Memorial plaques to three Soviet-era artists – cultural figure Juozas Banaitis, actor Vasilijus Ivanovičius Kačialovas, and poet Teofilis Tilvytis – will be removed in Vilnius.
This decision was taken on Wednesday by the Vilnius City Council.
“[The plaques were proposed to be removed] because of their collaboration with the Soviet regime and their merits to that regime. The commission has decided that it might not be worth displaying such plaques,” Kamilė Šeraitė-Gogelienė, chair of the municipality’s Historical Memory Commission, told BNS on Monday.
Memorial plaques for artists who have merited recognition in Vilnius during the Soviet era, with the inscriptions “LSSR” and “USSR” in Lithuanian and Russian, will also be taken down and replaced with new standard plaques at the municipality’s expense.
In May, a desovietisation law adopted by the Seimas came into force prohibiting the promotion of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies in public spaces.
The prohibition applies to any form of commemoration or representation of persons, symbols, and information promoting totalitarian or authoritarian regimes and their ideologies.
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