Legionierių tema lietuvių ir latvių prozoje (1945 m. – iki šių dienų)
Portrayal of Legionaries’ Fate in Lithuanian and Latvian Fiction

Summary/Abstract: The issue of legion in the Latvian literature was strongly influenced by the nation’s traumatic experience – the number of the Latvians, if compared to the Lithuanians, who aided the Germans during the Second World War was much higher. The Latvians, who had been occupied by the Germans for centuries, viewed the German power more favourably and associated with it, as their allies, their aspirations to free themselves from the yoke of the “red” occupants. This topic became central in Janovski’s novels. The writer most often depicted Latvian legionaries who escaped from the zones occupied by the Russians and settled in England or its dependent islands. The main theme in Janovski’s novel is the issue of identity: people who cannot feel free in their own country and within their own nation, remain aliens in the country which provided shelter for them; they even do not try to get closer to this alien culture and become some kind of hermits. The book “The Tragedy of Exile”, based on Zenta Maurinia’s diary, vividly represents the post-war dramatic situation of the Baltic legionaries in Sweden when the authorities of this country made a decision to deport them to the Soviet territory. With a fever of excitement the author restores the drama of the Baltic sons – Lithuanians, Latvians as well as Germans – which they had to experience when they were handed over into the hands of the Soviet power by the Swedish authorities. Jonas Laucė’s novel “The Time of Calamities” restores the author’s authentic experience concerning the tragedy which occurred at the Baltic seaside when the Lithuanians, who served in German subunits, helped the Latvians to escape to Sweden; however, they were arrested and punished. Laucė, in a dramatic way, reconstructs the conflicts of the epoch, portrays colourful and impressive characters and vividly represents the scenes of mutual assistance and friendship of two kin nations, i. e. the Lithuanians and the Latvians. Both Lithuanian and Latvian novels revive the tragic past history which leaves a painful imprint on each individual and each nation, large or small

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