ESTONIA: Removal of WWII memorial opens debate over position of country's vast Russian minority

A wave of riots which erupted in Estonia after the removal of a memorial of Red Army soldiers on Friday (April 27, 2007) has uncovered a deep rift in relations between Estonians and a majority Russian population living in the country after it regained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Russians living in Estonia complained about being mistreated by the government, paid lower wages than Estonian nationals and denied participation in social life. For them, the last standing symbol of their homeland was a monument commemorating Soviet troops who died fighting Nazi Germany during World War II, a 2-metre (6-1/2 ft) high bronze statue of a Red Army soldier. While many Russian-speakers view the statue with fondness, ethnic Estonians see it as a reminder of 50 years of Soviet rule. "(The monument) means a lot for the Russian people. It's a memory of our grandfathers and fathers. My father was fighting (in World War II) himself, he died this year. For me this means a lot, as well as for the Russian population." said Yuliana Peschuhina, a Russian who lived in Estonia her whole life. Another Russian, Katya is too young to remember the Soviet era, but the heritage of Russian soldiers fighting in World War II has been passed on to her. "I really don't like it (removal of Red Army monument) because when I was small, my grandmother brought me to this place and she told me the history of this place and we put flowers, so it's like our small history in Estonia." Katya said. While the country remained under the Soviet regime ethnic Estonians have been denied access to learning their language in an attempt to erase the history of independent Estonia. But the memory of Soviet oppression stays in the society and impedes dialogue with the Russian population. "The Russians are fighting for their rights in the wrong country." said Kristi, an Estonian national living in Tallinn. "I think it was right (to remove the statue). Yes, I think solving of this problem could not have been delayed." said another Tallinn resident Jevgeni. Most of the roughly 300,000 strong Russian minority came during the Soviet era and had little need of Estonian, a Finno-Ugric language very unlike Russian, a fact which has become a problem after independence. Roughly a third of Russian-speakers have naturalised, a third took citizenship of the Russian Federation and a third live on aliens' passports, with the right to reside. Russia has long claimed Estonia is guilty of discrimination, charges Tallinn denies. It has said it has eased the citizenship path for children and actively works to boost integration. The problem was also raised by Amnesty International in a report from December 2006 criticizing Estonia for de facto excluding Russians from the labour market and education system. "Most of Estonians even don't have too emotional feeling against this soldier (statue of the Red Army memorial). It has stayed there for years and the only problem was the ninth of May when Russians started to gather there and especially last May when we saw red flags were flying and especially that they attacked our flag in this place. And from this point started the discussion and political parties promised this bronze soldier will be removed. And now when they got the power, formed the government they had to fulfil their promises." said Juhan Kivirahk, who works for the International Centre for Defence Studies in Tallinn. He claims that the government wanted to do good, but didn't succeed in convincing the Russian population to its plan of moving the monument. "Now I can say that it was not right but I understand that government had a great idea: to move this monument and to put it to new place before Victory Day, that people can celebrate it already in the new place. They planned also nice ceremony and so on. But now, if one reason to move this monument was to avoid splitting society, than now this split is much larger and stronger, so it didn't succeed, this plan, this is the problem." Kivirahk added. The government had not originally planned to re-site it until the end of May - after the anniversary of May 9 which marks victory in Europe over Nazi Germany and sometimes provokes tensions between Russian-speakers and ethnic Estonians. Estonia has said the statue was a public order menace as a focus for Estonian and Russian nationalists, and protests have mainly been by young Russian-speakers. It says it also shows more respect to the dead to be buried in a proper cemetery. According to Kivirahk, the moving of the monument might be a starting point for a debate over rights of Russian nationals living in Estonia. "From this point probably we start more to discuss about these issues and about the place of Russians in our society and about their rights and possibilities. Maybe its right as former Defence Minister Yurgen Liege said, that we have to open this wound and to try to make it healthy or well." Kivirahk said.

ITN Source | April 30, 2007

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