Articles about Estonia. Bronze Soldier

Vesti Dnja (Estonia) 12.07.2007

THE TIMES OF FEAR HAVE COME

People often fear to criticize the authorities openly LATELY people of Estonia are less and less eager to express any remarks that may cause resentment of the authorities in their own name. There is a sense that Estonia is getting back to the times when the authority was to be criticized only in a very close circle, and preferably in whisper. The times, when for political jokes, if not convicted, one would at least loose the job. However, “Vesti” found out that not everyone feels that way.

"Chas" (Latvia) 09th of July 2007

A birthday under Hitler’s flag celebrated the minister of justice of Estonia

Estonia is in the hands of scandal again. Minister of justice Rein Lang received congratulations with his 50th birthday on the background of a large flag of Hitler’s Germany. Usage of Nazi symbols in Estonia is officially forbidden, just like in Latvia. However, this fact did not stop the minister of (!) justice... Now an influential representative of the European Union is threatening to punish Estonia for rehabilitation of fascism.

Vesti Dnja (Estonia) 17 May, 2007

A kid was beaten up by the "Detskiy mir"

Witnesses and victims of the people dispersal during the Bronze night will yet for a long time speak of it with tears in their eyes.

Our newspaper published dedicated phone numbers and over two dozens eyewitnesses and victims from Tallinn called in to tell about the crowd dispersal skills of the special force law enforcement agencies.

The Independent 17 may 2007 ã.

Estonia opens synagogue for first time since Nazi era

Estonia’s last synagogue was wiped out in 1944, amid fierce gunfire and overhead air raids, as Nazi troops fled the Red Army’s advance. But yesterday, after a six-decade wait, the country’s 3,000-strong Jewish population finally donned prayer shawls and clutched siddurs, as the first synagogue since the Holocaust opened in Tallinn.

May 16th, 2007

Long echo

Etery KEKELIDZE

The Shock of the events which took place in April 26 and 27, the day before the relocation of the Soldier’s monument, is still live — its remedy will take much more time than even the most optimistic forecasts state. One thing is clear — the shock’s worn off speed is in direct dependency from the completeness and objectivity of the investigation of the causes and effects of these tragic days.

The Jerusalem Post 02 May 2007

The struggle over Estonia's history

EFRAIM ZUROFF

Last weekend's large-scale riots in Estonia in which one demonstrator was killed, over 100 people were injured, and more than 1,000 detained in response to the government's decision to remove a Soviet-era monument commemorating the victory of the Red Army over Nazi Germany from downtown Tallinn to a remote location, were hardly surprising.

10 May, 2007

A woman touches the Bronze Soldier monument at the military cemetery in Tallinn yesterday Thousand lay flowers at disputed Estonia statue

TALLINN: Thousands of people of Russian origin flocked yesterday to lay flowers at the feet of the statue of a Red Army soldier whose removal from a city centre spot in Estonia sparked two nights of riots.

09 May, 2007

War history unresolved in Estonia

You would think that anti-Nazism should be as natural to any democrat as anti-Communism, but Western media coverage of civil unrest in Estonia about the relocation of a Soviet-era monument has proven otherwise.

2 May 2007

The Myth-Makers of Estonia

The weather broadcast notwithstanding, the end of April 2007 is definitely a hot spring season for Estonia's high political echelons as well as for people in Tallinn. On the night of April 27, 2007, throngs of people who protested the removal of the Soviet-era monument witnessed the dismantling of the post-WWII-era memorial to a Soldier-Liberator, commonly called the Bronze Soldier.

29 April 2007

Moscow threatens action after Estonia removes war memorial

Ethnic Russians riot in the capital of Baltic republic

A major row has broken between Russia and its Baltic neighbour Estonia over the pulling down of a World War II memorial in the centre of Tallinn, capital of the former Soviet republic.

One dead after monument riot

European News. TALLINN Estonia and Russia were on the brink of a diplomatic breakdown yesterday after the Baltic state removed a Soviet memorial after riots that left one dead and dozens hurt.

Estonian riot over lost statue

Estonian authorities moved a Soviet-era war memorial from central Tallinn under cover of darkness yesterday, setting off riots that left at least one dead and sparking fury in Moscow.

