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Bronze Soldier of Tallinn
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The Bronze Soldier (), originally "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn" (), sometimes called the Alyosha (or Tõnismäe Monument at its old location), is a Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia. The memorial was unveiled on September 22, 1947, three years after the Red Army entered Tallinn in 1944 during World War II.
The monument consists of a stonewall structure made of dolomite and a two meter (6.5 ft) bronze statue of a soldier in a World War II-era Red Army military uniform.
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The Bronze Soldier (), originally "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn" (), sometimes called the Alyosha (or Tõnismäe Monument at its old location), is a Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia. The memorial was unveiled on September 22, 1947, three years after the Red Army entered Tallinn in 1944 during World War II.
The monument consists of a stonewall structure made of dolomite and a two meter (6.5 ft) bronze statue of a soldier in a World War II-era Red Army military uniform. It was originally located in a small park (during the Soviet years called the Liberators' Square) on Tõnismägi in central Tallinn, above a small burial site of Soviet soldiers' remains reburied in April 1945.
In April 2007, the Estonian government relocated the Bronze Soldier and, after exhumation and identification, the remains of the Soviet soldiers, to the Defence Forces Cemetery of Tallinn. Differences between Russophone and ethnic Estonian communities, as well as between the Russian Federation and Estonia, over the interpretation of events in the war had already led to a controversy. The disputes surrounding the relocation peaked with two nights of riots in Tallinn (known as the Bronze Night) and besieging of the Estonian embassy in Moscow for a week. The events caught international attention and caused a multitude of political reactions.
Preceding monument
The Bronze Soldier monument replaced a preceding wooden memorial — a one meter high, wooden pyramid, about 20 cm in diameter, of a plain blue color crowned by a red star — that had been blown up on the night of May 8, 1946 by two Estonian children, 14 year old Aili Jürgenson and 15 year old Ageeda Paavel who had done this, in their own words, to avenge the Soviet destruction of war memorials to the Estonian War of Independence. Both were later arrested by the NKVD and sent to the Gulag.
Building and design
The Bronze Soldier monument, with its figure of a soldier against a stone background, was created in 1947 by the Estonian sculptor Enn Roos and supervising architect Arnold Alas. It was unveiled on September 22, 1947, on the third anniversary of the Soviet Red Army entering Tallinn in 1944. Originally intended as an official war memorial to Soviet soldiers who died fighting in World War II, an eternal flame was added in front of the monument in 1964. The Soviet liberation theme was changed when Estonia re-established independence in 1991, now stating "For those fallen in World War II"; at the same time the eternal flame was put out.
Prototype
The prototype for the face and figure of the statue is not known. It has been suggested to have been the Estonian 1936 Olympic gold medal wrestler Kristjan Palusalu, as there is a resemblance. The sculptor Enn Roos denied this and instead suggested that he used "a young worker who lived nearby", and there have been claims the worker he is referring to was a carpenter named Albert Johannes Adamson.
On the other hand, Palusalu's daughter, Helle Palusalu, has claimed that her father served as a model for the statue. Roos's denial could have been motivated by Palusalu's having defected from Soviet military and thus having fallen into disfavour by the Communist Party.
Burial site
On September 25, 1944, the remains of two Soviet soldiers were buried in the center of the Tõnismägi hill, with additional remains of Soviet soldiers reburied there in April 1945. After the burial of the Red Army soldiers on Tõnismägi, the square was named Liberators’ Square on June 12, 1945 with the Bronze Soldier Monument added two years later. The exact number and names of the persons buried in the burial grounds under the monument had not been established with certainty before the excavations of 2007, although the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had ordered a comprehensive historical investigation in 2006. According to official records of the Military Commissariat of the Baltic Military District, however, the following 13 soldiers who fell during World War II were reburied in the grounds in April 1945:
- Lieutenant Colonel Mikhail Kulikov (?????? ???????? ???????) — commander of the 657th regiment, born in 1909 in Morshansk, Tambov Oblast. Killed on 22 September, 1944.
