite bourgeoisie). The Soviet activists represent hegemonic standards of desired “normalcy” and are defined in opposition to pathologies and backwardness of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie itself is not homogenous; it consists of the haute bourgeoisie (bankers, industrialists, and high-rank state servants) and the petite bourgeoisie (small-scale merchants who seek to identify themselves with the haute bourgeoisie and whose lifestyles and mobility they strive to imitate). This way, the bourgeoisie incorporates radical differences: the haute bourgeoisie stands for luxury, beauty, refinement, and elegance, whereas the petite bourgeoisie is characterized by poverty, ugliness, vulgarity, and brutality. Hall explains it as “the binary structure of stereotype, which is split between two extreme opposites” (Hall 1997,263).The subject might move between two extremes, yet he remains locked within certain frame of reference – the difference appears, as haute bourgeoisie is characterized by surplus and pleasure, whereas petite bourgeoisie is characterized by desire and lack; however, they both operate within the same capitalist frame of reference. The Soviet activist is distinct as he operates within an entirely different, socialist frame of reference, where identities are defined in terms of socialist values as conscious labor, a sense of public duty, and political maturity.3 This paper explores how the “developmental gap” between adherents and opponents of the Soviet regime is created, how the hegemony and cultural supremacy of the socialist culture is constructed, and how bourgeoisie is portrayed in terms of “internal Orient.” We will see how supremacy of one groups over another leads to the duty of the former ones to govern and to re-socialize the latter, and how the relationship between the two can be characterized as “internal colonialism.”

Haute bourgeoisie – oriental tales of luxury and eroticism In Russia, according to Rendle (2008), a signiﬁcant part of the former nobility survived the revolution of 1917 and adjusted to the new realities. They learned to act Soviet JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES 81 and to speak Soviet for sake of self-preservation, but beyond the facades, the old lifestyles prevailed. Former nobility maintained close networks and lived in “kinship colonies” for years after 1917. Through intermarriage, these colonies continued to exist and “provided a degree of stability and facilitated the continuance of old practices and traditions alongside new concerns and worries” (Rendle 2008, 12). Roses Are Red starts with a similar pattern. The haute bourgeoisie is represented by the family of Adomas Girčys, high-rank administrator of pre-Soviet period, currently absent; his wife Aleksandra, struggling to continue the luxurious lifestyle; and their daughters, Asta and Rasa, trying to balance between family values and the new socialist Zeitgeist. The members of the haute bourgeoisie socialize within their own social circles, tend to intermarry among themselves, and continue their old lifestyles, recollecting on their past:

On Asta’s birthday, there was plenty of champagne; a minister of agriculture and the heads of two state departments were at the table . . . Those were the days. . . (p. 209) Travel to Nice, where there is gold and marble everywhere, the Italian Alps touching the skies with their peaks, Tyrolean shepherds who understand the language of the stars. . . (p. 189)

The haute bourgeoisie is portrayed as internal Orient, characterized by irrationality, emotions, instincts, a focus on bodily existence, stagnation and passivity, as a counterimage to the rational, secular, and progressive socialist way of life. Their homes are the epitome of Oriental luxury; descriptions of abundance last for entire pages:

Izabelė, the maid, appeared through the door with the cake . . . Girčienė observed the table with critical gaze. Now, it seems, all is done. Gefilte fish (Izabelė went through all the markets for it), decorated in red radish, seemed alive . . . Fried young pig was next to it . . . Goose and šaltiena (Lithuanian cold meat pie) did not find space on table and were patiently waiting on the cupboard. But the drinks were placed in the honorable place. Krupnik (Lithuanian sweet alcoholic drink) and cherry liquor radiated red and green colors from crystal carafes . . . We need some flowers, – with the tone of expert, Girčienė said. And, definitely – she placed some white lilacs into the tall red glass vase, and the room became brighter. (p. 208)

