The Vilnius City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to remove Soviet sculptures from the Antakalnis cemetery.
On Monday, the Assessment Council of the Department of Cultural Heritage (KPD) decided to remove a total of six granite sculptures depicting Red Army soldiers from the Immovable Cultural Property Register.
“Today, we can bring this story to a conclusion. On Monday, we got permission from KPD that those sculptures are not related to burial sites and tombstones. Now that we have received this interpretation, we can remove the sculptures,” Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimasius said.
According to him, there are no remains buried under the sculptures. He also said that the sculptures would not be damaged during the removal process.
As estimated by the municipal company Grinda, all of the necessary procedures and removal of the sculptures could be carried out within approximately a month and a half.
Following the removal, the sculptures would be stored temporarily at the site of Grinda, Šimasius said, adding that their eventual fate would be decided by the Municipal Historical Memory Commission of Vilnius.
Lithuania started reviewing and dismantling Soviet memorial signs in various locations after Russia started its ongoing war in Ukraine.
The Lithuanian parliament Seimas has also drafted a “desovietisation” law, which proposes to remove symbols of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes and the information used to promote them from all public places in the country.
Read more: Lithuania’s new ‘desovietisation law’ – what does it mean?
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