Grutas Off The Beaten Path

This huge monument, on my picture, was devoted to Konsomol (All-union Leninist Communist League of Youth of Lithuania) and stood in Kaunas since 1979 till 1991.

All-union Leninist Communist League of Youth of Lithuania est. in 1919, acted under the leadership of the Lithuanian Communist Party. It never recognized the independence of Lithuania and did anti-state work in underground. After occupation of Lithuania in 1940 it became the support of Soviet government. The broad net of Konsomol organisations was established and young people were encouraged (priveleges) or forced (repressions) to join the only youth organisation of the Soviet Union. Young people used not to think over the essence of joining Konsomol. For Soviet propaganda Konsomol proved massive political loyalty of youth for the Soviet system.

During all the years of the Soviet regime there were nearly 1.5 mln konsomols in Lithuania, although over 90% of them were only nominal members. History showed that most of them were established "on purpose". In the very beginning of Atgiminas (Revival) the number of Konsomol organisation members decreased rapidly, and, despite of its title change to Lithuanian Youth Forum, the organisation disappeared.

All-union Leninist Communist League of Youth inspired in Moscow acted in 1990 - 1991. It disbanded itself immediately after the failure of the putsch in Moscow in August 1991.

This statue of Karl Marx by sculptor L. Kerbelis stood at Laisves Street in Mazeikiai (northwestern Lithuania) from 1986 till 1991, hmm... not very long time.


Karl Marx (1818-1883) was born in Trier in Germany. He studied law, pholosophy, history and art at the University of Berlin. Then he lived in Paris and London.

Marx and his colleague Friedrich Engels issued The Communist Manifesto in 1848. This work described the class struggle between proletariat and bourgeoisie. Marx distinguished communism from other socialist movements, proposed a list of specific social reforms, and urged all workers to unite in revolution against existing regimes. Well, the main aim of Marxism was the dictatorship of the state rulers and the unlimited centralisation of governing powers. On the basis of Marx's ideas the first totalitarian and nomenclatural state, the Soviet Union, was founded.

Marxist parties understood and interpreted Marx's ideas in their own way. Besides propaganda, they didn't avoid terrorism, slaughter, prepared revolts for power after seizing it started repression. Their activities terrified the world and ruined millions of lives.

The White Stork is a national birtd of Lithuania. I easy found a lot of them in areas of traditional farming, especially close to wetlands in southern and eastern Lithuania. I was told that the population of white storks in Lithuania, a relatively small country, was approx. 12,000 nesting pairs. They put one of them in the Grutas Park mini-zoo.

This house on stilts, on my picture, was located in Grutas Park funfair, next to cafe. It should be great attraction for kids but there were no kids when I visited the park. Houses built on trees or stilts (for protection against human and animal enemies or against floods) were common in many cultures in the past and still are in some areas even today.

This sympathetic donkey was sitting along my main route from the ticket office to the Grutas Park. He didn't want to pose to my camera but he would probably appreciate any food for him. But... feeding any animals in the Grutas Park was surely forbidden.

There was a white swan, on my picture, swimming in a pond on the right side of the main Grutas Park walkway. There was a house for a few water birds put there.
I could see white swans in a few other places in Lithuania including lakes in nearby Druskininkai.

Walking main route from the ticket office of the Grutas Park I saw this one, strange horse, on my picture. Well, I saw it off the beaten path from a distance, so I had to zoom (7 x). Have you ever seen such white-black horse? Hmm... I could see them only in "westerns" movies/films.

When I entered the Grutas Park in the afternoon on business day in July I noticed that there were almost no visitors, at least human visitors. So, the first living creauture I met was this goat, on my picture, playing just beyond a fence. Hmm... he didn't want to pose to my camera...