Posted on 08/13/2022 5:11:40 PM PDT by MercyFlush
The Estonian government wants to ban the memory of the Soviet past from public life. Riots and Russian cyber attacks cannot be ruled out. At the center of the controversy is an old tank.
Lenin got it: his statue still stands in Estonia’s third-largest city, Narva, but it was moved to a secluded, walled-in corner in the courtyard in the 1990s. In the summer, the Russian revolutionary leader was surrounded by an ugly construction site fence.
If the Estonian government under Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has its way, all Soviet monuments in the small Baltic state should disappear from public view. And as quickly as possible – that’s what Kallas announced on Thursday.
With the beginning of the Ukraine war, the debates about Soviet monuments in the Baltic States flared up again. Estonia’s neighbor Latvia has already taken it seriously: All Soviet monuments must be removed from Latvian soil by November 15.
In Estonia, this decision harbors enormous potential for social disruption. Because about a quarter of the Estonian population are ethnic Russians. Older people in particular feel connected to Russia and the legacy of the Soviet Union. The announcement also brings back memories of the worst riots since Estonia’s independence in 1991.
15 years ago, in April 2007, the so-called bronze soldier was transferred from the center of the capital Tallinn to the outskirts. The memorial commemorated the Soviet “liberation” of Estonia in World War II. Two days of violent protests followed: Russian-speaking youths rioted, torched cars and looted shops. Over a hundred people were injured, one man was stabbed. On top of that. Russia launched a large-scale cyber attack against Estonia. It was the first time a nation-state had been the victim of such coordinated hacking.
Today it is not the bronze soldier, but a tank that heats up tempers. About 200 to 400 Soviet monuments still stand in Estonia. But the old T-34 tank near Narva in the predominantly Russian-speaking east of Estonia is at the center of the debate about the culture of remembrance. It stands at the point where Soviet soldiers crossed the Narva River and drove the German occupiers out of the city. The river today marks the Estonian-Russian state border.
After the first rumors about the removal of the tank began to circulate in public on Wednesday afternoon, about 150 people gathered at the monument in the evening, according to the Estonian public broadcaster. Some wanted to stay the night to prevent an alleged removal of the tank.
Relocating the tank is legally problematic. Because the central government can only decide on the relocation of war memorials with human remains. Other monuments, like the tank at Narva, are the responsibility of the local administration.
Prime Minister Kaja Kallas admitted that the city of Narva has the right to decide the fate of the tank. “But because it is clear that Narva itself will not intervene, the Estonian state and government must make the decision to move this and other monuments of symbolic value,” said Kallas.
The corresponding law would have to be changed for this. Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu has already suggested calling MPs back from the summer break so that they can vote on a change in the law as quickly as possible.
Nevertheless, it would be wrong to blame the entire Russian-speaking minority in Estonia should the monument dispute escalate, says Karsten Brüggemann. He is Professor of General and Estonian History at Tallinn University and researches the history of Russian-Baltic relations. «In April, 2007 hasn’t the Russian minority demonstrated against the implementation of the bronze soldier. There were a few hundred – partly incited by the Russian embassy”.
However, even now, riots cannot be ruled out. “You’ll always find those few hundred who would salute a Russian tank. Especially in Narva,” says Brüggemann. “But that doesn’t mean that the majority of Russian-speaking Estonians are behind it. On the contrary: This is a radical, dissatisfied minority whose displeasure could unfortunately be activated again.”
When did Neocons join with the left in pulling down monuments?
You don't have to be a leftist or a neocon to believe that Estonian statues should be of prominent Estonians, not a foreign conqueror. That's like saying Americans should have statues of King George III.
The Russians bought the design for the T-34 from American car designer Walter Christie who first tried to sell it to the US Army.
Unfortunately the Army wasn’t interested.
I think he designed the suspension system, not the actual tank.
Comparing the the re-conquering of the Captive Nations by the Soviets to Columbus and Jefferson is idiotic.
