Much to the chagrin of Russia, former Soviet satellites are erasing the vestiges of communism from their street names, parks, and monuments.
The life-size statue of a Red Army soldier stands at a crossroads in this Baltic capital, fist clenched and head bowed, marking the spot where Soviet war dead are buried.
But the statue is engulfed in bitter debate over the Soviet army's place in European history, which could come to a head this week if the Estonian government goes ahead with plans to dig up the tomb and move the statue to a park outside Tallinn.
Russians are appalled, and the Kremlin has warned of "irreversible consequences" for relations with Estonia.
Estonia is not alone. These days, throughout formerly Soviet-controlled eastern Europe, a battle of symbols and memories is being waged — over statues, street names, the hammer and sickle, even Auschwitz. Now firmly entrenched in the West through NATO and European Union membership, many countries are showing renewed eagerness to erase the more visible vestiges of communism.
The dispute underscores the opposing views of the Soviet legacy in Russia and its former satellites. Russia's resurgent patriotism under President Vladimir Putin has only widened the gap as countries from the Baltics to the Balkans seek to shed the last vestiges of communism.
Russia views the Soviet troops as heroes who rescued the three Baltic states from a racist Nazi regime. Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians say the Soviet regime that held sway over them for 45 years after World War II was even more repressive.
"This is not a monument to the victors of the war but a monument to the destruction of the Estonian Republic," said lawmaker Mart Laar.
The problem, says Eugeniusz Smolar, head of the Center for International Relations, a Polish think tank, is that "Russia has never come to terms with its history." Russians continue to see themselves only as victims of World War II, he said, and ignore the dictatorial systems they imposed on the countries they liberated from the Germans.
It isn't just the Russians who haven't come to grips with the tyranny of communism. Many liberals in this country still describe fondly the ideals of communism. And if you've ever read Noam Chomsky, you know that there are idiots out there who think the U.S. is worse for the world than the Soviet Union was.
Of course, we didn't kill and enslave millions of our own people, but you can't blame lefties for the inconvenient truth, can you?
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