who even founded a literary magazine for which she even more, Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1931 Néris herself wrote all the material for several years. publicly joined the left-wing Lithuanian artists' group Although married and the mother of three chil-"The Third Front," declaring that henceforth her po-dren, she spent most of her time apart from her hus-etry was to become political and serve the working band, maintaining a home in Madrid where she class. In 1937, while in Paris, Néris joined the sculp-reigned over a literary salon. In recognition of her in-tor Bernardas Bucas in a common-law marriage and tellectual abilities and acute knowledge of modern lit-returned to live in Kaunas. In 1938 Néris received erature, she was honored as the first woman to oc-the Lithuanian republic State Prize for Literature for cupy a professorship at the University in Madrid. her collection Diemed'iu 'ydèsiu (I'll Bloom Like Pardo Bazán was a controversial figure, inspiring Wormwood). In 1940, as Soviet tanks were rolling both acclaim and disdain, but she was nonetheless across Lithuania, Néris wrote an adulatory "Poem to accepted, even by those less than enthusiastic about Stalin" and read it at a Plenary Session of the USSR her insistence on proving herself as a writer and intel-Supreme Soviet to welcome Lithuania's inclusion into lectual, and becoming one of the most significant writ-the Soviet Union. In 1941 Néris became a deputy to ers of her time. Her reputation has grown in the years the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet. In the same year since her death. Today Pardo Bazán is seen as a major she withdrew to Russia under the German attack and writer and critic and as a pioneer in women's issues. lived in Moscow, Penza, and Ufa, writing strident anti-She wrote twenty novels, several volumes of literary fascist poetry in praise of the Soviet country and re-criticism and history, hundreds of short stories, and gime. She returned to Lithuania in 1944, became se-hundreds of essays. riously ill, and was taken to Moscow for special care, where she soon died. Néris was well-read in several languages. Tolstoy,

doi:10.4324/9781315050898-21

Chapter

who even founded a literary magazine for which she even more, Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1931 Néris herself wrote all the material for several years. publicly joined the left-wing Lithuanian artists' group Although married and the mother of three chil-"The Third Front," declaring that henceforth her po-dren, she spent most of her time apart from her hus-etry was to become political and serve the working band, maintaining a home in Madrid where she class. In 1937, while in Paris, Néris joined the sculp-reigned over a literary salon. In recognition of her in-tor Bernardas Bucas in a common-law marriage and tellectual abilities and acute knowledge of modern lit-returned to live in Kaunas. In 1938 Néris received erature, she was honored as the first woman to oc-the Lithuanian republic State Prize for Literature for cupy a professorship at the University in Madrid. her collection Diemed'iu 'ydèsiu (I'll Bloom Like Pardo Bazán was a controversial figure, inspiring Wormwood). In 1940, as Soviet tanks were rolling both acclaim and disdain, but she was nonetheless across Lithuania, Néris wrote an adulatory "Poem to accepted, even by those less than enthusiastic about Stalin" and read it at a Plenary Session of the USSR her insistence on proving herself as a writer and intel-Supreme Soviet to welcome Lithuania's inclusion into lectual, and becoming one of the most significant writ-the Soviet Union. In 1941 Néris became a deputy to ers of her time. Her reputation has grown in the years the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet. In the same year since her death. Today Pardo Bazán is seen as a major she withdrew to Russia under the German attack and writer and critic and as a pioneer in women's issues. lived in Moscow, Penza, and Ufa, writing strident anti-She wrote twenty novels, several volumes of literary fascist poetry in praise of the Soviet country and re-criticism and history, hundreds of short stories, and gime. She returned to Lithuania in 1944, became se-hundreds of essays. riously ill, and was taken to Moscow for special care, where she soon died. Néris was well-read in several languages. Tolstoy,

Chapter

who even founded a literary magazine for which she even more, Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1931 Néris herself wrote all the material for several years. publicly joined the left-wing Lithuanian artists' group Although married and the mother of three chil-"The Third Front," declaring that henceforth her po-dren, she spent most of her time apart from her hus-etry was to become political and serve the working band, maintaining a home in Madrid where she class. In 1937, while in Paris, Néris joined the sculp-reigned over a literary salon. In recognition of her in-tor Bernardas Bucas in a common-law marriage and tellectual abilities and acute knowledge of modern lit-returned to live in Kaunas. In 1938 Néris received erature, she was honored as the first woman to oc-the Lithuanian republic State Prize for Literature for cupy a professorship at the University in Madrid. her collection Diemed'iu 'ydèsiu (I'll Bloom Like Pardo Bazán was a controversial figure, inspiring Wormwood). In 1940, as Soviet tanks were rolling both acclaim and disdain, but she was nonetheless across Lithuania, Néris wrote an adulatory "Poem to accepted, even by those less than enthusiastic about Stalin" and read it at a Plenary Session of the USSR her insistence on proving herself as a writer and intel-Supreme Soviet to welcome Lithuania's inclusion into lectual, and becoming one of the most significant writ-the Soviet Union. In 1941 Néris became a deputy to ers of her time. Her reputation has grown in the years the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet. In the same year since her death. Today Pardo Bazán is seen as a major she withdrew to Russia under the German attack and writer and critic and as a pioneer in women's issues. lived in Moscow, Penza, and Ufa, writing strident anti-She wrote twenty novels, several volumes of literary fascist poetry in praise of the Soviet country and re-criticism and history, hundreds of short stories, and gime. She returned to Lithuania in 1944, became se-hundreds of essays. riously ill, and was taken to Moscow for special care, where she soon died. Néris was well-read in several languages. Tolstoy,