The homes are well decorated and resemble a harem atmosphere. There is a contrast between the static, ritualized, eroticized atmospheres of their homes and the dynamic, progressive, active outside world. The rooms are in twilight most of the time, creating an atmosphere of intimacy, and the females suﬀer boredom and lack of intellectual stimulation:

Here, everything was covered in soft, feminine shades of green and yellow. Lace and crocheting on the table, on the piano and ﬂowerpot holders, they all created atmosphere of intimacy (p. 33); Asta leaned at the window and began to observe the street. People moved here and there, with their luggage, bundles, bags. . . They were mostly young people in their working clothes. . . . Where were they rushing to? (p. 34)

The typical gender roles among the haute bourgeoisie follow the traditional patters of Oriental imagination – weak, eﬀeminate males and exotic, mysterious, erotic females. The women are gracious, attractive, well-mannered and good at entertaining the men. They resemble the image of the “romanticized mulatresse” who has “reduced volup- tuousness to a kind of mechanical art,” which she has “carried to the highest point of perfection” (Manganelli 2012, 23): 82 R. BALOCKAITE

Girčienė was dressed in a black woolen dress, decorated with a silver fox fur; a green stone in her ring radiated a cold light (p. 285); Would you like a glass of tea? – Girčienė kindly asked . . . Her posture, her head nodding; her hand gestures radiated an uninhibited femininity and grace (p.34).

Projecting sexual fantasies onto subalterns is an old tradition of colonial imagery. “Renaissance travel writings and plays repeatedly connect deviant sexuality with racial and cultural outsiders and faraway places, which, as Anne McClintock puts it, ‘what can be called a porno tropics for the European imagination – a fantastic magic lantern of the mind onto which Europe projected its forbidden sexual desires and fears’” (Loomba 2009, 131). Here, sexual fantasies are projected not into “faraway places,” but just across the barriers between social classes:

Daumantas leaned heavily on both hands and philosophically observed Girčienė, while she was pouring coﬀee. She was dressed in green silk with the décolleté, revealing some pink breast area. There was solid gold ring on her hands. Damn. How gracefully she is holding the glasses, how eloquent she is pouring the remnants from the bottle! (p. 118)

In colonial worldviews, it was believed that a tropical climate has significant effects on people, and characteristics of indolence and sensuality in colonies were attributed to the effects of the “always burning sun” (Manganelli 2012, 19). It was said that because of climate people indulge in eternal idleness and “pass their lives either stretched at length or, cbinta, that is, sitting in the oriental manner on mats, where their supreme delight is to have the soles of their feet tickled by a female slave” (Manganelli 2012, 19–20). Similarly, the haute bourgeoisie spends most of the time “sitting in low arm-

chairs at the low, round table, sipping liqueur and discussing how to get trendy white wool for their summer suits” (p. 200). Here, the inferiority of the bourgeoisie stems not from the corruptive effects of climate, but from the corruptive effects of capital. The bourgeoisie, as Luke frames it, is “crippled by privilege” (Luke 1983, 594). Redeemed from the healing effects of work, they sink into commodity fetishism, laziness, lack of discipline, promiscuity, and moral indolence. Women of the haute bourgeoisie embody the typical fantasies projected onto colonial females such as sensuality, tenderness, and romantic moods. They are portrayed in romantic settings as parks, riversides, and operas. Asta is characterized by overt romanticism, infantilism, and lack of discipline. Despite her status as a university student, she remains governed by her impulses and emotions, rather than by reason:

Someone was playing piano. Asta rushed through the alley and stopped at a small house, leaning against the poplar. She raised her chin, revealing her amazingly white neck, and absorbed into herself the sounds, softened by the evening dust. . . . How wonderful, – she whispered, – Oh my God, how wonderful is that. (p. 134) Asta plucked some petals from the chamomile. – Let me tell your fortune – she said (p. 218); Asta jumped from the meadow and started chasing a white butterﬂy, with her kerchief. She was running between the ﬂowers, happy and relaxed, having forgotten exams, home, and her sister. (p. 219)

