Vilnius is considering the removal of a memorial plaque dedicated to Fyodor Dostoevsky

Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, is currently considering the removal of a memorial plaque dedicated to Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, who stayed overnight in a hotel in its Old Town.

The suggestion to remove the plaque was made by the Historical Memory Commission at a meeting of the Vilnius City Council. According to the commission’s chairwoman, Kamilė Šeraitė-Gogelienė, the plaque to Dostoevsky does not deserve the status of being a historical monument in Vilnius.

“Plaques are for famous people of Lithuania or Vilnius, and Dostoevsky is not connected to Lithuania. The text on this plaque says that Dostoevsky stayed at this hotel. The Historical Memory Commission believes that such a plaque is useless; it is of little value,” Šeraitė-Gogelienė added.

The memorial plaque honoring the Russian writer has been displayed in the capital since 2006, commemorating his visit to Vilnius and his one-night stay at a hotel.

“Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), a great Russian writer, stayed at this hotel in 1867. Beauty will save the world,” the plaque reads in both Russian and Lithuanian.

In addition, the commission suggested removing other memorial plaques with inscriptions in Russian on them and replacing them with Lithuanian.

“We have a complete list of historical monuments in Vilnius. Our experts have reviewed and filtered out those plaques that still have Russian-language inscriptions. When we were looking through this list, we found a memorial plaque to Dostoevsky,” Šeraitė-Gogelienė noted.

Šeraitė-Gogelienė said that about a year ago, the Vilnius City Council also made a decision about Russian-language plaques. Most of them were replaced with standard plaques, and the commission recommended removing some.

Currently, in addition to the plaque to Dostoevsky, the commission recommends dismantling memorials to Imperial politician Pyotr Stolypin and Russian-born Soviet writer Konstantin Vorobyov, as well as removing Russian language inscriptions from memorials to Lithuanian figures.

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Main image: Open sources

Copy editing: Ben Angel