War monument removal sparks deadly riot

ESTONIAN authorities moved a Soviet-era war memorial from central Tallinn under cover of darkness today setting off riots that left at least one dead and sparking fury in Moscow.

Nationalists are exploiting history as discontent grows: Across eastern Europe, memorials to those who died fighting the Nazis are being dismantled and the far right rehabilitated

Gyula Hegyi
Across central and eastern Europe, nationalists are exploiting the painful history of the second world war to whip up anti-Russian feeling and rehabilitate the far right as social and economic discontent grows -and the process is mirrored in Russia. The latest in a string of such moves is the decision by the Polish authorities to block the reopening of the permanent Russian exhibition at the site of the Auschwitz death camp because of its description of some of its victims (from annexed pre-war Polish territory) as Soviet citizens.

Cultural Amnesia

Iosef KATZ
A sadly renowned political leader from the last century admitted that just the word “culture” drives him to grab for a pistol. Looking at the next issue of Culture and Life will drive one to grab for one’s head.

Let them keep in mind

Nino ABESADZE
As already written by Vesti, Estonian Parliament adopted a law on demolition of prohibited constructions, allowing demolition of the monument to the Soviet soldiers in Tallinn, the so called “Bronze soldier”. According to Estonian legislation, for entry into force this law was to be signed by the president of the country, what head of state refused to do.

In Estonia monuments of the Second world war are demolished. «This is neither nationalism nor patriotism»

Anna Maisuradze
Estonian parliament has adopted in third reading laws “On demolition of prohibited monuments” and “On protection of military burials”, however the Estonian president should say the last word. If the president shares the parliament’s view, the monument to the Bronze soldier in Tinismyagi square in Tallinn will be subject to demolition, and the tombs of soldiers who fought against fascism are under threat of exhumation.

A war against monuments is impermissible

Natiya Khurtsilava
The Estonian Parliament chose to square accounts with the history making "disappear" military cemeteries and take down Soviet monuments. Even part of Estonian citizens protested against those resolutions of their legislators.

IT’S NOT THE DEAD WHO NEED IT

The Estonian Parliament’s legal commission yesterday supported a motion by the opposition party Pro Patria and Res Publika to insert an amendment into the bill “On Prohibited Structures” calling for dismantling of the Bronze Soldier in the centre of Tallinn. The bill has already passed the first reading, and its second reading is scheduled for February 13. It is entirely likely that by next Thursday the document will have been put up for a final vote.

Veterans Appeal to Estonian Authorities

The World Congress of Russian Jewry (WCRJ) has sent the Estonian authorities an appeal from the leaders of veterans organisations in a number of foreign countries protesting plans to dismantle the monument to Soviet soldiers in Tallinn.

Never Forget

In January, Andrus Ansip, the Prime Minister of Estonia, visited Dnepropetrvosk. The guest and the Estonian businessmen accompanying him were cordially welcomed: no matter what you say, potential trade relations take precedence over political and moral considerations. Especially in Ukraine, where passions over the role of the Union of Ukrainian NationalistsOUkrainian Rebel Army in World War II are still heated.

Neither Honour Nor Respect

In the very heart of Berlin, in the Tiergarten, just 200 metres from a major national symbol of Germany, the Brandenburg Gate, are a monument to Soviet soldiers and a cemetery. No one in Germany is discussing the possibility of moving them, nor is anyone discussing the possibility of moving the other monuments to Soviet soldiers and their burial sites in Berlin O in Treptow Park and in Pankow

Debate Renewed: Did Moscow Free Estonia or Occupy It?

TALLINN, Estonia -- The Bronze Soldier stands in a small park near Tallinn's lovely Old Town, staring mournfully at the snow-covered earth, helmet in hand. An inscription in Russian and Estonian says simply, ''To the fallen of the Second World War.'' It is far less conspicuous, as war monuments go, than the furor its fate has caused.

The past is unpredictable

DEPENDING on your sympathies, your education and your historical experience, a giant bronze Soviet-era soldier in Tallinn, Estonia, may celebrate the liberation of the Estonian capital from fascism; or it may depict the "unknown rapist" in Soviet uniform whose arrival marked the end of one occupation and the start of another.