Lithuania’s so-called de-sovietisation commission is calling on the country’s three district municipalities – Telšiai, Akmenė, and Radviliškis – to change the names of streets named after Soviet-era poet Salomėja Nėris but to keep the name in her hometown of Vilkaviškis.
“The overall assessment remains unchanged, but we have additionally adopted a recommendation to keep the name of the street [in Vilkaviškis], with an explanatory plate saying that this is her birthplace,” Vitas Karčoauskas, Chairman of the Inter-institutional Commission for the Assessment of the Compliance of Public Places with the Prohibition of the Promotion of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes and Their Ideologies in Public Places, told BNS on Thursday.
“As far as the other towns are concerned, it [the name of the street] should still be changed, it is enough that one town has a street named after her,” he added.
The commission also proposes to change the names of the streets named after Petras Cvirka, a writer and Soviet activist, in Vilkaviškis, Jurbarkas, Telšiai, Akmenė, and Širvintos Districts.
According to Karčiauskas, the municipality of Zarasai District has been recommended to remove the monument of a Russian soldier with a rifle, which is located at the burial site of Soviet soldiers from the Second World War in the town of Turmantas.
The law prohibiting the promotion of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies in public places came into force in Lithuania in May 2023. The law bans any form of commemoration or representation of persons, symbols, or information propagating totalitarian or authoritarian regimes and their ideologies.
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