What I think of the riots in Estonia
(see postitus on saadaval ka eesti keeles)
Through the past year, I’ve been away from Estonia for quite a while. I’ve been to shorter trips to the US and Europe, and I’ve also lived abroad in chunks of one or two months. At the same time, I’ve read and listened to memories of Estonians about the 20th century history, such as the Second World War and the Soviet times that followed, and also about newer events such as the Iraq war.
During this time, I’ve found myself thinking quite often and deeply about what being an Estonian means to me. You don’t think about it that much when you’re in your home country, but do when you’re abroad. This is important to me because it’s one of the sources of my identity — it’s important to me to know where I come from, who I am, where I’m going and what values of my predecessors I am carrying forward.
This is why the causes and interpretation of this past week’s riots in Estonia matter to me. This is to me directly connected to personally being an Estonian, and the place of Estonia as a country in Europe, the world and next to Russia.
The occupation and its symbols
The source of the problem is in this brief paragraph that typically accompanies the reporting of the riots in Western media.
Soviet troops invaded the Baltic countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — in 1940, but were pushed out by the Nazis a year later. The Red Army retook them in 1944 and occupied them until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
This interpretation of history is valid both in Estonia and in the West. It’s neutral objective historic truth.
The occupation from 1940 to 1991 brought along crimes against humanity, terror and physical and mental destruction of the people living in Estonia at the time. Members of my family and other people I know were deported to Siberia in cattle trains. Their guilt was that they were wealthier, more industrious or educated than the others, or simply had been working in public service during the first Estonian Republic (1918-1940). When the “criminal” didn’t happen to be at home, anyone else around was grabbed along in his/her place because the deportation quotas had to be filled and individual guilt and proper procedures didn’t really matter.
Those not deported were subjected to decades of communist terror and persecution. Many were forced to join the Communist Party not because of their beliefs, but simply because this was often the only way to have a meaningful career. They were then made to spy against their colleagues or family, or made to commit other crimes against their will.
The Soviet state demonstrated its presence and superiority in Estonia by erecting monuments. One of them was the “bronze soldier” in Tallinn. To all who suffered from the communist crimes against humanity or persecution in Estonia, it symbolized occupation, crimes against humanity and the persons and power that executed those. It would be morally improper that this remained in the centre of Tallinn in front of the National Library and next to one of Tallinn’s most important churches. The monument should have been relocated immediately after regaining independence similarly to how the many statues of Lenin and other ideological monuments were removed. The bronze soldier, differently from the others, though, remained under the protection of the Soviet army, and relocating it would have been possible only after the Soviet army left Estonia in August and September 1994.
I cannot say why the statues was not relocated until now. It’s always easy to judge things in hindsight. The statue was removed now because had it remained in place, the ethnic tensions around it would have been escalating until resulting in a clash that would have brought along far greater (human) losses than what we’ve seen in this past week’s riots.
Russia
In an interesting coincidence of events, the first president of Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin passed away just this last week. We may think of him as the creator of modern democratic Russia. Estonia values Yeltsin highly, as from the viewpoint of contemporary Estonian history, Yeltsin was crucial in the events of August 1991 where democracy-loving people of Russia, Estonia and other surrounding countries stood against the communist coup. Among other things, this made it possible for Estonia to regain its independence.
Yeltsin tried to turn Russia towards democratic development and was successful in his time to an extent. In the current Putin era, though, Russia has chosen an imperialist path, reconnecting itself with its Soviet heritage, for example, by re-establishing symbols such as the Soviet anthem as its own. Russia is not a civilized, modern European country. It’s something that I don’t even know a name for, as nothing like it exists elsewhere in the world. Russia is a unique phenomenon whose governance significantly differs from the modern European and Western political culture.
The official Soviet and current Russian interpretation of history called the monument in Tõnismäe “soldier-liberator”. According to this, the Red Army liberated Estonia in 1944 of the Nazi occupation. This is absolutely true. But Russia has to date failed to acknowledge the history that followed — that one occupation (that they defeated) was simply followed by another, their own.
