From the MT:
"Estonia to Erect Monument to Victims of Communism"
A monument to Estonian victims of communism will be erected in Tallinn following a government decision to move forward with long-mulled plans, news agency Estonian Public Broadcasting reported Thursday. A design for the monument, which will be erected in Tallinn's Maarjamae Memorial Complex, was selected at the culmination of a 2011 contest. The monument is expected to open by 2018, in time for the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Republic of Estonia. The state property department has been tasked with conducting a tender to select an architect for the project, and also to create a working group comprised of government representatives, organizations involved in memorializing victims of repression, sculptors and architects, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. A tender will be held to select an architect to design the area surrounding the monument. Estonia's World War II memorials have previously proven controversial in Estonian-Russian relations. In 2007, a decision by Estonian authorities to relocate a famous Red Army monument sparked two nights of riots in Tallinn. Many Russians viewed the relocation of the Bronze Soldier monument as an insult to Soviet troops, whom they saw as liberators of the Estonian people. Some Estonians, on the other hand, saw Soviet troops as occupiers and supported the monument's move. The resulting dispute culminated in cyber-attacks on Estonian organizations and a siege of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has been a vocal critic of the Kremlin throughout his career, at one point saying Germany had done a better job of taking responsibility for Nazi atrocities than Moscow had for Soviet ones. Russia has reacted strongly in the past to efforts by former Soviet states to equate Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In 2010, the State Duma said any attempts to equate the two were "blasphemous towards all of the anti-fascist movement veterans, Holocaust victims, concentration camp prisoners and tens of millions of people … who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the fight against the Nazis' anti-human racial theory," RT reported at the time.
^ It is important for every country that suffered under Communism to remember the victims while at the same time punish the Communist officials. Communism and Nazism had one common ideology: destroy anyone opposed to them. Every country that was occupied has memorials (museums, camps, etc) to the victims and survivors of the Nazis yet very few have the same memorials to the victims and survivors of the Communists (despite the fact that the Nazis were in power for 12 years and the Communists for 70+ in some places.) It has been over 20 years since the Communist governments collapsed in Europe and so there are new adults that have never lived under a Communist dictatorship with all its issues, shortages, repressions and deportations and so it's important to teach the new generations what it was like for their parents and grandparents. ^
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/estonia-to-erect-monument-to-victims-of-communism/515120.html
"Estonia to Erect Monument to Victims of Communism"
A monument to Estonian victims of communism will be erected in Tallinn following a government decision to move forward with long-mulled plans, news agency Estonian Public Broadcasting reported Thursday. A design for the monument, which will be erected in Tallinn's Maarjamae Memorial Complex, was selected at the culmination of a 2011 contest. The monument is expected to open by 2018, in time for the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Republic of Estonia. The state property department has been tasked with conducting a tender to select an architect for the project, and also to create a working group comprised of government representatives, organizations involved in memorializing victims of repression, sculptors and architects, Russia's Interfax news agency reported. A tender will be held to select an architect to design the area surrounding the monument. Estonia's World War II memorials have previously proven controversial in Estonian-Russian relations. In 2007, a decision by Estonian authorities to relocate a famous Red Army monument sparked two nights of riots in Tallinn. Many Russians viewed the relocation of the Bronze Soldier monument as an insult to Soviet troops, whom they saw as liberators of the Estonian people. Some Estonians, on the other hand, saw Soviet troops as occupiers and supported the monument's move. The resulting dispute culminated in cyber-attacks on Estonian organizations and a siege of the Estonian Embassy in Moscow. Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves has been a vocal critic of the Kremlin throughout his career, at one point saying Germany had done a better job of taking responsibility for Nazi atrocities than Moscow had for Soviet ones. Russia has reacted strongly in the past to efforts by former Soviet states to equate Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In 2010, the State Duma said any attempts to equate the two were "blasphemous towards all of the anti-fascist movement veterans, Holocaust victims, concentration camp prisoners and tens of millions of people … who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the fight against the Nazis' anti-human racial theory," RT reported at the time.
^ It is important for every country that suffered under Communism to remember the victims while at the same time punish the Communist officials. Communism and Nazism had one common ideology: destroy anyone opposed to them. Every country that was occupied has memorials (museums, camps, etc) to the victims and survivors of the Nazis yet very few have the same memorials to the victims and survivors of the Communists (despite the fact that the Nazis were in power for 12 years and the Communists for 70+ in some places.) It has been over 20 years since the Communist governments collapsed in Europe and so there are new adults that have never lived under a Communist dictatorship with all its issues, shortages, repressions and deportations and so it's important to teach the new generations what it was like for their parents and grandparents. ^
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/estonia-to-erect-monument-to-victims-of-communism/515120.html
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