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EESTI ELU reedel, 29. aprillil 2022 — Friday, April 29, 2022
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How Estonian Music Week is expanding its network at jazzahead! festival Vincent Teetsov English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
The Russian military, valiant or vicious? Millions of TV viewers, outside of Russia, are now aware of the atrocities Russian troops have committed in Bucha and in many other Ukrainian towns and villages. We have seen the documented evidence of the constant, deliberate targeting of hospitals, schools, theatres, residences etc. We have heard the unencrypted radio talk between soldiers engaged in the deliberate murder of civilians and war prisoners. We know of the military honours bestowed upon those involved in the most heinous war crimes in Ukraine. We have even heard of some Russian mothers urging their sons on to further barbarities. The massacre in Bucha brought the crimes of Russian soldiers starkly into everyone’s livingroom. Bucha had been occupied by Russians for one month. After taking back the town from the invaders, Ukrainian troops uncovered mass graves of civilians with hands ziplocked behind their backs and women who had been raped before being murdered. No one expected the Rus sians to acknowledge their barbarity. Russia’s UN representative denied any allegation as a “provocation”. But that was an echo of a very similar denial from over 50 years ago, when Moscow insisted that the massacre of 4,000 Polish officers it committed in the Katyn Forest during the beginning of WWII was committed by the Nazis. The Soviets even attempted to include Katyn among the accusations facing Nazi leaders in the prosecution’s list of war crimes to be tried at Nurem berg. This would have made their false accusation part of the charges of the official allied powers case against German perpetrators. Nazi documents and witness testimony at Nuremberg ruling out the Russian version of the Katyn murders were not examined. Because the evidence was held by the Soviets and post-war Poland was under
Moscow’s control, the damaging evidence was held by the USSR. Even though Western investigations and studies, initiated by Polish organizations in exile, exposed the Russian role in Katyn, it was categorically denied by the Kremlin. Nikita Khrushchev, the purported proponent of “de-Stalinization”, received a top-secret letter from Alexander Shelepin, the head of the KGB, which indisputably confirmed that the Soviets planned and killed the Polish officers. In fact Soviet archives revealed that Russians killed 21,857 Polish citizens in 1940. Only in April of 1990, after considerable documentation was uncovered 50 years later, evidence that Moscow was no longer able to refute, did the Soviet Union, under Mikhail Gorbachev, finally acknowledge its culpability in the massacres. Must the world wait for another half century for Moscow to admit to Bucha and numerous other crimes? The “special military operation”, as Russian law demands the invasion of Ukraine be named, was similarly used to describe Russia’s war with Chechnya during 1994–1996. Grozny, the capital was totally leveled by indiscriminate bombing. During this period some 20,000 to 30,000 civilians, including 2,000 children, were intentionally killed by Russian bombing. Reports of civilian deaths from the second war in Chechnya, including the counter-insurgency from 1999 to 2009, have ranged from 40,000 to 45,000. Historians have noted that one tenth of a population of one million have perished. From a total of 428 villages, 380 were bombed in the wars, leaving behind 70% of de stroyed households. Some 57 mass graves have been recorded in Chechnya. These casualties were all citizens of the Russian Federation as defined by Moscow. Human Rights Watch has also recorded between 3,000 and 5,000 forced disappearances in Chechnya between 1999 and 2005. By 2009, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued 115 verdicts finding the Russian government guilty of enforced disappearance, murder, torture and the failure to investigate these crimes. War crimes have been a
BREMEN, GERMANY – Since it was first created in 2018 by Estonian Museum Canada (VEMU), Estonian Music Week has united several big-name jazz artists and venues between Estonia and Canada. More recently, this took shape in Mike Murley sharing the stage with Kristjan Randalu. Nearly three years ago, Kadri Voorand performed together with Juno award-winning pianist and singer Laila Biali. Even more fruitful collaborations between Estonians and Canadians are on the horizon, though. For example, EMW is striving to bring Laila Biali and Toronto legends the Shuffle Demons to Jazzkaar festival in 2023. Now, there’s a chance to move further and show the value of the festival to the rest of the world at the “Family Reunion of Jazz.” That’s because Estonian Music Week will be making a trip to this year’s jazzahead! festival in Bremen, Germany. From April 28th to May 1st, the jazz section of the music industry will converge here, as they have since 2006; to listen and watch, but also establish business contacts for exciting events in the future. The anticipation is high because of the
