| Abstract [eng] |
SUMMARY OF MASTER’S WORK During the Soviet occupation, around 350,000 Lithuanian residents suffered and died. From 1941 on, with interruptions, monuments of various kinds have been built to commemorate all of them. The subject of this investigation is the process of immortalizing members of the resistance movement and victims of Soviet genocide in monuments, the specific features of and problems encountered in this process, as well as issues concerning the inventory and memorialization of sites and buildings recognized as monuments. These have not been the subject of any study hitherto and have not been the focus of investigation. The goal of this work is to disclose the processes and associated problems of commemorating and memorializing Lithuanian victims of Soviet genocide and members of the resistance. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were formulated: 1. to determine the phases of monument construction and groups of builders, and to characterize them; 2. to explain how inventory of sites and buildings recognized as monuments takes place and how these objects are categorized; 3. to survey how work is carried out for the maintenance and commemoration of sites and buildings; 4. to ascertain the nature of problems involved in commemoration and memorialization. Based on the work of our investigation, the construction of monuments commemorating victims of Soviet genocide and members of the resistance movement took place in three phases in Lithuania, a process in which various people and organizations effected the maintenance of memorial site territories, the construction of statues and the marking of memorial buildings. We divide these people and organizations in two groups: – according to the phase of monument construction: “enthusiasts”, folk artists and professional artists. – according to the number of monuments erected and their artistic value. Inventory of memorial sites and constructions is carried out by the Cultural heritage Center of the Republic of Lithuania (hereafter “CHC”), the Center for the Study of the Genocide and Resistance of Lithuanian Residents of the Republic of Lithuania (“Center”) and the Union of Lithuanian Political Prisoners and Exiles, in accordance with legal acts regulating organizations carrying out the disclosure, inventory and memorialization of cultural monuments. Individuals and public and government organizations perform maintenance of and commemorative work involving these sites and objects. The Center does the majority of commemorative work under the “Program for the creation of commemorative signs, symbols and monuments for commemorating victims of genocide and people repressed for opposition to occupational regimes, 1996-2000” and the 2003-2008 continuation of the program. Various problems are encountered in commemorating memorial sites and buildings: lack of understanding of means of artistic expression in statuary, incorrect allocation of funding for commemorative work and opposition by private individuals and state organizations to allowing the positing of signs on buildings. The memorialization of commemorative sites and buildings began in 1991. The CHC has carried this out. City and regional municipalities along with the Center supply material for the memorialization of sites and objects. In nominating sites and objects are for memorialization, a detailed analysis of the memorial site (determining which of these should be memorialized), a detailed analysis of the memorial building (establishing its historical and sometimes also architectural value), registration of complete information about the memorial site and building with the Burial Sites and Constructions Listings of the Cultural Values Register are carried out. At the current time, since the new Lithuanian law on the protection of immovable cultural heritage came into force on April 18, 2005, work to memorialize commemorative sites and constructions has stopped temporarily. |
