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Never-Ending Second World War: Public Performances of National Dignity and the Drama of the Bronze Soldier

2008; Routledge; Volume: 39; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/01629770802461175

1751-7877

Marko Lehti, Matti Jutila, Markku Jokisipilä,

Eastern European Communism and Reforms

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image sizeKeywords: EstoniaRussian-speaking minorityhistory politicsnational identitysites of memory Notes Notes 1. Securitization is a concept developed by Ole Wæver, Barry Buzan and their colleagues at the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute. It refers to the political process in which certain issues are presented as an existential threat to a specified referent object. If successful, securitization legitimizes extraordinary measures that are beyond normal democratic political procedures in order to deal with the threat. See Wæver (1995 Vanhala-Aniszewski, M and Siilin, L. 2007. "Voices and Values of Young People – Representations in Russian Media". In Aleksanteri Series 6/2007, Helsinki: Aleksanteri Institute. [Google Scholar]); Buzan, Wæver & de Wilde (1998 Burch, S and Smith, DJ. 2007. Empty Spaces and the Value of Symbols: Estonia's "War of Monuments" from Another Angle. Europe-Asia Studies, 59(6): 913–936. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). For a debate on securitization of minority issues see Roe (2004 Poleshchuk, V. 2007. 'War of the Monuments: A Chronological Review' in LICHR (2007) [Google Scholar], 2006 Roe, P. 2004. Securitization of Minority Rights: Conditions of Desecuritization. Security Dialogue, 35(3): 279–94. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]); Jutila (2006 Judt, T. 2000. "'The Past Is Another Country: Myth and Memory in Postwar Europe'". In The Politics of Retribution in Europe: World War II and its Aftermath, Edited by: Deak, I, Gross, JT and Judt, T. 293–324. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 2. Government Communication Office, 'Monument unlawfully put up in Lihula to be removed', 2 September 2004, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 6 February 2008. 3. 'Eesti rahvas—Ära unusta: See Sõdur okupeeris meie riigi ja küüditas meie rahva!' 4. MFA of the Russian Federation 'Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Regarding Desecration in Estonia of the Monument to the Soviet Soldiers Who Fell in the Years of the Great Patriotic War', 23 May 2006, available at: www.mid.ru, accessed 6 February 2008. 5. 'Estonia's decision to ban Soviet symbols disgraceful—Lavrov', 1 December 2006, available at: en.rian.ru/world/20061201/56317748.html; 'Russian intelligence justifies Soviet annexation of Baltic states', 23 November 2006, available at: en.rian.ru/russia/20061123/55932837.html; 'Estonia's WWII memorials demolition law immoral—Speaker Mironov', 15 November 2006, available at: en.rian.ru/russia/20061115/55665080.html; all sites accessed 6 February 2008. 6. 'Estonian Ministry of Defence commencing preparation work for the identification of the war graves located at the Tõnismägi green area', 26 April 2007, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 6 February 2008. 7. 'Government of the Republic of Estonia and crisis management committee hold extraordinary session', 27 April 2007, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 6 February 2008. 8. 'Members of the Government commemorated the victims of WWII at Klooga'; 'Government lays a wreath at the monument to the Unknown Soldier'; 'The celebration of the memorial day on 8 May was concluded by laying wreaths at Maarjamäe', Estonian Government, 8 May 2007, all articles available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 5 June 2007. 9. Differences between European and Russian dates are just originally a question of time zones; final surrender was accepted at Berlin on 8 May 1945 but because of the time zones it was already 9 May in Moscow. 10. Exhibition tablet at the Museum of Occupation, 29 January 2008. 11. Estonian Ministry of Defence, 'Representatives of the Ministry of Defence place wreaths at the monuments to the victims of World War II', 8 May 2008, available at: www.mod.gov.ee, accessed 12 June 2008. 12. Prime Minister Andrus Ansip's speech in the Riigikogu, 2 May 2007, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 6 April 2008. 13. 'Declaration of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia', 1 May 2007, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 6 April 2008. 14. The letter was published by Eesti Päeväleht on 11 May 2007. 'SERGEI LAVROV: Venemaa kaebekiri Eesti peale', available at: http://www.epl.ee/artikkel/385394, accessed 6 February 2008. 