The Bronze Solider of Tallinn is a controversial monument to Soviet soldiers killed in World War Two. It was officially known as "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn” when it was unveiled in 1947 in the Center of the Old Town (Tonismagi Hill) district in the Estonian capital of Tallinn. The hill itself where the monument was erected had been used to inter Soviet war dead in the final months of World War Two. The exact number of soldiers buried there was not known. The 2m (6.5 ft) tall soldier is cast of solid bronze and portrays an anonymous young 'frontovik' dressed in battle uniform with medals. He has the ubiquitous PPsh-41 submachine gun slung over his shoulder, his steel helmet in his hand and his bare head slightly bowed down to the interred soldiers below him. For forty years the statue was visited in that hallowed location by those remembering lost soldiers. The inscription in both Russian and Estonian reads "To the fallen of the Second World War.” Thousands of red and white carnations were traditionally brought to the monument on the anniversary of VE-Day (May 9th).
Estonian Political Issues with the Monument
Estonia, long a battlefield, was caught between the Nazis and the Soviets in World War Two. As part of Old Russia for more than two hundred years the country had broken away after the Tsar was deposed in the Russian Revolution of 1917 and formed an independent state. In 1939, after a scant generation of freedom the Soviet Union annexed the tiny country along with its Baltic neighbors Lithuania and Latvia. In 1941 when the Nazis invaded conquered the region on the way to Moscow in World War Two thousands of Estonians joined both voluntarily and by force the German military who they saw as liberators. Thousands of other Estonians joined the Soviets under the same conditions and literally fought their brothers. Within the same few years the Soviets deported thousands of Estonians to Siberia while the Nazis sent just as many to the death camps. To many Baltic historians World War Two is viewed to be a civil war and long simmering resentments were left behind on both sides.
When Estonia succeeded from the Soviet Union in 1991, Soviet-era monuments were quickly torn down. Dozens of statues to Lenin and others were publicly and sometimes loudly dismantled. However the Bronze Solider was forgotten for a few years. Strong feelings erupted amongst the ethnic-Russian minority (who make up 25% of the population) in Estonia to whom the Bronze Soldier had become a symbol. By the late 1990s the monument had become a controversial lightening rod for the Russian minority. Rallies were held there and angry crowds would raise the Russian and Soviet flags at the site. In 2005 the monument was vandalized with red paint and then again the next year by vandals who had painted it blue and white after the national colors of Estonia. In a final vandal attack it was painted with a swastika. Two Estonian Defense Forces soldiers were disciplined for being photographed laying red carnations at the monument on VE-day 2006. In 2007 the Estonian government led by Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip decided to remove the Bronze Solider. Furthermore the graves of the interred Soviet solders were to be disinterred and reburied in the National Military Cemetery.
Removal and Consequences
On 27 April 2007 the Bronze Soldier was cut down and carted away. This decision caused three days of angry riots in Tallinn, an international protest from Russia, an internet-based denial of service attack campaign and caused at least one death and 150 arrests. A few days later the Bronze Soldier was installed a few miles away at a military cemetery outside of Tallinn. Eight of the soldiers entombed at the monument were later reburied near the Bronze Soldier's current location. Four of the bodies were sent to Russia and given to their living relatives for reburial on their native soil after DNA collected linked them to living family members. Russia retaliated with an unofficial trade and customs war that was estimated to have cost the Estonia some $700 million over the course of the next year.
Sources
Myers, Steven Lee Debate Renewed: Did Moscow Free Estonia or Occupy It? New York Times Jan 27, 2007.
Mardiste, David Russia to Estonia: Don't move our statue. Reuters Jan 30 2007
Bronze Soldier installed at Tallinn military cemetery Russian News Agency April 30, 2007
Russian servicemen in Estonia suffered for support of the Bronze Soldier Reginum News Service, Relayed from TASS May 30, 2006
Bronze Soldier removal turned into $US 700 MLN losses for Estonia Die Deutsche Zeitung Aril 28, 2008
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