Translated material
Archaeologists with clubs
Estonian special forces captured the Liberator Warrior
The Estonian government at dawn yesterday began implementing its plan to dismantle the monument to the Soviet Soldier-Liberator in the center of Tallinn on Tõnismägi Square. Masked Estonian special forces forced out activists of public organizations who opposed the liquidation of the monument and the reburial of the remains of Soviet soldiers from the square and adjacent streets. After this, a metal barrier was installed around the Bronze Soldier square, and a tent was erected over the mass grave to hide the progress of the excavations. Until yesterday evening, the fate of Larisa Neshchadimova, an activist of the public organization “Night Watch”, who was detained by the Estonian police, was unknown. During the operation, she was beaten with a rubber truncheon and suffered a head injury.The day before, Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip confirmed: “Excavations will begin soon and will take at least two weeks. If archaeologists find something medieval there, then it will take three to four months.” “So the soldier will be standing there on the eighth and ninth of May. It is impossible to complete this work in such a short time,” he added. The Estonian Prime Minister stressed that on May 9 there will be no laying of flowers at the monument to Soviet soldiers. He also promised that the site where the monument now stands will not be empty - “now they are proposing to build a fountain, a new memorial or something else there.”
Let us recall that the commission on military graves under the Estonian Ministry of Defense back in March recommended reburying the remains of Soviet soldiers resting at the monument to the Liberator Soldier at the Tallinn Military Cemetery . Members of the commission believe that “the peace of those buried on Tõnismägi Hill is not properly ensured.” On April 18, Estonian Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoo signed an order to begin excavations.
The intention of the Estonian authorities to dismantle the monument to the Soviet Soldier-Liberator is meeting with an increasingly harsh reaction from Russia . The head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Sergei Lavrov, called the “decision to rebury the remains of soldiers who saved Europe from fascism” “blasphemous.” “We have already spoken out about the serious consequences that such actions, if they take place, will take place not only for Russian-Estonian relations, but also for the entire post-war Europe,” the minister warned.
“Unfortunately, in recent months, only Russia has come out in defense of the monument to 13 fallen Soviet soldiers in Tallinn,” Mikhail Petrov, one of the leaders of the Russian community in Estonia, head of the local League for the Defense of Russians, recalled in a conversation with Vremya Novostey. “Even such former Soviet republics as Ukraine and Belarus, which suffered great sacrifices in the war against fascism, were in no hurry to express their position on this issue. This is due to the fact that the Estonian authorities prudently present their far-fetched claims regarding various aspects of the “Soviet occupation” exclusively to Russia. Meanwhile, the USSR also included other now independent republics, which today are simply kept silent,” Mr. Petrov noted and added: “If Estonia has claims to the Soviet Union, then let it make them not only to Russia, but also to other republics of the former USSR."
However, Russia’s principled position in defense of the Bronze Soldier seems to be beginning to gain support in the CIS. The Russian Foreign Ministry yesterday released a statement adopted the day before by a number of delegations participating in a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the CIS countries in Astana. The document, signed by the heads of the delegations of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia and Uzbekistan, expresses deep concern “in connection with the plans of the Estonian government to move the burial place of soldiers of various nationalities who gave their lives for the liberation of Europe from fascism, and to dismantle the monument to the Soldier -to the liberator in Tallinn." “We hope that the Estonian government will show respect for the history and memory of fallen soldiers,” the statement said.
However, the head of the Estonian government not only ignored criticism from Russia, but also added fuel to the fire with his statements. Among his fellow nationalists, Prime Minister Andrus Ansip speaks out frankly. Speaking in parliament the other day, he said that it is generally not known for certain whether there is a burial place near the monument. But if this is so, the prime minister continued, then there are supposedly three versions regarding the origin of the grave: either “Soviet soldiers who, being drunk, fell under their tank”, or “shot looters”, or even “deceased patients from nearby hospital."
According to the military command of the former USSR, the remains of 13 Soviet soldiers who died during the liberation of Tallinn from the Nazi invaders on September 21-22, 1944 are buried in a mass grave on Tõnismägi. In 1947, a monument was erected near the burial site. Its authors are Estonians: sculptor Enn Roos and architect Arnold Alas.
Does Russia have real methods of influencing Estonia? First Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian government Sergei Ivanov recently recalled that “there are quite a lot of fermented milk products made in Estonia on the Russian market, which means there is no need to buy them.” At the same time, he urged Russians to spend their holidays not in Estonia, but in Kaliningrad.
“A boycott of food products produced in Estonia can really be an effective means of influencing the country’s authorities. However, for this to happen, the population of the republic itself, dissatisfied with the actions of the government, must resort to similar measures. Even such a measure as a massive refusal to consume Estonian beer, vodka, fish, dairy and other perishable products for just a few days will not go unnoticed by the country’s economy,” believes Mikhail Petrov. As for more stringent measures to impose a financial and economic blockade on Estonia, Russia, and especially the European Union, are unlikely to agree to them, says Vremya Novostey’s interlocutor. “It is no coincidence that the Estonian government acts in full accordance with the formula “we won’t get anything for this,” he is sure. “Russian oligarchs who use Estonia as a washing machine to launder dirty money may oppose real economic sanctions from Russia.”
The European Union is prevented from responding to Tallinn’s actions by the close ties of Prime Minister Ansip’s Reform Party with EU structures. “They have strengthened significantly thanks to the work of the former party chairman and ex-head of the Estonian government Siim Kallas in the European Union since 2004 as Commissioner for Administrative and Personnel Issues. And today these ties continue to develop,” testifies Mr. Petrov.