Aug. 16 () –
Estonia has begun this Tuesday the dismantling of a Soviet monument erected in the city of Narva, near the border with Russia, with which the triumph over Nazism in World War II was commemorated, alleging reasons of public order.
“My government has decided to remove Soviet monuments from public spaces in Estonia,” Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has defended, calling them “symbols of Soviet repression and occupation.”
Kallas has argued that these monuments “have become a source of growing social tensions” and that they will not give Russia “an opportunity to use the past to disturb the peace in Estonia”.
“The government has made the decision to remove the war memorials of the former foreign regime to prevent further hostility and open old wounds,” insisted Kallas, who has announced a “neutral tombstone” for the mass grave of the victims of the war. World War II.
However, Kallas has pointed out that Soviet monuments with historical value will be transferred to a museum and will not be demolished. This is the case of the T-34 tank that is located in the vicinity of the Narva River, which the Red Army crossed in World War II to expel the Nazi troops from the city of the same name.
“We try to preserve as many as possible so that future generations can learn from those painful lessons,” justified the prime minister, according to a statement issued by the Estonian government.
For his part, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Urmas Reinsalu, has defended the withdrawal of these tributes to avoid “divisions” in Estonian society, at the same time as he has assured that these monuments do not commemorate the triumph over Nazism, but rather they “glorify” the Soviet occupation of Estonia.
Like Kallas and Reinsalu, the Minister of the Interior, Lauri Laanemets, has also used an alleged problem of public order as an argument to justify the removal of this particular monument, in a city where precisely 90 percent of its population is of Russian origin.
“It is a complex issue, and it is up to the State to solve it. It would be irresponsible to let the local government take on this task (…) Many residents are concerned about the removal of these monuments, but we must find a place where we can commemorate the victims of World War II without conflicts or threats”, he said.
On the occasion of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Baltic countries have been particularly belligerent with Moscow, not only removing Soviet monuments, but also prohibiting the entry of Russian citizens and, in the case of Latvia, declared Russia a “country sponsor of terrorism”.
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