Archaeologists have begun exhuming the remains of Red Army soldiers buried in the centre of the Lithuanian town of Vievis as part of the country’s efforts to remove Soviet-era memorial sites from public spaces.
The burial site is located near St Anne’s Church in Vievis, in Elektrėnai municipality, where a Soviet monument and an eternal flame previously stood.
Historical records indicate that 111 Soviet soldiers are buried at the site, although archaeologists said the exact number will be determined during the excavation.
The exhumation follows a decision by Lithuania’s so-called Desovietisation Commission – set up under 2023 legislation – which concluded that the memorial violated a law banning the promotion of “totalitarian and authoritarian regimes” in public spaces.
The commission said the site promoted the Soviet and modern Russian narrative of the “Great Patriotic War”. It also concluded that the graves were secondary burials because the remains had been relocated from original burial sites in surrounding areas after World War Two.
