Bronze Soldier study is in

A study commissioned to determine who and how many may be buried under the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn has reached the following conclusion: no one knows.

The main conclusion seemed to be that any burial at the site took place not in September 1944 but in April 1945. From the study, however, Prime Minister Ansip concluded that anyone buried at Tõnismäe had been brought there from other locations. Ansip supports the launch of archaeological excavations at the site. Edgar Savisaar, chairman of the third coalition member Centre Party and Economy and Communications Minister, has said that since the monument is very important to many people, no government will remove it.

The Soviet monument, erected in 1947 to commemorate Soviet soldiers who died in WWII, has been the venue of Soviet veterans’ meetings each year and has become a source of inter-ethnic tensions recently. Several meetings and incidents by the monument took place in May and June between mostly Russian-speaking people who support preserving the monument where it is, saying it is a burial ground and thus should stay untouched, and between those Estonians opposed to it as a disgrace of Soviet occupation.