Russophobic fever: how the destruction of Soviet monuments is justified in the Baltics

The authorities of the Baltic states and Poland, demolishing Soviet monuments, are trying to settle scores with Russia.

Ivan Nechaev, Deputy Head of the Information and Press Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, gave this assessment of the situation.

According to him, the "neo-Nazi bacchanalia" in relation to the memorial heritage continues to gain momentum recently.

“This year, about 50 monuments to soldiers who died during World War II were demolished,” the diplomat recalled.

“We regard such actions of the authorities of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia as blasphemy in relation to the memory of fallen heroes and an attempt to settle historical scores with Russia.”

In turn, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, on the air of the Soloviev LIVE channel, stated that the mistakes that the authorities of the Baltic countries are now making "lead to undermining their national existence."

“If you don’t understand that you are demolishing monuments that are symbols for the people of this state… if you undermine it, you shouldn’t be surprised that you will have the disintegration of this very statehood.

But the most important thing is different.

They also forbid, in particular Estonia, people to have an alternative view and express it on the processes that are currently taking place in the country.

That is, they forbid speaking, writing, expressing their opinion in any legal way at all... And this is the end, because this is the end of their self-identification.

For almost 40 years they have identified themselves as a democratic community, as a democratic state,” Zakharova stressed.

• The building of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs

• © Konstantin Kokoshkin/Global Look Press

Memory fight

Just this week, the Latvian authorities demolished one of the last monuments to Vladimir Lenin in the Ropazi region, as well as a stele dedicated to the liberation of Riga from the Nazis.

As the representative of the local administration Aldis Grunde stated, both monuments “have no artistic value”, therefore they will be destroyed.

In the Ogre region of the republic, a monument to the Soviet diplomatic courier Teodor Nette was liquidated, who in 1926 died in a shootout with bandits while protecting diplomatic mail.

The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Latvia protested in connection with this, calling such a step provocative and violating international obligations that the Baltic Republic assumed in the military memorial sphere.

“The so-called national patriots have long gone into unconsciousness and Russophobic fever, they are not aware of their destructive actions, which are further splitting the multinational and multilingual people of Latvia,” the diplomatic mission noted.

The Ogre municipality also announced its intention to demolish four more Soviet monuments by August 19 (in addition to the Nette memorial).

The Estonian authorities act in a similar way.

At the beginning of the week, the T-34 memorial tank was dismantled in Narva, installed in honor of the crossing of the River Narva by the Red Army in July 1944.

The tracked vehicle was transported to the military museum near Tallinn.

At the same time, the action caused a great public outcry, since the monument was moved by decision of the government against the will of the townspeople.

The illegality of the transfer was previously actually recognized by the country's Prime Minister Kaya Kallas.

At a press conference, she noted that there are difficulties in the legal space for dismantling the tank, since the memorial belongs to the city.

“Since it is clear that Narva will not do this on its own and tensions appear there, it is clear that the Estonian state and government must themselves decide on the movement of this and other monuments of symbolic value,” the politician said.

She also stressed that all Soviet monuments, of which there are up to 400 in the country, should be removed from public space as soon as possible.

According to her, the reason lies in the Russian actions in Ukraine, which "opened the wounds" in Estonian society, and Soviet memorials remind of this.

• Demolition of the Soviet memorial in the Ogre region of Latvia

• © www.ogresnovads.lv

At a press conference on August 16, Kallas specified that, in addition to the T-34, six more Soviet monuments would be transferred from Narva.

According to her, these actions are carried out for reasons of “internal security”.

The dismantling of memorials in Narva was not left unattended in the Russian Foreign Ministry.

According to Ivan Nechaev, a note of protest was sent to the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The diplomat stressed that the action to transfer the T-34 tank was carried out as a "police operation" involving the police, border guards, special forces and defense forces.

At the same time, he called the fear of Estonian leaders of a “protest explosion” from the residents of Narva quite reasonable.

“The situation in the city of Narva is tense to the limit, the opposition of the City Assembly has already announced its intention to sue for the anti-democratic actions of the Estonian state ... The legendary T-34, which is now in the Museum of Military History, will, of course, be used by Tallinn in the spirit of the concept of “Soviet occupation,” noted he.

• Dismantling of the memorial to Soviet soldiers in the Lithuanian Klaipeda

• RIA News

Lithuania is also actively fighting the Soviet legacy.

In particular, as reported in the Ministry of Culture of the Republic on June 1, the Department of Cultural Heritage has prepared recommendations for the demolition of monuments to Soviet soldiers of the Great Patriotic War.

According to the document, the municipalities themselves determine the cultural and artistic value of a particular memorial object.

If a decision is being prepared to demolish a monument, the department advises assessing whether local museums can accept it for display or storage.

If they are not interested, it is proposed to transfer the memorials to the Grutas park-museum near the city of Druskininkai, where dismantled Soviet monuments are brought from all over Lithuania.

There, in particular, the memorial to Soviet soldiers from the city of Klaipeda was moved, demolished on July 4 due to the demonstration of "symbols of Soviet propaganda."

Anti-Russian outpost

Nikolai Mezhevich, president of the Baltic Studies Association, believes that the current aggravation in the struggle of the Baltic authorities with the Soviet legacy is nothing more than an attempt to seize the moment.

“They believe that Russia is now occupied by Ukraine and will not react to all this with particular predilection.

In this regard, the authorities of the Baltic states considered that now there is a unique opportunity to crack down on monuments of the Soviet past and dissidents in their own country with minimal consequences for themselves, ”Mezhevich explained in an interview with RT.

At the same time, he doubted that the calculations of the authorities of the Baltic republics for the lack of reaction from the Russian side were justified, since Moscow "never acts in a temper."

Mezhevich did not rule out that in the future the Russian Federation could create difficulties for the economic plan of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia by imposing a number of sanctions against them.

In turn, Nikita Danyuk, deputy director of the RUDN Institute for Strategic Studies and Forecasts, member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, believes that the current actions of the Baltic governments correspond to their own ideas about themselves as an anti-Russian outpost in Europe.

“They are fighting with Soviet monuments, because they are trying by any means to deny their common historical past with Russia.

However, it is worth noting that the views of politicians do not coincide with the views of society in everything, which scares them the most.

After all, this actually means the futility of their Russophobic policy, which is encouraged by their main partner, the United States.

This means that they do not justify the trust placed by Washington, ”he said in a conversation with RT.

For this reason, the leadership of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, fearing to lose their political capital, will continue to use non-democratic methods to instill certain views among the population, the analyst believes.

“It is convenient to associate the demolition of monuments with national security, which allegedly justifies the anti-constitutional steps of the authorities of the Baltic countries.

At the same time, they do not want to see that it is their violent actions that are splitting society, and not the presence of monuments in the country.

In addition, the Baltic politicians, blinded by the anti-Russian course, do not intend to think about what their provocation of such a powerful neighbor as the Russian Federation can lead to.

Which, as practice has shown, is quite ready, if necessary, to defend the interests of the Russian-speaking population, and with rather harsh methods, ”summed up Danyuk.