Third Wave of Public Space Desovietisation in Lithuania and Its Local Peculiarities

• In Event: Military "lieux de mémoire" in Central and Eastern Europe during the Russo-Ukrainian War

Abstract

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has also sparked concerns in Central and Eastern
European countries regarding the potential use of the monuments and memorials honouring the
World War II Soviet soldiers by Russia to justify its “right” to these territories. Rasa
Čepaitienė’s report focuses on the third wave of desovietisation of the public space in Lithuania,
targeting memorials, monuments, and cemeteries of the Soviet soldiers. One of the first cases of
the removal of such cemeteries is analysed in detail when the Pumpėnai community decided to
demolish a military monument in the centre of the town and to relocate the remains of the
soldiers buried next to it to a civilian cemetery.

Author

• Rasa Cepaitiene, Lithuanian Institute of History (Lithuania)