Monument for Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis

In 1930 the citizens of Tauragė were the first to commemorate Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis (1873–1929), national ideologist, literature expert, book smuggler and founder of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union in Lithuania. At the present junction of the river Jūra and Darius and Girėnas streets in the middle of the 19th century there was built a monument to the Emperor Nikolas I. During the World War I it was partially destroyed. The riflemen of Tauragė used the surviving parts of the monument and in 1929 built an essentially new one dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union. In the 1930s, the concrete cross on top was replaced with a bust of Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis (author unknown). During the first years of Soviet occupation, the bust was overthrown. The pedestal was destroyed in 1944 and its parts were buried nearby as well.
In 1989, the riflemen of Tauragė and the activists of the Board of the Reform Movement excavated the parts of the destroyed monument and, led by the folk artist Antanas Bagdonas, rebuilt the monument as it was before. With the help of Robertas Krapas, A. Bagdonas sculpted the monument’s bas-relief and cast the bust. It was agreed to bury all of the parts of the first monument near the rebuilt monument. The restored monument was officially opened and consecrated on 19 August 1990.
Vladas Putvinskis-Pūtvis was born on 6 October 1873 in Riga. His family history is related to Tauragė county. Pūtvė castle stood on Indija mound (Šilalė district), while the ancestors of V. Pūtvinskis-Pūtvis lived in the nearby Pūtvė village until the mid-18th c. After his agricultural studies, as of 1896, V. Putvinskis-Pūtvis engaged in farming at the manors of Šilo Pavežupis and Graužikai (Kelmė district), where he introduced agricultural innovations, ideas of cooperation and was also the pioneer of pond fishery. Putvinskiai manor was the centre of Lithuanian spirit and book smuggling in Samogitia. In 1919, V. Putvinskis-Pūtvis and his congenial friends established the Lithuanian Riflemen’s Union, becoming its chairman and ideologist. In 1928, he was awarded with the 2nd class Order of Gediminas, Grand Duke of Lithuania, for his merits in restoring and establishing Lithuania’s independence. He died on 5 March 1929 in Kaunas and was buried in Kelmė.

Compiled in 2018