Estonia spends almost a million euros for dismantling Soviet monuments

Estonia has allocated almost one million euros from the state budget for the dismantling and relocation of Soviet monuments in 2022, reports the Estonian media ERR News.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine reawakened the initiative to remove the propaganda objects left by the Soviet regime. Government press secretary Jevgenia Värä said that the Ministry of Defense has allocated 916,405 euros for the demolition or relocation of Soviet monuments.
An additional 60,000 euros went to a workgroup set up by the government, whose tasks included monitoring the dismantling work. It ended its work in November, indicating that 244 of the 322 listed objects still need to be dismantled.

By the beginning of January, another 56 objects had been dismantled. Four monuments require a special approach due to their nature, such as cemeteries, while 74 objects are assessed as neutral and will not be dismantled or transformed.

The dismantling of the monuments is still ongoing.
In most cases, the dismantling, relocation, or transformation of monuments was carried out by municipalities, except for cases where part of the object was a burial ground. then it was done by the state and the remains of about 830 persons were reburied.
One of the most complicated cases was the transfer of a World War II tank in Narva. It was located at the border of the city and was a memorial to soldiers who fell on the Soviet side. The municipality failed to organize the transfer of the tank, and the state institutions did it.
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