As Russia celebrates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany on Tuesday, a small group of people gathered to commemorate the occasion at Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius, amid controversy flamed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Several dozen people visited the cemetery, where annual commemorations were traditionally held, on Tuesday morning.
Until recently, Antakalnis Cemetery featured a Soviet-era World War Two memorial, which was removed in December. The commemoration was modest and short on pomp that used to be characteristic of the occasion before the Ukraine war.
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People congratulated each other on Victory Day and honoured the dead mainly by laying red carnations.
Some of the Victory Day commemorators also spoke about the war in Ukraine, blaming it on the West, not Russia. Some also expressed regret over the removal of the statues of Soviet soldiers in the cemetery.
Gennrik Andrijevskij, a 71-year-old pensioner, said he celebrates the end of WW2 both on May 9 and on May 8, which is the tradition in Western Europe.
“I live and you live because they [Soviet soldiers] fought for us against fascism for freedom,” he told BNS.
He called the removal of the Soviet memorial “pure vandalism” and said the war in Ukraine was “caused by America, not Russia”.
“The English are also interfering and everyone is interfering, just to make Russia suffer. And Ukraine is defending what they think is freedom, but what freedom? It was for freedom in 1990, in 1991, so what the hell now?” he asked.
The commemoration is closely watched by police officers who, just like last year, are looking whether the attendees are wearing the black and orange Ribbon of Saint George, a symbol that was banned in Lithuania last year.
Wreaths from the Russian and Belarusian Embassies have also been laid at the site and recordings of songs praising the Soviet victory are being played.
Andrej, 56, said that on this day “the Soviet army liberated Europe from fascism”. “Old folks fought and they were in concentration camps,” he told BNS.
Meanwhile, pensioner Olga Kolesnikova, 62, told BNS that her grandmother whose “son, son-in-law and grandson were killed by fascists” died on May 9. Wearing a portrait of her grandfather, who fought in the First World War in 1914, on her neck, Kolesnikova called the removal of the Soviet statues an act of desecration.
Valery Ivanov, the former leader of the pro-Soviet organization Yedinstvo, also paid a visit to Antakalnis Cemetery later in the day.
When asked whether he thought it was appropriate to celebrate the Soviet Union’s victory amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, he told reporters that he believed in the Kremlin and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s narrative that a what is happening in Ukraine is a “special military operation”, adding that the war was caused by Kyiv and NATO’s threat to Russia.
“We didn’t push NATO here towards Russia, NATO came here,” he stated.
Victory Day is a controversial date for most Lithuanians, since the Soviet Union occupied and annexed Lithuania during World War. The country remained occupied until it declared independence in 1990.
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