- Captain Ivan Sysoyev (???? ?????????? ??????) — political commissar of the 657th regiment, born in 1909 in village Topsa, Arkhangelsk Oblast. Killed on 22 September, 1944.
- Gefreiter (Senior Private) Dmitri Belov — 125th division (killed in a battle 45 km from Tallinn in September 1944)
- Colonel Konstantin Kolesnikov (?????????? ???????? ??????????) — second commander of 125th division (killed on 21 September, 1944 in a battle 45 km from Tallinn). Born in 1897 in Zhilaya Kosa, Stalingrad Oblast.
- Captain Ivan Serkov (???? ?????????? ??????) — chief of intelligence, 79th light artillery brigade (killed on 21 September, 1944, in a battle 45 km from Tallinn). Born in 1922, Ryazan Oblast.
- Major Vasili Kuznetsov (??????? ???????? ????????) — commander of 1222nd artillery regiment. Born in 1908 in Ivanovo Oblast. Killed on 22 September 1944.
- Lieutenant Vasili Volkov (??????? ???????? ??????) — commander of mortar platoon (125th division). Born in 1923 in Kalinin Oblast. Killed on 22 September 1944.
- Captain Aleksei Bryantsev (??????? ????????? ???????) — 125th division. Born in 1917 in Altai Krai. Killed on 22 September 1944.
- Sergeant Stepan Hapikalo (?????? ???????????? ????????) — tank commander of the 26th tank regiment (according to official military sources died of a disease). Born in 1920 in Poltava Oblast. Died on 28 September 1944.
- First Sergeant, medic Jelena Varshavskaya (????? ?????????? ??????????) — division medical assistant of 40th Guard Mortars regiment (died 22 or 23 September 1944 in Tallinn). Born in 1925 in Poltava Oblast.
- Sergeant Aleksandr Grigorov — died 7 March 1945
- Lieutenant Colonel Kotelnikov — no information available
- Lieutenant I. Lukanov — no information available
According to the Estonian Ministry of Defence, remains of 12 persons had been exhumed by May 2 2007 and would be reburied by the end of June 2007 at the same cemetery where to the statue had been relocated. Furthermore, the archaeologists performing the digs have confirmed that no more burials have taken place on the grounds of the monument.
The Russian embassy and other former USSR states were asked to provide DNA samples for the identification of the buried bodies. Those persons who can be identified will be turned over to their relatives for reburial.
The initial DNA analysis revealed 11 male and 1 female among those 12 found at the site. DNA profiles of all 12 were turned over to the embassy of the Russian Federation in Tallinn.
Relocation
The Bronze Soldier has significant symbolic value to Estonia's community of mostly ethnic Russian post-World War II immigrants, symbolising not only Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in the Great Patriotic War, but also their claim to rights in Estonia. Many Estonians considered the Bronze Soldier a symbol of Soviet occupation and repression.
Amid political controversy, in April 2007 the newly-elected Ansip government started final preparations for the reburial of the remains and relocation of the statue, according to the political mandate received during the March 2007 elections. The government claimed that the location of the memorial at a busy intersection in Tallinn was not a proper resting place, which led to critics to accuse the government of pandering to Estonian nationalist groups. Disagreement over the appropriateness of the action led to mass protests and riots (accompanied by looting) lasting 2 nights, the worst Estonia has seen.
In the early morning hours of April 27, 2007, after the first night's rioting, the government decided, at an emergency meeting, to dismantle the monument immediately, referring to security concerns. By the following afternoon the stone structure had been dismantled as well. As of the afternoon of April 30, the statue without the stone structure had been placed at the Cemetery of the Estonian Defence Forces in Tallinn. An opening ceremony for the relocated statue was held on May 8, VE Day. (Significantly, Red Army veterans celebrate Victory Day a day later, on May 9.) During June 2007 the stone structure was rebuilt. Relatives have made claims to bodies of four of the war dead. Unclaimed remains were reburied at the military cemetery, next to the relocated monument, on July 3, 2007.
Gallery
See also
External links
Photos and videos
- (May 9, 2005; May 9, 2007)
- — Round table on Estonian State TV (ETV) 07.05.2007. in Russian with Estonian subtitles.
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