Estonia: “A Russian Rebellion”
As Tallinn seems to have entered the second night of rioting over the removal of a Soviet war memorial, here's a blogger's recap (with photos, RUS, by LJ user mrprophet) of what happened the previous night:
A Russian rebellion
Today I've been to a true Russian rebellion, senseless and relentless.
For those not following the events: Estonian government has decided to begin excavations at the burial site of the Soviet soldiers and the Warrior-Liberator monument at [Tonismagi] Hill in downtown Tallinn today. In the afternoon, the police fenced off the monument and surrounding areas and covered the monument with a non-transparent cloth. Something like this has long been expected, so around 5 pm a predominantly Russian crowd started gathering near the National Library, located right by the monument.
I learned about it around 6 pm, when one of my friends called me. When I arrived at [Tonismagi], 2 to 3 thousand people were already there, chanting “Shame!” and “Fascists!”. The crowd was slowly but consistently growing, though the demonstration was extremely unorganized, due to the spontaneity of it all. Most people came to the square after learning about what was taking place from friends, over the phone, on the internet or in forums. Most people were young, but in general the crowd was pretty diverse.
In the meantime, the police cordoned off the whole square with a circle of OMON [riot police]. Nothing was happening for a long time. There were no speeches, people just stood and yelled slogans in defense of the monument to the fallen in the Great Patriotic War. The police and OMON acted calm. I witnessed only a couple of fights, when someone either threw himself on the cordon or something like that. They were using tear gas in response, but it didn't lead to mass aggression. At around 8 pm, the protesters spontaneously blocked [one of the streets adjacent to the square], and in response the police demanded that everyone disperse.
A helicopter was hovering above the crowd, some extra cordon fences were delivered, a water cannon arrived. From the crowd flew bottles, eggs, insults. The police didn't really react to that. No incidents happened while I was there – people, instead, were trying to stand there in an organized manner and to prevent provokers from throwing bottles into the first rows of the crowd. The first rows were comprised of all kinds of folks, from schoolkids to elderly people.
The truly tough stuff started happening around 9 pm. The police must've gotten tired of yelling into their megaphones for the rally to disperse, and OMON moved forward on the protesters. We were being pushed from the crossing near the library quite crudely. They were beating [us] with [rubber] sticks, and washing [us] lavishly with tear gas. Here's when the decisive moment came. The crowd got wild and the real Paris Commune began. The crowd was retreating, but all kinds of things were flying from it toward the police: stones that were ripped from the pavement, garbage containers, street poles. Everybody was yelling, “Fascists!” and “Russia!”
Here was when I decided that my life was more valuable than the lively photography, and so I moved away from the front rows. In front of me, OMON was fighting the retreating crowd. By that time, everyone had already been pushed from the square in front of the monument and OMON had begun using rubber bullets. The crowd ran, then stopped, shattering everything in its way. Ironically, at [Tonismagi] Street, where it was all taking place, there's the HQ of the ruling Reform Party, whose leader is Estonia's prime minister and whose initiative it was to start excavations at the Warrior-Liberator monument.
Finally, the people reached the turn to Parnu Highway (there's a small square there) and blocked the traffic completely. There were no police in this area at all, and so the crowd was overwhelmed by the real thugs. The protesters gone mad blocked all the paths with barricades made of sidewalk fences that they tore out, they started breaking windows, lighting fires and breaking into shops and kiosks. They nearly set on fire one of the houses near the highway, but the cooler heads, fortunately, extinguished the fire soon.
I stood behind this chaos a bit longer and went home. Police sirens became audible to me only when I was already far away from the place where it was all taking place. The police turned out to be absolutely unprepared to what took place after OMON began to push the crowd out. Pogroms went on for 20 more minutes before I left the square, and I'm not sure they've stopped already. The unrest continues.
[photos]
The conclusions offer no consolation, of course. The police started dispersing the demonstration in a rather harsh way for no reason (whether it was needed or not isn't for me to decide), and the demonstration didn't want to be dispersed, so it responded even more harshly. Those who stood around me weren't thugs, but they were ready to fight till the end and to respond to every blow of the law enforcement forces with a blow twice as strong. The police were absolutely not ready to what happened as a result, when chaos prevailed.
It's crazy. The people have shown that they are capable of [fighting back] the authorities completely spontaneously, without the support of parties and movements. And it was just the first day. Can you imagine what's going to happen there on Victory Day, for which many people gather even without such reasons?
Anyway, I'm scared for my country. I'm scared because those reasonable people I saw at the beginning of the rally were beaten up during the rally's dispersal – and, very suddenly, they were replaced by the demented thugs. It all began as a spontaneous attempt to defend the monument. And it ended… the way it ended.
***
A set of pogrom pictures by Flickr user neoroma is here. (Update: Unfortunately, the viewing mode for this set seems to have been set to “private” at some point, so the link no longer works.)
