Talk about bad timing. Among the strongest memories of my visit here 20 years ago are – were – some massive Soviet-era hero statues, one each on the four corners of a bridge over the Neris River. Workers, peasants, soldiers, students. Proletarians all, earnestly building the socialist state.  Turns out they were torn down just this week. A report in the English-language Baltic Times explains: 

Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Simasius believes the recently removed bronze statues from the Green Bridge in the Lithuanian capital represented “big lies” about the Soviet system.

The four statues were placed on the Green Bridge in 1952 during the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania. They represented Soviet Red Army soldiers, workers, peasants and students.

On July 19, 2015, the removal of the statues began after a recent decision was taken by Vilnius municipality earlier in the month. The first two statues were removed overnight between July 19/20.

Mayor Simasius explained to journalists on July 20, that the decision to remove them had been based on the interests of public safety, rather than political motivation.

“The statues were very dangerous for passers by because their condition was very poor,” [Simsius said]. “We had no other choice to remove them from the Green Bridge.

“According to expert advice, we would have had to have closed the pavement [by the statues] during strong winds, because they would have made it too dangerous to pass by.

“There was also a big debate of the principles and values behind the statues. For me personally, I think the values the statues represent were actually big lies about the Soviet system. Nothing more, just big lies.”

The removal operation was quick and clean. When I visited the bridge today there was nothing there but four large pedestals. Someone had tossed some flowers on top of one of them, and a young woman waiting for a light remarked to me that the bridge “seemed awfully empty” without the statues.