The democratic European political discourse assumes open and honest communication, clarification of terms and respect for different opinions. On the other hand, the rhetoric arsenal of totalitarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany and Soviet Union, has always contained tools like selective interpretation of history and purposefully misusing terms and concepts. Occupiers are called “liberators”, falsified and forced elections “free” and massive famine in the 1930s “economic flourishing”.
Russia continues to seek opportunities to regain control over states that it once controlled, and disregards their sovereignty. The “bronze soldier” provides an ideal pretext to morally attack Estonia. The propaganda works, as many people in Russia, and the people in Estonia who live in the Russian media space, truly believe that Estonia supports nazism and wants to destroy the monument of those who fought against it and discredit these memories, while in fact, Estonia is only relocating disturbing symbols of occupation into an area that would be less prominent in its capital.
At the same time, it seems to me that the people in Russia still want to belong in the Western and European culture in a way. Why is hard business in Russia done in “bucks”, US dollars, and not in their own legal currency? Why do we see so many Russian emigrees in Europe and the US, while only a handful of diplomats, journalists and businessmen are operating in Russia from the west?
Other nations in Estonia, and the limits of tolerance
Estonia has a long history of tolerance. The Cultural Autonomy of Ethnic Minorities Act, passed in the first Estonian Republic in 1925, was among the most progressive in the world and established the right for all nations living in Estonia to protect and develop their culture and heritage. Estonia has always wished to be a part of a multicultural Europe. Unfortunately we are not able to live up to this past heritage fully yet — there are isolated instances in Estonia where people from other races or cultures are discriminated against, or it’s unnecessarily difficult for them to be able to work in Estonia. We can fix all this.
Currently, many people live in Estonia who (or whose parents) came to Estonia because the Soviet occupation told them to. Maybe it was also out of their free will, or maybe it was against their will. I know that many of them and their children understand history differently than I do. We may discuss these differences face-to-face over a beer, or maybe on the Internet or at some peaceful meeting. But the limit of tolerance for me is when things become criminal and violent. Violence and criminal acts are never justified, and they are especially not justified when political reasons are the pretext. Many older people living in Estonia have commented over the past week that the rioting on the streets isn’t really that different from the entrance of Red Army in 1940 and 1944 — similar looting and barbarism took place then.
It would be a big mistake to engage in fueling ethnic confrontation. As you notice in this post, I don’t use the words “Estonian” or “Russian” to refer to nationalities, except when talking about myself personally. There are many Russians living in Estonia who condemned the rioting. Unfortunately, some Estonians also decided to participate in the criminal activities of the past few days. It’s not a choice or confrontation of ethnicities. It’s about choosing whether you want to be a “Soviet person”, homo soveticus who has no respect for anything and spits on it all, or whether you want to be a law-abiding person living in democratic Estonian Republic, member state of the European Union and NATO. This choice can be made by everyone personally and themselves, regardless of nationality or other criteria.
Morally standing our ground
I’m happy for the actions of Estonian authorities, government and police in controlling the riots. Only one person got killed, and most likely this happened in a fight between the rioters themselves. Most of the damage has been to property, but this will be compensated by the government and insurance. As the owner of a looted pub half-jokingly remarked, “I was planning to renovate the place anyway”. The police keeps things under control without excessive violence. To those who think that this situation is not really normal, I recommend watching European news — unfortunately, we can see such events often in case of major political conferences or sports events. This is the dark side of a democratic society, but we must still prevent and stand against crime in all ways possible.
Now let’s compare this to the selective action of the Russian authorities. On one hand, they curb most democratic gatherings extremely violently and using the “strike first” principle. On the other hand, they are not able to (are not willing to) ensure even the basic level of security for the Estonian embassy in Moscow, so that it will have to shut down and cannot provide consular service neither to Estonian nor Russian citizens.
I believe that the following two things are possible in parallel.
