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President: It is symbolic that we are unveiling a monument to the partisan commander after Teacher’s Day.
President Gitanas Nausėda says it is symbolic that the monument to partisan commander Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas will be unveiled just one day after International Teacher’s Day, as his life and sacrifice became a lesson in sacrifice for the freedom of Lithuania.
“It is symbolic that we unveil the tombstone of A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas just one day after the International Teachers’ Day mentioned yesterday,” the president said at the ceremony.
“It is symbolic not only because A. Ramanauskas worked as a teacher and taught in the teachers’ seminary before going to the partisans, but also because his whole life, including his death, became for us a historical lesson, the love of sacrifice for their freedom, “he added. he.
The president stressed that this was a painful lesson for Lithuania, which had cost tens of thousands of lives.
Julius Kalinskas / 15min photo / Inauguration ceremony of the tombstone of Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas
“But she taught us that Lithuanians who love freedom are stronger than brutal coercion, that they were not broken by betrayal, torture, murder or desecration of their relatives. In this lesson, we learned how much sacrifice was needed, what a high price was paid for us to be able to use its fruits, to live in freedom and peace ”, said G. Nausėda.
“Today we continue the lesson knowing that sooner or later the truth will prevail. “The executioners of Vanago hoped that by desecrating his remains and burying them in an unknown grave in the Orphanage Cemetery, they would bury him forever and his memory,” said the president.
“How similar is the thinking of all the occupants: a century earlier, the executioners of the rebels Kalinauskas and Sierakauskas thought the same way, burying them in an unknown tomb on the Gediminas hill,” he said.
According to him, the attempt to hide the remains of the freedom fighters “served their glory even greater.”
“However, the idea of no oppressor succeeded, it simply served the even greater glory of the freedom fighters: we discovered and buried with honor our heroes of the 19th and 20th centuries, his name is now known to all children Lithuanians, each one of us. We may never find the remains of some freedom fighters, but we will not stop looking for them, accumulating historical knowledge about their lives, sacrificed in the name of Lithuanian freedom, “said G. Nausėda.
He stressed that the monument expresses eternal gratitude and respect to A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas and respect for him and all those he led.
The president added that “monuments alone are not enough, it is necessary to continue the exploits of heroes.”
V. Landsbergis: the monument to A. Ramanauskas-Vanags is also important for the memory of the Lithuanian struggle
The monument to the party leader Adolfas Ramanauskas-Vanagas is significant not only for his own memory, but also for the memory of Lithuania’s fight for freedom, says the first leader of restored independent Lithuania, Vytautas Landsbergis.
“This monument is of great importance, because the person himself was the leader of the struggling Lithuania, but it was the struggling Lithuania itself, which rejected the lie, as if it had surrendered, was happy in slavery; we listen to it a lot, “Landsbergis told reporters.
Photo by Sigismund Gedvila / 15min / Vytautas Landsbergis
“We show what Lithuania values, what they fought for, what people helped their heads for, so that monument is significant, not only for the memory of Vanags, but also for the memory and consolidation of the struggle of Lithuania “, He said.
Landsberg added that the “struggle” and “resistance” were not yet over.
“Yes, unfortunately, it is that the efforts of Stribes and NKVD to eradicate the resistance and at the same time the idea of freedom continues,” Landsbergis said.
“The resistance to that political propaganda continues, it has not ended. Maybe it will end when the descendants of that commune disappear and when that empire becomes a normal state, “he said.
The president’s greeting address was followed by the prayer of Archbishop Gintaras Grušas, with which the monument erected in the Pantheon of Heads of State was blessed.
The memory of A. Ramanauskas-Vanags was also honored with a minute of silence, a song of struggle for freedom, and wreaths were deposited on the monument on behalf of the heads of state and other officials of the country to the sound of the military orchestra. .
The monument was created by the group of authors Algirdas Kuzma and the Arches company, which won the competition called by the Government Chancellery.
The Government Chancellery informed BNS that the total cost of the monument was almost 59,3 thousand. euro.
The remains of A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas were found in the Antakalnis orphanage cemetery in 2018, and on October 6 of the same year they were buried in the Antakalnis cemetery, the Pantheon of Heads of State.
A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas, born 1918, became a supporter in 1945.
A couple of years later, he began to lead the Dainava district and in 1948 he was appointed commander of the partisan region of southern Lithuania. A year later, he became the Vice President of the Presidium of the Lithuanian Freedom Fighting Movement Jonas Žemaitis, and in the early 1950s, the Commander of the Sąjūdis Defense Forces.
In 1952-1953, A. Ramanauskas-Vanagas retired from active armed struggle and went into hiding with his family until 1956, when he was arrested.
He was executed in 1957 after cruel torture.
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