Melnikaitė

Well, that was interesting.

Ramunė wanted to take me to see Grūto Parkas, near Druskininkai, about 100km southwest of Vilnius, close to the border with Belarus.

It is a museum and sculpture park hosting relics of Lithuania's Soviet era. This surprised me, because in the past she has never spoken much about the first half of her life as a citizen of the USSR.

I was even more suprised when we got there. She talked non stop telling me about various aspects of it. Fascinating.

Stuff like at high school everyone having to pass a test to take apart and re-assemble a Kalashnikov. Boys had to do it blindfold in 60 seconds. Girls had 90 seconds and didn't have to be blindfolded.

When the Moscow Olympics took place in 1980, thousands of "undesirables" were expelled from the city and relocated to the 3 Baltic States. Whole housing schemes were built. Of course the people were Russian and not Lithuanian.

Anyway, the Blip will need no explanation.

The extra is Marytė Melnikaitė. She's the only Lithuanian woman to have been awarded Hero of the Soviet Union. She was shot by the Nazis in 1943 (aged 20) after being captured in Nazi occupied Lithuania while operating as a Soviet resistance fighter.   

She became a cult figure with a film and opera made about her. Ramunė's ex husband's grandmother was her best friend in the resistance.