Klaipėdos universitetas

The author attempts to reconstruct how Joseph Stalin viewed the future of the German province of East Prussian and its development within the USSR. The problems Moscow had formulating policy with respect to the newly annexed region are considered from the point of view of the conflicts between military and civil authorities. Newly discovered documents from central and local archives describe the history of the so-called Stalin Plan that outlined the development of the Kaliningrad region (1947). The results of the realization of “the Stalin Plan” are analyzed, the consequences to relations between Moscow and the Kaliningrad area are evaluated, and also their influence on the formation of Kaliningrad government structures is estimated.

In this article there is the analysis of specifics of the interpretation of the events of the end of the Second World War in the Russian historical politics from the point of view of the subject integration (historical, cultural-anthropological and psychological). The main concepts, defining the evaluation of the situation of the Soviet occupation of the region of Koenigsberg in Russian historical politics and culture, are presented. Also there is the analysis of the problem of the impact of the conception of the “genocide of the Lithuania Minor” on the Lithuanian historical politics. The problems, presented in the article, haven’t been analyzed in complex in Lithuania so far.

The article focuses on the controversies of WWII, how the intertwining of history and politics impacts evaluation of the events of the war, the emphasis that is placed on historical memory and the possibilities of “forgetfulness”, and politicization of the holocaust memory. On the basis of diaries and contemporary notes, the situation in German-occupied Lithuania, episodes of the holocaust, the activities of the Lithuanian police battalions, and the actions of the Soviet Army in occupied German territory is analyzed.

The article is devoted to examine the importance of horse image in the poetic texts of various genre Lithuanian folk songs from different local ethnic regions. We find different meanings of the biological horse here, such as riding-horse, working horse, mare and jade here as the representatives in the special social context here. The general conclusion is made about horse as very important symbolic object with wide and deep its meanings in the poetic texts of Lithuanian folk songs.

The paper analyses a horses’ behaviour in Lithuanian narrative folklore texts: a horse’s reaction towards unusual environment, a horse as a predictor and a horse as a sign of wealth. Horse’s connection with burial and wealth – keeping beliefs as well as relationship with the beyond is emphasized too.

The article discusses the horse’s role as a building deposit in historical times. The focus is on Finland but a short overlook on the custom elsewhere in Europe (mainly Southern Scandinavia and the British Isles) is also given. The possible meanings attached to the horse in deposits are also presented.

Burials of riders accompanied by horses are of special significance for the Prussian antiquities. This mass tradition roots back to the early Roman time and existed, slightly modified, in this area till Prussia was conquered by the Teutonic Order in the 13th century. In other words, this tradition existed in the Baltic region for over 1000 years. A horse takes an outstanding position in the Baltic mythology similarly to that of other Indo-European peoples. Numerous documents prove the important role that a horse played in Ancient Prussians’ life. Wooden saddles were found in three horse graves in Aleika-3 cemetery. Two saddles were preserved in the form of wooden fragments with carved images, which were covered with polychromatic pictures (yellow, red, brown, and black colours were used in the painting). Rear saddle arch found in the grave 521 is painted with solar rosettes, but the main accent of the saddle arch is two horses galloping to symbol of the World Tree or anthropomorphic figure in the centre of the composition. The unique artefacts found in Aleika-3 burial ground provide principally new information for understanding the details of burial ceremony and daily life of the medieval Prussians.

Naturalistic figural art is rare in the Merovingian period. However, during the period of Christianisation (late sixth/seventh century AD) one can observe a considerable increase. One of the motifs – a victorious equestrian – arrived north of the Alps in the late sixth century, most probably with Frankish warrior groups who took part in the wars in northern Italy. Image carriers were part of prestigious horse equipment. However, north of the Alps the motif was transformed completely from that of the warrior’s world into the female world.