Estonia is struggling to turn the page on its past

The recent removal of the 'Bronze Soldier' statue from the centre of Tallinn has provoked numerous demonstrations and caused fraught diplomatic tension between Estonia and Russia. For some this monument signifies the end of Nazi oppression and for others the beginning of the Soviet occupation. Laurent Moyse points out that "it is not surprising that the ghosts of the past are creeping back little by little in the central and eastern parts of the European continent. More to the west, we have at times taken a lot longer to look back on painful episodes of History. ... National reconciliation has always been a painful ordeal in countries that have experienced trauma. Europe has indeed been living at peace with itself for 60 years, but in many cases, it maintains the hypersensitive memory of someone skinned alive."

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