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I’m in Tallinn, Estonia, checking out the annual Jazzkaar Festival, but last night’s music—a killer set by Andy Bey ’s trio and a disappointing arena-rock set by Barcelona flamenco-hip-hop fusioneers Ojos de Brujo —were overshadowed by some intense social unres in the streets near the downtown hotel where I’m staying. The Bronze Soldier statue, a monument erected in honor of the Red Army troops that fought the Nazis to protect Estonia during World War II, was removed yesterday. About 40 percent of the country’s population is ethnic Russian and many of them were none too pleased by this decision, part of a larger campaign to scrub out any vestiges of Soviet occupation.
As night fell peaceful demonstrations turned violent. One person was killed and dozens were injured. This was all happening while I was hearing music, but the tension was palpable as I returned to my hotel. Here's the Times Online's coverage, including a link to a photo slide show.
Under the terms of the secret appendix to the 1939 "non-aggression" treaty between the German Reich and the Soviet Union, Hitler and Stalin agreed Estonia would goto the Soviet Union "in the case of a territorial-political change." As a result, Estonia was occupied by Soviet troops in June 1940 and annexed to the Soviet Union that August. The Nazis invaded a year later. The re-occupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union was hardly "liberation."
It's certainly understandable that many Estonians -- especially those who experienced the Soviet occupation, which lasted until 1991 -- might be uncomfortable with Soviet symbols in the heart of their capital city.
At the same time, this isn't quite in the same league as a statue of Lenin or Dzerzhinsky. It is unfortunate that the Soviet-ness of the statue to many Estonians -- and maybe Soviet-Russian-ness to many Russians in Estonia -- is seen as so central that the statue can't somehow be allowed to serve simply as a memorial to the individual human beings lying in the mass grave over which it was erected -- no matter whether those individuals should have been doing in Estonia in the first place.
It's tragic that ethnic divisions, fundamentally different undestandings of history, and a bit of (mutual) insensitivity can lead to death and injury in the present.