RSSEvents in Tallinn: Painful Symbolism
Apr 27
Uncategorized Comments Off
The events in Tallinn are not so much about history. It’s not about the dead soldiers. It’s not about Estonia’s occupation, even.
It’s about symbolism.
It’s impossible not to comment the removal of the Red Army monument from downtown Tallinn. One can certainly understand why the Estonian government made the decision to move forward the time of the removal of the controversial monument of the Bronze Soldier at a 3 a.m. meeting Friday morning.
Controversy surrounding the monument is nothing new in post Soviet Estonia. It was built in 1947 as a symbol for what Russians still call Estonian liberation from the Nazi occupation. Some Estonians, though, believe this monument is a symbol of Soviet occupation. They allege that the Red Army soldiers died not fighting the Nazis, but rather fighting those who supported a new Estonian government formed during a few days following the Nazi withdrawal.
Last night, “some 1,500 people, mostly local Russians, some of them mobilized by the Nochnoy Dozor (Night Watch) red-brown group, had gathered around the Bronze Soldier in the pre-midnight hours. Some tried unsuccessfully to break through police lines, while most of them rampaged on shopping and residential streets downtown. The rioting received a second wind after the looting of liquor from bars on Tatari Street. Scores were injured, many of them by glass from vandalized shops. One death was reported in a stabbing incident. Thirteen policemen received injuries requiring hospitalization. Some 300 rioters were arrested throughout the night.”
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves called rioters “criminals.
“All this had nothing to do with the inviolability of graves or keeping alive the memory of men fallen in World War II,” Ilves said.
And he is right. Nor do I think the Parliament’s decision to remove the monument and the remains of the fallen soldiers is an attempt to preserve history. It’s a symbolic gesture that really doesn’t accomplish anything 16 years since Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union.
Russian official reaction was not as swift as one would have expected. Foreign Minister Igor Lavrov answering a question from the media in Oslo, said, “I believe that all this is disgusting. Although I have not seen any footage yet, I have heard what is happening there. There can be no justification for this blasphemy. It will have serious consequences for our relations with Estonia. It cannot but affect relations with the EU and NATO eventually – organizations which have admitted into their fold a country grossly violating the values on which the European Union and indeed European culture and democracy rest.”
I think Lavrov finds the removal of the monument disgusting, rather than a civil disorder on the streets of downtown Tallinn.
Latvian embassy in Tallinn is located near the epicenter of the events. In a press release Friday, Latvia’s Foreign Ministry avoided to opine on the Estonian government’s decision to remove the monument, but condemned the violence.
“In a democratic country, any group of society which disagrees with government decisions is free to express its own opinion, however, it must not violate the law. Acts of vandalism which pose a threat to the life and health of people and damage and destroy property have nothing in common with the democratic forms of protest.”
“The acts of vandalism in Tallinn left one diplomatic representative of the Latvian Embassy injured, and damage was also done to the embassy building. The Foreign Ministry considers that the organizers and perpetrators of said campaigns must be held liable.”
At the Estonian embassy in Riga, about three dozen (mostly Russian) people gathered to protest the removal of the monument.
Recent Comments