Freedom from "Liberators". Demolition of Soviet monuments in Estonia

The Government of Estonia began to implement the decision on the demolition of all Soviet monuments in the country. There are about 400 monuments of the Soviet era in Estonia. One of this policy was one of the city of Narva, located on the Russian-Estonian border: on August 16, despite the protests of the local Russian-speaking population, a monument to the T-34 tank was dismantled.

Radio Liberty shows what this and other Soviet monuments look like in Estonia, which are either already demolished, or will be dismantled in the near future.

The monument of the Soviet Army in Narva was located in the place where in 1944 the troops of the USSR forced the Narva river of the same name and threw the Nazi forces. It was established in 1970 to the 25th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.

On August 16, the Narva authorities began the process of removing the tank from the pedestal. The tank will be transferred to the Military Museum in Viimsey in the north of Estonia.

"This solution helps to focus on our most important tasks: ensuring the safety of Estonia and assistance to the entire Estonian people in overcoming the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine," the country's Prime Minister Kai Kallas said in connection with the demolition of the monument.

In Narva there are other attractions related to the memory of Russian invasions. For example, the rebuilt house of Peter I, in which he stopped after the recruitment of the city from the Swedes in 1704 during the Northern War. Then, as the legend says , Peter personally stabbed the two Russian looters in the Narva. This plot inspired the painting of the Russian artist-Batalist Nikolai Zauerweid. Now the Russian command is not only not fighting, but does not recognize the facts of the looting of its soldiers in Ukraine, despite numerous evidence .

Peter I in Russia pacifies his looting troops after the capture of Narva in 1704. Picture of Nikolai Zauerweid, 1859

The demolition of the monument with the T-34 tank did not cause large-scale protests. “Narva is aging, there are few passionarity here. Moreover, people are not idiots, they saw that the state could punish for such protests as after the story with the“ bronze soldier ”in 2007 in 2007. Also few protest leaders in Narva were detained in advance by the police for 48 hours,” says the Narva journalist Mikhail Komshko in an interview with Radio Liberty.

The riots in Tallinn in 2007 occurred after the Estonian authorities decided to transfer the Bronze Soldier, a memorial with the burial of the remains of Russian soldiers, from the center of the capital in the cemetery.

Troubles began at the "Bronze Soldier" even before the installation of the monument in its current form. On the night of May 8, 1946, a temporary wooden monument at the burial site of the remains of 13 Soviet troops who died near Tallinn during the Tallinn operation of 1944 was blown up by Tallinn schoolgirls Ageeda Pavel and Aili Jurgenson.

"Bronze Soldier" in a military cemetery in Tallinn, 2020

The girls used a home -made explosive device for this and motivated their act to revenge for the fact that the Soviet authorities massively destroyed the monuments to those killed in the Estonian liberation war (military operations from November 28, 1918 to January 3, 1920, in which the Armed Forces of Estonia with the participation of the White Guards opposed the Red Army). Schoolgirls were arrested and condemned to 8 years in prison.

In Estonia, many other monuments of the Soviet era remains. They will be demolished as the locals themselves will pay attention to the authorities to such monuments. In the next photo there is a monument called "peaceful atom" in the city of Sillamae. Now this phrase sounds in relation to Russia as an oxymoron: the whole world is watching the situation at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in Ukraine, where Russia posted military equipment and where its troops, according to the Ukrainian side, are firing on the position of the Ukrainian army, using the station as a shield.

In the photo below-the monument "Glory to work" in the center of the city of Kokhtla-Yarva in the northeast of Estonia. Estonian Prime Minister Kai Kallas says that the Russian invasion of Ukraine "opened the wounds of Estonian society, a reminder of which are communist monuments."

For many Estonians, they are symbols of the half -century oppression of Moscow, when the country was occupied by the USSR. According to the Government of Estonia, more than 75,000 Estonians were killed, concluded or deported by the Soviet government from 1940 to 1991.

Monument "Glory to work" in Kokhtla-Yarva

In the next photo there is another monument in Narva, it is dedicated to the soldiers who died during the Second World War. The Soviet Union occupied the Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in 1940. During the Second World War, German troops entered there. After the Nazis retreat in 1944, the USSR resumed control of the Baltic countries, up to its collapse in 1991. The United States and several other Western countries have never recognized these Baltic countries part of the Soviet Union.

Our next exhibit is a monument to Lenin, transferred from the Narva center to the city castle back in the 90s. Military historian Igor Kopin believes that the dismantled military monuments personify the Soviet presence in Estonia. "In my opinion, they do not have any architectural value. The T-34 tank was installed in the place where the Soviet troops forced the Narov River in July 1944 ... On this example, we see a conflict between historical memory: for many Russian-speaking people of Narva, the monument-tank became a place of cult worship and a symbol of gratitude to their ancestors who fought on the Leningrad Front, participated in the Leningrad Front, participated in The battles of the territory of Northern Estonia were restored by Narva after the war.

The last photo in our gallery is a monument to Soviet troops in the northwestern city of Likhul. In 2007, unknown people doused it with red paint. Despite the decision of the Estonian authorities to demolish all Soviet monuments in the country, memorials that are located in ordinary or military cemeteries, apparently, will be preserved. Despite this, the Russian authorities sharply criticized the decision of the Estonian authorities to dismantle Soviet monuments, and the Russian Foreign Ministry sent a note of protest to the Estonian foreign policy.

Monument to Soviet soldiers in the city of Lihul in the north-west of Estonia

On August 12, Estonia deported two Russian journalists who, supposedly, prepared material about the planned demolition of Soviet monuments. The head of the border department of the Eastern Prefecture Urmas Elmy, in a comment by Delfi, said that the employees of the Izvestia newspaper led in the country “propaganda” and violated the visa regime.

Estonia stopped issuing new tourist visas to the Russians shortly after the invasion of Russian troops in Ukraine in February. Exceptions were left for Russians whose relatives are Estonian citizens. On August 11, Tallinn announced that he plans to ban the entry into the country of Russian citizens with Schengen visas issued by this country. The Russians can still get to Estonia with the "Shengen" of the EU to Estonia, but the government intends to gather in the near future to discuss ways to close the Russian citizens and this opportunity.