Global True Lithuania Encyclopedia of Lithuanian heritage worldwide

Lithuanian streets and monuments outside Lithuania

There aren't many streets outside Lithuania named after Lithuanians. Most of such are located in neighboring countries that were once ruled by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Many of them are in Poland (as Soviets had "wiped out" street names of that "politically incorrect" period from Ukraine and Belarus, although some have reappeared there). The same Central European countries also have the most monuments for Lithuanians; some of these statues have been funded by Lithuanian government after the 1990 independence restoration (in Belarus, Hungary, Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia).

The Old Castle of Hrodna (Belarus) with Lithuanian-funded Grand Duke Vytautas the Great wooden memorial visible on left. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

Most of these names are related to famous Lithuanians who lived in the 19th century or before. However, the term "Lithuanian" had a wider meaning at the time. It included persons of Lithuanian heritage who have switched to the Polish language over generations (their descendants today would be considered Poles of Lithuania). Nobility was the most Polonized part of the Lithuanian nation - and it was also the only class that had means to "inscribe their names" into history back then. Therefore many of the famous people of the era that have their streets and monuments across Central Europe are now considered Poles by Poland and Lithuanians by Lithuania (in some cases also Belarusians by Belarus).

Jogaila (Jagiello) statue in the New York Central Park. He was a Lithuanian but also a king of Poland and so this monument to him was erected by Poles

For similar reasons, Russia has a mountain range named after a National Revival-era symbolist painter Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. While everybody agrees that Čiurlionis was an ethnic Lithuanian (he was a Lithuanian-speaker from a national revival era), Čiurlionis lived at the time Lithuania was ruled by the Russian Empire (and is therefore seen by Russia as a Russian citizen).

The Lithuanian names that are to be found in faraway lands are commonly not those of the most famous Lithuanians but rather of Lithuanians most closely related to those locations. Some of them are famous both in Lithuania and abroad: Tadas Kosciuška (Tadeusz Kosciuszko), Ignas Domeika (Ignacy Domeyko) have their local and global merits. Both have tall mountains named after them (in Australia and Chile respectively).

Arguably more famous in Lithuania than abroad are the Lithuanian-language writers who created their best works outside modern-day Lithuanian borders. For example Liudvikas Rėza (who has a Lithuanian-funded statue for him in Kaliningrad Oblast) or the Lithuanian emigre authors who are commemorated by plaques and monuments in Georgia. Georgia also has named a street after president Valdas Adamkus, thankful for his support during the 2008 Russian invasion.

President Adamkus Boulevard (Anaklia, Georgia). ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

However, many Lithuanians enshrined in foreign street names and memorials are little known in Lithuania itself. For example, one street in Sao Paulo is named after priest Pijus Ragažinskas (Pio Ragazinskas) who was an editor of a local Lithuanian newspaper. Chicago has an honarary Maria Kaupas road as she (Lithuanian: Marija Kaupaitė) established a monastery there.

Maria Kaupas volunteer center in Pennsylvania

However, not even Google is able to find information on who were some of the Lithuanians that gave their names to localities abroad. For example, Pennsylvania has a lake named after some Kasulaitis whereas Brockton (Massachusetts) has a Tukis playground. During the Destination - America mission, we have discovered the stores behind these names: Tukis was a Lithuanian-American WW2 veteran, while Kasulaitis was a Lithuanian-American farmer who had lands in the area.

A map of Lithuanian monuments in the USA and Canada

Streets and other places named after Lithuanians in northeast USA and southeast Canada

There are at least two Lithuanians however who are equally respected by the Lithuanians from Lithuania and diaspora. These are Steponas Darius and Stasys Girėnas who attempted a doomed New York - Kaunas direct flight, pioneering transatlantic air mail. Lithuanian Americans have constructed them memorials in Chicago, New York, Beverly Shores. One more monument has been built at the disaster site in Poland. All these areas also have streets and/or parks named after Darius and Girėnas or their aircraft ("Lituanica"). The two pilots are likely the most famous emigrant Lithuanians of all time and thus are an important part of Lithuanian diaspora identity.

Darius and Girėnas monument on the Marquette Park corner in Chicago, Illinois. ©Augustinas Žemaitis.

Lithuanian diaspora however also respects the non-emigrant Lithuanians who helped forge the Lithuanian nation, and made initiatives to have streets named and memorials built for them as well. 19th century National Revival heroes (Maironis, Vincas Kudirka, Jonas Basanavičius) are venerated the most, with medieval grand dukes (e.g. Gediminas) coming second. In any case, such streets are mainly small (e.g. Gediminas street in Worcester, Massachusetts), symbolically located near existing or former Lithuanian churches. These (together with Lithuanian cemeteries) are also locations for the majority of Lithuanian monuments. Other monuments have been constructed in locations specifically designed for reminiscences of different countries. The national gardens of Cleveland also have a Lithuanian garden (with busts of famous Lithuanians), Minieurope park at Brussels has a model of Vilnius University while the miniatures park of Canberra has a copy of Trakai castle.

Basanavičius and the columns of Gediminas at the Lithuanian Cultural Garden in Cleveland, Ohio

Lithuanian communities abroad like street names related to mythology. Mythology-related monuments are common modern gifts to various sculpture parks.

Jūratė and Kastytis in Omaha, Nebraska, gifted in 2010s

Still the favorite subject for such monuments is the suffering. Many Lithuanian American churches and cemeteries boast memorials and commemorative plaques for Lithuanians who were murdered or expelled by the Soviets. At the time these were erected the occupation of Lithuania was a contemporary issue rather than a part of history.
Fighting for Lithuanian rights seemed to be a sacred duty for many Lithuanians, whether they would live.

Toronto area's monument for those who died for Lithuania‘s Liberty is adorned by patriotic symbols: Vytis (top), Columns of Gediminas (bottom left) and Cross of Vytis (bottom right). The inscription of monuments purpose is available in both English and French on the back

Inside the Soviet Union itself, there could have been no such memorials. However, after that regime had collapsed in 1991 the former Lithuanian expellees constructed many crosses and small memorials in Siberia and other places of exile. However, such activities had no support from the Russian state, and sometimes Russia actively opposed them; that's why many such memorials have already been destroyed. The cemeteries of dead Lithuanian expellees themselves act as memorials, although they are crumbling as well. However, in Kazakhstan, where some 20% of Lithuanians who were expelled by the Soviets were expelled to, Lithuanian memorials were allowed to be built.

The memorials at Kingyr Gulag in Kazakhstan (Lithuanian is on the left)

Another type of "struggle" memorials are ones for Lithuanian independence wars (~1920) soldiers who fell rebutting Poland and Russians in the lands beyond modern-day Lithuania. These exist in Latvia and Poland near their gravesites.

Article by ©Augustinas Žemaitis.