On Monday night, a monument to Lithuanian anti-Soviet partisan leader Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas was defaced in the town of Merkinė.
Photos posted by the Merkinė Regional Museum on Facebook show that the monument has been covered in white paint.
According to Mindaugas Černiauskas, the head of the museum, there are no surveillance cameras to help identify those who defaced the monument commemorating the partisan leader. However, It should be possible to clean the monument, he said.
Ramanauskas-Vanagas, the commander of the Dzūkija region in southern Lithuania, was among the partisan leaders who signed the Union of Lithuanian Freedom Fighters’ Declaration in 1949.
Partisan groups began to form in Lithuania in 1944 in response to Soviet repressions and deportations and forced conscription in the Red Army. The organised armed resistance against the Soviet occupation ended in 1953.
Ramanauskas-Vanagas was arrested by the Soviets in 1956 and was executed a year later.
In 2018, the Lithuanian parliament Seimas recognised Ramanauskas-Vanagas as the Head of State of Lithuania.
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