The park of Soviet sculptures is being built in Grûtas forest near resort Druskininkai. It will be a big historical museum with various materials from soviet times. Now tourists and Lithuanians themselves already visit it, but some organizations and politicians are against this park. The questions about legality of this museum are solved in courts and even in Constitutional one.
Recently one entrepreneur Viliumas Malinauskas on his own land gathered rusty and forgotten statues of Soviet leaders and began building the park in Grûtas forest near resort town Druskininkai. He gathered condemned statues from all over Lithuania and revived them for some kind a historical museum. Here one can see Stalin, even 10 Lenins, Marx and a dozen of other Soviet leaders. The guides can tell not only how much the statue weights, who is the author of this soviet “masterpiece“, but also tell about the personality of the person, his biography, good and bad deeds. But there are some obstacles made from the Parliament of Lithuania – Seimas. Some politicians are against building such kind of park even though it is private property of V. Malinauskas. This small piece of land in the swamps and private activities has got Lithuania's Constitutional Court attention.
In 1945 when the World War II was over and Lithuania was occupied by Red army and incorporated into Soviet Union, the repression of middle class began. A lot of farmers, teachers, and intelligentsia were killed or exiled to the Siberia, where the bigger part of them died. Stalin was the man who introduced new order – collective farms, where everybody works for himself and giving the state everything they have. A lot of people had to give their land and cattle for the authorities. In order to get bigger lands without noise, Stalin just gave the order to exile prosperous farmers to take over their land. Some of them resisted and fought partisan war against Russian Internal Affairs troops until 1956. During this time a lot of partisans and their families or innocent people suspected with collaborations with so called „bandits“ were sent to Siberia or prisons in northern part of Russia. Some historians call these processes a holocaust of Lithuanian nation. The guilty one is Stalin.
When Lithuania regained Independence in 1990 March 11, the crimes of Communism and Soviets were condemned and the leaders became most cursed people. Their statues build during these 50 years were either exploded or dismantled and put somewhere to the basements of museums. Now they are being revived for a new life.
Historical museum is especially valuable for coming generations. If children can see the swards, spears, shields, armor of Lithuanian Middle age warriors, who were not gentle as sheep either, there should be an opportunity to see the remains of recent past. Reading the books is not enough in any kind of learning including history. The live evidence is needed and the statues of famous Soviets are quite substantial. The Grûtas park is only in the building stage, where big exponents are set, but soon there should be the museum with smaller Soviet relics, for instance posters, flags, literature, pictures, even movies, because there are a lot of screen-reels gathered from these times both in Lithuanian and Russian.
Even though the park is not finished yet there are tourists coming already, mostly from Russia, and also from Western countries to see these incredible statues (some of them weight over 40 tones). The park does not lack the attention from mass media also. The only hindrance to build and finish the park is some politicians and organizations of resistance to Soviet regime, which thinks that exposing the statues of Soviets are the same as adoring them. The adoring of soviet idols is new paranoia of some patriotic groups not only in Grûtas, but also in Vilnius. One of Vilnius' bridges the Green one has a few soviet statues. They are rusty and dirty and need to be cleaned and restored, but there is no money for that and also municipality authorities are afraid to be accused for adoring Soviet idols.
The future of Grûtas Park and V. Malinauskas enterprise is still unclear. Despite of hindrances from the state the entrepreneur continues building the park and trying to convince his truth in various courts. The tourists are already going to see statues, which mean a lot for them, but not for common Lithuanians.