Lithuanian Russian Drama Theater to be renamed Vilnius Old Theater

The Lithuanian Russian Drama Theater (LRDT) will be renamed the Vilnius Old Theatre, reported in the press service of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic.

The renaming is planned by order of the Minister of Culture of Lithuania, Simon Kairis. The decision was made at a meeting with the previously established working group to prepare recommendations for the direction of activities and change the name of the LRDT, as well as representatives of the Council of Professional Performing Arts Institutions, the Sejm, etc.

“The majority of members of both the working group and the council of professional performing arts institutions were in favor of the name Vilnius Old Theatre. According to experts, the name of the Vilnius Old Theater is both a reference to the long history of this building and at the same time corresponds to today’s theatrical charter and the intended direction,” the press service said in a statement.

At the same time, the working group spoke in favor of maintaining the current troupe of the theater, which performs in Russian.

After the start of Russia’s special operation in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin declaredthat Russian culture in Western countries is trying to “cancel”. He criticized the “cancellation culture” in Western countries and added that it was impossible to imagine such a thing in Russia. According to the head of state, the “culture of cancellation” has turned into a “cancellation of culture”: works by composers Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Dmitry Shostakovich and Sergei Rachmaninov are being discriminated against. He stressed that these countries also banned Russian writers and their books — a similar campaign to destroy objectionable literature was carried out by the Nazis in Germany.

In the Baltic countries, they also began to actively demolish Soviet monuments. On August 23, the dismantling of the monument to Soviet soldiers, the liberators of Latvia and Riga from the Nazi invaders, began in Riga. Moscow condemned this decision. Monument to Soviet soldiers at the Antakalnis cemetery in Vilnius, where the largest burial place of the liberators of Lithuania is located (more than three thousand soldiers), are planning be dismantled by November 1st.