In Estonia, the composition of the pThe working group for the elimination of Soviet-era monuments, formed under the State Chancellery of the country. The commission is only known to include “representatives from various ministries and departments”, and is headed by Asko Kivinuk, who previously worked at the state’s defense investment center. On August 5, the portal of Estonian state broadcaster ERR wrote about it.

The State Chancellery told journalists the commission meets once a week and will present a legal review of plans for the dismantling of Soviet monuments next week.

“Members of the Cabinet of Ministers are aware of what is being discussed in the commission, we have already been introduced to their materials twice,” said Minister of Public Administration Riina Solman. “As for secrecy, if you look at what happened at Narva, where a bulldozer that helped dismantle a Soviet howitzer was burned, it is clear that secrecy is well justified here. Commission members may be exposed to threats and dangers, so the Estonian state must protect them and allow them to work in peace.”

Solman expressed hope that in the coming days the commission will present an action plan for the dismantling of Soviet monuments, after which the government will “inform” the public about it.

“Is anyone afraid of revenge from Stalin or Putin?”

A member of the Estonian Parliament of the opposition Conservative People’s Party, historian Jaak Valge called the classification of the commission’s composition “ridiculous”. This “leaves the impression that someone is afraid of Stalin’s or Putin’s revenge. If one of the commission members wants to remain anonymous, it would be better for those people to refuse. These are issues of fundamental importance to Estonia, and they should be discussed.” openly,” says Valge.

Urmo Soonvald, editor-in-chief of Estonian news portals Delfi and Eesti Päevaleht, agrees with him. “In the current situation, this commission must be as transparent as possible – the public must know who is on the commission, what they are discussing, according to what criteria decisions are made, when they will be implemented. current secrecy at some point will start working against those decisions,” he said.

Estonian government wants to remove USSR monuments as soon as possible

On August 4, the Estonian government decided to remove all Soviet monuments from public space “as soon as possible”. According to various estimates, there are 200 to 400 of these monuments in Estonia. The government fears that special problems could arise with the dismantling of the T-34 tank monument in the same Narva, a predominantly Russian-speaking city. Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu believes that the tank must be moved to another location within a month, otherwise riots similar to those that took place in 2007 during the transfer of the Bronze Soldier, a monument to Soviet soldiers who fell in World War II from the center of the Tallinn War.

Estonian President Alar Karis, in an interview with ERR on Friday, August 5, commented on the future fate of the Narva T-34 monument as follows: WWII tank not on a pedestal on the road between Narva and Narva-Jõesuu, but in a museum”.