Kaliningrad: Russian authorities launch cultural 'war' against Lithuanian community
A response to the blockade of goods in transit from Lithuania. Crackdown started with Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent EU sanctions. Propaganda against Lithuanians intensifies in the territory: they are accused of subversion and of being spies.
Moscow (AsiaNews) - An area that is very sensitive to the events linked to the war in Ukraine is the Russian Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad, formerly Koenigsberg in East Prussia, where the philosopher Immanuel Kant elaborated the principles of the "Critique of Pure Reason". Sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, the region is now in dire straits due to Lithuania's ban on the transit of various products from Russia, and the tension is growing steadily, turning into a 'cultural war', as it cannot directly use weapons against a NATO country.
Among the local population there are many citizens of Lithuanian origin, with a significant presence of Catholics, and the authorities have decided to retaliate by taking it out on them and the institutions linked to their culture. At the request of the Russian Ministry of Justice, a court closed down the Lithuanian Language Teachers' Association; members of a folk music group in the countryside were also prevented from performing Lithuanian songs and dances, which are very popular in the region.
The Language Association was blocked due to 'discrepancies in the statutory documents', which date back to 1995 to unite schoolteachers, leaders of cultural centres and folklore groups in the promotion of Lithuanian traditions, and also 'to strengthen friendly coexistence between the peoples of Russia and Lithuania'. The website of the dissolved organisation extols the fact that 'our land was the birthplace of great representatives of Lithuanian literature and culture, so much so that it has been called its cradle'.
From the wall of the house where the philosopher and humanist Eduard Vidunis, one of the 'fathers of Lithuanian culture', was born, the memorial stele dating back to the Soviet years, in the town of Sovetsk on the Lithuanian border, was removed. In another border town, in Neman, strangers covered with cellophane another memorial to a Lithuanian writer, Martinas Mažvidas, a great reformer of letters and the first to publish books in the Lithuanian language.
The head of the Lithuanian Teachers' Association, Aleksej Bartnikas, told Sever.Realii reporters that he had no intention of appealing the closure ruling or even commenting on it, because the group had never wanted to get involved in politics, and today it would be impossible to refrain from confrontational positions. The task of the institution was the organisation of events such as the Lithuanian language 'Olympics' and other initiatives to learn about the history of the region, with excursions and visits to various significant places and festivals of local folklore.
On the other hand, expressions of anti-Lithuanian propaganda in the region are intensifying. The operational director of the 'Russian Community of the Kaliningrad Region', Maksim Makarov, famous for his long-standing struggle against a mythological 'Germanisation' of local history, now spreads from his blog and in various publications accusations against the Bartnikas association of collaborating with the Lithuanian secret services, obtaining funding for the spread of an 'anti-Russian ethnoculture' in the area.
The 'subversive' activities of the Lithuanians, according to the accusations, began in reaction to the 'special military operation' in Ukraine, with the systematic dissemination of false information aimed at discrediting the Russian Armed Forces, the big accusation of the Putin purges. Makarov adds that the language association is actually also a 'propaganda centre of LGBT culture', also supported by the Lithuanian government, disguised under the guise of folk dances.
There are several tens of thousands of Lithuanians living in the Kaliningrad region, and every year Lithuanian Culture Days are held, as well as Polish and German ones, and many other events that are also supported by the local authorities. Many Russians have moved here to relieve themselves of the burden of war propaganda, which is now also reaching the westernmost borders.
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24/06/2022 12:42
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