Female infantilism, resulting from patriarchal subjugation, is a shared experience among women of haute bourgeoisies across generations. In Asta’s memories, her father used to pamper her mother by treating her as a child: “. . . he carried her around in the garden, later placed her into the hammock and rocked her like a baby. While leaving for work, dad always used to give her a farewell kiss, and on his return, brought her favorite mint candies home” (p. 235). JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES 83

In colonial worldviews, western Europe stood for the true development, whereas colonial people were seen as bound to bodily existence, inhibited in their thinking and doomed to imitation (Blaut 1993, 17). In the novel, Asta’s process of education is characterized by imitativeness – for her, history is merely a collection of facts, listed in chronological order, she is mimicking the very idea of education by trying to remem- ber “so many names” and at the same time remaining completely indifferent to the political significance of the events: “I have never ever thought that Russians have had so many Tsars. And all of them were with double names . . . I have spent three nights [studying] the Kievan state, my brain does not function anymore” (pp. 131–132). According to colonial ideologies, colonial people were seen as “not yet subjects” (Chakrabarty 2007, 8), waiting to be emancipated from prejudice and ignorance. Similarly, Asta’s intellectual capacities remain underdeveloped due the corruptive effects of her home culture. Asta starts questioning cultural imperatives of the bourgeoisie during her romantic affair with Vytas, young Soviet activist; however, she remains incapable of transcending the “self-incurred tutelage.”4 After their affair, Asta sinks back into stagnation, emptiness, and radical experience of lack that she was suffering from the beginning:

. . .she was bored. . . all the exams, the grayness of the home. . .she could not stand it anymore, all these parties. . . She was longing for something else. But what was it? (p. 219); Am I pretty? – she talked to herself, quietly (. . .) Pretty? But what is my beauty for? (p. 337)

One of the ways to undermine the traditional order in colonies was to destabilize masculinities in patriarchal societies and delegitimize paternal figures of authority (Sinha 1995;Loomba2009). The males of the haute bourgeoisie are represented following the general patterns of colonial imagination (on effeminate bengali,see Sinha 1995) – they are grotesque, effeminate, governed by passion, concerned with appearances, pleasure seeking, lacking discipline, and political consciousness. The family friend Daumantas is gambler, dandy, and alcoholic: “Daumantas?. . . Playing cards again . . . He is so dressed up, so perfumed. . . I could barely breathe. Just take him and place in the window at Mural” (p. 192). Kipras, family friend and Asta’s fiancé, is lacking political consciousness, unable to realize higher moral values beyond his personal interests – when the country is recovering from the consequences of WWII, he is asking the governmental office to be reimbursed for the bike, taken by the Soviet army during the war; the Soviet official advises him to look for bicycle at Stalingrad (pp. 79–80). In his marriage with Asta, he keeps sleeping around with Asta’s best friend (p. 336), whereas Asta’s father-in-law is observing Asta secretly in her bedroom (p. 330). Colonial ideologies pointed toward patriarchal subjugation of women in indi- genoussocietiesasanexcuseforintervention.AsSpivakcomments,“white men saving the brown women from brown men” (Spivak 1993, 93) was the motto of colonialism. Similarly, the Soviet authorities saw women as surrogate proletarians (Massell 1974). It was believed that women, due to the patriarchal oppression, would favor Soviet socialism. In the novel, bourgeois women constitute a particular form of subaltern, and the working-class men are saving bourgeoisie women from bourgeoisie men. Among bourgeois families, old stories circulate about factory owner Golovinsky and his daughter, who, on the eve of her pre-arranged marriage, escaped with a much younger and good-looking working-class man (pp. 212–213); Asta encounters, in her dreams, the scene where Vytas, the Soviet activist, is kidnapping her from a pre- 84 R. BALOCKAITE

arranged marriage: “Strong, athletic, wind-swept hair, shining eyes . . . He breaks into the church, runs to the altar (. . .) takes Asta in his arms and carries her far away . . .” (p. 243). Taking into account moral and cultural male inferiority within their own social circles, both Asta and Rasa fall in love with the Soviet activists. Rasa leaves home after confrontation with her mother, whereas Asta hesitates and experiences confrontation with her mother only in her dreams. Following Freudian interpretation, the dreams reveal painful truths about her family and her social class in general, the truths that are tabooed by the bourgeois culture and remain unspoken. The true nature of bourgeoisie is revealed only at the unconscious level, which is free from moral imperatives of bourgeois culture:

