Collective Memory of Soviet "Genocide" and the "Genocide Exhibition" by American Lithuanians during the Cold War

In Lithuania, which experienced Soviet occupation (1940–41 and 1944–90/91), the repressive policies against people in Lithuania carried out by the Stalinist regime are now claimed to be a “genocide” against the Lithuanian nation, though these policies do not necessarily fit the definition of “genocide” under the Genocide Convention. This perception became widespread in Lithuania at the end of the 1980s, when the movement to regain independence was growing, but in fact such a perception had already been prevalent among the Lithuanians in the diaspora, especially the U.S., even before that, immediately after WWII. In the late 1960s, the American Lithuanian community held the “Genocide Exhibition” in various cities of the U.S. with the cooperation of President Nixon and other Republican members of Congress, in order to highlight the reality of human rights abuses by the Soviet Union. This presentation will analyze the process by which the perception of Soviet “genocide” was first developed in the Lithuanian communities in the diaspora and later accepted in their home country. The analysis will be based primarily on documents related to the “Genocide Exhibition” held at the Lithuanian Central State Archives (LCVA) in Vilnius, Lithuania, and the World Lithuanian Archives of the Lithuanian Research and Studies Center (LTSC-PLA) in Lemont, IL, USA.