The burial ceremony of Kastus Kalinouski’s remains is scheduled for November 22. So far, it has been assumed that all activities will be held in Lithuania. But since the discussion on the reburial of the rebellion hero in Belarus has begun, this issue may appear on the agenda at the official level in Lithuania, the Vice Chancellor of the Government of Lithuania, Deividas Matulionis, told Belsat.
Vice Chancellor of Lithuania notes that the case is quite delicate, even from the point of view of the church, so the decision will be taken later.
“Kalinouski is an important figure embodying the idea of independence of Belarus. He was the first person to say that Belarus should be an independent country, it’s a person who is very important for Belarus,” said Deividas Matulionis.
This week, a group of Belarusian intellectuals addressed an open letter to the Lithuanian authorities with a proposal not to bury the identified remains of Kastus Kalinouski in Lithuania, but to transfer them to Belarus.
Kastus Kalinouski was one of the leaders of the 1863-1864 uprising. He published the first Belarusian-language newspaper “Muzhitskaya Prauda” with his colleagues. He was captured by the Tsarist gendarmes and executed by hanging for organizing a revolt against the Tsarist regime. The massacre took place on March 22, 1864 on Lukishskaya Square in Vilnius. Probably, Kalinouski was buried on Mount Gedimin, where the Russian military garrison was located at that time.
In July 2017, during excavations on Mount Gedimina in Vilnius, the remains of 20 people were found. Researchers at the University of Vilnius came to the conclusion that there is a probability of 95% that there are the remains of Kastus Kalinouski.
