Neris monument in Vilnius must be removed – commission

VILNIUS - The monument to Lithuania poet Salomeja Neris outside the Vytis Gymnasium in central Vilnius should be removed as it propagates the totalitarian regime and its ideology, Lithuania's Desovietization Commission decided on Wednesday.

"After lengthy discussions, we have unanimously agreed that Salome Neris and Vilnius have little connection and no explanatory plaque will replace what the monument stands for, so it should be removed," Vitas Karciauskas, the commission chair, told BNS.

The monument was installed in 1974 next to the school named after her. Later this year, the school was renamed. Last winter, the Desovietization Commission also decided to rename a street in Vilnius, named after Neris.

The commission found that Neris was an active member of the occupation regime's political structures and took an active part in the decisions that helped to consolidate the Soviet occupation.

Together with other writers, Neris wrote poetry and prose glorifying the Soviet government, and in 1940, as a delegate of the People's Seimas, she went to Moscow to ask for Lithuania to be admitted into the Soviet Union.

The ban on the promotion of totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and their ideologies has been in force in Lithuania since May 2023. According to the law, symbols of totalitarianism and authoritarianism, such as monuments, the names of streets, squares and other public sites, and other symbols, must be removed.