***
A rather heated English-language discussion of the situation in Tallinn is currently taking place at Itching for Eestimaa – in the comment section to this post (131 comments so far).
34 comments
Here is an excellent article I beleive many of you will find interesting and informative. Please take time to read it. http://palun.blogspot.com/
People who want to see how the russian “demonstrators” in Tallinn really looked like can take a look here, loads of photos of “innocent demonstrators brutalized by the police”: http://www.hot.ee/tiblunn/tiblad.htm
Here is a rather good video of the looters: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1mcL4bG9sk
Please notice that, unlike the videos shown on russian state TV, this video is not made of small 10sec snippets. This is the real deal, uncut.
Russia is igniting internal conflicts in neighboring Estonia
This has happened never before in Estonia, small peaceful country in Northern Europe, member of NATO and EU since 2004.
A Bronze Soldier, the statue in Soviet Red Army uniform standing until last Friday on small green square in centre of capital Tallinn, was for Estonians the symbol of harsh Soviet occupations from 1940 – 1941 and 1944 to 1991. Ten’s of thousand people were deported without court decision to Siberia or killed in Soviet state-terror during that regime as a part of ethnic cleansing.
But part of the Russian community, migrated here within same Soviet occupation in search of better and European-style life, is following cold-war time Soviet history concept. For them these events and statue meant memorial of “liberation” of Baltic States Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as whole Europe in WW II.
Nazi equals Soviet
The problem is that Baltic States, but also Poland have suffered both from Nazi-Germany and Soviet occupations in WW II. And defeating the Nazi-Germany did not mean that Baltic countries were liberated, but that German occupation was changed by other, Soviet occupation, which in some cases was even worse.
Therefore Bronze Soldier was a symbol of Soviet empire and simply could not been tolerated any longer in centre of capital of EU and NATO member country. Especially because within last years it was increasingly used by Putin propaganda-machine as a Russian symbol to generate tension in Estonia between whole society and less integrated smaller part of Russian community.
So it was inevitable to relocate it from Tallinn city centre, leaving still chance for those, who have different opinions, chance to visit the statue on military cemetery in Tallinn, where also the remains of dozen Soviet soldiers will be reburied.
Heavy violent propaganda and co-ordination from Russia
Government planned to relocate the statue last week in peaceful manner with holy memorial ceremony. But about thousand people, demanding not to touch the monument at all as it was symbol of Russian power, started to attack police and throw the stones. This confrontation coordinated by Russian embassy in Tallinn and turned on heavily by numerous Russian TV-channels frequent and unbalanced emotional reports, widespread quickly and turned into street violence, vandalism and shop raiding, never taken place in Tallinn before. Almost everybody and everything, not being Russian origin, was labeled to be “fascist”. Also, the windows of Estonian National Opera and main square located St. John’s Church were stoned.
Shouting: “Russia! Russia!” the shop raiders were stealing the alcohol, premium brand clothes (Hugo Boss, Giorgio Armani, Gucci shops were raided). About hundred shops were raided and stoned, dozens of cars beaten. As a result, almost 1000 people were arrested in three days, amongst them number of experienced criminals with long track record.
Considering the situation, the Bronze Soldier statue was relocated on Friday morning and is standing now on Defense Forces cemetery where it’s accessible to everyone.
But this has not stopped the propaganda war from Moscow.
Massive hostile media campaign from Russia against Estonia has now reached advanced stage, accusing Estonia in re-evaluation of WW II results, of course not speaking a single word about Soviet-run mass crimes, killings and deportations in Baltic States during Soviet occupation. Also, shop robbers are shown in Russian TV as “fighters for our memory and against fascism” and Estonian government and police are accused by Russian TV as “state repressive organs, humiliating rights of Russians”. It’s No. 1 news topic in all Russian TV channels already for three days.
The fact, that statue of Bronze Soldier has been removed and erected already in new place (Defense Forces Cemetery) where everyone can visit it, has not changed the attitude.
Hysteric reactions from Russia
Russian Parliament has demanded to place the statue back to where it was before, also that Estonian Government has to step down. Needless to say, this is clear interference to Estonian internal affairs by all means.
The Russian state accusations by now (Tuesday, Wednesday) have become absolutely hysterical and expressing complete lies. The member of Russian Parliament, Gosduma, Mr. Kovaljev accused after seeing the monument yesterday on its new location, that “statue has been sawed and holy memory disgraced”. According to workers, giving an interview in Estonian TV, nothing such has happened as statue was relocated in one unit and as soon as possible.
Also, massive scam and internet attacks against Estonian state authorities’ websites and media channels IT-systems have been started from Russia. “It’s identified now that in some cases IP-addresses are related directly to Kremlin-run organizations and structures related presidential authorities of Russia,” said Urmas Paet, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Estonia, yesterday on press conference. Also, it’s proven that many people confronting police forces before events went violent, were paid by Embassy-run organizers a 80 EEK (app. EUR 5) per hour.
