All About Latvia

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-Giustino- Justin suggests to replace the monument of the Bronze Soldier with a more feminine monument, commemorating many many civil lives lost during the World War II, when all three Baltic States found themselves sandwiched between two mighty powers.

I can hear voices of Russian youth that such a monument would be considered re-writing history. As most Russians have been taught from a very young age the Red Army indeed freed Estonia from the Nazis.

Even though, “On September 20, 1944 Otto Tief government proclaimed Estonian state restored,” according to this source.

“Tief used the interregnum that was created by the withdrawal of German troops from and the advance of the Red Army toward Tallinn. His government never managed to take full control of the Estonian capital. Military units loyal to Tief clashed both with Germans and Russians. On September 22, 1944 Red Army took Tallinn under its control. Members of Tief government fled Tallinn.”

That is so different from Latvia where no government was formed in the immediate period following the Nazi withdrawal.

For Russians, and especially for Russian youth, it ought to be important to learn the history of World War II from a point of view of other countries.

Boris Makarenko, the first deputy director of the Center for Political Technology, in the English-version of Kommersant makes several excellent points regarding history.

For a while, I’ve been reading Latvian newspaper archives from those 1940 events, when Soviet tanks rushed through Latvia’s eastern border to “preserve peace” that July morning. Following arrival of the Red Army, changes in the society took places swiftly. Already a couple of weeks following the invasion, the new pro-Moscow minister of education announced that Russian would be taught in all schools. And I’m quite certain the same thing happened in Estonia.

Unlike other European countries, the Baltic States were swallowed into the family of nations known as Soviet Union without asking, they were overcome by Russian-speaking immigrants who exemplified the imperialist behavior. They didn’t bother to learn a national language or understand the culture. They perceived the natives as pygmies, a primitive culture that cannot compare to the richness and mysterious Russian soul.

Riots in Eastern Estonia and Tallinn are only an example of this attitude.

The whole debate in many forums revolves around ethnic superiority. Russians say Estonians suffer from a complex of inferiority therefore they need to remove the damned statue to stick it to the Big Guy Nextdoor. For Estonians, it’s a symbol of Soviet occupation, of a loss of nationhood for 50 long years. It has to be gone.

Whether removing the monument was a good thing — I don’t know. Only time will tell. Removing or destroying the artifacts of the Soviet occupation, 16 years following the country’s independence seems like a moot point. I just don’t think any monument is going to be built in its place.

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The events of the last two days in Estonia are being watched by nationalist organizations in Latvia. On both sides.

We can’t pass up the opportunity to blame Russians (or Estonians/Latvians, depending on which side of the fence you might find yourself.

The site of “national conservative” uberpatriotic party Visu Latvijai posted several reports in English and Latvia, including this one:

Russians have started to destroy our monuments- they covered the statue of A.H.Tammsaare with paint and wrote a thing about our prime minister Ansip there.

And things arent getting out of control only in Tallinn. Also in Jõhvi-russians also burned a statue there. And I hear that some windows have been broken in Pärnu already.

But when most of the police is in Tallinn..how can we control the other cities?

Shtab to Protect Russian Schools, which recently transformed itself into an organization with a much wider “pro-Russian” angle, announced the protest outside the Estonian embassy and forum posters aren’t exactly understanding of the actions of “fascist” Estonia.

While it impacts Latvia, I don’t see any monuments in Riga, for example, that would need to be moved. Any notion that the Victory Monument across the Daugava river ought to be demolished is a bunch of nonsense. Besides, that monument, built in 1985, doesn’t have any remains of any soldiers.

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Where we are now…

* In a phone interview to Postimees, Estonia’s Prime Minister Andrus Ansip said violence is inexcusable (link in Russian). At the same time, he said he didn’t anticipate such turn of events.

* Postimees newspaper also has a photo gallery.

* Tallinn’s jails are full. More than -300- 600 people have been detained.

* Some rioting also took place in Eastern Estonia in Jõhvi and Kohtla-Järve, both are predominantly Russian towns.

* Russian-language and Estonian-language versions of the site Delfi suspended commentson their sites to “preserve civil peace“.

* Topix.net’s forum has a few interesting posts.

photo taken from postimees.ee

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