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EESTI ELU reedel, 19. juunil 2020 — Friday, June 19, 2020
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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 generals’ last battles Is there a close parallel between the removal of monu ments to Confederate Presi dent Jefferson Davis and General Robert E. Lee and others from public spaces in the US South, and the banish ment of Jossif Stalin and Vladimir Lenin statues, with others of similar ilk, from well-attended locations in Estonia? Not entirely. Since 2015, well over one hundred Con federate symbols have been moved into storage away from public visibility in the US southern states. In Estonia simi lar monuments have been either taken down, stored away and/or destroyed. Or as an alternative in some instances, relocated from places of prominence to open air parks and left for pub lic display. Estonia in 2018 at its Museum of History, located in Maarjamäe Palace, opened a collection of 16 statues and monuments that can be viewed on its outside location or vir tually via internet. They mainly represent Estonian Communist vanguard from the time of the 1917 Revolution to the postWWII Soviet occupation era. From the Central Committee elite to secret police command ers to Red Army Generals, like in the US South, they all indi vidually represent the repres sion and inhumanity that domi nated those periods of history. The display was assigned a distinct objective: to use the ex hibit in an educational context that helps to focus on totali tarianism and understand the underpinnings of its societal ideology. These were the politi cal proxies and violent hench men of Lenin and Stalin that were honoured and memorial ized in public for their success in oppression. These acolytes of communist dictatorship were reviled by the vast majority of Estonians. It’s been said that those who disagree with the removal of statues depicting slave era Southern military commanders see it as an indignity to the memory of the forefathers. Others argue that it’s a denial of the actual historical record. Russia sees these removals as an insult of its “glorious” past. This past April a monu ment dedicated to Soviet
Marshal Ivan Konev was taken from its site in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Konev was a WWII Red Army commander, prominent in the fight against the Nazis in Czechoslovakia, but also the Russian military leader who suppressed the Hungarian revolution in 1956 and the strategist who prepared the assault against the “Prague Spring” in 1968. Even though Konev was key in battling German forces in WWII, he was also a despised enemy to all anti-Soviet Hungarians and Czechoslova kians. Moscow has taken the statue’s removal as an affront and initiated criminal proceed ings against the perpetrators, not withstanding that the “crime” occurred in a foreign country. To Russia he was a war hero, to non-Russians a vicious conqueror. One is reminded of the mas sive Russian 2007 cyber attack against Estonia’s digital infra structure, the first such totally crippling assault in cyber war fare history. It was prompted by Estonia relocating a monument to the Soviet Red Army, the very same military that helped to continue a repressive occupa tion of Estonia after the defeat of the Nazis. The justification for the relocation was indisput able and it was moved with due solemnity to a military ceme tery where it stands to this day. Yet Moscow saw it as an un acceptable affront. Ironically, the Kremlin’s knee-jerk reaction helped to make IT-astute Esto nia into a world-recognized centre for research and develop ment of cyber warfare defense. In 1947 Lithuanian anti-So viet partisan Jonas Noreika was killed. In 2019 a plaque dedi cated to him in the Academy of Science was removed. To some he was a Lithuanian hero and patriot, to others a Nazi colla borator. These arguments have been associated with memorials to Leopold II in Belgium, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi in the UK, John A. MacDonald and Egerton Ryer son and others in Canada etc. Should monuments sym bolizing or representing an inhuman, repressive past be re moved or placed in an exhibit accompanied by a non-ideologi cal historical narrative (if that’s possible, ed.)? Before opening
Commemorating the June 14, 1941 Soviet mass deportations in Estonia at a memorial located at the Polva railway station, from where cattle cars filled with innocent people left for Siberia.
Eha Naylor awarded 2020 CSLA President’s Award and Chris Phillips awarded 2020 CSLA Lifetime Achievement Award Ottawa – June 17, 2020 – The Canadian Society of Land scape Architects (CSLA) is pleased to announce that Eha Naylor will receive the CSLA President’s Award and Chris Phillips will receive the CSLA’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The CSLA Recognition Awards honour the work and commitment of Canadians to the profession of landscape ar chitecture. The awards will be given at the CSLA Gala to be held during the 2021 CSLA Congress in Ottawa, Ontario. The Lifetime Achievement Award is awarded annually to a member of the CSLA whose lifetime achievements and con tributions to the profession have had a unique and lasting impact on the welfare of the public and on the environment. Eha Naylor (Eha Kuutan) OALA, FCSLA. MBA. is an honours graduate from the University of Toronto School of Architecture, Landscape and Design. She is a partner and Practice Lead with Dillon Consulting that has offices across Canada. In her 40 year career she has established her self as one of Canadas finest
and most highly respected prac titioners. In addition to her re markable professional skills, Eha has been a tireless advocate for the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects (OALA) and the Canadian Landscape Architecture Foundation where she sits on the Board of Directors. She is also the Chair of a key OALA steering com mittee that is tasked with achieving Practice Act status for Landscape Architecture in Ontario. Glenn O’connor, Pre sident of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, is honoured to recognise Eha with this important award. “Eha Naylor, who is both a landscape architect and a plan ner, is enjoying a remarkable career with significant contribu tions to the profession that bridge planning and ecological design fields. Her skills include the integration of sustainable design measures and climate change adaptation as compo nents of large infrastructure projects. In addition to her impressive career path, Eha has distinguished herself as an ardent advocate for the pro fession, chairing the OALA Practice Legislation Committee,
the relocated statue display, the Estonian Museum of History had simply placed them in an open field on the Museum’s grounds. They suffered exposure to the weather, were covered in weeds and deteriorated in ap pearance. The place became an abandoned graveyard. The statues were not recognized for sufficient historical significance to be properly displayed but had enough cultural heft not to be destroyed. Can the relocated statues, if prudently and thoughtfully “re-branded”, actually heal old wounds? On the other hand some argue that re-erecting them for display elsewhere is offensive to those who suffered under totalitarianism or intoler
ance. In the US South, the removal of Confederate monuments is meant to be a process of vacat ing painful relics of a racist past in a search for social common ality. In Eastern Europe it’s in tended to negate the power these statues once wielded and to deflate any ambitions, domestic or foreign, for a return to the past. As long as the current Russian leadership holds power, a search for a common Esto nian-Russian language in statute removal will be impossible. But in the US, its indifference to the stand-off or vacuous commen tary from the White House that makes healing old wounds unat tainable. LAAS LEIVAT
Eha Naylor
among others. She is truly a remarkable professional and a shining example of how land scape architects impact our communities in a profound way.” – Glenn A. O’Connor, OALA, FCSLA, ASLA The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) is a professional organization with landscape architect members, associate (or intern) members, and student of landscape archi tecture members. As the voice of the profession in Canada, the CSLA is an advocate for its members on issues such as urban design, urban renewal, sustainable development, climate change, and cultural heritage. Eha Naylor earned her land scape architecture degree in 1980 from the University of Toronto and completed an MBA in 1989 from York University’s Schulich School of Business. She was the President of Envision the Hough Group until 2009 and became a leader in Dillon Consulting Limited’s national landscape architecture and community planning prac tice for the last 10 years of her 40-year career. She has earned numerous awards recognizing her exper tise in environmental and site design for both public and pri vate sectors. In 2015, she was selected for the OALA Pinnacle Award for lifetime professional excellence. She’s known for finding solutions to complex, multidisciplinary planning and design assignments. Her skills include the integration of sus tainable design measures and climate change adaptation as components of large infrastruc ture projects. She has practiced sustainable design and has expertise in climate change vulnerability assessment includ (Continued on page 18)