Now, you will not escape! I got you, – Girčienė screamed and tugged her younger daughter by her hair . . . Mother’s face was so scary . . . Her eyes were red and horrible, her fingers cracked like those of a skeleton . . . With her every word, Girčienė crouched and hit her daughter across the face with the bony, gold-ringed fingers. The daughter was standing calm and quiet, as if she did not feel anything at all . . . Mother! – Asta exclaimed . . . Mother grasped Asta by the neck and began to strangle her – So that’s how you talk to your mother? I know . . . – you are jealous of Daumantas . . . yes, you are! (p. 330) The missing father figure appears finally but it culminates in tragedy rather than restoration of balance within the family. All the vices of the haute bourgeoisie such as promiscuity, violence, and irrationality culminate in the final scene – the father returns from the West and finds his wife in bed with a family friend, kills the friend, and himself collapses in the moment of aimless outrage:

Girčys crunched his teeth. . . . Adomas, – Girčienė exclaimed, – I’ll explain everything! . . . But it

was too late. . . . He was running around the room, spitting yellow spume and stinking sludge, nervously pulling the trigger of his empty gun, hitting mirrors, vases, flowers, people with the gun. . . Finally, militiamen threw a blanket over his head, Adomas tumbled and flopped on the floor. (p. 350) The authoritative figure of the father appears as grand failure, as grotesque masculinity, his unfortunate comeback represents the irrevocable breakdown of the “internal colony.” The colony collapses on its own due to its own dysfunctions, without any internal interference. This collapse stands as symbol of backwardness, irrationality, and inferiority of the old bourgeois society and as affirmation of socialist cultural hegemony.

Petite bourgeoisie – tales of violence and savagery The opposite of the Noble is the symbolic figure of the Savage, or petite bourgeoisie. They are small-scale merchants who seek to identify themselves with high bourgeoisie and whose lifestyles they strive to imitate; consequently, they end up mimicking all their vices as greed, selfishness, irrationality, vanity, etc. The petite bourgeoisie is represented by the Žabūnai family: Black Ancė, a greedy, unattractive woman; her husband Žabūnas, lured by money into a loveless marriage; their unattractive and promiscuous daughter Atilija, and their son Zigmas, a profiteer and enemy of the Soviet regime. Žabūnas is also an uncle to Vytas. After the mother’s death, Vytas was raised by Žabūnas family. The homes of the petite bourgeoisie look static, marked by poverty and backwardness. The shelves are full of shabby items, cheap romantic novels, religious literature, and pictures of the saints: “Saints’ Lives,”“Saint Vincento A Paula,” and “Lourdes,” which JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES 85

