Tallinn Trip – Soviet Statue Graveyard (The Second Viktor Kingissepp Statue)

I’ve written about one statue to Viktor Kingissepp (1888-1922), but this was a man that the Soviets were very proud of and so there were numerous of the things dotted around. This statue was located in what is now Kuressaare, but between 1952 and 1988 it was named Kingissepa, something of a tribute (well, until they changed it again). It was a very late monument having been installed here in 1988 to mark the centenary of his birth, designed by Matti Varik. It lasted just a year before it was relocated further out of the town centre and it was then removed entirely, coming to this museum in 2007 after years in a storage area. I haven’t heard of him, but apparently he looks like the Estonian Mikk Mikiver, so the statue became a figure of fun. I’m not sure that was entirely what was intended when they were trying to mark 100 years since his birth….