2 April 2025 Saarte Hääl published an article about the Tehumardi monument by Counsellor of the Saaremaa Heritage Board Liis Koppel:
One who does not remember the past lives without a future.
“With these lines from Juhan Liiv, one could characterise the events at Tehumardi that unfolded this weekend. The Tehumardi monument was again the victim of vandalism, when lines were written on the hilt of a sword urging the removal of the pillars and the red propaganda “in the form of a kick in the teeth”. A sculpture and a monument of art is seen as a threat and a problem that transcends all normality,” writes Liis Koppel, adviser to the Saaremaa heritage protection authority.
This is a joint work by Estonia’s own top authors Riho Kuld, Matti Varik and Allan Murdmaa from 1966. During this period, the major works were mostly state commissions. As with today’s architectural and sculpture competitions, there was a predefined brief or conditions of the competition, which determined certain nuances of the commission. The Tehumardi monument therefore received propagandist texts as the only inappropriate and false signs of the times. Today, they are covered up and should not cause anyone any such fury, as the anathema are not presented as liberators.
Men in Soviet helmets tell us about nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation. Instead of propagandistic texts, we can imagine that there are the lines: “1945-1991 Occupation of Estonia – NO MORE!”. Does the work then have the same memory? A permanent and suitable solution is being worked on and will hopefully be found soon.
We have a number of buildings, public spaces, small forms and works of art from the Soviet period. Are we going to destroy, demolish and deny almost 50 years of our history? We have thousands of years of history and landscapes, including urban landscapes, scoured by invasions and foreign powers. We have ancient fortresses, medieval churches and fortifications, manor houses and noble complexes, and public buildings built by foreign powers. We could not imagine today’s Saaremaa without Pöide or Kaarma castle, Kuressaare fortress or Maas castle, Karja, Valjala or Kihelkonna church, Tõlluste or Pilguse manor, or the classicist manor houses (including the town hall) and town hall along Kuressaare’s main streets. Our culture and background is layered like Napoleon’s cake and interwoven like grandmother’s knitted church gloves. Can you imagine if all this richness was gone? If each successive stage had erased and destroyed all that went before, wanting to start afresh?
Tehumardi provides a great opportunity to tell our own story – military, social, cultural and artistic. Honestly, in its own context and location. It is no longer a war grave. In connection with the excavation of the remains and their reburial in the Vananõmme cemetery in 2023, the grave markers that had been part of the memorial were removed and the site was smoothed over. What was left was a sculptural monument – a work of art, which is what it should be taken as.
There is no need for us to incite hatred and hatred, or to create intrigue where there is no real reason to do so. The tomato soup thrown by protesters at Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa in 2024 did not diminish the painting’s value, nor did it save the world by ensuring healthy and sustainable food. The nationalist propaganda carried on the sword of Tehumard at the weekend does not diminish the value of the sculpture or save Estonian culture, but diminishes it.