A woman walks up to a Soviet monument. She touches every tombstone listing those who died in World War Two. At the final stop, her son gingerly lays down flowers, they both bow their heads.
“It probably seems wild to you that we bring flowers here,” said the woman who did not want to give her name. “But this is a chance for me to feel a connection with my family who were taken to Germany to a work camp, some of them died there, others died in the fighting.”
A decade ago, the May 9 celebration still attracted hundreds of people to the centre Šalčininkai, a predominantly Russian-speaking town on Lithuania's border with Belarus. The last pictures posted on the local municipality’s homepage in 2012 show a large crowd laying flowers by the soldier’s monument.
But since Ukraine’s full-scale invasion, the number of attendees has dwindled. Lithuania has now passed further decommunisation laws to dismantle the remaining monuments, arguing that Soviet memory is being used by the Kremlin as a soft power and a way to justify aggression.
But for another young woman bringing flowers to the monument, the May 9 commemoration bears a personal connection. For many in Lithuania, she added, the day had a completely different meaning – and that was understandable.
“We all have our traumas and this is normal,” she said. But everyone is drawn to the historical representation that is closest to them, she added.
“I do not support war, but my grandfather fought, my grandmother was a sniper, so this is a personal act for me to be here so they remain alive in memory,” she said. “Of course, for many others, this commemoration would be associated with pain.”
Why is the date controversial?
Russia marks May 9 as the end of the “Great Patriotic War” and victory over Nazi Germany. However, Lithuania maintains that the war did not finish on May 9, as it resulted in a 50-year occupation by Moscow and subsequent repressions and killings.
Decades later, the date became increasingly loaded after Russia used the false pretext of fighting fascism and protecting Russian speakers to launch its aggression against Ukraine in 2014. Some eight years later, Vladimir Putin again referred to the so-called fight against Nazism as the justification for the full-scale war against Kyiv.
For many in Lithuania, the May 9 commemoration thus no longer marks the past, but it is used to rally support for the Kremlin's current wars; many worry they could eventually reach the Baltic states.
Guided by fear of Russian aggression, officials routinely have pointed at Šalčininkai and the surrounding region as a potential place for a Donbas-like scenario, much to the disdain of the local population.
Lithuania’s border region with Belarus is ethnically mixed, with 76 percent of people identifying themselves as Polish. Many of them also consider themselves to be Russian-speaking despite their Polish roots.
A particular military snap-drill held in 2017 caused outrage among the locals. Balaclava-wearing gunmen captured the local police station as unidentified military forces seized other parts of the area. Lithuania’s interior ministry claimed that the local people welcomed the fighters, which was contradicted and denied by local authorities and the people themselves.
Anecdotal evidence suggests bitter clashes between locals who are pro-Russian and those supporting Ukraine. Many more consider themselves to be anti-war, yet falling short of denouncing the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine. More still are wary of the threat of war or criticise politicians for allegedly feeding the anxiety.
“I do fear that the Russians could come. Because I’m neither a Russian for the Russians, nor Lithuanian for the Lithuanians,” said the young woman at the monument. “The fear is really there, but we all hope that the war [in Ukraine] will not reach us and it will finish soon.”
At the same time, at least several of the interviewed people said they were now afraid to openly mark May 9. They did not name the reason for their fear, mentioning instead the “current situation”.
One person who refused to be named said “only the Russian people” can understand the significance of the May 9 date. Meanwhile, much of the dispute comes down to the clash of different collective traumas, she added – the one experienced by Russians in the Second World War and the one inflicted by the Soviets on Lithuanians.
Memory wars
The number of veterans has been decreasing as most succumb to old age. One of the last remaining ones in the Šalčininkai region, Nikolai Riskov, recently passed away aged 99.
His daughter, Vera, was among those who laid flowers at the monument in Šalčininkai.
“[He fought] around here, which is where he met my mother who was born here. They got married here and had daughters and grandchildren. I’m here for the memory of my father because he shed his blood [in the war].”
On the eve of the May 9 commemorations, Moscow announced it would pay out “holiday bonuses” to 9,700 veterans still living in Russia and the Baltic states. However, it did not clarify how many of them are in Lithuania.
“It would be better to build a monument to [Polish general] Józef Piłsudski, who beat the Bolsheviks and practically saved Lithuania and Poland,” said Zbigniew, an ethnic Pole walking past the monument. “There are also many people here whose relatives fought against the Bolsheviks.”
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