On the Bronze Soldier

I found this site, while browsing the internet. The glaring factual errors and profound misunderstanding of the nature of the problem makes one think that the creator of the site is either simply ignorant and misinformed or then it could also be an attempt of astroturfing in foreign policy shpere. It guess it shows that small Estonia, even as a member of EU and NATO is no match for the Russian propaganda machine. But we should not try to be.

As president Ilves mentioned in his speech today marking the 89th birthday of the Republic of Estonia, citing Marcus Aurelius “The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury”. Estonia is a democratic state, if there are issues that threaten democracy, then these are connected to greed and corruption, not glorification of fascism.

The thing is we have this statute of a bronze soldier in the Red Army uniform, standing next to the eternal fire. It is possible that there are also Soviet army soldiers buried under it, but no one knows. There have been discussions from re-independence regarding what to do with it and other similar monuments, which glorify Stalin, Lenin, the Soviet Union and the communist occupation in general. Some statutes were removed in early 90s and replaced with others, while some remained in their places. I am in general not for removing pieces of history, but this case should be looked at somewhat differently.

The Bronze Soldier statute was not an issue at all until few years ago when there were potential skirmishes there between nationalists and certain Russian Estonian groups, who had been using the place to celebrate the Red Army defeat over the Nazi army on 9 May. This made the issue a political one and brought it up in the agenda. Estonian politicians rehashed plans to remove the statute to a cemetary whereas the Russian groups, no doubt aided by the Russian government always on the lookout for foreign enemies to distract from problems within, started a campaign to protect it. This has brought us to this day.

As an Estonian I really do not care whether the Bronze statute is there or not. It is somewhat weird to see people in Societ army uniforms there few times a year, but I guess those people also need something to hold on to. I do not, however, see why this memorial site should be in central Tallinn, near a trolleybus stop and busy roads. Especially when it could cause trouble for what it symbolises to many Estonians. I am too young to remember this clearly, but I do remember at some point in the late 80s when I was still very little of words one should not speak and I did also witness the Soviet tanks etc, but I digress. Whatever mental angish against this totalitarian regime I felt is dwarfed by feelings of people who suffered under it. People who were deported to Siberia, people who were arrested or tried for political crimes not only in the 1940s or 50s, but throughout the Soviet occupation era. And I do understand that this monument and its use as a political device is quite hurtful to those people, especially considering that while it was built, Estonian resistance movement tried to unsuccessfully blow it up (Guy Fawkes, anyone?).

Therefore I do see that there exists legitimate public interest in removing the statute and possible graves from this very public place and take it to a cemetary, where it can be used for its intended purpose and not for political attacks.

Useful links: Estonian International Commission for
Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity, Estonian Museum of Occupations.