the park of soviet sculptures

Contacts
Address: Grūtas, LT-66441, Druskininkai.
Tel.: (+370 ~ 313) 55 511, (+370 ~ 682) 42 320.
Fax (+370 ~ 313) 47 451.
E-mail: info@grutoparkas.lt
http://www.grutoparkas.lt/
Director – V. Malinauskas.

Information for visitor

Opening hours:
In winter: daily 9–17.
In season: daily 9–20.

Admission:
adults – 20 Lt;
pensioners (with valid ID) – 10 Lt;
seniors (over 70 years of age) – 7 Lt;
children under 6 – free;
children and teenagers under 16 – 10 Lt;
students and schoolchildren (with valid student ID) – 10 Lt;
museum staff and guides (with valid ID) – free;
soldiers of compulsory military service – 10 Lt;
press, TV and other media reporters (upon registering valid ID) – free.
attendant of disabled – 20 Lt;
group of schoolchildren (at least 10) – 7 Lt;
disabled (written evidence of the second disability level is required) – 7 Lt;
disabled children under age 16 (written verification is required) – admission is free;
disabled (written evidence of the first disability level is required) – admission is free;
audioguide – 46 Lt.

Collection
The collection of the museum consists of monumental sculptures and bas-reliefs of "heroes" of the Soviet period, the sound, cinema, photodocumentaries, paintings and graphic works created in the Soviet realism style. This material symbolizes brutality and absurdity of the Soviet system and occupation, reflects manipulation of the facts of history and shows the distorted memory of the history.

Exposition

The Exposition of Soviet Sculptures
Here in the shade of firs and pines, the Soviet era monuments, torn down in 1989-1991 and brought from Lithuanian cities and towns, are expansively laid out. Grutas Park is situated on a 20 ha area, exhibiting 86 works by 46 authors. Monumental sculptures are positioned in a 2 km-long exposition.
These idols and symbols, thrust upon the Lithuanian nation during the tragic Soviet era, reveal to us and our children the historical truth abou the Soviet occupation in Lithuania. Grouping of the sculptures of the park of the "Soviet lager" is based on the fact that all these historical characters more or less took part in organizing and carrying out the terror, anti-state activity annihilating statehood of Lithuania.
The sculptures are grouped in a "circle" not avoiding putting some of them with their back (side) to the visitor.
 - Totalitarian Circle. V. Lenin, M. Marx, J. Engels.
 - The Circle of Terror. F. Dzerzinskij (organizer of the "red terror"), M. Kozlavskij (chairman of the Russian Committee of Inquiry, F. Dzerzinskij's brother-in-arms), Z. Aleksa-Angarietis (commissar of NKVD in 1919), V. Kapsukas (organizer of the "red terror" regime in Lithuania in 1919), P. Eidukevičius (worker of CK in 1919-1920), V. Putna, J. Uborevičius (suppressed in the most savage military means anti-Soviet uprisings in Kronstadt and Tambov), J. Baltušis-Žemaitis (participant of occupation of Lithuania in 1940, annihilator of the army of the independent state).
 - The Soviet Circle. K. Požėla, J. Greifenbergeris, K. Giedrys, R. Čarnas, E. Tučkus, B. Grigas, V. Rekašius (all these people took an active part in the struggle against the independent state of Lithuania in 1918-1919, in the activity of anti-state organizations which did not recognized the independence).
 - The Red Circle. Bas-reliefs to I. Cerniachovskij (symbols of the occupation of 1940, genocide of inhabitants of Lithuania Minor in 1944-1945, symbols of the occupation veiled by "liberation"), M. Melnikaitė, J. Psevalskij (ideological screen of crimes of Soviet partisans), Soviet partisans (exterminated inhabitants of several ethnic Lithuanian villages).
 - The Circle of Occupation. A. Sniečkus, J. Paleckis, I. Meskupas-Adomas, K. Preikšas (active supporters of the occupation of 1940 and organizers of annihilation of Lithuanian statehood, three of them even before 1940 became citizens of the Soviet Union. They hold responsibility for the mass terror and actions of genocide in Lithuania).
 - The Circle of Death. S. Vaupšas (one of the organizers of shock-groups), S. Greičiūte etc. (supporters of anti-Lithuanian policy, active supporters of collaborative organizations and actions in the post-war period).

Information Centre-Museum
The wooden building of the museum resembles a cultural house like ones that were built in the 1940’s and 50’s. The sound, cinema and photo documentaries collected and displayed at the information centre and museum, show and denounce the ideologized Soviet propaganda culture, pseudo-science, the aims, mechanism and forms of the Soviet ideology and propaganda, and disclose the genocide of the Lithuanian nation.

The Picture Gallery
The exposition of paintings and graphic works created in the Soviet realism style reflects the ideologized communist society, the cult of the Soviet Union leaders Lenin, Stalin, Brezhnev and others as well as episodes of the entrenchment of the Soviet rule.

Other news
The Park of Soviet Sculptures was opened in 2001.
Founder of the museum – State enterprise-Club 'Hesona'.

Photo from the museum's archive