The Great Patriotic War, the Soviet victory in World War II, is celebrated in almost every city of the former USSR. A heritage comprised of squares dedicated to May 9, monuments, symbols, and memorials to fallen soldiers. History that today, with the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, is being exploited for the use and consumption of any propaganda of duty.

The Commission for the Desovietization of Lithuania has asked the municipal authorities to remove the Red Army graves from the central squares, after also inviting them to review the toponymy. It is an effect of the de-Sovietization law that came into force in the Baltic Republic on May 1 last year: it applies in any form to people, symbols, immortalized or depicted information, who promote totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies.

This law also removes symbols of totalitarianism and authoritarianism from public spaces: monuments and memorial elements, street names, squares… And, since last June, as a result of a decision by the parliament, the graves of Soviet soldiers in the squares have also ended up on the list of public sites that fall within the scope of this law.

The remains of the soldiers will be removed and then reburied following international treaties. Vitas Karciauskas, who chairs the Commission, argued that the Soviet authorities deliberately buried or reburied the remains of Red Army soldiers in central squares to consolidate the “narrative of the Great Patriotic War. These are ideological sites, not a tribute to soldiers and therefore, of course, they violate the law“.

The measure would be a boost to the national identity and libertarianism whether applied to any symbol of totalitarian, authoritarian, or control regimes and their ideologies.