COMMUNIST VILNIUS | Lithuania’s Darkest History 🇱🇹
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Exploring Vilnius’ communist past & learning about the history of Lithuania inside the Soviet Union. These were dark but fascinating days, I’ll take you to the important places where history was made!
🇱🇹 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 See all of my videos from this trip here → bit.ly/InTheBaltics
In between the cobbled streets of the old town and the glass skyscrapers of the new are a number of landmarks and structures left over from the days of the Soviet Union. Having a keen interest in Lithuania's era in the USSR I decided to take a walking tour and visit some of the places still touched by Soviet rule, including Communist built shopping centres, sports arenas, monuments, buildings and parks.
Lithuania was absorbed into the Soviet Union between 1940-1941 and 1944-1990 and was known as the Lithuanian SSR, or Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic.
I started the day at the Museum of Genocide Victims which has since been renamed to the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (Okupacijų ir laisvės kovų muziejus) which tells the story of how Lithuania came to be occupied and the high price ordinary Lithuanians paid during that period of time. It also documents the freedom fighters and historical events that paved the way for Lithuanians to be free again.
Later I walked past the Frank Zappa Monument, a reminder of musicians and other things that were banned during Soviet times and visited the spot where a few decades earlier the million strong Baltic Chain started from. As the communist walking tour continued we visited old concrete shopping malls, a closed down planetarium and a formerly bugged hotel where foreign visitors would stay.
Perhaps the highlight though was spending some time at the abandoned Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports, something I refer to in the video as a stadium (it definitely looks like one). The enormous concrete structure sits empty in a prime spot overlooking the river and is a contender for the most prominent symbol left over from the Soviet years. It’s a remarkable structure built almost entirely of concrete - it was easy to imagine this place buzzing on event days!
My final stop was the Three Crosses Monument high up on a hill overlooking Vilnius. There I relaxed for a bit and admired a beautiful sunset over the city I’d spent the day exploring.
Chapters
📖 00:00 Intro
📖 00:46 Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights
📖 03:01 Soviet History in Lithuania
📖 03:16 Frank Zappa Monument
📖 03:39 The Baltic Chain
📖 04:47 KGB Spy Hotel in Vilnius
📖 05:18 Soviet Shopping Mall & Planetarium
📖 06:17 Vilnius Palace of Culture and Sports
📖 10:35 Sunset at the Hill of the 3 Crosses
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Soundtrack
🎵 Gray Matter by Smartface
🎵 Whun by Twelwe
🎵 Strange Fantasy by Chaxti
🎵 Pictures of a Floating World by Chaxti
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I went in that museum of occupation. I sat on one of those green benches and could not imagine how bad it must have been. We are not talking centuries ago ...but just one generation before me. Just difficult to fathom. Excellent video as always 👌
Thanks very much, Kerry. Very true about the time frame, I for one am guilty of always thinking those type of things happened in the middle ages when in fact they did not. It's terrible top think how cruel some people are.
Such an interesting video. Love the sunset at the end too 👏
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Yes that was an amazing sunset, I was lucky to get such a good view of it!
Very nice. I'm headed to Vilnius in July for a remote work trip. I will definitely take that walking tour
Definitely worth it if you have the time! Good luck with your trip, hopefully you get to explore the city whilst you're there.
Soviet Tour! What country is gonna wise up and make a Matt Whiting statue? Talk about big brother in that hotel. You are a man on a mission! Walking with intention all around the city. Beautiful footage at the 3 crosses.
Hmmm I like the sound of a Matt Whiting statue. It would have to be in the centre of the city though, preferably next to a McDonald's. 🤣
@@MattWhitingsEurope I'm loving it!
I went into that Genocide museum whilst I was in Vilnius and I thought it was really interesting, very harrowing. I think its' important that places like that remain for the sake of history rather than get demolished. I also went past that Stadium building a couple of times and wondered what it is; now I know 🙂 I should've gone on this walking tour, it looks like it was really good; thanks for sharing Matt!😊
You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed it. The stadium/arena is a fascinating building - how I would have loved to poke my head inside and see what it's like in there. Yes the Genocide Museum is a must visit, so many sad and unnecessary stories. Thanks for watching!
Vilnius is a fascinating city, I hope to get back there some time!
The last site reminded me of Eastern Kentucky.
I've not been to Eastern Kentucky (yet!) but at least I now know what it's like!
Your footage is outdated by at least 3-4 years 😅. That ziggurat-like park is completely reorganized and Cvirka statue is knocked down. River banks are modernized as well.
That „stadium” is actually called Sport Hall. Major sport events and concerts were held here. It is indeed a cultural heritage (because of its unique suspended roof structure) - you can find it in all architectural books about soviet brutalist architecture. It is abandoned because it was built on old jewish cemetery territory and all developer proposals for this place are vetoed by jew community.
Nether the less, as a local, I am very happy that you enjoyed your stay in my beautiful city. Do come again! 🎉
Thank you for the information, interesting to read. I loved seeing that sports hall, it was like going to a different world - such a fascinating place! Yeah I visited a couple of years ago now so well spotted, it's taken me a while to get these vlogs edited and uploaded. Thanks for watching, I will be back at some point for sure!
❤Aciu
Ačiū, kad žiūrėjote! 👍
It's obvious that you did your homework but there were no Lenin sculpture on the Green Bridge. One was in the Lukishkes square showing with his outstretched hand towards KGB headquarters. On the bridge there were sculptures (in the style of socialist realism) of a pair of Soviet soldiers and a pair of Soviet workers and on the one side - a couple of Soviet kolkhoznicks and a couple of Soviet inteligentsia (each couple of these couple of opposite sex). When the controversy arose what to do with these sculptures my biggest concern were only soldiers. My idea was to leave the sculptures, just change soviet SSh-68 helmets to German M-42. Why not? Both were occupiers. Good ideas come too late. Now I have even better one - to make removable heads with different helmets and change them once a month - one month Soviet army, one month Wehrmacht.
6:10 the building at Gediminas str. despite representing Soviet Brutalism is actually an example of good architecture.
Thanks for the information, fascinating to read. What did they do with all the Soviet statues they removed? Just wondering if they put them in some kind of museum or Soviet graveyard, I've known some countries to do that?
There is a huge open air museum called Grutas Park where they put most of the removed sculptures (eventually green Bridge sculptures will make their way there as well). It is super close to a very beautiful Lithuanian town Druskininkai. An idea for the next trip to Lithuania :)@@MattWhitingsEurope
0:49 i live like right next to that museum, at least 100 meters away
Good location right there. Nice city!