Fragility of boundaries: Authoritarianism and democracy discourse in the context of heritage

Abstract

This Year Lithuania, like other Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia, is celebrating the Centennial of the “Restored Lithuania”. The 20th Century history of Lithuania was very complicated. Lithuania experienced a brief period of freedom and democracy in the beginning of the 20th Century; then between the wars experienced national authoritarianism and authoritarianism caused by the occupations (Soviet, Nazi and Soviet again); then during the 1990s, Lithuania experienced the rising freedom of democracy. This paper discusses the experiences of authoritarianism and heritage in the context of the tangible heritage sites in Lithuania, including: the Kaunas Our Lord Jesus Christ's Resurrection Basilica (built as Basilica in the interwar period, used as storeroom during the Nazi period, a radio factory during the Soviet period, and as a Basilica once again when finally restored after 1990); the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania (newly built in the beginning of Millenium in Vilnius, the former political, diplomatic, cultural center of the State, famous in Europe in the 15th-17th centuries, and demolished in the beginning of the 19th century) and Grūtas Park (the sculpture garden of Soviet-era statues, opened in 2001). The discussion continues to the present moment, with the removal of the Vilnius Green Bridge Soviet sculptures in 2015 (the Green Bridge, the oldest bridge over the Neris in Vilnius, was in Soviet times adorned by four groups of sculptures portraying socialistic realism). These cases reveal the intense relationship between heritage and authoritarianism, which even three decades later, in a democratic society, is still a painfully traumatic and multi-layered phenomenon. It remains unresolved and raises the question of where the fragile boundaries between authoritarianism and democracy are in the context of heritage.