Linas Jegelevičius for the BNN
The Lithuanian parliament, the Seimas, has adopted this week a law phasing out what it calls the promotion of «totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies» in public places.
The legislation will obligate all the municipalities to tear down Soviet-era monuments in the country, as well as change the names of streets named after Soviet heroes.
On Tuesday, December 13, 103 members of the Seimas voted in support of the so-called «desovietisation» law, while six abstained.
The law will provide a legal basis not only to remove Soviet-era monuments and memorials but also mandate the municipalities to change the street names and names of other objects bearing Russian names.
However, the prohibitions will not apply to museums, archives, and libraries when organizing exhibitions, informing the public about totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their consequences, and using such objects and information for the purposes of education, scholarship, professional art, and collecting.
Vytautas Dumbliauskas, associate professor of Mykolas Romeris University, told BNN that he welcomes the law, yet «it will take many more years and generations to get rid of the Soviet heritage.»
«There have been other laws on desovietisation passed, but this one concerns the latest events, I mean the war. I definitely view it positively. It is sad that many Lithuanian streets and schools carried Soviet heroes’ names. Until very recently,» he emphasized.
«I think the war will continue going on in 2023 – the Ukrainians will not stop unless all the territories occupied by Russia are returned. So we will see the continuation of Russian propaganda,» the analyst pointed out.
Paulė Kuzmickienė, a Conservative MP, says that the law prohibiting the promotion of totalitarian, authoritarian regimes and their ideologies is a «democratic law» to protect freedom, humanity, human and national identity, and seeks to destroy ideologies and their traces in Lithuania.
«Its underlying tasks are no less important, i.e. to tell, to speak, to whom those signs of honor were dedicated. So that we better understand our relationship with the totalitarian regime, understand their operation, understand who the collaborator was, and what he was doing. It is also useful for assessing what is happening in Ukraine,»
she emphasized.
«Totalitarian regimes in Europe as well as in Lithuania sought to support and spread the regime’s ideas by involving local societies in the indoctrination of citizens of occupied countries – often through art, public spaces, objects…The most difficult thing to assess now is the legacy.»
«Overcoming propaganda – through discussion, knowledge, understanding – is an important part of the de-Sovietisation law…The law, I believe, will be a great opportunity for that» the MP argues.
Kuzmickienė cautions: «In Europe, there is still a lack of knowledge about the crimes committed by the Soviet Union in the occupied countries. The experiences and traumatic experiences of the population of post-Soviet countries are still not adequately commemorated in the history of European memory, and are not fully understood.»
However, some Lithuanian MPs, like opposition’s Petras Gražulis, believe that the Conservatives-led Lithuanian legislature, the Seimas, has gone way too far with its bans.
«In my personal opinion, Lithuania mirrors what the Kremlin and Putin do – ban everything, cancel anybody or anything who or what falls out from their favor. But unlike Russia, here we have democracy. So, our people should be given the right to decide on their own – to watch Russian TV channels or not.
To me, the new ban is very similar to the Soviet era, when listening to BBC, Voice of America was outlawed.
Look, the Ukrainians who live on the border with Russia can still listen to Russian propaganda on Russian TV channels, yet they overwhelmingly support the Ukrainian state and, furthermore, fight against the intruders. In a nutshell, such law is redundant and has little to do with democracy,» the MP told BNN.
Some well-known commentators have also expressed caveats over Lithuania’s moves to phase out anything related to the past and the Russian language itself.
Political scientist Andrzej Pukszto argues that demonizing local Russian speakers for their assumed pro-Putin views is a dangerous path to take. «In today’s world, language is becoming a tool and not the goal,» said Pukszto, an associate professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, in an interview with LRT.lt.
According to him, initiatives to eradicate Russian-language education will only expose the Baltic states to Putin’s propaganda as well as accusations of not taking minority rights seriously.
Lithuanian scholar and public intellectual Tomas Venclova, who is one of the most respected intellectuals in Lithuania and who is one of the founders of the Lithuanian Helsinki Group, has also warned against labeling all Russians as being «guilty for their government’s crimes.»
When asked about the proposals to phase out the Russian language in Lithuania, Venclova responded: «Even though Russia is now the enemy, you have to know the language of your enemy. During World War Two, German was taught in American, British, and, incidentally, Soviet schools. And knowing German was crucial at the front – it wasn’t useless for an officer to speak German.»
At the moment, Lithuania has a law that envisions administrative liability for displaying, distributing, or propagating Nazi and Soviet symbols. Back in spring, Lithuania banned the public display of the black and orange ribbon of Saint George and other symbols of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The ban also covers the letters «Z» and «V» which have become the symbols of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The public display of these symbols is punishable now by fines of up to 700 euros for individuals and up to 1,200 euros for legal entities.
Also, the other law, on Assemblies, prohibits the display of the flags, coats of arms, and uniforms of Nazi Germany, the USSR, or the Lithuanian SSR, as well as the symbols of Nazi or Communist organizations.
The country’s Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre or/and municipal authorities will be entitled to say if an object falls under the newest desovietisation law. A special inter-institutional commission will have to submit its assessment beforehand.
The law on «desovietisation» has yet to be signed by the country’s President, Gitanas Nausėda.