BALTIC WORLDSBALTIC A scholarly journal and news magazine. December 2016. Vol. IX:4. From the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES), Södertörn University. New excerpt by award-winning Lithuanian writer December 2016. Vol. IX:4 BALTIC WORLDSbalticworlds.com Relating to the real Special section: Perspectives and narratives on socialist realism Adorno’s concept of realism Nabokov and cinematic realism Gaidar and the fostering of socialists The truth and the real Special section: Special Translations of reality in Soviet literature Lapin on history writing Swedish painters’ interpretations of realism Perspectives and narratives on socialist realism. socialist on narratives and Perspectives also in this issue Illustration: Karin Sunvisson WAR ON DRUGS IN RUSSIA / FEMINISM ON NEOLIBERALISM / ANTI-SEMITISM IN POLAND / EXILE COMMUNITIES Sponsored by the Foundation BALTIC for Baltic and East European Studies contents 3 colophon WORLDSbalticworlds.com Baltic Worlds is published by the Centre for Baltic and East European Studies (CBEES) at Södertörn University, Sweden. editorial in this issue Editor-in-chief Ninna Mörner Publisher Joakim Ekman Social reality & socialist realism Scholarly advisory council Thomas Andrén, Södertörn hen in daily life we speak of appear differently from another University; Sari Autio-Sarasmo, “reality”, we often use the word angle. In this issue we devote a Aleksanteri Institute, Helsinki; to refer to harsh circumstances substantial section to the dogmas Sofie Bedford, UCRS, Uppsala and the darker side of society. It and ambiguities of the real, and interview reviews University; Michael Gentile, Wseems to be something raw and confined to hid- our guest editor Tora Lane has Helsinki University; Markus Huss, 4 Lithuanian writer. Laura Sintija 92 Gendered voices from East- den corners that we who are in a position to be gathered six peer-reviewed articles Černiauskaitė, Stephan Collishaw Central Europe. Weronika Södertörn University; Katarina outside those corners call “reality”. that give us different perspectives Grzebalska Leppänen, CERGU, University conference reports In this issue of Baltic Worlds we could ar- and narratives of socialist realism, 95 Cross-over contacts in the of Gothenburg; Thomas Lundén 9 Searching for Baltic dimensions. Irina gue that we are visiting reality. The first peer- including art, architecture, philoso- subarctic peripheries. (Chair), CBEES; Kazimierz Review. Seits & Ekaterina Kalinina reviewed article is about the war on drugs in phy, literature, and even cinema. Thomas Lundén Musiał, University of Gdańsk; 100 Life & death in Russia. Helene Carlbäck Russia. St. Petersburg has one of the highest Gendered voices 97 History writing in exile. Johannes Barbara Törnquist-Plewa, Centre The studies from this for European Studies, Lund rates of drug-related crime in the country (5.4 IN HER OWN introduction, Tora Lane peer-reviewed article Heuman per 1,000 inhabitants), which makes the issue states that it was as representa- book also give us some 12 Drug control policies in Russia. University a top priority for policy makers and the public, tives of knowledge and through ideas for successful feminist ac- Unhealthy, deviant, and criminal, Alexandra Corresponding members the authors Alexandra Dmitrieva and Zhanna engagement that “Soviet writers tion against ‘neoliberal neopa- Dmitrieva and Zhanna Kravchenko Aija Lulle, University of Latvia; Kravchenko: “The overall public policy ap- were subordinated to the politics triarchy’ on the one hand, and Michael North, Ernst Moritz “ commentaries proach is based on the perception of drug use of repression, and at the same time ‘illiberal patriarchy’ on the other.” Arndt University Greifswald; 83 The hyperrealities of Putin and Trump. as a dysfunction that requires harsh suppres- it was in that quality that they were Page 92 Andrzei Nowak, Jagiellonian Maria Brock sion and elimination, with a nondifferentiated authorized to be masters of the his- University, Kraków; Andrea Petö, 88 Polarization in Poland. Greta Gober approach to all consumers.” torical narrative.” Central European University, 90 Poland to clamp down on anti- A commentary by Marcia Sá Cav- Budapest; Jens E. Olesen, Semitism. Bolaji Balogun GENERALIZATIONS THAT lump groups of people alcante Schuback also shed lights Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, together are also common among populist par- on the construction of the real: Greifswald; Olga Schihalejev, ties. Here we present three commentaries with “The real means both what is and Tartu University. different views on the latest developments in that it is — both the quid and the Copyediting/proofreading our present global reality: the abortion ban in quod of reality. Yet the real, what Tony Crawford, Semantix AB; Poland, growing racism in Poland, and a com- it is and that it is, can be presented special section Brian Manning Delaney, English parison between two world leaders, Putin and in realistic and unrealistic ways, Proper; Bridget Schäfer Perspectives and narratives of socialist realism Guest editor: Tora Lane Trump — both, the author argues, an outcome just as the contrary of the real, the Layout of the new hyper-masculinity among populist unreal, can be presented in very Searching for 23 Introduction. Ambiguities and 61 Architectural history and new Sara Bergfors, Lena Fredriksson, leaders who claim they do not avoid seeing realistic ways.