are some novels by the prewar popular writer Justas Pilyponis.5 Disorder prevails: the cat is jumping on and eating from the table till the host pushes him away rudely (p. 99), the atmosphere is gloomy and the rooms are constantly in twilight: “Plain curtains filtered the November sunlight and converted it into cold blue dusk. Atilija’s face above the book seemed to be blue from this weird midday dusk” (p. 98). Whereas the haute bourgeoisie is portrayed in terms of “Oriental luxury,” the petite bourgeoisie is portrayed in terms of “African savagery” (Hall 1997). They are portrayed as childish and immature, excessively emotional, sensuous, lacking discipline, and self- control: “Atilija . . . saw Vytas and clapped her hands happily . . . She jumped toward him, took his face into her big soft hands and kissed his lips. Vytas blushed” (p. 27). A significant part of colonial ideologies was the alleged linguistic inferiority of non- European nations. It was believed that only western European languages are “real languages,” whereas indigenous populations in colonies use simple system of communication, based on primitive signals as whoops and gestures (Ridgeway and Pewewardy 2004, 29). In the novel, petite bourgeoisie is neither willing nor capable of mastering rules of the standard language, their language remains unarticulated, and communication consists of snorts, hints, wails, whoops, and interjections: “Atilija was about to say something (to her mother), but she glanced at her mother and only snorted. – Haw. I was at my friend (p. 27); Atilija is meeting Vytas with the cry: Vytka!6 You are back! Cool!”7 (p. 27). In their conversations, there are continuous hints of sexual desire, prejudice, sorcery, and fortune telling. Here, in analogy to the black slave culture in US South Smith 2012): fortune-telling and different forms of sorcery are practiced; talismans and pictures of the saints are used as weapons against bad fate or against those in power: Atilija comes home late at night and makes excuses to her mother: “We were telling our fortunes by cards” (p. 27); Žabūnienė is escorting her son to the anti-Soviet resistance troops, she places a postcard in his bag: “Saint George, sitting on a white horse, hits the fire-breathing dragon with his golden spear” (p. 174). As Scott (1990) observes, foot-dragging, pilfering, poaching, and sabotage are typical ways of a silent resistance, practiced among colonized people and other relatively powerless social groups. Similarly, the petite bourgeoisie avoids participa- tion in socialist economies; they continue smuggling, poaching, pilfering, and practi- cing other ways of beating the system without being caught. As Tully (2011)points out, the colonized people were industrious in their indigenous economies, but had difficulties in understanding waged labor, which they tried either to sabotage or to escape. In the novel, petite bourgeoisie is also reasoning in categories of kinship, privilege, favoritism, and has difficulties in comprehending abstract categories and formal rules. Žabūnienė is sending her husband to municipality to negotiate personal tax reduction, her husband insists that “(. . .) The law is the law, always, you can’t negotiate, mother . . .”, whereas she accuses him of cowardness in return: “Yeah, fine, if you’re afraid, I will go there by myself, and will tear their eyes out” (pp. 161–163). Further, Žabūnienė is asking Vytas to arrange a trip to Konigsberg for her so that she could buy some clothes and profiteer in the local market. Given an answer about the formality of the law, she replies: “Isee,youdon’tregardusasfamilymembers anymore...” (p. 230). Lack of civilizational restraints and absence of moral values results in the state of nature and a Hobbessian “war of all against all,” well explained by Zigmas’ philosophy of life: “ Everyone has to fight his own enemies by himself. (. . .) Two or three bullets. 86 R. BALOCKAITE

Cheap and fast” (p. 202); even in everyday life, uncontrollable outbursts of primitive drives and impulses constitute an atmosphere of perpetual conflicts and violence: “I’ll kill you”–Zigmas roared and hit his father’s face with his fist. “Jesus,”- Žabūniene screamed out loud (p. 311). The female body plays an important role in illuminating the inferiority of the petite bourgeoisie. Here, the moral, cultural, and political inferiority is transformed into a physical inferiority. Both Atilija and her mother are overtly unattractive. The mother has “a wrinkled face, a sharp nose . . . Black Ancė, that’s how she was called in town” (p. 26), whereas Atilija is suffering severe physical defects:

Except for large, black-framed glasses and her fat legs, Atilija Žabūnaitė would have been quite pretty. But she was near-sighted and had to wear glasses, she knew her legs were too big, and her birthmark was in a very bad place – on her face, near her lower lip – and she was very, very worried about that. (p. 27)

