Statues pulled from squares
Lenin, Stalin and party leaders, gathered here rather than destroyed.
Adriao — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Quintin Soloviev — CC BY 4.0 · VietovesLt — CC BY 3.0 · yeowatzup — CC BY 2.0
A park in the forests of southern Lithuania displaying the Soviet-era statues removed from the country's squares after independence was restored in 1990. When the Soviet Union collapsed, statues of Lenin, Stalin and party leaders came down across Lithuania's cities. Rather than destroy them, they were gathered here and set among the trees along a long walking route. That is what makes the place uncomfortable and contested in Lithuania itself: some see it as a necessary archive of an era that must not be forgotten, others as a display of the symbols of an occupation that killed and deported their families. The argument is unresolved. The park does not avoid this: alongside the statues are exhibits and documents on the deportations to Siberia, on repression and on resistance, with watchtowers and barbed wire evoking the labour camps. This is not a light place and that should be clear. But it is among the clearest explanations of what the Baltic states went through in the twentieth century. It is not in Vilnius: about a hundred and thirty kilometres south near Druskininkai, needing a car or an organised trip — a full day.
Lenin, Stalin and party leaders, gathered here rather than destroyed.
A necessary archive or a display of occupation's symbols? Lithuania has not settled it.
Exhibits on exile to Siberia and on resistance alongside the statues.
Near Druskininkai, about 130 km south of Vilnius
Because the victims of the Soviet era are still alive in Lithuania, and many families lost people to the deportations to Siberia. Displaying statues of those who ordered it — even critically — strikes some as an insult. Supporters argue that hiding the symbols does not erase the history, and that seeing them in a forest away from the squares is precisely what strips them of their power.
By car, about two hours south of Vilnius, or on an organised trip from the capital. The nearby town of Druskininkai is a spa resort that can be added to the day. Public transport to the park itself is very limited and impractical.
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