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Vidmantas Bezaras, director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, told BNS last week that the recently convened independent expert evaluation panel will consider requests from Culture Minister Simonas Kairis and the Vilnius City Municipality. They ask that the monument to the writer be removed from the Register of Cultural Heritage.
The mayor of the capital, Remigijus Šimašius, would like to include P. Cvirka’s square on the record as a “characteristic example of neoclassical stylistics”.
Before starting the discussion, the historian and museologist Ramūnas Kondratas, president of the newly formed council, emphasized that the commission convened today “will not make an artistic assessment, it will only decide whether to abolish legal protection. “It just came to our attention then. We decided whether we have legal protection or not,” he said.
Proponents of the removal of the monument to P. Cvirka rely on the 2019 explanation from the Lithuanian Research Center on Genocide and Resistance that the writer and political figure P. Cvirka actively collaborated with the structures of the Soviet government. occupant in his political and social activities. and their collaboration had great and damaging consequences for the Lithuanian state and the destiny of its citizens.
Those who want to preserve the monument in the square claim that the desire to recklessly destroy the Soviet heritage would be no different from Soviet censorship, and the literary talent of P. Cvirka should be valued and separated from political activity.
Urged not to rush
At the meeting, the former Minister of Culture Mindaugas Kvietkauskas assured that he had participated in many similar discussions, both as a literary scholar and as a minister. “I would like to draw attention to one aspect: in July, the wording of the legal act expanded the theme:” such objects that represent or incorporate. “Why was it made during the urgent discussion of the question of P. Cvirka (amendment – past) – who are these “other people”? The concept is extremely vague. The position of the Ministry of Culture so far has been that research and conclusions on heritage protection be accepted by independent experts, now a different position. Various evaluations were made: the Lithuanian Artists Union expressed its opinion, the Lithuanian Writers Union recognized that this is a space of a difficult period that must be preserved as a whole. We have a heritage space, the question is: How to deal with it? There is a great concern that you will be forced to make an unequivocal decision based on a political dictatorship from above. You have to think ahead, the way of m inistro is being expanded, which monuments will be demolished according to this standard, in Julius Janonis Biržai? The term “other people” can be widely interpreted “, M. Kvietkauskas asked for a good reflection on the decision.
“Other people are the ones who calibrate,” Kondratas explained.
Vilnius Municipal Deputy Mayor Valdas Benkunskas said they trusted the evaluation commission and its competence. “It is sad that the former minister is intimidating, I will not get involved in political discussions, it is an uneducated, necessary and dignified discussion. The municipality has expressed its opinion, we will immediately consider the relocation of the monument, we are in talks with the National Museum to be able to exhibit , describing properly. We are ready to move. As for the place, 31 years after the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Lithuania by the idols of the Soviet era, it is not a place. “
“I ask for an independent decision, not a scare,” objected M. Kvietkauskas.
The Lithuanian archaeologist, pedagogue and doctor of humanities Ilona Vaškevičiūtė noted that if a table with the inscription of historical facts was attached to the monument, the writer would appear to be nailed to a pillar of shame. “I don’t know if that really should be the case, the place of the monument is in the museum,” he said.
P. Cvirka’s grandson, Aidas Pivoriūnas, was unable to attend the meeting, but sent a letter: according to him, the square and the monument should not be demolished.
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