In Lithuania, the law on the de-Sovietization of public spaces came into force

In Lithuania, the law on the de-Sovietization of public spaces entered into force on May 1. Municipalities will be obliged to remove Soviet monuments and rename streets and squares whose names are associated with the Soviet period in the history of Lithuania.

The full name of the law is “On Prohibition of Propaganda of Totalitarian, Authoritarian Regimes and Their Ideologies”. As reported in the press service of the Seimas of the Lithuanian Parliament, recognition of public objects as propagandists will be carried out by the Center for Genocide Research and Resistance of the Lithuanian Population and Municipal Institutions. The Seimas itself will also create an interdepartmental commission that will work on this issue.

The deputy of the Seimas, Paule Kuzmytskyne, emphasized that public discussion is important for the implementation of the law. “With a law that will allow not only to remove traces, but also to discuss the regime and its crimes, we will more clearly define the connection with the communist past. There will be no room for romanticizing the regime, and communism and National Socialism will be perceived as evil, it is important for us to overcome these regimes,” she said.

• The Baltic countries pursue a consistent policy of condemning the Soviet period of their existence. In Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the period of their stay in the USSR is regarded as occupation. Many monuments of the Soviet era were dismantled or moved.