The Memorialization of the 1941 June Uprising in Lithuania

• Daugpilio universitetas: numerio tekstas

ENSince the late 1980s, there has been a steadily increasing interest in remembrance and commemoration among the public and professional historians in Lithuania. Along with the rise of broader historical knowledge, discussions on how to remember and evaluate some contested figures, events, and processes have been arising, too. The 1941 June Uprising in Lithuania (henceforth - June Uprising, Uprising) is an excellent example of such a tendency. An event, which itself lasted less than a week, is still inciting discussions not only on the national level but has become an object of polemics in the international sphere as well. This paper aims to present the current situation of the memorialization of the 1941 June Uprising in Lithuania and reveal the main factors that impacted the development of the present-day setting. The term "memorialization" refers to preserving memories of specific events or people. Memorialization appears in many forms and is a part of broader phenomena such as collective or communicative memories or politics of memory. Although the June Uprising is present in various forms and historical memory fields, this paper focuses on physical memory signs and sites. Researchers agree that monuments, memorials, and other forms of physical memorialization can reveal the symbolism of national politics, formation of national identity, and societyís attitudes towards its past (Norra 1989, 7; Pim de Boer 2008, 21; Rimaitė 2019, 73). [Extract, p. 246]