Existential Angst and Meaning Making in Narratives of Lithuanian Survivors of Soviet Political Deportations

Abstract

Experiences related to forced deportations of ethnic Lithuanians as part of Stalin’s political genocide were explored in the narratives of six survivors. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was chosen for its idiographic and interpretive focus on the meanings and individual sense-making of lived experiences. Semistructured interviews were conducted, and the data were analyzed for emergent superordinate themes and subthemes. The results revealed three superordinate themes, which reflect three stages of the participants’ experience of Soviet political persecutions: the Existential Shock of Arrest and Deportation, the Angst of Survival and Identity Negotiation during the Exile, and Rebuilding Life and Seeking Meaning after Amnesty. Subthemes highlighted various dimensions of the effects of political repressions as well as coping mechanisms employed by the survivors. Additionally, the results examined how the participants made meaning of their experiences and explored their perceptions of long-term consequences of trauma associated with political repressions. The article provides an existential and liberation/postcolonial theoretical framework for understanding political violence and concludes with implications for clinical practices with survivors of political persecutions perpetuated against ethnic groups around the world.