Compromise on the name of the Russian-speaking school: they don’t want to continue the discussion so that the community doesn’t change their mind

A few weeks ago, the councils of Vilnius Sofija Kovalevskaja and Salomeja Nėris high schools applied to the city municipality with a request to change the names of the educational institutions.

S. Kovalevskaja Gymnasium asked to be renamed Vilnius Capital Gymnasium, S. Nėries Gymnasium Council has proposed four possible name options: Vilnius Media, Vilnius Saint Catherine, Vilnius Old Town and Vilnius Old Town Media Gymnasium, BNS wrote.

Both of these questions will be considered on Wednesday by the Historical Memory Commission of the Vilnius City Municipality, whose decisions will become the basis for questions in the council, which will make the final decision.

Chose the name of the saint

The discussion regarding the new name of the S.Nėries gymnasium was long, but in the end it was voted for the name of Saint Catherine. As arguments, not only St. Catherine’s Church, which has become a wonderful cultural oasis in Vilnius, but also the fact that St. Catherine is the patroness of philosophy and sciences.

However, the school director Jolita Marcinkevičienė had her own warnings regarding this name: “Your arguments regarding Saint Catherine seem very convincing and reasonable, but the community thought regarding this name the least, looked into it the least and was the least comfortable with this name. Again, I’m thinking regarding the reaction, because in the high school council, it was so expressed as a description that it was like a borrowed name. That’s what it sounds like to me.

Although many strong arguments were presented today as to why such a name would suit the gymnasium. I really hope for a wise decision of the commission and such a weighted one, because we and future generations will probably have to live with that name for a long time.”

Vidmantas Balkūnas / 15min photo/Vilnius Salomeja Nėries high school

If the council approves the commission’s decision, S.Nėries gymnasium will change its name to Šventos Kotrynos.

There was no logic

And here is another school in Vilnius – Sofija Kovalevskaja Gymnasium, where the language of instruction is Russian – applied to the municipality with only one alternative name. The community decided to agree to become the capital’s high school.

This proposal was met with skepticism in the commission. Even several members of the commission said that it is not logical to name one of the Vilnius schools Sostinės. Because the whole name itself – Vilnius Capital Gymnasium – sounds neither the way it is nor the way it is. So it was proposed to propose alternative names to the community and discuss them, although all the members of the commission praised that the community submitted such a request at all.

However, even so, the members of the commission who spoke were basically convinced by the arguments of Vice Mayor Arūnas Šiler, which were not so much regarding the logic or goodness of the name itself, but regarding the community’s consent to change that name in principle.

“I will react completely differently than when we spoke before. Because when it comes to the “huge” initiative of high schools, when you call and flood the municipality with letters, you see the tip of the iceberg and now we are happy with the work that was carried out underwater for almost half a year.

If we are talking regarding a certain exit of the city from what I call either the Russian-speaking world or the “ruskij mir” world, then I would consider this argument to be significantly more important than the fact that perhaps not very fine sounds

A lot of work was done with the S. Kovalevskaja gymnasium before that, options were considered. They wanted to be some kind of creative gymnasium, maybe in Santaikos, but Santaros is another Russian-speaking gymnasium.

Personally, my biggest fear here would be that we will stay at Kovalevskaya while trying to find a better option, because we don’t know what might end up there. If we are talking regarding a certain exit of the city from what I call either the Russian-speaking world or the “ruskij mir” world, then I would consider this argument to be significantly more important than the fact that perhaps not very fine sounds”, said the vice mayor.

Skirmantas Lisauskas/BNS photo/Arūnas Šileris

He also mentioned another school name

He said that “as a philologist” he does not see the tragedy that the school will be called the Vilnius Capital High School: “Maybe at first it may seem strange, but if it were necessary to put on the scales the possibility of completely breaking with the name or moving away from the imposed heritage, which Kačalovo still has in the city gymnasium, former classmate of Dzerzhinsky and laureate of the Stalin Prize, etc., I am asking you to support the name, which was both agreed and negotiated with the community.”

According to A. Šileris, long discussions might end in nothing, the same name of the gymnasium will remain and that’s it. Therefore, this risk should be properly assessed.

As another argument, the vice mayor presented the fact that the Russian-speakers in Vilnius have difficulty with their historical identity, because they seem to be far from “Ruskij mir”, but the Lithuanian community has not yet “normally” accepted them, and this name of the capital’s high school seems to suggest – “you are ours, you are part of the capital.”

After further discussion, the commission nevertheless approved the name of the Capital Gymnasium.

Sofia Kovalevskaya was in the 19th century. Russian mathematician, publicist and writer. According to the website of the high school, “she is the world’s first female professor of mathematics.” There is no data on any connection between it and Lithuania.