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| Propaganda Statue |
Soon after Lithuania regained its independence from the Soviet Union in 1990 the government started an initiative to erase any existing physical links to Soviet times. So any street named after Lenin, Stalin or any other notable Soviet figure had to be renamed. The same goes for statues of Soviet heroes: they were removed and tossed in storage to be forgotten. Eight year after independence still no one knew what to do with all these statues taking up space in storage. Wanting to know what ideas were out there, the government opened the floor for tenders.
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| Important Soviet Figure |
Many were sent. The winner was an eccentric millionaire by the name of Vilumas Malinauskas. His idea: create a park in the design of a gulag (watchtowers, barbed wire and wild nature) and stick those statues there. Visitors walk around in this open-air museum and admire Soviet-era statues. Genius? Madness? The idea, given the difficult times under Soviet occupation and the loss of lives fighting for independence, was so controversial that it bordered on madness. Yet Vilumas got the green light (probably because he financed the entire thing himself). The park opened in 2001 and was a runaway hit, becoming immensely popular with locals and foreigners. For his effort and vision, Vilumas Malinauskas even won the Ig Nobel Prize for Peace in 2001! This, mind you, is a parody of the Nobel Prize, for achievements that "first make people laugh, and then make them think."
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| Gulag Watchtower & Park Walkway |
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| Lenin |
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