Lithuania drafts guidance on destroying monuments to Soviet soldiers
3 Min Read
Lithuanian culture ministry says that if the Soviet soldiers' burial sites are given a status of local importance, the assessment board of the local government should decide on the issue of their destruction.
-
A Soviet-era statue of farmers on the Green Bridge, Vilnius, Lithuania (Photo credit: Ray Tang)
On Wednesday, the Lithuanian Culture Ministry said that it had drafted for the local authorities some detailed recommendations on the destruction of monuments to Soviet soldiers.
In a statement, the ministry said, "The Department of Cultural Heritage has drafted and presented detailed recommendations for Lithuanian local administrations and the association of Lithuanian local administrations concerning burial sites of Soviet soldiers during World War II and monuments located there."
If the Soviet soldiers' burial sites are given a status of local importance, the issue of their destruction should be decided by the assessment board of the local government, the ministry noted.
The statement added that "While preparing for the dismantling of monuments, local administrations are primarily advised to assess whether local museums or other designated spaces can store or exhibit them. If the local administration lacks such capacities, the removed monuments are recommended to be transferred to the Gruto Park Museum [an open-air museum where dismantled Soviet monuments are stored]."
The ministry also said that monuments, memorial plaques in cemeteries, gravestones, and other burial sites are being supplemented and clarified as per the results of the Genocide and Resistance Research Center of Lithuania.
On April 10, Two Soviet monuments were defaced in Lithuania's Kedainiai and Anyksciai municipalities, according to a statement released by Lithuanian police.
The statement said that a monument of a Soviet soldier in the city of Seta, erected in memory of the Soviet troops who died against Nazi troops during World War II, was defaced with yellow and red paint.
Another monument was defaced with yellow and blue paint in the city of Kurkliai, and police have launched a pre-trial investigation in accordance with Lithuania's criminal code.
Vandalism against Russian and Soviet monuments has been on the rise in Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine. A group of individuals drew a swastika on a monument to Soviet soldiers in a town in Poland.
Another Soviet war memorial in Berlin was splashed with paint, and tanks in a memorial in Tiergarten were covered with Ukrainian flags. Russian churches in Europe and North America also reported acts of vandalism.
The back-to-back incidents in the West come amid rampant russophobia exacerbated by Western sanctions and the boycott of everything Russian following the war in Ukraine.
