Bronze Soldier of Tallinn - Misplaced Pages

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File:Tõnismäe monument 1999.jpg

The Bronze Soldier in Tallinn

The Bronze Soldier (Template:Lang-et), sometimes called the Tõnismäe Monument, formerly: Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn (Template:Lang-et, Template:Lang-ru) was a Soviet World War II memorial in central Tallinn, Estonia. The monument consisted of a mastaba-like structure of dolomite and a two meter (6.5ft) statue of a soldier in Soviet uniform. It was located on Tõnismägi (Lit. St Anthony's hill) in close proximity to a mass grave of reburied Soviet soldiers' remains, created in April 1945. The statue had significant symbolic value to Estonia's ethnic Russian community of post-World War II immigrants; not only symbolising Soviet victory against Nazi Germany in the war, but also their claimed rights in Estonia. Many indigenous Estonians however saw the Bronze Soldier as a symbol of Soviet occupation and repression.

Amid political controversy and in strict state secrecy the Estonian government started preparations for the dismantling and possible relocation of the statue. This resulted in mass protests and a night with the worst riots Estonia has seen since regaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The rioting was brought under control by 2:30 AM, April 27, 2007. The Estonian government decided at an emergency meeting in the early hours of April 27, 2007, deciding to immediately dismantle and relocate the monument. In the evening of April 27 2007 rioting restarted, with clashes between riot police and rioting youths. Police declared order restored by 1:30 AM, April 28, 2007

Mass grave and erection of monument

The monument, with its figure of a soldier against a stone background, was created in 1947 originally as an official memorial to Soviet soldiers who died fighting in World War II. The theme was later changed, stating "For those fallen in World War II". The exact number and names of the persons buried under the monument have not been established with certainty, although the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Relations ordered a comprehensive historical research in 2006.

According to the records of the Military Commissariat of the Baltic Military District, 13 soldiers who fell during World War II were reburied into a mass grave on Tõnismägi Hill in April 1945:

Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Kulikov (Михаил Петрович Куликов) - commander of the 657th regiment
Captain Ivan Sysoyev (Иван Михайлович Сысоев) - political commissar of the 657th regiment
Gefreiter (Senior Private) Dmitri Belov - 125th division (killed in a battle 45 km from Tallinn in September 1944)
Colonel Konstantin Kolesnikov (Константин Павлович Колесников) - 125th division (killed in a battle 45 km from Tallinn)
Captain Ivan Serkov (Иван Степанович Серков) - 125th division (killed in a battle 45 km from Tallinn)
Major Vasili Kuznetsov (Василий Иванович Кузнецов) - 125th division
Lieutenant Vasili Volkov (Василий Егорович Волков) - 125th division
Captain Aleksei Bryantsev (Алексей Матвеевич Брянцев) - 125th division
Sergeant Stepan Hapikalo (Степан Илларионович Хапикало) - tank commander of the 26th tank regiment (according to official military sources died of a disease, according to informal information was killed in a traffic accident in Tallinn)
Medic Jelena Varshavskaya (Елена Михайловна Варшавская) - 40th Guard Mortars regiment (died 22 or 23 September 1944 in Tallinn)
Sergeant Aleksandr Grigorov - died 7 March 1945
Lieutenant Colonel Kotelnikov - no further information
Lieutenant I. Lukanov - no further information

Enn Roos was the sculptor and Arnold Alas the architect of the monument erected in 1947. In 1964, an eternal flame was lit in front of the monument. The eternal flame was put out when Estonia's independence was re-established.

Controversy

Background

Main article: Demographics of Estonia

In 1991, Estonian SSR, then already called the Republic of Estonia, declared itself independent from the Soviet Union under premier minister Edgar Savisaar and Communist president Arnold Rüütel. At the time over a third of Estonia's population were descendants of Russian and other Soviet economic migrants, who had been drawn to Estonia by its rapid post-war industrialization.

