Tallinn Trip – Soviet Statue Graveyard (Memorial to August Kork and Aleksander Kukk)

It’s genuinely getting just a little difficult to take the Soviets seriously with memorials such as this, commemorating the lives of two Red Army commanders, August Kork and Aleksander Kukk. August Kork (1887-1937) was an Estonian-born military leader who rose to prominence in the Red Army during the Russian Civil War. He held significant commands and was a decorated hero of the Soviet Union. However, he was later caught up in Stalin’s purges and executed in 1937. Aleksander Kukk (1886-1932) was another Estonian who served as a Red Army commander during the Russian Civil War. He also held important positions in the Soviet military but died under unclear circumstances in 1932.

So, Kork was executed by the Soviets for attempting to overthrow the communist regime, a likely ridiculous claim and he was realistically part of Stalin’s Great Purge and did nothing wrong. He went from hero to zero to hero and back to zero when Estonia was liberated. In reality, the Soviets did admit in the 1950s that he had been treated badly and that is why they wanted to reinforce his hero status, but executing your own military leader and then trying to apologise feels somewhat sub-optimal. Much of this really is based around the four hour ‘secret speech’ made at midnight by Khrushchev in February 1956, a confusing little arrangement which is a fascinating story in itself.

The information board at the museum notes that the statue was unveiled in front of the building of the Chair of Military Science of Tartu State University and that the students there disliked the compulsory military studies they were taught. The monument was pulled down in 1990 and has been at the museum since 2007, a testament to the shifting tides of history.