On one hand, the Estonian constitution sets its purpose to be “the preservation of Estonian nation and culture through all times”. One inseparable part of a culture is identity, history and historic memory. It is my duty and responsibility as an Estonian to carry this memory forward to be remembered and studied by other nations and future generations. The Estonian Republic has been created “on the inextinguishable right of the people of Estonia to national self-determination”. I’m not going elsewhere to force my views upon other countries, I’ll remain within the bounds of Estonia with this. I must always be prepared to negotiate and listen, but there are some things (such as the question about whether Estonia was occupied or “liberated”) where changing my views would mean giving up the historic memory of my ancestors, and I cannot do this — but I can live and work side by side with those who peacefully think otherwise.
(the Estonian version of this post has a reference to domestic politics here, I’ve omitted this from the English version as I believe it has no relevance to my English readers)
On the other hand, you can be a part of multicultural Europe and the world, where we have a multitude of opinions, and where national chauvinism and xenophobia are replaced with respect and cooperation. We still need to get used to the fact that an open society in an open world functions differently from a closed society behind the iron curtain. Learning and discovering this has been an interesting journey to me and I wish the same to others.
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Great post Jaanus - manages to balance the emotional with the rational in a time when both are in short supply. As a friend outside Estonia, I (and others) have been worried for you guys in the past few days and am glad to see things calming down. The violence and looting in Tallinn is despicable but it points to divisions in Estonian society that must be addressed - otherwise I fear that problems will recur. You say “there are isolated instances in Estonia where people from other races or cultures are discriminated against, or its unnecessarily difficult for them to be able to work in Estonia. We can fix all this.” I’m not sure if these incidents are as isolated as you think but yes - you can fix all this. In an era when Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams are joining in government there is proof that the deepest racial tensions can be fixed. Sincere best wishes with the task.
Making business with Estonia you support and finance Nazis.
You should understand, that making business with Estonia or buying anything produced in Estonia or visiting Estonia as a tourist, you actually support and finance a new generation of European Nazis. Please, spend a couple of minutes to read the letter to the end, because your voice of a free human is very important in preventing the revival of Fascism in the Europe.
Estonia, which has recently joined to EU and NATO, officially practices Apartheid policies and does its best to rehabilitate and legalize Fascism, for years. EU, US and other democracies preferred not to pay attention on that till now. However, it doesn’t cancel the fact that Estonia carries out a policy of Ethnic Discrimination against ethnic Russians, who constitute a third part of its population. Most of these people were born in this country or live here for 30-40 years, but they were not even provided citizenship and are treated as second class people. Moreover, Estonia officially glorifies legionaries of Hitler’s SS troops that exterminated Jews in Fascist death camps in Estonia during the Holocaust. Government sets up monuments to these Fascist butchers. They are allowed to march in the downtown of the capital, Tallinn. They are invited to official events; the Estonian President shakes their bloody hands, and calls them heroes of Estonia.
At the same time, Estonian government aggressively fights with any memories of millions of the Soviet soldiers, who paid with their lives to free Europe from the plague of the Fascism and to save dozens millions of Europeans of the death. And democratic countries - first of all EU and US, prefer to dissemble this again. But recently Estonian regime overstepped the limits, which makes it absolutely illegal from the point of view of common human values. On April 26, Estonian authorities have decided to finally erase the memory of the victory of Russian soldiers over the Hitler’s Nazism by destroying the main World War II memorial to a Soviet warrior-rescuer, Bronze Soldier. For those Russians who live in Estonia, demolition of the memorial is not just a removal of some architectonic construction. This is the most painful insult of the memories of their fathers and grandfathers, who died in battle with the Fascism to bring freedom to the Europe.
Thousands of offended Estonian Russians came to a peaceful protest demonstration, demanding from Estonian officials to stop the vandalism. But instead dialogue Estonian authorities sent special police forces to suppress the protest. With no reason they started to fire in the protesters rubber bullets, water cannon and tear-gas, throw flash-bang grenades, and baton women and teenagers. During the massacre the first ethnic Russian was killed, dozens were injured and hundreds were arrested just because of their Russian ethnicity. Those arrested were thrown into in a harbor warehouse as they were livestock, and there they were beat by police within an inch of their life. Just think - in the heart of the Europe an Apartheid regime kills, injures and arrests hundreds people just because of their ethnicity! However, almost all of the European and American media keep hypocritical silence or even worse call this “pacifying gangs of drung vandals”.
This is disgrace! This is shame not only on those European and US governments that support this Nazi state. This is shame on every European and American who keeps silence today. Keeps silence, because somewhere inside he or she is confident that rehabilitation of Fascism, and Apartheid crimes committed against those “dirty Russian” at the heart of the European Union, provide “useful lesson” to Russians and Russia. But maybe you think that this is not your business? Then let me remind you a famous phrase by German priest Martin Niemoller he said about Nazis in 1945: “First they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew…. Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left who can speak up for me”. Today, new European Nazis came for the Russians, and the Europeans keep silence or, better to say, silently approve. Well, you can be sure - this is just the beginning, and some day yours home-grown Nazis, inspired by your silence of the crimes of the Estonian Fascism, will come for you. And there will be no one to speak up for you. Because Russians, once rescued the Europe from the Fascism, will never pay again with millions of their lives for those not speaking up today.
So what can you do? Not too much. But quite enough to stop Nazis. At least don’t finance them. Don’t buy anything produced from Estonia. Don’t do any kind of business with Estonian companies and organizations. Don’t invest in Estonian stocks. Don’t fly to Estonia as a tourist. What else? Maybe, to ask your representative in the House of Representatives, why your government spends your taxes to support Estonian Nazis? Or to forward this letter to your local newspaper and ask them, why they never write about Apartheid in Estonia? Or to call to Estonian embassy in your country, and ask them what is that they think they are doing? Or at least forward this letter to a few friends and colleagues? Your voice CAN prevent revival of Nazism, if you want it.
I’m keeping the above comment on this site as a warning and example of propaganda endorsed by Russian Federation that I referred to in the post body. It features accusations and distortion of facts, has zero regard for objective historic truth (selectively overblowing some facts while ignoring others) and incites hatred instead of understanding. I’ll probably remove similar future comments.
Jaanus,
It is as simple as this. Forget about occupation and whatever for now. Lets talk about fascism, nazis and their relationship to Estonians. Nazis and fascism are bad. it nas been proven in the court after WWII. This makes anyone who fought fascism good, because at least they didn’t show that much aggression as nazis. So Russians ARE good in the context of WWII(Surprising isn’t it?). If you are saying that Russians are bad and they should have never fought for Estonia that makes you a supporter of nazis. And if you show disrespect to Unknown Soldier it only means that you would prefer SS teams to be marching in your country. It is a pity that there were people who actually fought for you, your parents and grandparents. Your attitude is a spit on the graves of these fighters. Well done!!!
PLEASE DO PROVE ME WRONG!!! I want to know what choice Estonia had in WWII!!!
P.S. Remember I am leaving out what happened after WWII because unknown soldiers have no relationship to that whatsoever. They were people who hated Hitler and nazism and they didnt need your country or your land.
Nobody -
ok, let’s leave out what happened after WW2 for the moment and only talk about soldiers. I don’t think it’s a good tone to disrespect anyone’s memory. We must respect all dead. Therefore it’s disturbing to me to see news that Russian authorities are simply destroying WW2 memorials in Himki and elsewhere, and that memorials of those fallen in Estonian War of Independence are attacked in Estonia.
As for Bronze Soldier and the soldiers buried there, things get better. Before, the memorial and the graves were on/under a public transport stop, and people were trampling on their bodies and indeed literally spitting on them while waiting for the trolleybus. Now, the memorial and the remains of the fallen ones will be relocated to their new home — the Defence Forces Cemetery, where those fallen in many wars and fighting on many sides now lay side by side. If you indeed care about their memory and not propaganda, you can now go and visit the memorial and show your respect in a much more dignified way.
..and everybody seem to forget, that it was the Soviet regime, that put the bus stop on the graves
They didn’t respect their own soldiers’ graves, differently from us. The most funniest thing is actually, that the soldiers wo are buried there were executed because they were marauders… Well, life is better in our days, marauder today will get only 5 years in prison 
Lee - to be fair, Im not sure 100% about this marauders bit. I dont have info about if the buried soldiers were marauders or not. But other info is correct about who put the bus stop there.