In 1992, under premier minister Mart Laar, a new citizenship law was passed, reserving Estonian citizenship to descendants of pre-1940 citizens. Ex-Soviet citizens could apply for Estonian citizenship after passing an advanced Estonian language and History exam.

In 1992, 32% of Estonian residents lacked any form of citizenship. Of the ethnic non-Estonians approximately one third have received Estonian citizenship, one third have opted for Russian citizenship (or may hold illegal dual citizenship) and a third have no citizenship at all. In April 2006, the Population Registry of the Estonian Ministry of the Interior reported that 9% of Estonia's residents have undefined citizenship and 7.4% have foreign citizenship. While there have been calls for the return of all non Estonians to Russia, the official government policy has been of “integration”, demanding that all native Russians learn the Estonian language on a basic level.

The issue of post WWII history is at the core of the ethnic issues in Estonia. Estonian nationalists regard the period of Soviet Estonia as an illegal Soviet occupation of the Baltic States. As a consequence, the ethnic Russian population have been labeled as illegal occupants/occupiers or “okupandid”.

The Bronze Soldier statue has had an important symbolic meaning to the ethnic Russian and non-citizen population. To them, it is a symbol of their right to live in Estonia as the descendants of the liberators, not as illegal occupiers.

For Estonians, the Bronze Soldier symbolizes the beginning of the occupation, when the independent Estonian government that had assembled after the Germans deserted Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) was overthrown by the Soviets as they arrived in Tallinn.

Confrontation

File:Tallinn Bronze Soldier - May 2006 - 046.jpg

The statue in May 2006, cordoned off by police after the confrontation during the celebration of Victory in Europe Day

Since the restoration of Estonian independence, World War II veterans and representatives of the Russian-speaking population have continued to gather at the monument on certain dates, celebrating May 9 (Victory Day) and September 22 (the date when Soviet Army entered Tallinn in 1944). The display of Soviet flags and other symbols at these gatherings has irritated Estonian nationalists and others who have bitter memories of the Soviet regime.

Supporters of the statue consider it a memorial to the soldiers who died liberating Europe from Nazi Germany. According to the opponents Estonia was never liberated by the Soviet Army. They consider the statue a reminder of the wartime Soviet occupation of Baltic states, which lasted for five decades.

A non-violent confrontation at the monument first took place on May 9, 2006. The tensions rose again in September 2006 and the police kept a 24-hour patrol in the area for several months. The statue was removed by the government on 27 April 2007 amid further protests.

War Graves Protection Act

January 10, 2007, Riigikogu passed the War Graves Protection Act, with 66 votes in favour and 6 against, initiated by the Estonian Reform Party, Social Democratic Party, Res Publica Party and Isamaaliit Party. The preamble of the Act states:

"Respecting and recognizing Estonia’s obligation to ensure the honouring and dignified handling of the remains of the persons killed in the military action on the Estonian territory; noting that the burying of persons killed in the military action in unsuitable places is not in line with European culture and the tradition remembering the deceased and honouring their remains; Considering Article 34 of the Protocol Additional of 8 June 1977 (I) to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 On the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts, pursuant to which the state of Estonia is obliged to ensure the honouring of the remains of the deceased who died in the military actions on the territory of Estonia and respecting and marking of their gravesites, and pursuant to which the state of Estonia is justified to carry out the reburying of the remains proceeding from public interests, the Riigikogu has passed the present Act."

Supporters of the monument maintain that this law was created to legitimize the disappearance of the Bronze Soldier.

Law on Forbidden Structures

February 15, 2007, Riigikogu approved the Law on Forbidden Structures by 46 votes to 44. This will ban public display of monuments that glorify the Soviet Union or Estonia's fifty years of Bolshevism. The monument itself was specifically mentioned in a clause, to be dismantled within 30 days of the President signing it into law.

