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You are misinformed. Nobody has bulldozed the graves of Russian soldiers, and there were lot of other nationalities in the red army, not only Russians. If you a
by jyriand 7y ago
You are misinformed. Nobody has bulldozed the graves of Russian soldiers, and there were lot of other nationalities in the red army, not only Russians. If you are referring to 2008 incident in Tallinn then the remains of soldiers were transported from City center to the graveyard. And on 9th of May people go to graveyard to pay their respects.
- ggm 7y agoWhen I saw the memorial on the edge of town near Tallin in 2007 it wasn't in good shape. I think some resentment runs deep. The german graves are well tended. I don't think there is any deeper sub-text, its just one is a brutalist war memorial and the other is a more personal thing of headstones. The collection of "we don't need a lenin statue" nearby was cool. Lots of standard-pose, lying on the ground. I think the estonians were careful to dismount these but not (if you will excuse the metaphor) 'desecrate' them because .. well.. there are sensitivities.
- mb_72 7y agoLast time I visited the Occupation Museum in Tallinn, the old Lenin etc statues were stored inside - downstairs near the toilets, quite appropriately. There is a German soldier's cemetery in Viljandi: https://www.visitestonia.com/en/german-soldiers-cemetery-in-viljandi https://www.visitestonia.com/en/german-soldiers-cemetery-in-... ... which, as I understand it, was developed and is maintained with funding from the German government. I wonder if 'Mother Russia' bothers to contribute similarly to Russian-soldier related memorials in Estonia?
- ivalm 7y agoI think there is a certain degree of symmetry breaking between Russians and Germans in WWII.
- ggm 7y agoNo historian I read draws this parallel even when they refer specifically to the Russian invasion and occupation of the Baltic. Germans actively recruited Baltic collaborators and ran over twenty concentration camps in Estonia killing Jews from the Baltic region. Your statement is horrible and I totally reject it.
- new2628 7y agoYou may have read too hastily. The comment said there is "symmetry breaking" (i.e. "asymmetry"), not that there is "symmetry".
- ivalm 7y agoI think you're misunderstanding, perhaps I should have added /s. There is absolutely a lot of difference between russians and germans during wwii (thus there is symmetry breaking).
- ptaipale 7y agoI wonder what you mean. Of course there is symmetry between Russian and German invasions and occupations of Baltic (and other) countries. Both powers wanted to establish their spheres of influence over smaller countries, and eventually each other. They made the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact according to this plan, they had a common victory parade in Brest-Litovsk after they had together conquered Poland. Both powers liquidated their real and perceived enemies. This doesn't mean they were entirely the same, but there is a lot of similarity.
- 205guy 7y agoI'm not sure who is saying what in this thread, but Russians had their share of atrocities. Note this is very graphic and haunting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
- ptaipale 7y agoRussian government is more keen on exploiting the grievances around Russian graves for political purposes than actually caring for the graveyards abroad. The bronze warrior controversy was one big manufactured outrage. At the same time, there are people who try to maintain a monument for the minorities and political opponents that were murdered during Stalin's Purges, and contemporary Russia rewrites history there, too.