Bronze Soldier of Tallinn

Bronze Soldier Of Tallinn

The Bronze Soldier (Estonian: Pronkssõdur, Russian: Бронзовый Солдат, Bronzovyj Soldat) is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007. Originally named "Monument to the Liberators of Tallinn" (Estonian: "Tallinna vabastajate monument"), Russian: "Монумент освободителям Таллина", Monument osvoboditeljam Tallina later titled to its current official name "Monument To the Fallen in the Second World War", and sometimes called Alyosha, or Tõnismäe monument after its old location. The memorial was unveiled on 22 September 1947, three years after the Red Army reached Tallinn on 22 September 1944 during World War II.

The monument consists of a stonewall structure made of dolomite and a two meter (6.5 ft) bronze statue of a soldier in a World War II-era Red Army military uniform. It was originally located in a small park (during the Soviet years called the Liberators' Square) on Tõnismägi in central Tallinn, above a small burial site of Soviet soldiers' remains reburied in April 1945.

In April 2007, the Estonian government relocated the Bronze Soldier and, after exhumation and identification, the remains of the Soviet soldiers, to the Defence Forces Cemetery of Tallinn. Not all remains were reburied there, as relatives were given a chance for claims, and several bodies were reburied in various locations of former Soviet Union according to the wishes of the relatives.

Political differences over interpretation of the events of the war symbolised by the monument had already led to a controversy between Estonia's community of multiethnic Russophone post-World War II immigrants and Estonians, as well as between the Russian Federation and Estonia. The disputes surrounding the relocation peaked with two nights of riots in Tallinn (known as the Bronze Night) and besieging of the Estonian embassy in Moscow for a week. The events caught international attention and led to a multitude of political reactions.