Removal and protests

Estonian Police cordoned off the statue on April 26, 2007, in preparation for excavations of the buried people and possible relocation, sparking violent protests. A tent structure was erected to shield the excavations of the burials from view. Members of protest organizers "Night Vigil" reported that police had attacked three of their members monitoring the situation in a car parked nearby, injuring one of them.

Estonia's authorities report that the violence started around 21.20 (EET, UTC+3), as the protesters started to assault the policemen. Later around 1,000 Russian-speaking protesters surrounded the police cordon trying to break through. At dusk, the mob turned more and more violent, starting to throw stones at the police. Riot police responded by firing what was reported to be tear gas to disperse the crowd. However the crowd did not disperse and started committing acts of vandalism and rampant looting of nearby shops and buildings. By midnight the riots had spread around the centre of Tallinn, with massive damage to property — a total number of 99 cases of vandalism, including cars that had been turned upside down, broken and looted shop windows, pillaged bars and kiosks.

By 2 AM, things had calmed a little; over 100 people had been arrested. At about half past two (AM), reports came in that mass riots had ended and now the police were only looking for fugitives. The last of the violent protesters were apparently taken away by a large passenger bus. By morning 300 people had been arrested. One person died in a hospital from a stabbing wound, inflicted perhaps by another demonstrator. According to the officials, this death was not the result of police activity. Investigation is in its very first phases. Tallinn City Council has imposed a prohibition on selling alcohol in Tallinn for a week. There is concern that the protest may escalate into an ethnic conflict between Estonians and members of ethnic Russian minority.

In the night of April 27, 2007, at 3:40 a.m. local time, the Estonian government decided at an emergency meeting to immediately move the monument (as 'the ground for violent acts') to a military cemetery in Tallinn (Tallinna Kaitseväe kalmistu). Three hours later by 6:40 a.m. the statue had been removed. The initial plans called for a religious ceremony before beginning the exhumations on April 27. According to a statement by the minister of defense Jaak Aaviksoo at a press conference in the morning of 27 April 2007, the work has now been postponed.

April 28 saw an escalation in violence, with a second night of protests. Protesters used Molotov cocktails while police responded with rubber bullets and watercannons. Estonian sources attributed the disruptions to youths consuming stolen alcohol. By morning another 300 people had been arrested.

Political reaction

Estonia — The Estonian president Toomas Ilves appealed for calm and denounced the rioters as "criminals" due to the damage they had caused:

"All this had nothing to do with the inviolability of graves or keeping alive the memory of men fallen in World War II"… "The common denominator of last night’s criminals was not their nationality, but their desire to riot, vandalize and plunder".

Russia — The Russian Federation Council, on April 27, approved a statement concerning the monument, which urges the Russian authorities to take the "toughest possible measures" against Estonia:

The dismantling of the monument on the eve of Victory Day on May 9 is "just one aspect of the policy, disastrous for Estonians, being conducted by provincial zealots of Nazism,"… "These admirers of Nazism forget that politicians come and go, while the peoples in neighboring countries are neighbors for eternity. The dismantling of the monument and the mockery of the remains of the fallen soldiers is just more evidence of the vengeful policy toward Russians living in Estonia and toward Russia".

Latvia — The Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs "strongly condemns acts of vandalism in Tallinn which took place over night between 26 and 27 April" according to their press release:

"In a democratic country, any group of society which disagrees with government decisions is free to express its own opinion, however, it must not violate the law. Acts of vandalism which pose a threat to the life and health of people and damage and destroy property have nothing in common with the democratic forms of protest."

Ukraine — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced that the incident in Tallinn is a completely internal affair of Estonia, without any further comments.

Finland — Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen noted that the "...demonstrations and riots are of course an interior matter of Estonia," in an interview given to television:

"Finland nor other countries do not have to get involved. As they are occurring in an area near Finland, then we will of course keep a very close eye on them."

Norway — Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre announced that both sides should stop the violence and start respecting each other.