Estonia in post-colonial mood

Three years ago a number of small states, apart from Malta, joined the EU. There were the Baltic trio, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Bordering Italy, Austria and Croatia was Slovenia and in the eastern corner of the Mediterranean basin was Cyprus. Tiny Luxembourg was no longer the lonely guy.

Estonia has been doing well as an EU member state but lately the news from that country seemed a bit confusing to us, who have struggled and overcome post-colonial problems.

On the evening of April 26 and of the next day, violent demonstrations took place in Tallinn, the capital. The demonstrations were a reaction to the removal and relocation of a controversial bronze Soviet Army soldier monument erected in 1947 and located at Tönismagi in the heart of downtown Tallinn.

Estonian officials said it had to be moved to a cemetery because the site attracted both Russian and Estonian nationalists.

The remote causes of this violent turmoil go back to the Ribbentrop-Molotov Non-Aggression Pact signed between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia in August 1939 just before the outbreak of World War II. In secret codicils attached to this Pact, the USSR was given a free hand to occupy Finland, Estonia, Latvia and later Lithuania, and to help itself to half of Poland.

Germany got half of Poland, and of Czechoslovakia and a carte blanche to attack France in the West. The two moustached dictators, the Austrian Hitler and the Georgian Stalin, both at the head of powerful states, had concocted one of the worst human tragedies in history. That Russia was later the victim of the fire it had helped to start is one of those quirks of history.

As a result of the Soviet-Nazi accord, the Soviets in 1940 occupied all these countries except Finland, which fought heroically and successfully to fend them off. When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in 1941, the Baltic states were occupied by the Nazis.

Subsequently, when the tide turned and the Soviets began to push the Germans back, the Baltic states were reoccupied by their former Soviet occupiers. They were as good to the Estonians and all the other countries they "liberated" as much as the Nazis had been good to them. Really there is no difference.

The Russians may quote documents to show that the Baltic states did not resist occupation by the Red Army or that the removal of their government and its replacement by a totalitarian Communist regime was done in the proper way.

But hardly anyone believes that any more. The truth of the matter is that, isolated as they were at the time, these states hardly had more than a Hobson's choice.

The citizens of the Baltic States were not treated well by their Communist occupiers. Thousands were executed or deported; freedom was simply suppressed. So when the opportunity arose for the citizens of the Baltic states to throw off their yoke, they grabbed it with both hands.

They went on to strengthen their independence by joining the EU and NATO. Today they form part of the community of democratic states. They rightly view the monument to the Soviet soldier not as an image of their liberator but as a reminder of their oppressor.

The sizable minority of Russians implanted into these states during Communist rule sees the monument in exactly the opposite light. They wished to keep it where it was. Estonian authorities eventually removed it.

The violent demonstrations of April 26 led to one death, 50 injuries and around 300 arrests. The next day, demonstrators again clashed with police in the heart of Tallinn.

Vandalism and attempted looting extended to parts of Tallinn's medieval Old Town and portions of the business district, including churches, local government buildings, three buses, and numerous businesses.

There were also small clashes between ethnic Russian and ethnic Estonian youths. Some 500 people were arrested and 66 people injured. Local media also reported demonstrations in the eastern towns of Kohtla Jarve, Johvi and Narva.

History still plays a very important part in the lives of many people. But it may also confuse them. People believe that history is fact. But then it depends a lot on the vantage point from which you look at it. The Russians think that their history is glorious and unblemished.

Estonians disagree. What for the Russian minority in Estonia are liberators, in Estonian eyes turn unmistakably into oppressors.

The issue was debated in the European Parliament. Joseph Daul, leader of the EPP-DE, told MEPs that "today, we are all Estonians". He warned Moscow that the Russian leadership would be making a "grave mistake" if they thought Europe would be divided over the issue.

The Socialist MEP Marianne Mikko, who is herself Estonian, called for an end to the "cyber war" between the two sides as Russian hackers are apparently targeting Estonian news Websites.

Graham Watson for the Liberal ALDE Group (who opposed the resolution along with the Greens) told MEPs that "when intimidation triumphs over negotiation, it can no longer be business as usual between the EU and Russia. The Russians need a clear signal that enough is enough".

Russia is an important European state and the EU and its member states want to live peacefully alongside it and to collaborate with her. But it needs to understand that its empire is gone and the quicker it realises this, the better.

There was a time in the history of the British Empire when Britain was uncertain whether to try to hold it by force or to accede to the demands for independence made by the colonies. In the end good sense triumphed and Britain began to play a useful, leading role in its former empire at the head of the Commonwealth.

The Russians may do well to read the history of post-colonialism.