Students: Kristīne Santa Zariņa (University of Latvia, Research and Protection of Cultural and Environmental Heritage); Dovilė Joneliūkštė (Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Cultural Heritage and Tourism); Elisabetta Romano (University of Trieste, History); Danielė Buterlevičienė (Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Creative Industries); Rafał Lizak (University of Silesia in Katowice, Art education)
Mentors: Riin Alatalu and Anu Soojärv (Estonian Academy of Arts)
Assignment by the mentors:
Case study:
The dynamics between the memorial of the Unknown Soldier, situated in downtown Sillamäe, and the Soviet war memorial near the Vaivara old cemetery, situated near Sillamäe, at the historical site of the battle of Sinimäe.
Story of Sillamäe
Contemporary Sillamäe town began to develop at the end of the 1940s, when the previous inhabitants were relocated from the area and replaced with people from the vastness of Soviet Russia in order to establish a classified uranium enrichment plant. Sillamäe became a restricted town fully provided by Moscow, which cut its inhabitants off from the rest of Estonia for decades. Sillamäe was reopened with the restoration of Estonia’s independence in early 1990s.
For being an homogenic closed community for decades, Sillamäe has remained mainly a Russian-speaking area and is still alienated from the rest of Estonia.
For the rest of Estonia, Sillamäe still tends to seem as a remnant of the Soviet era, while people of Sillamäe feel neglected by the Estonian republic. It’s curious that people who once settled in Sillamäe – workers, scientists and others essential for getting a uranium enrichment plant going and operating – were often not ethnic Russians but for example Izhorians, Votians and other representatives of small ethnic groups, whose identities and native tongues eventually dissolved in the mayhem of Soviet occupation.
Memorial “Unknown Soldier” and the Soviet war memorial near the old Vaivara cemetery. The controversy
Memorial in downtown Sillamäe is dedicated to Soviet soldiers who perished and remained lost in the Great Patriotic War (Soviet title for the WW2). The monument was constructed in 1975 of four massive concrete blocks, the one on top is embellished with three bas-reliefs depicting Soviet soldiers – an infantryman, a marine and an airman. Despite the fact that Sillamäe used to be a closed military town provided by Moscow, the memorial “Unknown Soldier” was commissioned from two notable Estonian artists – architect Allan Murdmaa and sculptor Renaldo Veeber. After the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine started in 2022, the controversial Unknown soldier of Sillamäe was heatedly disputed and it barely escaped demolition as it was seen as a Soviet ideological monument. On the other hand, people of Sillamäe have characterised it as a memorial site not to the Soviet regime, but to loved ones, it is the tangible memory site for the ones whose final resting places have remained unknown due to the whirlwind of war.
Not far from the monument to the Unknown soldier, near the old Vaivara cemetery, there is a memorial dedicated to the battle of Sinimäe that took place in 1944. Every 9th of May, on the anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War, it is custom for many habitants of Sillamäe to bring along photographs of their deceased relatives and to gather at the monument of Unknown soldier, following a walk up to the Vaivara cemetery to hold a picnic at the foot of the Soviet war memorial. Although Soviet memorials that are already situated in the cemeteries instead of public space have been left untouched, in 2023 the war memorial of the old Vaivara cemetery was vandalised by covering it with cement. That was hurtful to many people of Sillamäe. On the other hand, celebrating 9th of May is offensive to many Estonians.
The main problem this case study brainstormes over, is how to get two different memory groups, Russian-speaking and Estonian-speaking communities, who has separate truths and narratives, to meet in the middle.
Students’ results and their presentation:
