Российская Федерация

Vor etwas über einem Jahr schrieb ich zwei Artikel über den “Bronzesoldaten von Tallinn”, das Denkmal für die gefallenen Sowjetsoldaten welches früher in der Stadtmitte der estnischen Hauptstadt stand.

Nach heftigen Protesten, Demonstrationen, wiederholten mehrtägigen Randalen (mit einem Todesopfer) und politischem Tauziehen mit Russland wurde das Denkmal aus dem Stadtzentrum entfernt und auf einem außerhalb Tallinns liegenden Militärfriedhof wieder aufgestellt.

Bis heute verstummen die Stimmen nicht, die behaupten, dass die Wiedererrichtung des Denkmals nur dem Widerstand der in Estland ansässigen Russen, dem politischen Druck Russlands sowie den aufsehenerregenden Aktionen der Jugendorganisation “Наши” zu verdanken sei. Estland wird bis heute in manchen Kreisen unterstellt, dass es damals das Denkmal stillschweigend demontieren und einschmelzen wollte. Dies nicht, wie behauptet, aus verkehrstechnischen Gründen, sondern aus purem Nationalismus und als Provokation gegen Russland.

Wie dem auch sei, welche Gründe damals nun tatsächlich zum Denkmalstreit und der Verlegung des Denkmals führten, für Estland ist diese Aktion laut einem Artikel von Russland-Aktuell nicht ohne wirtschaftliche Folgen  geblieben.

Emotionen kochten hoch, als Estland vor einem Jahr das Denkmal für den Sowjetsoldaten aus der Tallinner Innenstadt verbannte. Nun haben kühle Köpfe errechnet: Die Aktion kostete Estland 450 Millionen Euro.

Laut Russland-Aktuell sollen seit Mai 2007 13 Prozent weniger Waren und 16 Prozent weniger Öl  in Estland umgeschlagen worden sein. Nutznießer des Denkmalstreits soll das benachbarte Litauen sein, der Umschlag von Waren aus bzw. nach Russland über den Hafen von Kleipeda soll sich im genannten Zeitraum verdoppelt haben. Dies, obwohl Moskau zu keiner Zeit zu einem Boykott Estlands aufgerufen haben soll (Quelle).

Es kam wie es kommen musste, Estland zieht die Europäische Union in den selbst verschuldeten Konflikt mit Russland.

Russland-Aktuell berichtet: Estland bemüht sich um Rückendeckung bei der EU im Denkmal-Streit mit Russland. Die Blockade der estnischen Botschaft soll Thema auf dem EU-Russland-Gipfel werden – oder Grund für dessen Absage.

Der April war hier ein schöner Monat, viel Sonne, kein Regen und Temperaturen die an manchen Tagen die 30° Grenze erreichten. Das ideale Wetter um sich seinen Zwerg zu schnappen, Schippchen und Förmchen einzupacken und auf den Spielplatz zu radeln.

Der Mikrokosmos eines Spielplatzes ist manchmal wie ein Spiegelbild der Realpolitik.

So mancher Zwerg kloppt sich um ein Förmchen, welches ihm nicht gehört, trampelt durch die Sandburg seines Spielkameraden oder macht, aus purer Bosheit, den frisch aufgehäuften Sandkuchen seines Nachbarn kaputt.

Solange Mutti und Vati, bewaffnet mit Thermoskanne und Bütterchen, die Zeitung lesend, am Rande der Kampfarena sitzen und den lieben Gott einen guten Mann sein lassen, dann klappt es auch mit dem Nachbarn. Zwerge tendieren dazu ihre Querälen alleine zu managen und sich recht schnell wieder zu vertragen. Und so mancher Zwerg verträgt auch einen Rempler vom Spielkameraden, besonders wenn er ihn selbst provoziert hat.

Also, wie sagte noch gleich der Alm-Öhi aus der längst vergessenen Werbung für Minzschokolade ? Ach ja, “It’s Cool Man” !

Na dann, legen wir uns also entspannt zurück und lassen unseren Zwerg seine Lektion lernen und halten wir uns aus dem Kinderkram heraus. Wer anderen eine Grube gräbt fällt meistens selbst hinein.

Wer anderen seine Denkmäler demontiert, der muss auch eine belagerte Botschaft, ein blockiertes Konsulat oder einen Boykott von Milchprodukten aushalten. Das gehört zum Erwachsenwerden dazu. Und nicht gleich nach der Mama schreien, gelle ?

Another Estonian provocation disturbes the rest of the “Bronze Soldier” in Tallinn  whereas his brother at arms resting in Berlin  enjoys the tranquillity at Berlin’s “Treptower Park”.

Estonian authorities permitted “to lay a barbed wire wreath” to the World War II Bronze Soldier statue in central Tallinn, with police providing security for those taking part in the “ceremony.” The next provocation is to be expected on VE-Day (Victory Day Europe) as Estonian officials announced their plans to reserve the square around the monument on VE-Day to prevent WWII veterans who fought the Nazis from holding their traditional victory celebrations at the site.

In my previous entry on this topic, “Remove the Monuments ?” , I have pointed out my view on this affair and tried to highlight the general view in Germany on monuments and cemeteries commemorating the fallen soldiers of World War 2.