Estonian embassy in Moscow is on under heavy 24h protest waves, psycho terror and attacks of Kremlin-supported youth organization “Nashi”, getting minimal formal defense from Russian Militia. Estonian ambassador Mrs. Marina Kaljurand was attacked physically today (Wed, May 2) while trying to give a press conference. “Nashi” even declared that demolition of Estonian embassy in Moscow will start on June 12!
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Vice Chairman of Russian Parliament said yesterday: “Russia should organize major military campaign next to border with Estonia. And some troops may be mistakenly happen to be in Estonia and demolishing many cultural and historic sites. After which we will apologize, of course.”
It’s important to note that despite all of this, most of the people in Estonia are still calm and there are no cases of violence from Estonian community. The importance of situation is illustrated by fact that almost 2000 people by now in Estonia have applied to become a member of Police Support Organization to protect the country from internal conflicts, coordinated from abroad.
Soviet monuments not relocated, but demolished in Russia
As a curiosity, Russian overreaction is hypocritical because on very same time, WW II monuments for Russian soldiers are demolished (not replaced) in Russia itself. It has happened in Moscow satellite city Himki a few weeks ago, also in Stavropoulos in southern region on last autumn.
So all in all – it’s symbolic war against Europe and another clear evidence of former KGB agent Putin tactics to show the world that Russia has not changed and need to show a power.
We hope that all people reading this information will make their move on their home countries by demanding Russia stopping interfering immediately to Estonian /EU internal affairs. Also passing this info to as many people and media channels as you can, because Russian (population 150m people) TV propaganda is exceeding Estonian (1,3m people) explanations.
commentator “Michael” is a prime example of easily impressionable youngster who gets whipped up by the Russian nationalistic rhetoric. Rhetoric that is very similar to Soviet propaganda from 1940: a small independent nation is pictured as a horrible monster who must be crushed. Everyone who doesnt dance to the pipes of Russia is pictured as a “fashist”. Poor Russia, surrounded by “fashists”.
Estonia is a democratic western nation. Many members of current Estonian government (who in view of Michael are “fashists”) have received high decorations from countries as different as modern Germany and Malta. Do you think these countries give medals to Nazi’s? Organizations of other minorities in Estonia, like Armenians, Georgians etc. have repeatedly spoken out about the exceptional tolerance of Estonian society. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and other international organizations have found Estonia’s citizenship laws to be satisfactory. Dutch ambassador to Russia, Tiddo Hofstee, has affirmed Estonia’s compliance with the Copenhagen criteria on the protection of ethnic minorities.
The real reason behind the current crisis is this (taken from an article written by mr. Laar, as he can put it much better than i can):
Putin has dramatically altered the approach at the Kremlin to the past, and therefore to the future. The current Russian president builds a new messianic and imperial identity around the victory over Nazism, which was also used by his predecessors to legitimize the U.S.S.R. This war, which the Russians call the “Great Patriotic War,” didn’t start with Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. Russia helped start World War II through the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact signed a week before the Panzers stormed east, while Stalin’s troops took chunks of Poland and all the Baltic countries. The “Great Patriotic War” begins in 1941, when Hitler turned on his ally.
In a context where Stalin is more and more a founding hero for the “new Russia,” it’s no wonder that the crimes of occupation of neighboring countries and of communism are denied. And Russia aggressively demands that formerly occupied countries in the Soviet bloc accept its new understanding of the past. Any mention about the crimes of the Soviet era is called an insult to the “heroes of the Great Patriotic War.” Former NKVD officers, accused of committing crimes against humanity for organizing deportations, are defended by lawyers hired by Russia. When Georgia opened its museum of Soviet occupation, it was furiously criticized by the Kremlin and Russian media.
VERONICA:
I think you are the one who is confused. “Night Watch” refers to the group of protesters who organized to “defend” the monument from the Estonian authorities. Nashi is part of that group, and I’ve seen no information to suggest they don’t control it; as far as I know, these same folks are the ones who provoked the violence. It’s a pity the Russian sources (or any sources, for that matter) don’t tell us more about Nashi’s involvement, and how the Kremlin pulls their strings.
Just try to imagine Americans provoking an incident like this in Moscow!
VERONICA:
Your link to “a set of pogrom pictures by Flickr user neoroma” doesn’t work. Any chance of a fix?
The viewing mode for the Flickr set seems to have been changed to “private” at some point, so the link no longer works. Thanks for letting me know.
We were being pushed from the crossing near the library quite crudely. They were beating [us] with [rubber] sticks, and washing [us] lavishly with tear gas.???
Are you sure you were there? they did what they had to.. this kind of even is not for staring so next time DO NOT GO simple as that
For all you Russians complaining about Estonia not prosecuting war criminals (one even has the gall to complain about Estonia not persecuting LITHUANIAN war criminals), how many war criminals who were responsible for the deportations and murders of innocent Estonians were ever brought to trial in the USSR or are still running around Russia?
How many of them were given Stalin or Lenin medals for their work?