Estonia sets aside nearly a million euros for Soviet-era monument removal

Estonia sets aside nearly a million euros for Soviet-era monument removal
# 06 January 2023 16:58 (UTC +04:00)

Estonia has allocated close to a million euros towards the removal of Soviet-era monuments from various locations across the state through 2022, APA reports citing ERR.

Estonian Government Office spokesperson Jevgenia Värä said: "€916,405 was allocated to Ministry of Defense agencies towards activities related to the removal from the public space of 'red' monuments which pose a security threat."

The €916,405 was allocated for the physical removal of statues, monuments, graves, plaques and other installations, dating to the Soviet occupation of Estonia.

An additional €60,000 was allocated towards a working party set up by the government and tasked with overseeing the removal work and the creation of a neutral grave marker to replace Soviet-oriented headstones, in the case of graves, Vära went on.

Four more monuments required separate treatment given their location – the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) cemetery in Tallinn, and the Maarjamäe development in Pirita, also in Tallinn.

A further 74 monuments were adjudged to be "neutral" and so will not be altered or removed.

So far, around 830 sets of human remains have been thus re-interred.

The Ministry of Defense War Graves Committee, along with the national war museum at Viimsi, were tasked with much of this work.

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THE OPERATION IS BEING PERFORMED