The Ancė’s blackness is a metaphor of substituting race with class, whereas Atilija’s image resembles the case of Saartjie Baarman8 – Khoikhoi woman with heavy breasts, big hips, and large buttocks who was brought from South Africa to Europe and displayed as a proof of racial inferiority. Atilija’s body, however, constitutes a political question – the capitalist patriarchal culture categorized her appearances as proble- matic. Within the socialist frame of reference, where the person’s value depends on his moral qualities and professional performance, her physical defects do not disappear; however, they are reduced to insigniﬁcance. Throughout the volume, the petite bourgeoisie is condemned to a barely physical

existence, engaged in bodily activities, all performed without discretion: “Sour and angry, Žabūnas would go upstairs . . . slurp some cabbage or potato soup. Atilija was there, typically, on the bed, dressed in her gown, trimming her nails” (pp. 161–162). From Agamben’s perspective, the petite bourgeoisie stands for zoe, or bare life, which is distinguished from bios, or politically or morally qualiﬁed life (Agamben 1998). Suspension of socialist ideology means the suspension of political subjectivity as such; it leaves nothing but bare biological existence:

He used to wake up at the same time, rub his face with a wet towel, and go down to the cellar. Then, he would throw some wood on the ﬁre, clutch his knees, turn his back to the window and just sit there, and observe the ﬁre. . . People were going to the factory. Old and young. With every week, the crowd grew larger and larger. . . At these moments, he looked with disgust at his oily, stinking apron, sooty crumpled boilers. . . and he felt such despair. . . He would wait for the last sound of steps, take out a hidden bottle of home-made vodka . . . its burning taste would quench his anger for a while. . . (pp. 161–162)

Following the logic of the story, there is no way to escape from Soviet subjectivities; outside of Soviet ideology, there is nothing than a biological existence. Soviet way of life is equal to civilization itself, and outside the Soviet ideology there is nothing else but zoe, bare life, or savagery.

The Soviet activist – imagined hegemonic normalcy The protagonist of the novel is Vytas Čeponis, whose character unveils via interactions with haute bourgeoisie (his affair with Asta) and petite bourgeoisie (relations with Žabūnai, his foster family). Vytas, along with other Soviet activists, is characterized by JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES 87 rationality, intellect, abstract theoretical thinking, discipline, education, and stands as a counterimage to irrationality, instincts, spontaneity, and prejudice of bourgeoisie. Typically, the internal colonization starts with an internal schism within society. In the novel, the schism begins, as the Soviet activists return either from exile in Russia (Vytas Čeponis, Danguolė Valionytė) or after imprisonment for their revolutionary activities (Julius Janušis, Petras Daknys). Here, both exile and imprisonment mean exposure to progressive socialist ideas, involvement in socialist activities, and political re-socialization. The episode of return replicates the life story of Peter the Great, who came back from western Europe affected by ideas of secularization, modernization, and progress, faced the backwardness of his home country, and initiated the processes of reform. Vytas returns from Russia as a mature socialist, yet he finds his foster family stuck in the past and feels alienated from his home culture – like Peter the Great felt like “a guest in his own home,” or the typical eighteenth-century Russian nobleman, “strolling with Voltaire’s book somewhere in his own village,” felt himself “an alien among his own kind” (Kliuchevsky 1956, 5/183). In the case of internal colonialism, racial differences are replaced with cultural ones. Exoticism is experienced not overseas, but across the barriers between social classes. Vytas, during his affair with Asta, as the descendant of the haute bourgeoisie, feels immersed into foreign culture: “Vytas has little or no orientation in all this mess. He does not know a lot of things that are so natural for Asta (p. 151); He was told once that a young man during his first visit to his girlfriend’s home is obliged to kiss the hand of her mother. This, you see, is the tradition among intellectual families, and it must be obeyed. For him, the idea was rather strange” (p 224). Many authors (Luke 1983;Laski1926;Buber1949;KonradandSzelenyi1979; Tucker 1977) consider the Russian revolution as Russia’s “historical substitute” for the Protestant Reformation in western Europe. It is said both Bolshevism and Protestantism attached moral value to the labor, mobilized masses for industrial activities, celebrated self-discipline and asceticism, and offered secularized pattern of redemption. In the Soviet socialism, Lenin himself used to be portrayed as role model of this exemplary asceticism. Russel speaks of typical representation of Lenin’sroom:“Lenin’s room is very bare; it contains a big desk, some maps on the walls, two bookcases, and one comfortable chair for visitors, in addition to two or three hard chairs. It is obvious that he has no love of luxury or even comfort” (Russell 1964, 32). In the novel, the Soviet activists’ place is modeled according to the imaginary Lenin’s room. The Soviet activists reside in modest apartments with basic belongings, ascetic, and austere. Light, healthy, and enthusiastic atmosphere stands in contrast to dusk, heaviness, and stagnation of bourgeois homes: “The sun was shining through the window, heaped with books. A small gray bird was jumping, singing and knocking the window glass with its beak. The voices of children playing sounded loud outside” (p. 352). The Soviet socialism, just like Protestantism, interpreted labor as secular pattern of redemption, which would discipline individual Bolshevik and save him from spontaneity, apathy, and passivity. The self-control and self-discipline of the Soviet activists result from the healing effects of labor and their healthy, luxury-free lifestyles: “After the [Komsomol] meetings, Vytas would come home after midnight. It didn’t mean he could go to sleep – Komsomol members of the postwar years could only dream about such luxury. In the cold room, there was lukewarm tea and an algebra manual” (p. 274). 88 R. BALOCKAITE

