Lithuanian genocide research centre insists Soviet-era poet’s monument in Vilnius must be removed

The Lithuanian Genocide and Resistance Research Centre (LGGRTC) has urged a court to uphold a 2022 ruling ordering the removal of a monument to poet Salomėja Nėris in central Vilnius, arguing it promotes the Soviet occupation regime, LRT reports.

The bronze bust, erected in 1974 near Vilnius’ Vyčio Gymnasium, has become the subject of a legal dispute after the poet’s US-based granddaughter, a local lawyer, and the Lithuanian Creators’ Association appealed the removal decision. A regional administrative court will deliver its verdict on May 28.

Salomėja Bučaitė, the poet’s granddaughter, told the court via video link from the US that relocating the monument would harm her grandmother’s legacy and reputation. “Public denigration of my grandmother causes me emotional distress,” she said, insisting the bust carries no ideological slogans and is not propaganda. Bučaitė added she plans to publish a collection of Nėris’ poetry in the US to introduce American readers to Lithuanian cultural heritage.

Lawyer Liudvikas Ragauskis argued the state’s intervention violates municipal rights and could deter publishers from printing Nėris’ works. But LGGRTC representatives dismissed these claims, stating the poet’s role in the 1940 delegation that petitioned for Lithuania’s incorporation into the USSR and her subsequent tenure as a Soviet Supreme Council deputy (1941–1945) disqualify her from public commemoration.

“If the Soviet authorities erected a monument to her, it clearly shows her significance to them,” said LGGRTC researcher Kristina Burinskaitė, citing Nėris’ active promotion of the occupation regime in her writings. Colleague Rima Damanauskaitė-Mancini noted the centre had documented 26 cases across 12 municipalities where institutions removed or reconsidered Nėris’ commemoration, reflecting “societal understanding that she is not a figure whose name should be immortalised in public spaces of independent Lithuania.”

The dispute follows Lithuania’s broader efforts to remove Soviet-era symbols, including four socialist realist sculptures relocated from Vilnius’ Green Bridge in 2015 after decades of criticism for glorifying the occupation.