Septyniasdešimt Septyni Anekdotai
1969
Subrendusi Diaspora
Mature Diaspora · 1965–1979
Published in 1969 during the Mature Diaspora period.
A self-published collection of 77 Lithuanian-language political jokes (anekdotai) satirizing Soviet life, authored by Krizas Pleperis and printed in Chicago in 1969 at the height of Cold War diaspora cultural production. The jokes — many originating in the Baltic states — circulated underground in Soviet Lithuania at mortal risk, and here were preserved and published freely in the diaspora for the first time in printed form. This pamphlet is a rare document of Lithuanian folk humor as resistance, capturing popular consciousness under occupation through the only safe medium available: laughter.
What It Is
This pamphlet embodies one of the most distinctive forms of Lithuanian diaspora cultural production: the preservation and free publication of material that was literally life-threatening to possess inside Soviet Lithuania. The author's introduction explicitly frames the collection as a window into popular consciousness — 'liaudies išmintis ir tulžis' (folk wisdom and bile) — channeled through humor because no other outlet existed. By publishing these jokes in Chicago in 1969, Pleperis transformed clandestine oral resistance culture into durable print record, creating a document of what ordinary Lithuanians actually thought about Communism, scarcity, bureaucracy, and the absurdity of Soviet life. The collection also illuminates the social infrastructure of the Chicago Lithuanian diaspora at its mature peak. The use of Morkūnas press — a community institution that printed dozens of Lithuanian-language works — and the self-financing model reveal a community capable of sustaining independent cultural production outside church or organizational sponsorship. The 1,000-copy print run for a humor pamphlet suggests a robust readership willing to pay for Lithuanian-language entertainment, not merely edification. This is the diaspora not in solemn preservation mode but in living, laughing mode.
Why It Matters
Culturally and historically, this pamphlet is a primary source document of Cold War resistance consciousness preserved in print by Lithuanian diaspora action. The jokes it contains circulated underground in Soviet Lithuania at the cost of imprisonment; publishing them freely in Chicago was a deliberate act of counter-archiving — ensuring that what the Soviet state tried to suppress was instead permanently recorded. The author's framing — that folk humor is the overflow valve of a people denied free speech — articulates a theory of political humor as historical evidence that scholars of Soviet culture, Lithuanian studies, and humor theory would all recognize as significant.
The de facto capital of Lithuanian America for half a century.