As Luke observes, “Lenin demanded that Bolshevik activists tightly control their emotions to attain consciousness. The radical Bolshevik had to regard all persons without ‘sentimentality,’ to keep a stone in his sling” (Luke 1983, 594). Similarly, the socialists are characterized by self-discipline and control over their passions: after the break up, “Vytas . . . began to think of Asta coldly, without emotion, just like about any ordinary acquaintance” (p. 276); while Pranas refused a job offer as it meant physical proximity (a shared office) with the married woman he loved: “Damn, what kind of work – you sit at your desk and think about a woman who is not yours. That’sstale” (p. 324). In the novel, the “socialist hegemonic womanhood” is constructed as analogous to “white hegemonic womanhood”9 of colonial ideologies – the socialist woman embodies the virtues that could be achieved in other, non-Soviet women, only by process of education. The female Soviet activist Eugenija is mature, self-disciplined, non-flirtatious, suppressing her emotions even when confronted with the parents’ death (p. 179). She refuses to be called “darling” by her male colleague, her only accessory is a humble ring, saved by her neighbors from her deceased mother (p. 179). Eugenija’semotional coldness and self-control is an antipode to the infantilism and romanticism of Asta, the eroticism and refinery of Aleksandra, the greed and hot temper of Atilija, etc. The Soviet activists are portrayed as humanists, characterized by faith in humanity, in contrast to violent nature of bourgeoisie. Vytas keeps his faith even after a violent encounter with the enemies of Soviet regime that resulted in injuries and threat to Vytas’ life. In his thoughts, he replicates the quote from the Khrushchev speech “There are no men beyond redemption”10: “Vytas . . . was sure that all people are basically good, all you need is to find a proper way to talk to them, explain things to them, show them that they create their own future – and they will be different!” (p. 124). It defines the “Soviet Man’s Burden”11 – to invade their own internal colonies and to civilize their own subalterns. The novel ends with Vytas completing his political mission in the town and being sent into capital city for further activities. The closing lines replicate famous Kipling’s “White Men’s Burden”12:

Vytas is traveling to the capital . . . He is leaving here two thousand new Komsomol members – he personally handed Komsomol ticket to each of them (p. 377); He does not escape troubles. . . He goes to face them – new, unknown, mysterious challenges. Isn’t that great? Isn’t life worth living because of that? (p. 377)

