Donelaitis museum has nothing to do with Russian culture – Lithuanian president

  • 2025-01-13
  • BNS/TBT Staff

VILNIUS – Following Russia's renaming of the memorial museum of Kristijonas Donelaitis, a pioneer of Lithuanian literature, in a village in Kaliningrad Region to the Museum of Literature, President Gitanas Nausėda said on Monday that the place has nothing to do with Russian culture.

The museum of the 18th-century poet and Lutheran pastor in Chistye Prudy, a village in the Russian exclave known as Tolminkiemis in Lithuanian, was established in 1979.  

"Ask yourselves if Russian books were printed there. So, regarding the renaming of the Donelaitis Museum in Tolminkiemis, you could call it the Literature Museum or the Atheism Museum, but that won't change the essence – it was, is, and will remain the Donelaitis Museum. Neither Pushkin nor Lermontov created there, and this place has nothing to do with Russian culture," Nausėda told journalists.

"A state that has rewritten its own history and is rewriting the histories of neighboring states, may react bitterly to any message, but no bitterness will change elementary historical facts," he added.

Commenting on Vilnius' response to the renaming of the museum, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said last week that Lithuania is an unfriendly state with "territorial claims". 

"Lithuania is an unfriendly state; it's a state hostile towards us, which, among other things, as it turns out, has territorial claims. This justifies our serious concerns and current and future measures to ensure national security," he was quoted as telling reporters on Friday.

Lithuania's former President Dalia Grybauskaite said on Monday that such actions by Russia are part of its long-standing aggressive behavior toward its neighbors.

"This neighbor, unfortunately, does not want a friendly environment. They want war, want to demonstrate power over their neighbors. We know this, we've learned to live with it, and we're not afraid. We stopped fearing these threats a long time ago," she told journalists.

Last week, Nauseda described the renaming of the museum by Russia as "yet another unacceptable attempt at rewriting history". 

"Even though the old inhabitants of Lithuania Minor, now part of the so-called Kaliningrad Oblast, are long gone, the last signs of Lithuanian culture there must be safeguarded. No matter how hard Russia tries, Karaliaucius will never become Kaliningrad!" he posted on the X social platform.  

The history of what is now the city of Kaliningrad dates back to the mid-13th century when the Teutonic Order built Koenigsberg Castle on the Old Prussian settlement of Twangste. The settlement was named Koenigsberg in honor of King Ottokar II of Bohemia.

The name Karaliaucius has been used in Lithuanian writings in both Lithuania Minor and Lithuania Major since the 16th century.

In 1946, the Soviet Union renamed the city Kaliningrad in honor of Mikhail Kalinin, the chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Culture Minister Sarunas Birutis has said that by renaming the museum, Russia aims to erase Lithuanian identity in the region.

The Lithuanian Consulate General in Kaliningrad and the Culture Ministry have said they will continue to monitor the situation regarding the museum and its exhibits.

Donelaitis, a poet and Evangelical Lutheran pastor, was born in Lazdyneliai (Lasdinehlen), now part of Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, on January 1, 1714. Starting in 1743, he served as the pastor of Tolminkiemis (Tollmingkehmen, now Chistye Prudy). 

Donelaitis wrote his most significant work, the poem Metai (The Seasons), in Lithuanian around 1760-1775.