In the years since 1990 Lithuania's philosophical community faced the need to reflect on its Soviet past and legacy. Naturally, this period in the history of Lithuanian philosophy has seen some insightful academical research, but it still mostly remains constrained to the genre of memoirs and apologetical myths. A more systemic approach, tying the philosophical discourse of the time to its cultural and institutional context remains to be achieved in future research. But when thinking about what identity exist in the philosophical community concerning its soviet period and what was the effect of soviet ideology and institutions on the philosophical discourse, it is also useful to ask what sort of remembrance culture existed or was endorsed in the philosophical community during the different periods of Soviet occupation.
In this presentation I would argue that: (1) remembrance culture is a heuristically productive approach for research in history of philosophy, especially for studies in soviet philosophy; (2) History of Lithuanian philosophy in the soviet period can be described in the terms of forgetting (primarily the Stalinist period) and selective remembering (anamnesis) of connection to the Western philosophical tradition in general and Lithuanian philosophical interwar tradition in particular. Why are studies of philosophy in the Soviet Union and/or its parts or the Socialist block important today? Primarily to understand what kind of intellectual challenges the humanities and social sciences face under tyranny: authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.
Understanding what kind of remembrance culture and discourse was formed can help us understand more clearly what constitutes freedom of thought, intellectual diversity and freedom of expression in the modern world. Studies in such history also have and interdisciplinary character, connecting studies in historiography and remembrance culture and philosophy and its history.