Conclusion As Lenin once said, the internal inequalities might play the same role as external ones. The concept of “internal colonialism” has been previously applied to explain relationships between England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland; interracial relations in the US; relationships between the center and periphery in the process of state building; or relations between westernized nobility and their orthodox subalterns in Petrine and post-Petrine Russia. The Soviet regime became another case of internal colonialism, where class was invented as a substitute for race. The Soviet regime in the Baltic states is analyzed mostly with the focus on power relations between central authorities in Moscow and their subordinates in Lithuania. However, to understand fully the cultural dynamics in Soviet Lithuania, it is necessary to focus also on the internal power relations between the native Soviet activists, and the residues of bourgeoisie within the country, that is, the processes of internal colonialism. JOURNAL OF BALTIC STUDIES 89

The novel Roses Are Red by Bieliauskas represents relations between native Soviet activists and their subalterns. Here, the Soviet activist is the universal subject, characterized by rationality, self-discipline, and abstract theoretical thinking, whereas bourgeoisie appears as a subject of diﬀerence: particular, peculiar, imperfect, incom- plete, exotic, dangerous, and incomprehensible. Haute bourgeoisie is characterized by “Oriental luxury,” whereas petite bourgeoisie is characterized by “African savagery,” yet both are lacking rationality, logic, and proper political consciousness. In Soviet political imagination, bourgeoisie was framed as an internal colony or as an internal Orient that existed just across class barriers within the country. The mission civilizatrice of the Soviet activists was to invade and conquer these internal colonies, to civilize their own subalterns, and to make the whole country socialist. Here, the idea of race is substituted with the idea of class. The Soviet worldviews and socialist way of life are equated with the idea of culture and civilization, the same way as “whiteness” was equated to culture and civilization in western European overseas colonialism. Further, the suspension of the Soviet ideology means general suspension of culture and civilization, as outside the Soviet ideology is nothing than bare life, biological existence, and savagery. The novel served to establish socialist cultural hegemony and to create social distance between “Us, Soviets” and “Them, non-Soviets”; further, it legitimized the moral right and the duty of the ﬁrst to govern, to colonize, and to civilize the latter – the relations that can be characterized as “internal colonialism.”

Notes

1. The policies of korenizatsiia were initiated early in 1920 by Soviet authorities; by promoting non-Russians into leading positions, the Party sought to legitimize the revolution. Similar measures were instigated in Baltic states in 1953. 2. In explaining “grammar of representation,” Stuart Hall refers to Donald Bogle’s study Toms, Coons, Mulattos, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretative History of Black in American films (1973) that revealed five basic “types” of representing the blacks in American cinema. 3. These moral qualities were articulated later as “Moral Code of Communism Builder,” adopted at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1961. 4. Famous dictum by Immanuel Kant, “Enlightenment is man’s release from his self-incurred tutelage” (Kant 1785, 169). 5. Well-known author of love and crime books in interwar Lithuania. 6. Vytka – informal, shortened version of Vytautas or Vytas. 7. Ot fain! (Lithuanian) old-fashioned equivalent for “cool.” 8. Saartjie Baartman (before 1790–1815) Khoikhoi woman exhibited as freak show attractions in nineteenth-century Europe. For more, see Salesa (2011). 9. “(. . .) white women typically embodied an ideal of womanhood,” see (Manganelli 2012, 9). 10. As Khrushchev admitted in 1959, “We believe . . . that there are no men beyond redemption. What is necessary is to educate and reeducate men” (Hammer 1963, 388). 11. Rephrased title of R. Kipling’s poem White Man’s Burden, known as an anthem to Western imperialism, where the “white man’s burden” signified superiority of the white race and their historical mission to educate and to civilize the less developed groups. 12. “ Take up the White man’s burden / Send forth the best ye breed / Go bind your sons to exile / To serve your captives’ need.”

Disclosure statement

No potential conﬂict of interest was reported by the author. 90 R. BALOCKAITE

Notes on contributor

Rasa Baločkaitė is an associate professor in sociology in the Department of Social and Political Theory, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania. She has published series of papers on Soviet and post-Soviet societies in Problems of Post Communism (2009), Slovo (2012), Language Policy (2014), and European History Quarterly (2015), among others. She can be reached at [email protected].

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