Reinis was born in the Russian empire in 1884 and became a priest in 1907 and a bishop in 1926. He led the department of theoretical and experimental psychology at Kaunas University in Lithuania and served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Lithuanian government from 1925 to 1926.
The archbishop first faced religious persecution from the Bolsheviks in Lithuania who arrested him in 1919 until he was released to Poland two years later through the Treaty of Riga. He returned to Lithuania where he was arrested again in 1947 after Stalin’s regime annexed the country. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but only served six before he died in 1953.
“He shared the fate of many other believers, including Orthodox bishops who died there, in the Vladimir Central [Prison],” Gorbunov said. “It is also important for us that the life of Archbishop Reinis is inextricably linked with Russian culture — he graduated from the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg, wrote a doctoral thesis on Vladimir Solovyov, and was involved in popularizing Russian philosophy and psychology in the West.”
The Estonian Foreign Ministry has also criticized the removal of the plaques, which included one honoring an Estonian general, Johan Laidoner, who led the armed forces during the Estonian War of Independence and against a communist coup attempt in 1924. The government has requested that the plaque be given to Estonia, according to the Estonian publicly funded news outlet Eesti Rahvusringhääling.
“Estonia has issued a statement regretting the removal of the Laidoner monument and requesting that the plaque be returned to Estonia, as it is no longer suited for the cemetery in Vladimir,” a spokesperson for the ministry said. “We also want assistance locating Gen. Laidoner’s remains and returning them to Estonia.”
The Polish ambassador to Moscow, Krzysztof Krajewski, also criticized the prison for removing several plaques that honored Polish prisoners of Stalin’s regime.