Under the pressure of no escape: invisible lives. actors and artists in the Vineta special department

<jats:p>Purpose. The article aims to investigate the activities of the special department Vineta of the Eastern Division of the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda during World War II, focusing on its dual role as a propaganda and cultural control institution. By analyzing the biographies of actors and artists involved in Vineta’s entertainment and propaganda programs, the study seeks to reveal the phenomenon of “forced creativity” as a survival strategy under totalitarian coercion. The research highlights how artistic practices, often perceived as voluntary cultural production, became instruments of adaptation, survival, or escape in the context of oppressive political systems. Methodology. The research is based on a combination of biographical and prosopographical approaches, which allow for the reconstruction of individual life trajectories and the identification of typical behavioral models under coercion. Historical-biographical and typological methods were applied to attribute personalities and classify them into conditional groups that reflect different strategies of survival. The source base includes archival materials of the NKVD/MGB, documents from the Security Service of Ukraine and the Central State Archive, as well as occupation-era press. These sources provide both operational information recorded in real time and external manifestations of cultural policy, enabling cross-verification of events and individuals. The methodological framework emphasizes the importance of integrating personal micro-histories into broader historical processes, thereby uncovering the “invisible” dimensions of human destinies. Scientific novelty. For the first time, the phenomenon of “forced creativity” in the activities of Vineta is systematically analyzed through the cases of artists from Kryvyi Rih and Dnipropetrovsk. The article demonstrates how art, instead of being a space of free expression, was transformed into a tool of survival, adaptation, or resistance. It also reveals the problem of “invisibility” of human destinies, when suffering and coercion remained outside public attention and became known only through historical reconstruction. The novelty lies in the integration of biographical evidence with the analysis of cultural policy, which makes it possible to conceptualize collaboration, coercion, and resistance not as abstract categories but as lived experiences of ordinary individuals. Conclusions. Vineta’s cultural policy functioned as an instrument of ideological control, but at the same time created a space for individual survival strategies. The biographies of artists illustrate the complexity of moral choices between collaboration, forced participation, and resistance. The methodological combination of biographical and prosopographical approaches makes it possible not only to reconstruct individual destinies but also to identify typical models of behavior under totalitarian pressure. This approach deepens the understanding of “forced creativity” and “invisibility” as phenomena that shaped the cultural and social history of the twentieth century. The article thus contributes to the broader discourse on hidden dimensions of history, restoring forgotten names and emphasizing the importance of micro-historical perspectives in the study of totalitarian regimes. Keywords: Vineta special department, forced creativity, totalitarian regimes, propaganda, collaboration, biographical studies, prosopography, World War II, world history, cultural policy, invisibility, survival strategy</jats:p>