Theatre to smooth tensions in Estonia
Published 11 November, 2008, 12:04
A Russian theatre director is staging a play in Tallinn aimed at healing divisions over last year’s violent unrest in the city. Riots broke out when the Estonian authorities decided to move a Soviet war memorial from the city centre to a new location.
“The situation around the Russian community in Estonia is very sensitive and complicated,” the play’s director Boris Pavlovich said. “And theatre is the place where we can talk about the most painful things.”
More than a year on and some Russians in Estonia are still struggling to cope with what happened in April 2007.
“It’s my personal tragedy. People are scared of talking about it,” singing teacher Nadezhda Miroshnichenko said. She is coaching the actors in the play.
According to the players, the drama will encourage members of the audience to come to their own conclusions.
“People won’t be coming here for ready-made answers. We don’t want to lecture them or to show just one side of the story,” actress Tatyana Manevskaya said.
The monument’s relocation still splits opinion.
For ethnic Russians, the Bronze Soldier is a symbol of Soviet victory and Estonia’s liberation from Nazism in WW2. For many Estonians it’s a reminder of what the country now calls Soviet occupation.
“Stalin didn’t free us. One occupation was replaced by another. Those who still talk about it don’t know what freedom is. It’s a closed topic,” Hardon Aasmae said, the mayor of Tallinn in 1990-1992.
Among Estonia’s population of 1.34 million there are around 112,000 non-citizens and approximately the same number of Russian citizens.
Some sociologists say that certain sections of the poplulation’s attitudes towards the government and its institutions are getting worse.
“Unfortunately, this process looks like a smooth downward movement, and is not an abrupt and isolated step in response to the events of 2007 April,” Estonian Minister for Population Affairs Urve Palo said.
She suggests this mistrust could be the reflection of the recent polarisation of national problems and Estonians' passive efforts to engage the non-native population in active social life.
The minister said that while Estonians value language and citizenship status, the Russian-speaking population is oriented towards social goals and mutual dialogue.
“The situation around the Russian community in Estonia is very sensitive and complicated. And theatre is the place where we can talk about the most painful things,” said the director of the play Boris Pavlovich.
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