Comments to this entry, made by an Estonian national, speak for themselves and can be read in the comment section of this blog. Estonia’s behaviour in this “affair” can, in my humble opinion, be only seen as an act of national disgrace in the aspect of respecting the dead. Abusing memorials to feed exaggerated nationalism or “patriotism” reflects poor credit on Estonia, a “freshman” to the European Union  who obviously has not entirely arrived in Europe yet. The question arises whether Estonia will ever arrive in Europe when continuing to display such a “Third World Style” behaviour.

There regularly are protests in national and international newspapers when some demented Nazis desecrate Jewish gravesites or Holocaust memorials. And these protests are legitimate and justified, one of the loudest voices in the chorus of the protestors is mine. So the Estonian nationalists are well advised to not expect me to remain silent when they openly suggest to desecrate a war memorial.

To make my point clear again, so hopefully even the last demented nationalist will finally understand it, my standpoint does not uniquely address this particular bronze soldier in Estonia. I am addressing every monument, cemetery, statue, whatsoever in entire Europe.

I am as much in opposition to the Estonian nationalists on the topic of the “Bronze Soldier” as I am in opposition to any demented member of France’s “Front Nationale”, who might suggest to turn the allied cemeteries in Normandy into a golf course, or any retarded German “Neo-Nazi” who gets his kicks off painting swastikas on gravestones. 

The Estonian nationalists should recognize that the profanation of the “Bronze Soldier” is no minor offence.  It’s not like spitting on the sidewalk, it’s more like spitting in the face of the dead and I find it difficult to believe that such a behaviour could possibly be a part of Estonia’s national character.

RIA Novosti reports about the ongoing discussions between Russia and Estonia over monuments commemorating fallen Soviet soldiers on Estonia’s territory.

RIA Novosti writes:

KHANTY-MANSIISK, March 23 - Relations between Russia and Estonia could be seriously damaged by the removal of a monument to Soviet soldiers in Tallinn, the Russian foreign minister said Friday.

The six-foot high “Bronze Soldier” and other Soviet-era memorials have in recent years become rallying points for ethnic Russians, and clashes with Estonian nationalists near the bronze monument prompted the Estonian authorities to press for monuments “dividing society” to be removed.

“These actions will seriously harm Russian-Estonian relations,” Sergei Lavrov told a news conference. “We would like to avoid it, but we believe it is necessary that organizations where Estonia is a member, including the EU, NATO and OSCE, must voice their protest against such steps.”

Russia has long accused Tallinn of encouraging Nazism and discrimination against ethnic Russians, and even prompted debate on possible sanctions against Estonia.

But Estonia’s commission on wartime burials recommended March 13 removing the monument, which is part of a Soviet-era memorial, from central Tallinn to a “quieter” military cemetery, and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip announced yesterday the start of the preparation for the removal.

Some 50,000 Soviet troops perished in Estonia in 1944 when Russia liberated it from Nazi Germans and regained control of the republic, which many Estonians call Soviet occupation. The bodies are buried in 450 cemeteries and memorials across the country.

In Germany people fail to understand the fuzz that is there about the monuments for the fallen Soviet soldiers in Estonia. There are plenty of monuments on Germany’s soil commemorating the soldiers of the Red Army who lost their lives “on the road to Berlin” and during the extensive fighting that took place on German soil in the final days of World War 2.

A continuous and friendly relationship exists beween the “Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.” , a German NGO taking care of German wargraves from the Arctic to the deserts of Northern Africa and from Normandy to Siberia, and the Russian authorities. Both sides take care that German wargraves are maintained and respected in Russia.

On the other hand German authorities take care of Russian / Soviet graves located on German territory. Germany contributes to the maintenance of Russian / Soviet memorials on German soil.

But not only German officials and NGOs are taking care of Russian / Soviet war graves, individual Germans do so on a voluntary and “unoffical” basis as well.

In Düsseldorf, my hometown, exists a tiny memorial commemorating Soviet POWs who died in captivity in a nearby hospital. These Soviet POWs had been forced to work in Nazi Germany’s armament industry and had deceased from various diseases and malnutrition, as well as from the terrible working conditions they had to stand.

Although living in Düsseldorf for some 18 years now I just recently learnt about this tiny memorial and decided to go and see it. It is a hewn rock and its inscription mentions, in Russian as well as in German, the number and the nationality of those it commemorates.

While walking around this memorial I noticed an elderly lady who removed moss and foliage from it, carefully cleaning it with a handbrush. While doing this she apparently talked to the memorial as if it were a living individual. I couldn’t help but watch her doing this for quite some time.

When she packed her bag and got prepared to leave the site I addressed her and told her how much it touched me to see her working there.

Well, she said, my older brother, who was my dearest, perished in the course of the battle at Kursk / Russia in August 1943.

For decades I didn’t know where he was buried and whether he had received a decent burial and rests in a worthy grave or not.

Via the “Volksbund Deutsche Kriegsgräberfürsorge e.V.” I finally learnt that he is buried in a small village near Kursk and that his grave is maintained and looked after by the local population. I feel like returning this kindness by looking after this memorial here. It’s like rendering a service to my brother.

Vilhelm Konnander of “Vilhelm Konnander’s Weblog” has dedicated an entry on his blog to the bizarre situation in Estonia in February this year already. It is called “Estonia: Battle by Bronze Proxy” and is a read I would like to suggest to you.

Germany considers the fallen soldiers, burried in her soil, being her dead. Regardless which country they came from. In my oppinion the dignity and honour of a country or nation can be judged by the way it treats the dead.

How about you Estonia ? The fallen Soviet soldiers buried in your soil have long become your dead already.

Honour and respect them the way you want to be respected yourself.