Anthill in Prussia ( Lithuanian: Skruzdėlynas Prūsijoje) is a novella by writer Juozas Aputis. Although he began writing it in 1967, due to Soviet censorship, the book was not published until 1989. ^[1] It is one of his most famous and important works, ^[2] described as "one of the most prominent phenomenon of national prose", ^[3] allegorically covering themes such as existential anxiety, an individual's relationship with history, as well as the persistence of humanity and resistance to violence during times of rationality and irrationality. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

The 1989 edition contains two short stories in the same book. ^[7] One of them, Vargonų balsas skalbykloje (The Organs' Voice in the Washing Room), which first appeared in the Nemunas magazine in 1988 ^[8] but was written over the previous ten years during Aputis' most challenging creative period, ^[9] covers young people's initial youthfulness turned into compromise which deprives them of a full life, in which a multi-perspective narrative reminds of improvisation on the organ. ^[6] The story includes the contraposition of youthful maximalism and the conformism of the Era of Stagnation, ^[4] and retells the story of three people – a famous organist, a high-ranking official, and his wife. ^[9] The second story, Skruzdėlynas Prūsijoje (literally, an Anthill in Prussia), is an allegorical retelling of a man and a woman who, devoting themselves to an ascetic lifestyle, retreat into the wilderness of Prussia. Aputis commented that the premise of the book came to him from a dream, in which you could only protest against the spiritual disorder of the USSR in the manner he described. Because of that, the story contains many fantastical and metaphorical elements. ^[6] The story also delves into the fate of the Baltic Prussians, tying them with modern-day Balts of Lithuania and Latvia. ^{[1] [10]}

See also

• Lithuanian literature
• Occupation of the Baltic states

References