What is the bronze soldier you ask? The bronze soldier (pictured above) is a World War 2 monument to the Russian (Soviet) soldiers who died fighting to free Estonia from the Nazi's (Before occupying it themselves). Now after 16 years of independence from Russia some Estonians have decided to make a fuss about this monument. Well wait, let me clarify. This is more than a monument. There are unknown soldiers buried under, and around it, too. But anyway. Some Estonians have decided that they want this thing gone. As in torn down. Destroyed. And this has caused problems with Russia. Making the already unhappy relations between Russians and Estonians even more strained. Not good. Now of course i am neither Estonian nor Russian. And i don't care much either way. But this is turning into a huge political issue so i had to blog about it. Tomorrow the Soldier is getting torn down. So today i decided to go visit it and take some pictures, because of course this will be the last chance i ever get. As you notice this thing is covered in TONS of flowers. Now what you don't see is that off to the right, up on the National Library there are about 15 police officers ready to jump into action should there be any problems. It's tomorrow i'm worried about, though. I hope there's no fighting. But anyway, i just want to share one of the final pictures ever taken of the Broze Soldier, and share a little bit with you about what's going on in Estonia. But now i must go, because my Lasagna is waiting. And i am very much like garfield when i comes to Lasagna. YUM! So Cya!
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
The bronze soldier....
What is the bronze soldier you ask? The bronze soldier (pictured above) is a World War 2 monument to the Russian (Soviet) soldiers who died fighting to free Estonia from the Nazi's (Before occupying it themselves). Now after 16 years of independence from Russia some Estonians have decided to make a fuss about this monument. Well wait, let me clarify. This is more than a monument. There are unknown soldiers buried under, and around it, too. But anyway. Some Estonians have decided that they want this thing gone. As in torn down. Destroyed. And this has caused problems with Russia. Making the already unhappy relations between Russians and Estonians even more strained. Not good. Now of course i am neither Estonian nor Russian. And i don't care much either way. But this is turning into a huge political issue so i had to blog about it. Tomorrow the Soldier is getting torn down. So today i decided to go visit it and take some pictures, because of course this will be the last chance i ever get. As you notice this thing is covered in TONS of flowers. Now what you don't see is that off to the right, up on the National Library there are about 15 police officers ready to jump into action should there be any problems. It's tomorrow i'm worried about, though. I hope there's no fighting. But anyway, i just want to share one of the final pictures ever taken of the Broze Soldier, and share a little bit with you about what's going on in Estonia. But now i must go, because my Lasagna is waiting. And i am very much like garfield when i comes to Lasagna. YUM! So Cya!
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5 comments:
Some Estonians have decided that they want this thing gone. As in torn down. Destroyed.
you got that one a little wrong - gone means "gone to other place". As to war cemetery.
You have 1 important fact incorrect. Estonians don't want to destroy the monument. The simply want to move it to a more suitable place like a cemetery rather than in the middle of a busy intersection.
It's not being destroyed, just moved to a cemetery.
I see both sides of the issue, and my heart breaks for all involved.
For those whose sons, husbands, fathers, brothers were in the Soviet Army and defeated the Nazis -- many of whom have no grave they can visit to pay respects to their dead -- this is like the American Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and sacred.
For those whose families were persecuted by the Soviets -- this is a very painful symbol. There certainly are still people who have memories of Soviet soldiers taking their families away to Siberia, for instance.
As Christians, our hearts break and we pray for peace.
Wow, well, it was news for me. Even though I have read about the soldier before. So, 1 more day and the bronze soldier is gone, i guess its gonna be a long day.....
Hehe, hopefully everything will be fine :D
take care and God bless
Nobody wants this thing 'torn down' or 'destroyed'. It's being relocated to a war cemetary, along with human remains that may be found underneath (though records of who or what may be buried at the site are extremely sketchy, and civilians are a definite possibility)
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