Lithuania, a new democracy, a new friend

Part Five: Grutas Park, a Soviet Satire

The statue of a Soviet soldier stands guard at the entrance to Grutas Park.

"Nearby is the world's largest collection of Soviet statuary," Andrius told us. "Would you like to go see it?" Without hesitation, Jim Fisher and I said, "Yes!"

As we road through the beautiful Lithuanian countryside in Andrius' propane-powered Toyota, he explained how the world's only USSR theme park came about. With the dissolution of the USSR in 1989 and the liberation of Lithuania, hundreds of Soviet monuments were dismantled and piled into warehouses  before the public could destroy them as was done in other former Soviet republics. This happenstance preservation allowed the new government time to think about their booty.

Citizens angry at their former Soviet rulers proposed the metal monuments be melted down and formed into plowshares. Others called for the government to auction off the statues and use the money to build memorials to those who disappeared under Soviet rule.

Finally, in 1998, the Ministry of Culture agreed to a proposal by Viliumas Malinauskas, a wealthy mushroom mogul and founder of a public corporation in the town of Grutas in southern Lithuania.

Andrius, our host in Lithuania, standson the Soviet train that oncetransported Lithuanians to Siberianwork camps.

Malinauskas proposed the sculptures be used as the central focus of a tourist-oriented exposition he was already planning with his private funds. The Ministry of Culture agreed with him, and work on Grutas Park began in 1999. Grutas Park officially opened April 1, 2001.

We pulled into Grutas Park on a dreary day in September 2004. Except for workers in Russian uniforms and a dozen or so Lithuanian tourists, we had the place to ourselves for four hours.

Underground Soviet Partisans. The USSR instituted a network of underground Soviet partisans in Lithuania in 1942. During WWII these secret saboteurs (Soviet activists, Red Army men, escaped POWs, and some Lithuanians) took Lithuanian names. When operating against local patriot units, they robbed and killed native people, slaughtered animals, and burned crops. After the war they became agents of the Soviet government and were honored with huge double-life size statues like this.

The 50-acre park, once a marshy forest, was drained and a half-mile long ditch and four small lakes formed. The area was ringed with a barbed wire fence and a series of watchtowers complete with guards, machine guns, and blaring loud speakers. The impression was real! A Soviet concentration camp deep in Siberia.

The stated aim of the exposition was to take the "idols" off their pedestals and disclose the negative content of Soviet ideology. Malinauskas wanted to provide an opportunity for Lithuanian people, visitors, and future generations to see the naked Soviet ideology which suppressed and hurt the spirit of Lithuania for many decades.

The entrance to Grutas Park is like entering a Soviet gulag in Siberia.

(Next week: Stalin World)