Caravanserai
Analysis

Amputating 'Moscow's finger': Baltic states continue removal of Soviet monuments

By Tengo Gogotishvili

A man walks past pictures in the former closed military town Skrunda-1, some 150km from Latvia's capital city Riga, on February 3, 2010. [Ilmars Znotins/AFP]

A man walks past pictures in the former closed military town Skrunda-1, some 150km from Latvia's capital city Riga, on February 3, 2010. [Ilmars Znotins/AFP]

RIGA, Latvia -- "Moscow's finger" is what residents of Riga dubbed a monument to their "liberators", which had stood in the Latvian capital's downtown area since 1985.

The 79-metre-high obelisk and surrounding memorial complex honoured the memory of Latvia's "liberation" by the Red Army.

The monument was toppled in August following the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

"Everything changed with the Russian occupation of Ukraine on February 24," Atis Klimovičs, editor of the military supplement in Latvijas Avize, the country's most popular newspaper, told Caravanserai.

Workers prepare to dismantle the Memorial of Red Army Soldiers at the Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, last December 6. Lithuania began the dismantling of the Soviet monument in its capital, ignoring warnings of the UN that it called misinformed. [Petras Malukas/AFP]

Workers prepare to dismantle the Memorial of Red Army Soldiers at the Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius, Lithuania, last December 6. Lithuania began the dismantling of the Soviet monument in its capital, ignoring warnings of the UN that it called misinformed. [Petras Malukas/AFP]

Workers demolish an 80-metre-high Soviet monument in Riga, Latvia, in a screenshot from a video posted to YouTube last August by Ireland's RTÉ News.

Workers demolish an 80-metre-high Soviet monument in Riga, Latvia, in a screenshot from a video posted to YouTube last August by Ireland's RTÉ News.

"In Latvia, people realised that this is our war too. That an independent country no longer has a place for monuments to the Soviet -- in reality, Russian -- occupation."

"The monument in Riga was toppled without any unrest. The same thing happened in Daugavpils, our second largest city."

Latvia is not the only Baltic state removing Soviet-era monuments.

Work began in December to remove parts of the Antakalnis Cemetery in Vilnius, a monument dedicated to Soviet soldiers in 1984, according to local officials.

"Vilnius [city hall] planned to dismantle the stele at the Antakalnis Cemetery by November 1," Giedrius Sakalauskas, founder of Res Publica, a non-government organisation that combats disinformation, told Caravanserai.

"But the work was suspended after the UN [United Nations] Human Rights Committee announced 'temporary measures to protect the memorial'," he said.

"Lithuanians referring to themselves as 'ethnic Russians' -- Kazimieras Juraitis, Dmitrius Glazkovas, Tatyana Brandt and Anastasia Brandt -- had petitioned the UN body," he said.

"Their complaint alleges that Vilnius's decision to demolish the stele violates the rights of ethnic minorities, as well as the right to private and family life."

"After the work began, the mayor declared that special permission from the UN was not necessary, since the municipality had made the decision to conduct the work [to remove Soviet memorials from the cemetery]," said Sakalauskas, a prominent foe of Russian propaganda.

The UN was misinformed that the memorial stands on the graves of 3,000 soldiers -- nobody is going to touch the graves, said Vilnius authorities.

The Red Army also experienced another defeat in Estonia's predominantly Russian-speaking city of Narva.

Despite protests by locals inflamed by Moscow, authorities in August removed a T-34 tank adorned with bright red stars from its pedestal.

The tank will now become an exhibit at the military museum in Tallinn.

Throughout Estonia spent almost €1 million to demolish or relocate Soviet memorials, the Err.ee news site reported in January.

A commission in late November identified 244 sites that needed to be removed. By then, workers already had taken down 56 sites.

Rejecting Russian influence

For Moscow, the monuments that have been toppled since the start of its invasion symbolise more than just bygone martial triumphs. They also represent one of the last remaining ways to influence its former colonies.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russia concluded agreements with its former "fraternal republics" to preserve Soviet monuments. The Baltic countries largely complied with these treaties, but in 2007 the Kremlin bared its fangs when Estonia relocated a monument.

During redevelopment of the Tallinn city centre, city hall decided to move the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, an elaborate Soviet-era grave marker known as Alyosha to residents, to a local cemetery.

Pro-Russian hackers attacked Estonian government and private websites, and riots broke out, leaving one person dead.

When a bulldozer knocked down "Moscow's finger" last August 25, the police and journalists in Riga expected something similar, but nothing happened.

Even the local Russian-speaking retirees who celebrate Victory Day there every year did not come out to protest.

Ultimately, the removal of "Moscow's finger" prompted the Russian Foreign Ministry to summon the Latvian ambassador and launch a criminal case for insulting "historical memory".

Public opinion in the Baltic states -- especially of the younger generation -- is shifting.

For example, residents are increasingly viewing May 9 -- which Russia uses to mark victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 -- as a symbol of occupation.

"The May 9 cult is closely connected to the new aggressive chauvinism, which has become the dominant ideology in Russia and has occupied the hearts and minds of a certain segment of Russian-speaking residents of Latvia," said Klimovičs.

"Over the past 15 years, it has been clear that people somewhat disloyal to our state gather at monuments to the occupiers on May 9," he said.

For now, it appears that Russia can do little to stop the Baltic states.

With all the "little green men" -- men like the Russian troops who invaded Crimea in 2014, pretending to be local separatists -- busy on the Ukrainian front, Moscow has largely been limited to complaining to international organisations.

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Here comes the process of derussification and the total, final collapse of the USSR.

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