DOI link for who even founded a literary magazine for which she even more, Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1931 Néris herself wrote all the material for several years. publicly joined the left-wing Lithuanian artists' group Although married and the mother of three chil-"The Third Front," declaring that henceforth her po-dren, she spent most of her time apart from her hus-etry was to become political and serve the working band, maintaining a home in Madrid where she class. In 1937, while in Paris, Néris joined the sculp-reigned over a literary salon. In recognition of her in-tor Bernardas Bucas in a common-law marriage and tellectual abilities and acute knowledge of modern lit-returned to live in Kaunas. In 1938 Néris received erature, she was honored as the first woman to oc-the Lithuanian republic State Prize for Literature for cupy a professorship at the University in Madrid. her collection Diemed'iu 'ydèsiu (I'll Bloom Like Pardo Bazán was a controversial figure, inspiring Wormwood). In 1940, as Soviet tanks were rolling both acclaim and disdain, but she was nonetheless across Lithuania, Néris wrote an adulatory "Poem to accepted, even by those less than enthusiastic about Stalin" and read it at a Plenary Session of the USSR her insistence on proving herself as a writer and intel-Supreme Soviet to welcome Lithuania's inclusion into lectual, and becoming one of the most significant writ-the Soviet Union. In 1941 Néris became a deputy to ers of her time. Her reputation has grown in the years the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet. In the same year since her death. Today Pardo Bazán is seen as a major she withdrew to Russia under the German attack and writer and critic and as a pioneer in women's issues. lived in Moscow, Penza, and Ufa, writing strident anti-She wrote twenty novels, several volumes of literary fascist poetry in praise of the Soviet country and re-criticism and history, hundreds of short stories, and gime. She returned to Lithuania in 1944, became se-hundreds of essays. riously ill, and was taken to Moscow for special care, where she soon died. Néris was well-read in several languages. Tolstoy,

who even founded a literary magazine for which she even more, Federico Garcia Lorca. In 1931 Néris herself wrote all the material for several years. publicly joined the left-wing Lithuanian artists' group Although married and the mother of three chil-"The Third Front," declaring that henceforth her po-dren, she spent most of her time apart from her hus-etry was to become political and serve the working band, maintaining a home in Madrid where she class. In 1937, while in Paris, Néris joined the sculp-reigned over a literary salon. In recognition of her in-tor Bernardas Bucas in a common-law marriage and tellectual abilities and acute knowledge of modern lit-returned to live in Kaunas. In 1938 Néris received erature, she was honored as the first woman to oc-the Lithuanian republic State Prize for Literature for cupy a professorship at the University in Madrid. her collection Diemed'iu 'ydèsiu (I'll Bloom Like Pardo Bazán was a controversial figure, inspiring Wormwood). In 1940, as Soviet tanks were rolling both acclaim and disdain, but she was nonetheless across Lithuania, Néris wrote an adulatory "Poem to accepted, even by those less than enthusiastic about Stalin" and read it at a Plenary Session of the USSR her insistence on proving herself as a writer and intel-Supreme Soviet to welcome Lithuania's inclusion into lectual, and becoming one of the most significant writ-the Soviet Union. In 1941 Néris became a deputy to ers of her time. Her reputation has grown in the years the Lithuanian SSR Supreme Soviet. In the same year since her death. Today Pardo Bazán is seen as a major she withdrew to Russia under the German attack and writer and critic and as a pioneer in women's issues. lived in Moscow, Penza, and Ufa, writing strident anti-She wrote twenty novels, several volumes of literary fascist poetry in praise of the Soviet country and re-criticism and history, hundreds of short stories, and gime. She returned to Lithuania in 1944, became se-hundreds of essays. riously ill, and was taken to Moscow for special care, where she soon died. Néris was well-read in several languages. Tolstoy,

ABSTRACT

While it is quite likely that Neris turned to the left at least partially out of contempt for what she thought was the Philistine, mindless life of the bourgeoisie, it could also be that the horrors of Stalin's regime did reach her attention to some extent, but it was too late; she had allowed herself to be trapped in an ideological dead-end, with capitalist greed, fascist insanity, and Russia's monumental inhumanity blocking every exit. All she had left was the Soviet war machine-she was now part of it, was functioning as one of its cogs, in effect independently, of her own will. Only the searing yearning for her homeland, boundless love, and desperate burden of dispossession shines through her later, politically committed poetry to sustain in her readers that strange enchantment they had always felt toward her verse. Even stylistically, the harsh and often wooden verbal structures of Bolshevik rhetoric seems mixed in a peculiar, elusive way with passages of the previous graceful, luminous beauty, so full of love for the native land.