Language and Violence: The Case of the French Group in Soviet Latvia Cover Image

Valoda un vardarbība: Franču grupa Padomju Latvijā
Language and Violence: The Case of the French Group in Soviet Latvia

Author(s): Vieda Skultāne
Subject(s): Political history, Post-War period (1950 - 1989), History of Communism, Politics of History/Memory
Published by: Latvijas Universitātes Filozofijas un socioloģijas institūts
Keywords: The French group; the KGB; memory narratives;

Summary/Abstract: The subject matter of my paper concerns the fate of thirteen Latvian intellectuals who in January 1951 were pursued by the KGB: they were arrested, interrogated and sentenced to varying periods in Soviet labour camps. They shared an interest in literature and art and, in the bleak postwar climate of Riga, met in each other’s houses for literary readings and discussions. Although not all of them spoke French and their interest was in Western literature, generally they became to be known in Latvia as ‘the French group’. In the summer of 1951, all thirteen received sentences of between seven and twenty-five years of hard labour and were dispersed in labour camps throughout the Soviet Union. However, the events recalled and documented in this paper relate not only to the past events but also engage in a retrospective struggle over the appropriate uses of language. The account which I give of these events has drawn upon a number of sources. First and foremost, it depends upon the narrated memories of six of this group with whom I met and talked in the summers of 1996 and 1997. In trying to make sense of the particular form taken by these narratives I have drawn upon a range of academic disciplines, which have the relationship between experience and narrative representation as to their focus, but most importantly the ideas of the Russian formalists. In wanting to move beyond memory and narrative reconstruction, I have retuned to the KGB archives in an attempt to get closer to the events of the time.

  • Issue Year: XXVII/2019
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 148-180
  • Page Count: 33
  • Language: Latvian