Expression of ideas and existence of the Lithuanian bibliophilia in the Soviet period

The dissertation deals with the Lithuanian bibliophilia in the fifth-ninth decades as a phenomenon of subculture in the interaction between possibilities and distinctiveness and contradictions and restraints. It reveals how preconditions of the Soviet cultural policy carried out in Lithuania affected the existence of bibliophilia and what was the impact upon its basis – manuscript and printed heritage resources. The conception of bibliophilia developed by the cultural elite throughout the first Lithuanian Independence period is defined. The process and results of the „transformation“ of the elite bibliophilia into mass bibliophilia is being disclosed in the background of the conditions of the Soviet cultural life and political factors. Development of the Lithuanian bibliophilia in the Soviet period is analyzed from the perspective of organizations separating pre-organizational and organizational periods. Peculiarities of the informal environment of bibliophilia are revealed as well as the relationship of ideas of traditional bibliophilia and mass bibliophilia and distributing of those ideas through the activities of Lithuanian SSR Voluntary Society of Book Friends and clubs of book lovers. The exemplary model of a Soviet citizen’s personal/ family/ home library is presented with regard to its formation, acquisition, maintenance and its public significance. This model is compared to personal libraries of bibliophiles disclosing essential similarities and contradictions among them. The conducted research denies the stereotyped belief that prevailed up to the present that the expression of ideas and existence of traditional bibliophilia had been impossible during the occupational period