Between improvisation and inevitability: former Latvian officials’ memoirs of the Soviet era

Mārtiņš Kaprāns

Journal of Baltic Studies, 2016, vol. 47, issue 4, 537-555

Abstract: This article deals with the autobiographies of former Soviet officials that have been published in Latvia since the 1990s. In particular, it focuses on three interrelated layers of biographical narrative: construction of social identity, strategies for avoiding the stigmatization of collaboration, and comparisons between the Soviet and post-Soviet experience. The article contends that former officials in their memoirs use a pragmatic representation of the Soviet past as the major locus of their positive identity. Through this genuine representation of the past, autobiographers emphasize virtues that might be accepted by a post-Soviet neoliberal society.

Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:rbalxx:v:47:y:2016:i:4:p:537-555

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DOI: 10.1080/01629778.2016.1248687

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