15. For a more general analysis of Nashi rhetoric see Lassila (2007a Lagrou, P. 1999. The Legacy of Nazi Occupation: Patriotic Memory and National Recovery in Western Europe, 1945–1965, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). 16. 'Declaration of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Estonia', 1 May 2007, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 6 April 2008. 17. 'President Ilves: I invite everyone to exercise level-headed and rational thinking', 27 April 2007, available at: http://www.president.ee/en/, accessed 6 February 2008. 18. 'President Ilves: We can agree upon a common future', 2 May 2007, available at: http://www.president.ee/en/, accessed 6 February 2008. 19. 'Comments by the Russian Foreign Ministry Information and Press Department in Connection with Remarks by Some European Politicians Regarding the "Occupation" of the Baltic Countries by the Soviet Union and the Need for Russia to Condemn This', 4 May 2005, available at: www.ln.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/3575341bd4842979c3256ff8002f095f?OpenDocument, accessed 21 August 2008. 20. Riigikogu ratifitseeris Eesti-Vene piirilepped (20 June 2005) & Eelinformatsioon 13–19. juunini (10 June 2005), available at: www.riigikogu.ee/index.php?id=36947 and www.riigikogu.ee/index.php?id=31920, accessed 21 August 2008). 21. 'Statement by Alexander Yakovenko, the Spokesman of Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regarding Estonian Parliament's Ratification of Border Treaties with Russia', 21 June 2005; 'Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Concerning the Ratification of the Border Treaties with Russia by the Estonian Parliament', 22 June 2005, available at: www.ln.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/5400e7d6355b0634c3257028003c7a52?OpenDocument. 'Estonian reaction: Statement by the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs', 22 June 2005 and 27 June 2005, available at: http://www.vm.ee/eng/kat_138/5744.html?arhiiv_kuup=kuup_2005 and http://www.vm.ee/eng/kat_138/5744.html?arhiiv_kuup=kuup_2005, sites accessed 21 August 2008. 22. www.okupatsioon.ee. Interestingly the original name of the museum is the 'Museum of Occupations', with 'Occupations' in the plural, but apparently the word 'occupation' is currently used in the singular. 23. Estonian Government Communication Office, 'Estonia commemorates those perished in World War II', 27 April 2005, available at: www.valitsus.ee, accessed 24 January 2008. 24. Estonian Ministry of Defence, 'The statue of liberty of the War of Independence receives its revamp', 19 December 2007, available at: www.mod.gov.ee, accessed 24 January 2008. See also www.vabadusemonument.ee, accessed 21August 2008. 25. Estonian Ministry of Defence, 'Anniversary of the Estonian War of Independence ceasefire commemorated at Tallinn Reaalkool', 3 January 2008, available at: www.mod.gov.ee, accessed 24 January 2008. 26. Estonian Ministry of Defence, 'General Laidoner exhibition opens at Estonian War Museum', 8 January 2008, available at: www.mod.gov.ee, accessed 24 January 2008. 27. See for example Lavrov's appeal to EU countries after the removal of the Bronze Soldier, Eesti Päeväleht, 11 May 2007. 28. On friction and the fog of war, see Clausewitz (1997[1832], book I, ch. VII; book II, ch. II). 29. This story is based on Paloheimo (1997 Onken, E-C. 2007. Baltic States and Moscow's 9 May Commemoration: Analysing Memory Politics in Europe. Europe-Asia Studies, 59(1): 23–46. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar], pp. 124–6), Marttinen (2006 Mälksoo, M. 2007. The fallen 'Bronze Soldier' and the subaltern memory wars in the post-Soviet space available at: http://www.casecollective.org/ideas-in-action/read/90, accessed 7 February 2008 [Google Scholar], pp. 135–49) and Hakala (2007 Habermas, J. 2000. The Postnational Constellation, Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]). The 'historical statement' commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign affairs states that: 'It is unlikely that Roos took a risk and used a "people's enemy" who had just escaped from a prison camp as a model for such a politically sensitive monument' (Kaasik 2006 Jutila, M. 2006. Desecuritizing Minority Rights: Against Determinism. Security Dialogue, 37(2): 167–185. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Helle Palusalu said in an interview in the Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat that her father had told her that he was the model, even though some changes were made to reduce the recognizability of the face (Hakala 2007 Habermas, J. 2000. The Postnational Constellation, Cambridge: Polity Press. [Google Scholar]). The latter statement seems more convincing than the official reductio ad impossibile.