02 May 2007

Tallinn and Khimki

Removal of a soviet war memorial in Tallinn

The Bronze Soldier , the Tallinn statue commemorating Soviet soldiers killed during the second world has now been re-erected in a military cemetery. Its removal from a square in central Tallinn precipitated unrest from ethnic Russians. Three days of rioting resulted in one death, more than 150 injuries and over 1,000 arrests. The Estonian government justified the move by saying its location near a busy intersection was not a proper place for a war grave. Critics viewed the move as a government pandering to nationalists.

The removal was greeted with outrage by the Russian government . Both houses of Russian parliament urged Vladimir Putin to break off relation with Estonia; MPs accused the Estonian government of fascism and calling the statue's removal "blasphemous and barbarous".

The Russian protests continue: Yesterday ITAR-TASS carried a report of a visit to Tallinn of a delegation of Russian parliamentarians: First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma International Affairs Committee Leonid Slutsky accused the Estonian authorities of brutality towards protesters.

Meanwhile, Yury Luzhkov , the Mayor of Moscow has proposed a boycott of Estonia. ““The administration of Moscow and the Moscow City Duma are proposing a boycott of everything connected with Estonia for the actions it has taken in relation to our Soldier and the graves of our fighters,” he stated, adding that the Estonian government “has shown its most negative face, even Fascist, it can be said.”

So we have a situation where the Estonian government relocated a soviet war memorial, the bodies of soviet servicemen buried at the monument will be re-interred with care, Russians are up in arms.

Interestingly...........

Removal of a soviet war memorial in Moscow (and Stavropol too?)

On 19 April The remains of World War II pilots were exhumed from a monument at along a highway at Khimki to widen the road and prevent prostitutes from desecrating the site. The six bodies, however, seem to have vanished .The Khimki administration, which authorised the reburial, said it did not know where the remains were, but thought they might be at the morgue in Skhodnya, a nearby town. Vyacheslav Nyrkov, director of Ritual, the Khimki agency that exhumed the remains, refused to comment on their whereabouts.

Dozens of Communist supporters held a protest over the reburial at the site on Sunday.“These ashes belong to heroes who defended our motherland. They shouldn’t have been dug up just because someone doesn’t like the monument at this place,” said one of the protesters, Pavel Tarasov. Friday.Tarasov, an aide to Communist State Duma Deputy Valery Rashkin, accused authorities of double standards, citing the current uproar over Estonia’s decision to remove a Soviet war memorial and exhume soldiers there. “At least in Estonia this is largely covered by the media so people can come out and voice their protest, but in Russia all is done sneakily,” said Olga Ivanova, another participant in the Sunday protest.

Also, on 18 April Duma vice speaker Vladimir Katrenko asked a parliamentary question to RF Procurator General Yuriy Chaika concerning the decision of the Stavropol' authorities to tear down a monument to Cossacks who fought in World War II. Katrenko told journalists that such actions by Russian officials were especially troubling given their criticism of Estonia. (The above link cites a news source in Russian which is beyond the capabilities of someone who got an O level in Russian nearly 28 years ago!)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Here are some interesting facts about Estonia:

Most wanted Nazi war criminals
10b. Harry Mannil
Arrested Jews and Communists who were then executed by Nazis and Estonian collaborators
Status: Cleared by investigation in Estonia

10a. Algimantas Dailide
Arrested Jews who were then murdered by Nazis and Lithuanian collaborators
Status: Deported from US; convicted by Lithuania, which has hereto refused to implement his sentence of imprisonment
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1178020745724&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Not a single Estonian citizen who participated in the persecution and/or murder of Jews during WWII has been brought to trial by the Estonians, despite the existence of abundant incriminatory evidence in at least two cases submitted in recent years.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1176152786406

A monument to an Estonian “Freedom Fighter” had been unveiled in a small town Lihula in Western Estonia. It showed a soldier in a German uniform with a Waffen-SS (combat SS) unit emblem, wearing a steel helmet and holding a machine gun.
http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/12586/

So, what one should think about all this?

1. Thousands of estonians were voluntarily serving in Hitler’s Waffen-SS troops where they exterminated Jews, Gipsies, Russians, Belarusans, Ukrainians, and other “untermenschen” in death camps.

2. No one Estonian was brought to trial for war crimes after Estonia had become independent. Moreover, Estonia protects even most wanted Nazi criminals identified by Holocaust organizations.

3. Estonia officially glorifies its Waffen-SS “freedom fighters” by setting up monuments to them. Meanwhile, Estonia destroys memorials to Soviet soldiers, who won Hitler's fascism.

4. Currently Estonia practice massive ethnic discrimination of the same Russians, Belarusans, Ukrainians and other “untermenschen”.

You don’t have to be a detective to make a judgement: Estonia is a typical Nazi state that is proud of taking a part in the Hitler's fascist project and Holocaust during WW2 and doing its best to implement the most "interesting" Nazi policies today. And if there was not just one million Estonian population, but 100 million of them with enough weapon, you can bet there would be another Holocaust in Europe already.

Anonymous said...

Yes, Russia acts very strangely and hypocritically. They don't really care about the Soviet monuments they have in their own territory and if somebody has anything to say about the matter or protest, they just ignore them or say "This is Russia, not the Soviet Union". But now Estonia decided to move a monument of that era to a more appropriate place(in a war cemetery) and Sovie...uups Russia sees it as a act of vandalism. Even the Russian Communists haven't taken a clear stand about the situation in moving the statue in Estonia because they see that the issue in Russia itself about the Soviet legacy is more concerning to them.
Also noticed that you have gotten some anti-estonian propaganda.

Pēteris Cedriņš said...

Good to see this piece here, Jams! As to the anti-Estonian propaganda -- it's everywhere. I got similar comments in response to a post on Estonia at my blog... I don't think this stuff is too effective, though, 'cause it's basically repetitive spam.

jams o donnell said...

Angry of Tomsk has been a busy boy by looks of it Peteris! It's teh same everywhere by looks of it and deos not advance the cause by including a Lithuanian as an Estonian?

Pēteris Cedriņš said...

I was trying to figure that out, Jams... but what's the difference, we're all fascists blasphemously wounding the glorious anti-Hitlerites. You, too. The latest demos in Moscow are against the EU mission.