festival being cancelled in 2020 and then taking place virtually in 2021. In past years, over 3,000 delegates from 64 countries and around 25,000 visitors came to the festival, according to jazzahead!. As Joe Woodard of Cadence Magazine has described it, it’s an “expanding phenom of a convention, expo, networking emporium and, yes, densely-packed and tightly organized music festival.” Particularly opportune is that, this year, jazzahead! is putting the spotlight on Canadian musicians, music businesspeople, and organizations, with the theme “Together again: jazzahead! meets Canada.” Among the featured music acts are Malika Tirolien and Laila Biali. jazzahead! confirms that during the trade fair weekend, “the program will culminate in 30 venues with 40 showcase concerts, GALA CONCERT and CLUBNIGHT.” As “featured partner country” for this iteration of the festival, Canada is also presenting samples of the country’s dance, performance art, literature, and film. Estonian Music Week will join over 30 Canadian delegates and effectively represent both
common part of the military tactics of Russians in numerous conflicts. International obser vers in 2008 witnessed the Russian use of cluster bombs in Georgia and the deliberate attacks against civilian areas and infrastructure. Armed militias engaged in plundering, burning and kidnapping. In 2021 the ECHR found Russia guilty of murder, torture and destruction of homes, as well as preventing 20,000 displaced Georgians from returning to their territory in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, areas that Russia recognizes as its protectorates. In 2017, the Office of the United Nations High Com missioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) reported that Russia was using cluster and incen diary weapons in Syria, constituting war crimes of indiscri minate attacks against civilian areas. In 2016 when Syrian government forces retook Aleppo, from the rebels with the help of Russian heavy artillery bombardment, observers witnessed the systematic targeting of medical facilities. By 2018, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had recorded over 8,000 civilian casualties from Russian air strikes and artillery. It’s now apparent that Russia has used the war in Syria as an effective military training ground, and Syria’s autocratic
president, Bashar al-Assad, has now supported the Russian onslaught in Ukraine. This is a behavioural patter that has repeated itself over decades. Arkadi Babshenko, author and former journalist, has examined the military traditions that spurred Russian brutality as shown in Bucha: in the Russian army “everyone thrashes everyone else. Non-coms, officers, get totally drunk and beat the recruits. … Nobody talks normally to anyone else. You just punch him in the face. Russia forces you to kill – kill your own, those that speak Russian. They should be shot in the head so that their brain is splattered against the wall. Demolished with tanks and ripped to pieces.” Babshenko was a veteran war correspondent for the independent minded Novaja Gazeta who personally witnessed Russian atrocities in Chechnya. The Soviet/Russian military has a history of “dedvoshchina” – the practice of brutally hazing and abusing junior conscripts. It not only approves the humiliation of new recruits, but also promotes violent, sometimes even deadly physical and psychological maltreatment. It often includes extremely vicious bullying or torture, including rape. It’s a deeply-rooted Russian culture of cruelty. Russian soldiers taken as individuals probably have no
Photo: jazzahead.de
Canadian and Estonian jazz at the trade fair/conference. The festival’s aim is to build new relationships between those in the jazz music scene from Estonia and Canada. This includes meetings with Jazz Estonia, Toronto Downtown Jazz Festival, and Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. As stated by EMW’s Executive Director Sebastian Buccioni, who will be at jazzahead!, “EMW is already becoming a recognized name in the industry. Our long-term goal for EMW is to keep building on our ability to deliver career boosting opportunities for artists on both sides of the ocean.” Bold moves like these will ensure that Canada and Estonia’s cultural dialogue becomes more audible and that EMW will continue to serve in a supportive role for Estonian musicians trying to reach new audiences in the broader world.
ESTONIAN LIFE
additional inclination to be more brutal than soldiers elsewhere. But they live in a social environment that not only tolerates but actively encourages brutality. Radio intercepts in Ukraine have exposed troops discussing killing civilians as a normal battlefield tactic. And making it easier to put cruelty to practice is Putin’s propaganda campaign of dehumanizing Ukrainians. The Russian ruthlessness has been witnessed by some 6000 foreign journalists who have been accredited to cover the war in Ukraine. It’s been corroborated by constant satellite surveillance. Since these Rus sian war crimes are every day events, are we in danger of accepting them as a common occurrence? We haven’t seriously dealt with them in the past. The abominable history of Russian war crimes proves that atrocities in Ukraine are not an exception but a primary aspect of war for Russians, waged over a century. The atrocities have not been the spontaneous activities of rogue soldiers. They have been a major part of de liberate, well-rehearsed policy. And those that only call for the war to end, with a blind eye to war crimes, are once again emboldening future Russian aggression with its inevitable atrocities. LAAS LEIVAT
