The Russian branch of the Catholic Church called Wednesday for a dismantled memorial to an archbishop who was a victim of Stalin-era repression to be restored.
The complaint came as Russia has doubled down on the Kremlin's patriotic version of history, which often glosses over Stalinist crimes, as troops fight in Ukraine.
Authorities recently took down a wall at a prison in the city of Vladimir that featured a commemoration to Lithuanian archbishop Mecislovas Reinys and other foreigners who were imprisoned as part of Joseph Stalin's Terror.
Reinys died in prison in 1953 after being arrested by Stalin's secret police six years earlier.
The Catholic Church recognises Reinys, who briefly served as Lithuania's foreign minister in the 1920s, as a martyr.
"He was a true Christian and pastor. He proved his loyalty to Christ in prison, where he was held on unjust charges. In this regard, he shared the fate of many other believers -- including Orthodox bishops -- who died there," Kirill Gorbunov, vicar general of the Catholic Church's Moscow Archdiocese, told the RIA Novosti news agency.
"Such a person, of course, deserves to have their memory immortalised at the place of their martyrdom," he added.
Authorities said the memorial wall was pulled down because it was unsafe, Russian media reported.
Russia has a troubled relationship with its Soviet past.
The country glorifies victory over Nazi Germany in what it calls the "Great Patriotic War", but official narratives often gloss over political persecution and the horrors committed under Stalin.
Millions were arrested, executed or sent to the Gulag prison camps in a campaign of mass repression in the 1930s-1950s.
Since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine last February, criticism of the country's history has been cast as unpatriotic.
Several other monuments to victims of Soviet repression across Russia have disappeared during the 20-month long conflict.
Lithuanian and Polish officials have also called for the monument in Vladimir -- which included dedications to prominent Polish and Ukrainian victims -- to be restored.
"It was not the first time that monuments honouring the victims of the Stalinist totalitarian regime were being demolished in Russia," Lithuania's foreign ministry said Tuesday in a statement.
"It can only be seen as acts of contempt for the historical truth and the memory of the victims," it said.