Tallinn Trip – Soviet Statue Graveyard (Monument to the Coup of 1 December 1924)

This isn’t the most subtle of the monuments at the museum and it was installed at the Baltic railway station in Tallinn on 17 July 1975 to mark the communist coup of 1 December 1924. The location was chosen as the railway station was one of the places that the communists were able to seize and it was a huge structure, standing eight metres high although only these bronze sections remain.

There are three groups of people in the monument:

Group 1 : ‘Attack’ which depicts armed workers dashing into battle towards Baltic Station.

Group 2 : ‘New Fighters, Taking the Place of the Fallen’ which pledged to continue the fight.

Group 3 : ‘The Raging People’ depicting the anger of the workers towards their oppressors.

The monument was designed by Matti Varik and the bronze elements were made in St. Petersburg. The bronze figures from the monument were removed in February 1993 and the stone base was removed in 1994. The monument was widely mocked, the coup was operated from the Soviet Union and entirely failed. 125 of the Soviet insurgents were killed and the Estonian people wanted nothing to do with this attempt to remove their Government.  The very thought that this monument would somehow inspire the people of Estonia shows just how out of touch political leaders had become in their attempt to con the nation.