The Moving of the Bronze Soldier and the Aftermath. Author: Will Lasky, MA Candidate, Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies, University of Washington

Abstract: When Estonian authorities decided to move the Bronze Soldier – a Soviet monument to unknown soldiers that died fighting during WWII – out of the center of Tallinn and into a nearby cemetery, they knew the result would be a firestorm of controversy and the deterioration of Russian, Estonian relations. The move represented a risky assertion of one set of meanings over another. For ethnic Russians, the Bronze Soldier represents nostalgia for the Soviet Union. For ethnic Estonians it represents occupation. However, for the reform party in Estonia, it represented a political platform in the run up to the elections in March. Meanwhile, the Russian response, the riot, the cyber attacks, the sanctions and the saber rattling was also clearly political tool for Russian politicians interested in appeasing nationalistic audiences hungry for displays of strength. My presentation examines this event and its aftermath from both the Russian and the Estonian perspectives, using accounts derived from both Russian and Estonian popular media and academic scholarship on nationalism. I examine how the Bronze Soldier became a political platform for Estonian politicians and a source of nationalizing propaganda for their Russian counterparts.