quote:

---

Police have fired tear gas and rubber bullets after clashes erupted following the removal of a Soviet war memorial in the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

Water cannon were deployed and volleys of shots rang out as police confronted youths who threw petrol bombs.

It was the second night of clashes between mainly ethnic Russians and police. One person died on Friday.

Estonia says the memorial symbolised Soviet occupation. Supporters say it celebrated heroes who fought the Nazis.

The monument was removed on Friday and taken to a secret location.

Correspondents said a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators gathered where the monument used to stand. [...]

---

I know very little about Estonia, but I do know that during the soviet era and specifically around wartime, part of the reason that Russia acquired the eastern European countries was for resources they were short of and as buffer states- they had kept these countries as part of their empire for much the same reason in previous centuries I believe. Like in all empires, it was the mother country that mattered, not the colonies they had. Look at Germany after ww2, they literally stripped east Germany of everything to rebuild Russia.

[ 28 April 2007: Message edited by: Pride for Red Dolores ]

Look, there's no need to simplify this situation, or just boil it down to the Russian imperialism meme.
It wasnt the Russian state that occupied Estonia in 1940, it was the Soviet Union. The Soviet state has insisted that it's beyond such things as race, religion and nation-state. Thats why its difficult to look at 1940's Eastern Europe with modern lens.

Its worth noting that the riots broke out after the statue was removed, as the sign of protest by the Russian minority,
which feels to be discriminated against. Also note that Estonia is a new member of both NATO and the European Union.

This is a MAy 2nd article from the Counterpunch:

quote:

---

On the night of April 27, 2007, throngs of people who protested the removal of the Soviet-era monument witnessed the dismantling of the post-WWII-era memorial to a Soldier-Liberator, commonly called the Bronze Soldier. Excavation of the remains of 13 Soviet soldiers buried under the memorial and their relocation were supposed to follow shortly. There are rumors that the monument was cut into pieces and taken to an unknown destination. The dismantling happened at night, and in the ensuing scuffle there were 500 protesters taken in custody, 60 people were wounded, and one dead. According to Russian news channels, participants in the night vigil and protest think that the authorities were to blame for the ensuing disorder and looting. After all, these authorities were the ones who ordered police to disperse the crowd. As one of the participants emphasized, police used water cannons, sound grenades and tear gas. As people left the square, driven by Estonian police and soldiers, they started to destroy businesses and looting began. One may guess that this protest is not the last. The Estonian government is ready for action: Estonian soldiers have been delivered live cartridges to ensure the protection of public order in Tallinn.

The Bronze Soldier is a World War II memorial that was dedicated to the liberators of Tallinn from fascist forces. It was built in 1947. However, after the fall of the Soviet Union and the ensuing anti-Russian hysteria, for many Estonian nationalists the Bronze Soldier in a Soviet uniform became a symbol of Soviet occupation. The back ground on this issue is presented at the Wikipedia website: "The issue of post-WWII history is at the core of the ethnic issues in Estonia. Non-Russian ethnic Estonians widely regard the period of Soviet Estonia as an illegal Soviet occupation of the Baltic States, a viewpoint that is the official position of the Estonian government as well as major Western powers such as the U.S. As a consequence, the ethnic Russian and other non-native population that immigrated during the occupation have been labeled by some as illegal occupiers. However to them the statue has an important meaning--it is a symbol of their right to live in Estonia as the descendants of the liberators, not as illegal occupiers."

The facts of Soviet aggression toward the Baltic States are undeniable. This occupation happened as a direct result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its division of spheres of influence between Nazis and Soviets. I should add that when I visited Estonia a couple times in the 1980s, I was always amazed at the level of prosperity there compared to any Russian city, even Moscow and St. Petersburg. Not that this prosperity can serve as a justification of aggression, but the fact sheds light on something important: how often political reality is regulated and organized for political advantage and how its interpretation unfolds in sync with what kind of symbolic construct it is being accomodated. This notwithstanding, the prime point at hand is not so much the fact of Soviet aggression back then or the relatively prosperous life of Estonians under the yoke of the Soviet regime later on, but rather the self-evident effort of the Estonian government to recreate the political myth of the Estonian state at the expense of non-Estonians and by wiping out the facts of history as if they never existed.

---