≈ Baltic dimensions dogmas of the real, Tora Lane reality. Leonhard Lapin’s textual Serpentin Media reality as it is! Ninna Mörner Each sticker introduced peer-reviewed articles practice, Epp Lankots Illustrators But the aim of realism is not to deal with the a thought, a term, an 28 Adorno’s realism. Sven-Olov 70 Functions of realist art in Ragni Svensson, Karin truth, rather it is to create what is allowed to be idea, or a question connected to Wallenstein Sweden, circa 1970. Lena Sunvisson, Moa Thelander called the “real”. The truth is in the eye of the the four main points of discus- 35 Nabokov on socialist and Svedberg & Olle Kåks, Charlotte Subscription beholder is a well-known phrase; what is real “sion: water, propaganda, city, cinematic realism. Karin Grelz Bydler and Dan Karlholm Sofia Barlind for one can be a vision for another, or merely and identity.” Page 15 43 The mystery of The Blue Cup. commentary Print by Arkadii Gaidar and socialist realism, 59 The reality of the real. On Elanders Sverige AB Aleksei Semenenko questions of socialist realism, Print: ISSN 2000-2955 PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES have undergone a double-blind peer review by at least two independent specialists. A peer-reviewed article pub- 52 Socialist realism in translation. Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback Online: ISSN 2001-7308 lished in BW generates one publication point for the authors and their institutions in the Norwegian bibliometric register (DHB). Baltic Worlds is an The theory of a practice, Susanna Witt Contact Baltic Worlds Open Access Journal and all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. More information is available on our website. [email protected] What you read in the footers is the voice of the editor. Not that of the authors. The content expresses the views of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Baltic Worlds. 4 interview 5 “Good literature is like lightning: it has to shock, to pierce the heart” In this interview, Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė shares her experience of becoming a writer in the post-Soviet conditions of 1990s Lithuania. Her development as a writer coincided with a drastic change in what it meant to be a writer: from being a political spokesperson to being an economic entity. by Stephan Collishaw or Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė, writing has always been a central part of how she has identified herself. “I think I have always been a writer,” she commented, “I don’t remember deciding to become a writer at any particular moment; I simply discovered I had the potential to be one. I started writing when I was young because I enjoyed it.” FBy the late 1980s, when Černiauskaitė came of age, and began to experiment as a writer, the Communist ideologi- cal grip on Lithuanian writing was coming to an end. The celebrated Lithuanian novelist Ricardas Gavelis wrote, “If the arts voluntarily submit to politics, the arts are good for nothing. I would like to die in a country where art is art and politics is politics.” Laura Sintija Černiauskaitė was born in Vilnius in 1976. She studied at the Senvagės school in Vilnius and then read Lithuanian Language Studies at Vilnius University. Černiauskaitė was 15, in 1991, when the country declared its independence from the Soviet Union. It was two years later, in 1993, that she was to have her first taste of literary success. “I was 17 when I first stepped into the Writer’s Union, in the wonderful palace of Duke Oginskis, carrying the first copy of my book to the publish- ers. Those four short stories were written in school during math and science lessons; I wasn’t a particularly zealous student.” She remembered that as she put her hand of the banister rail of the stairs, “Such a strong feeling washed over me that I would be a part of that building for rest of my life. That moment, I felt, was a defining moment in my life.” And this turned out to be true. Černiauskaitė’s book won the Writers’ Union’s First Book Award and was pub- lished that year. “That was how I became a writer,” she commented. The Lithuanian writer Laura Sintija The Lithuanian Writer’s Union, which played an important part in the launch of Černiauskaitė’s career as a Černiauskaitė won the EU Prize for writer, has had a complex political history. In 1940, Lithuanian writers and intellectuals were among the early vocal Literature for Breathing into Marble, supporters of the Soviet annexation of the independent Lithuanian Republic. Throughout the Soviet period, the which is being published in English in December 2016 by Noir Press.