UCL in the News: Victory Day Continues To Stir Debate

The removal of the war memorial from central Tallinn has fiercely divided the Russian and Estonian governments and their peoples.

Russia accuses Estonia of disrespecting the millions of Soviet soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany, and who, they say, liberated Estonia. …

Dr Richard Mole [UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies] says in many ways such clashes are inevitable.

"[Because of] the failure of successive Russian leaders since 1991 to acknowledge that it was, in fact, an occupation; that the Russians living in the Baltic states now are perceived as descendants of occupiers, this was inevitable that there was going to be clashes over history," Mole says. "They are just working with two completely different understandings of the events surrounding the incorporation of Estonia into the USSR."…

"You can not talk about the Soviets liberating Estonia, if they then stayed for 50 years, killed tens of thousands of Estonians, and occupied the country."…

"A lot of the non-Russian republics of the former Soviet Union are seeking to reinterpret their history, and present a different side," Mole says. …

"But again, there seems to be no willingness on the Russian side to do the same," he adds. …

"Given that Russia is clearly this large, powerful state, and its power is increasing on the back of its natural resources, I think we could possibly see a new Cold War - not just between Russia and the states of former Soviet Union, but with the West more generally."

Salome Asatiani, Radio Free Europe