On the role of translated literature in constructing the “new Soviet person”: Anglophone fiction in Soviet Latvia of the 1940s

In Latvia, the Soviet regime played a crucial role in the transformation of people’s values. Latvians had to be moulded into “New Soviet People” - educated,hardworking, collectivistic, patriotic, loyal to the Communist Party and superior toany other human in the world. A “New Soviet Person” had to be ready to oppose allthe threats of capitalism and eventually conquer the world. The research aim is toexamine the ways Soviet officials tended to employ literature from ideologicallyopposite countries to implant ‘appropriate’ socialist values into society. On theexample of British and American fiction presented in the public space of Latvia in the1940s, the process of constructing a “Soviet identity” is considered.