You two are conflating Confederate heroes with scum like Lenin, Stalin, and Soviet invaders/occupiers.
There is no comparison.
For every Confederate monument/memorial taken down in the U.S. over the last 3 years the Army lost 1,000 recruits.
and if Nikki Haley is ever on the ticket she will get exactly ZERO electoral votes in the south ...
There is no doubt that Biden’s woke military has alienated many young people from enlisting. I also attribute his attrocious COVID policies to the shortfall. And I am still angry about him renaming Army bases like Bragg, Benning, etc. My father was a Maine Yankee who enlisted during the Korean War and served his time in the Airborne at Benning. I had no problem with military posts named after Confederates.
“There is no comparison.”
That’s right... Unless you’re black or Indian.
If history is worth preserving, you have to preserve the good the bad and the ugly, not just the stuff that you today with your own prejudices find distasteful.
They are such good constant reminders that freedom isn’t free nor fighting for it occassional, to remove them is to push ignorance and repeat.
Like removing justice tanney from annapolis....tragic loss of education for every adult and child passing by daily or occassionally.
Hey Sport,
“whatever it takes, by any means necessary”
And if at first you don’t succeed...
Lots of sentimental Euro nazi think there. You clowns always find a way to excuse nazis. Funny how that works. I think we all know the reason why.
“Lots of sentimental Euro nazi think there.”
Completely false.
1) I am not sentimental about these things.
2) I am not European.
3) I am not a Nazi.
4) When I was young I got to know numerous people who had fled communist countries - including people who fled the USSR (Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, and Karelia), Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Prussia, Slovakia, Czechia, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Vietnam, China, Laos, Cambodia and Cuba in order to get away from the Soviets or other communists. Some of those people married German soldiers to get away, or worked with smugglers, or joined forces with the Nazis or their allies in order to keep their countries free of the communists or to escape communist forces when there was no other hope. Back in the day, I met quite a few colorful characters at the conferences for the AABS (the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies). I knew quite a few Ukrainians who escaped the USSR - including one family who still had the boots of their father who had escaped from Siberia and walked all the way to Ukraine to retrieve his family and then walked all the way to Germany as the Germans were retreating in order to escape the Soviets.
And everything I said is STILL TRUE. We would have joined forces with the Nazis in a heartbeat in 1940 if the Soviets had some how invaded and occupied the U.S.A. We would do it to free our country and because we would be desperate. After all we allied ourselves with communist mass murderers (the USSR) to fight the Nazis so we would have done the opposite if it was warranted.
“You clowns always find a way to excuse nazis.”
I have never excused them. I just don’t assume that all people who sided with them were genuinely Nazis since they were not Germans, were not necessarily anti-semitic and always had their own agendas. Some of those same Nazi allies BECAME OUR ALLIES AFTER WWII. Ever hear of Operation Anyface? You might want to look it up.
“Funny how that works. I think we all know the reason why.”
What we know is that you’re out of your league when it comes to making anything approaching a logical or historically grounded argument. So what do you do? You throw around innuendos about Nazism. That’s a clear sign of intellectual and moral cowardice. And that sign is stamped all over your posts.
Hmmmm...isn’t that supposed to be a depiction of Lenin after overeating on Serbian bean-soup?
It is really delicious, no doubt - but it has to be made with copious amounts of onions and garlic, mind you ;-)
Sorry, no. Screw Russia. If they love their monuments so much then they should bring them home along with all of their citizen-colonists.
What about the Indians and the Blacks here. should they have the right to topple monuments they don’t like?
And southerners, should they be allowed to topple statues of Lincoln and Grant?
I don’t know what your likes and dislikes are, but should you be allowed to get together with other people that think like you and topple the statues your group finds offensive?
Do you realize how myopic you are?
So, it was wrong to remove the swastika from the top of the German Chancellery?
Nice paint job!
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