Sovietization and the cinema in the Western borderlands: insurgency, narrative, and identity in the Lithuanian film "Marytė" (1947)

The film Marytė (1947) was part of an intensive campaign of Sovietization, an attempt to consolidate Soviet rule through cultural propaganda. The film's impact at the time was limited because the relatively undeveloped film distribution network and the disruptions caused by the anti-Soviet armed resistance. For those who did view the film, the narrative of Marytė evoked a 'reality' quite different from the recent experience of Soviet mass deportations, the anti-Soviet insurgency, and the predominant mood of fear and insecurity. Nonetheless, its narrative was attuned to local concerns and vernacular motifs, seeking to exploit national state-building themes propagated during the interwar period, drawing a link between Sovietization, national, and individual emancipation, with gender playing an important role. The film appealed to the economic, national and social self-interest of the viewers through its depiction of the redistribution of land, the return of Vilnius as the capital of Lithuania, and the opportunities for young men and women offered by the new regime. This article examines Marytė as an illustration of the methods, means and objectives of Soviet propaganda and cultural policy in the Western borderlands, and the manner in which a Soviet technological and ideological template was adapted to suit local circumstances and views on history, culture and identity. In this regard, Marytė graphically set the trend of postwar Soviet attempts of tapping into nationalist sentiment in order to construct a Soviet-Lithuanian identity