President of Ukrain Viktor Yushchenko, right, and President of Poland Lech Kaczynski, left, are shown during Yushchenko's visit to Poland.
Photo: Nikolai Lazarenko/Kommersant
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Poland Supports Estonia in Scuffle over Soviet Monument
Polish President Lech Kaczynski spoke with Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves by telephone Sunday evening. The Estonian president told Kaczynski about conditions in Estonia, including recent clashes over the removal of the monument to the Soviet soldier in downtown Tallinn. The Polish president expressed solidarity with Poland.
Earlier the Katyn Committee in Poland, made up of relatives of Polish officers killed at Katyn, near Smolensk, in 1940, had issued a special statement on events in Estonia. The committee urged the removal of Soviet monuments from Poland as well.
“Estonia, like Poland, experienced 50years of Soviet occupation and Soviet monuments were and remain symbols of enslavement, lies and Russian chauvinism. Soviet monuments popularized and laid the theoretical foundation for the Soviet version of the lie that the Soviet Army was the liberator of the people,” the Katyn Committee statement reads.
The monument to the Soviet Liberator was removed from its site in downtown Tallinn on the night of April 27 and the exhumation of the Soviet soldiers buried under it has begun. The monument and remains are expected to be relocated to the Military Cemetery on the edge of the city. The removal of the monument led to rioting in Tallinn and other Estonian cities.
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