Dear Jaanus,
It should be noted that you spent a bit more time on explaining the situation to your readers, unlike many other bloggers, who managed to squeeze the story into couple of sentences.
What is dissapointing is that there does not seem to be enough of replection about the darker times of the Estonian history. There are facts related to the period of German occupation which are hard to deny. Like the fact that Estonia was one of the few Judenfrei (Jew-free) areas in Reich. The support of extermination of Jews and other “untermenschen” cannot be justified by the atrocities of Soviet regime. Not only the Soviet regime was a tragedy for estonian people, but also the support they have provided to Nazi Germany in that dark time. This fact does not support your idea of long history of tolerance.
I do not support the annexation of Estonia to the USSR, but the pre-war politics that lead to what some people call 1st occupation was quite compicated. I suggest you to read some notes on the Churchill Centre site about that time, its an interesting reading: http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=69
On the issue of Russian minority - I’m sure you have read the articles by Amnesty International. They are not quite favourable towards Estonian policy in language and citizenship. Why should Russians in Estonia be treated differently than, lets say, Catalunyans in Spain, or Welsh in the UK or Russains in Lithuania? The history of the territory that is called Estonia did start neither in 1940, nor in 1918 - it is much older and Russians are not aliens on this land. Much (but not all) of the current Russian population has been brought to your country by Soviet regime, which did not discriminate Estonian or Russian when it was about sending to Siberia. Relatives of many of these people suffered not less than yours.
What I think is missing in your text is the look into the future, because so far the concentration seems to be on the past. Estonian and Russian communities (and other communities which already there or will come) do not have other choice but to co-exist. Looking at Estonia as a mono-ethnic and mono-cultural state is not realistic. And the reconciliation will come when all the parties involved accept this.
Regards
Mikhail — thanks for your comment. See my response in this post.
Many Germans, like from my hometown, could hide their records, their responsibilities for the holocaust after the war. They were trying to get back their old jobs after serving in the Baltics. Now emphazising the collaboration as it happened in France and elsewhere is right. But the Germans were the cause, Mikhail, why it happened. Estonia did not know antisemitism before 1939, but Germany was practising it and the Soviet Union too. The first Jews who had to leave were sent to Siberia. 1940.
Russians aren’t the only minority in Estonia. Even us English-speaking ex-pats form a minority. There are also Swedes — who have been here even longer than the ‘old’ Russians — and Inkeri Finns who have been here perhaps longer.
Where are their language rights? Is there a quota for how large you have to be to get them?
As for us Anglophones, the last time I checked there were several thousand of us here. Yet all of my interaction with the migration and citizenship board has been in Estonian, although the paper work was in Estonian, Russian, and English.
And — get this — they’ll let me vote in municipal elections in 2009, just because I live here. I don’t have to take any kind of test.
Compared to the bureaucracy in the US, the migration and citizenship bureau here has been cheap and efficient. I applied for a visa, I got it a week and a half later. So no complaints from my side.
What I always fear (after I moved to Estonia from Holland), is that Estonia will give in to ethnic groups time and time again, like the dutch government does. Now Holland is THE example of a multicultural society going over the cliff soon, simply because they give in to deals that have been already made. Also because they are being terrified to be called racist. It is ridiculous to be afraid of that. It kills all possibility of open communication.
Besides that the Estonian ss-regiments got special dispensation in the neurenberg trials (being front line soldiers), let us talk about the Dutch and Flemish SS-units. Religious people were being ordered by priests and revs from the council to fight against the “red danger”. And if you bear in mind, that the pope blessed the german troops just before they invaded Poland in 1939, you might find some sense in people wanting to fight against the red army.
Now let us head back o Estonia: People there already had some ideas what the russians were planning with Estonia (Russians had been there, done it and got the t-shirt so to speak).
Just before the withdrawal from the german army out of estonia, Estonian SS-contingents raided as much supplies as they could from their former “allies”, or should I say: my enemies enemy is my friend?
and remember : History is written by the victor. And should always be seen as that