One Dead in Fight Over Bronze Soldier

If you thought the controversy over the WWII Memorial in D.C. got heated, be glad you don't live in Tallinn, Estonia.

Estonian officials are trying to move a Soviet-built WWII memorial and military grave complex out of the center of their capital city. Estonian nationalists say that 'Bronze Soldier' is a reminder of the Soviet conquest and occupation of the Baltic States in 1940 (and again in 1944). As in many parts of Soviet-occupied Eastern Europe, partisans stayed in the wild to battle the Red Army after harassing the Nazis for years. Ethnic Russians in Estonia feel that the memorial simply honors the soldiers who died to defeat Nazi Germany.

Excavations have begun to move the memorial and at least one man is dead in the subsequent protests and riots. The Russia's upper house of Parliament is calling for a break in diplomatic relations with Estonia. Even with the threats and the violence, it looks like the Bronze Soldier can expect to find a new home in a military cemetery outside the city.