Section for Baltic Studies, Stockholm University

• 1995-present: Basic Latvian (30 cr), Intermediate Latvian (30 cr), Advanced Latvian (30 cr), Latvian - Bachelor's Course (30 cr), Baltic Literature (7.5 cr), Baltic Linguistics (7.5 cr), Baltic History, Culture and Society (7.5 cr), Baltic History of Literature and Cultural History, SC, (7,5 cr), Baltic Languages in Contact, SC, (7,5 cr)

History section, Södertörn University College

• 2000-2002: The struggles for our minds. Media intellectuals and public opinion in West and East European history (7.5 cr), Scandinavia and the Baltic World (15 cr), Tourism and the Baltics (7.5 cr), History, sexuality and gender (7.5 cr)

Literature section, Södertörn University College

• 2000: Advanced course in Literature: Baltic Literature (7.5 cr)

​Institute for Interpretation and Translation Studies, TÖI, Stockholm University

• 1995-2002: Preparatory Interpreters' and Translators' Education in Latvian (15 cr), Introductory Translators' Education in Latvian (30 cr), Basic Interpreters' Education in Latvian (30 cr), Intermediate Interpreters' Education in Latvian (30 cr), Basic Interpreters' Education in Latvian (60 cr)

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• Brīvība kā trimdas sociāldemokrātu politiskā balss - pirmie gadi (1948-1954): īss ieskats

  2020. Lilita Zalkalns. Akadēmiskā Dzīve (56), 71-79

  Article

  Brīvība (Freedom) as the political voice of Latvian Social Demoracts in exile, first years (1948-1954): a short insight

  Brīvība (Freedom) was the monthly newsletter of the exile Latvian Social Demo­cratic Workers’ Party (LSDSP), a newsletter which was established in Sweden in 1945. At first Brīvība was published as an annual journal, with issues in 1948, 1949 and 1950. As the official voice of the party, it defended the view that the exile community should unite under the last speaker of the democratic Latvian parliament and that exiles should not follow the lead of the Latvian Ambassador in London, who had been assigned extra­ordinary powers in 1940 by the authoritarian Latvian government. LSDSP support for the “parliamentarians” and its progressive stand points on other political matters were not popular among the mainly conservative Latvian exiles. Moreover, the aggressive journalistic style of the first Brīvība issues was not helpful in attracting new party members or more subscribers. From July 1950 to the end of 1953, Brīvība was issued as an internal party newsletter. It also actively recruited party members among Latvian exile communities and sought to widen its readership. In 1954, Brīvība resu­med publication as a monthly newsletter. The newsletter presented typical social de­mocratic standpoints on global politics and uniquely LSDSP views on exile Latvian politics. However, the parliamentarian con­troversy was no longer at the forefront and the journalistic tone had mellowed. Almost at the same time, a major right­wing exile Latvian politician, Alfrēds Valdmanis, was sentenced by a Canadian court to four years’ imprisonment for fraud and extortion, which meant that the right­wing authoritarians in exile lost their leading figure. These may be some of the main factors why Brīvība succeeded in expanding its readership and was able to continue publication outside of Latvia until 1999, thereby retaining its importance in exile Latvian politics.

  Read more about Brīvība kā trimdas sociāldemokrātu politiskā balss - pirmie gadi (1948-1954): īss ieskats

• Women's Role in the Alternative Culture Movements in Soviet Latvia 1960-1990

  2018. Maija Runcis, Lilita Zalkalns. The Palgrave handbook of women and gender in twentieth-century Russia and the Soviet Union, 365-381

  Chapter

  In the West, the radical social movements of the 1960s were expressed largely through political activism. In Eastern Europe, however, such movements necessarily took a different form. For example, one type of opposition to the Soviet regime was that of alternative cultures and lifestyles, which took a stand against the official ideology and culture. As with other countercultures in the Soviet Union, the impulse nucleus for many radical social movements often gravitated around a public meeting place that could provide the illusion of being separate from the all-pervasive state and societal power structures of the Communist regime. From the 1960s, two such spaces in Soviet Latvia were the café bar Kaza (Goat) and the open-air café Putnu dārzs (Bird Garden) in Riga Old Town, which became dynamic centres for the local youth movement. The leading participants in this informal movement were often intellectuals.

   

  Another type of opposition to the Soviet regime can be identified in the formation of independent religious interest groups, a conscious action that was in direct opposition to the state's ideological objective of the elimination of religion through the promotion of scientific atheism. Informal local religious activism often had links to religious denominations and churches abroad, which only added to the maximal surveillance and persecution by state security organisations that was experienced also by the individuals within these religious movements.

  Read more about Women's Role in the Alternative Culture Movements in Soviet Latvia 1960-1990

• Ievadvārdi

  2018. Lilita Zalkalns. Nyet, Nyet, Soviet! stāsti par latviešu politiskajām demonstrācijām trimdā, 11-12

  Chapter

  Read more about Ievadvārdi

• Dzimtenes Balss pielikumi

  2017. Lilita Zalkalns.

  Article

  Between 1955 and 1992, Latvians in the western exile received the propaganda publication "Dzimtenes Balss", which was written by and published by the Cultural Relations Committee in Riga, a KGB-front whose goal was to neutralize exile Latvian anti-Communistic activities. Beginning 1964, "Dzimtenes Balss" published a number of supplements that targeted exile Latvian activitists and organizations. The supplements, among them Svešuma Balss, Svešatnes Atspulgi, Latvia Today, et al, were published in Latvian and in English.

  Read more about Dzimtenes Balss pielikumi

• Uldis Ģērmanis un izdevniecība "Memento"

  2017. Lilita Zalkalns. Piemini Uldi Ģērmani!, 59-65

  Conference

  A summary of historian, publicist, and author Uldis Ģērmanis' collaboration with publishing house "Memento". "Memento" was established in Stockholm 1961, by leading exile Latvian socialdemocrats. Between 1986 and 1998 "Memento" published eleven books authored by Uldis Ģērmanis.

  Read more about Uldis Ģērmanis un izdevniecība "Memento"

• Uldis Ģērmanis un izdevniecība "Memento"

  2016. Lilita Zalkalns.

  Article

  A summary of historian, publicist, and author Uldis Ģērmanis' collaboration with publishing house "Memento". "Memento" was established in Stockholm 1961, by leading exile Latvian socialdemocrats. Between 1986 and 1998 "Memento" published eleven books authored by Uldis Ģērmanis.

  Read more about Uldis Ģērmanis un izdevniecība "Memento"

• Back to the Motherland

  2014. Lilita Zalkalns, Maija Runcis, Per Bolin.

  Thesis (Doc)

  This thesis is about a remarkable experience lived through by Latvian émigrés in the mid-1950s. They were the targets of a Soviet repatriation campaign, operated by the KGB, which not only envisioned their repatriation to the Soviet Latvian homeland, but also anticipated the destruction of their émigré society as they knew it.

  The purpose of this thesis is to portray and analyze this repatriation campaign and the émigré Latvian reactions to it. By looking at the activities of the Committee For Return to the Motherland in East Berlin, the contents of the Latvian language repatriation newspaper Par atgriešanos Dzimtenē (For Return to the Motherland), and the reactions to the campaign in contemporary émigré press, this study shows how highly developed strategies and tactics were implemented in order to elicit certain behaviors from émigrés, and how émigrés advanced their own counter-strategies to offset the effects of the campaign. More specifically, this study examines the standardized narratives in Par atgriešanos Dzimtenē that were meant for émigré self-identification and emulation.

  This thesis proposes that the repatriation campaign was a highly complex Soviet propaganda effort. The publicly announced goal of repatriation included several parallel goals, aims, and purposes and encompassed many types of activities. Above all, deception was used to cover the actions undertaken against émigrés and to mislead host country governments and agencies. This thesis concludes that notwithstanding the Soviet superiority in organization and resources, a small, unprotected, and internally divided community could withstand the concerted efforts of Soviet propaganda if the group’s sense of mission was sufficiently strong and firm.

  Read more about Back to the Motherland

Show all publications by Lilita Zalkalns at Stockholm University