TALLINN - The Estonian government announced last week that it would form a commission of ministers to deal with history matters. The commission will be responsible for erecting the controversial freedom monument, which commemorates those who died for the country's independence, as well as being responsible for how contemporary Estonian history is officially represented.
The government first aired the idea in mid-September, following a wave of negative reaction over the controversial World War II monument's removal in Lihula on Sept. 2. According to the government, the monument was taken down because it "damaged the image of Estonia, regardless of the aims pursued by its creators."
Population Affairs Minister Paul-Eerik Rummo is to present a plan regarding the exact make-up of the commission team and its activities within two months. The group will also involve ministers of education and science, the minister of justice, the minister of defense, the minister of culture, the minister of the interior, the foreign affairs minister and the state secretary.
Rummo said that several governmental organizations would submit information about the state's creation and development, and that the process could be coordinated with maximum efficiency by a commission at government level.
"Our knowledge of our own history is constantly being supplemented. For example, the white book report [composed thanks to the Max Jakobson commission and the state commission on research of the occupation regime's repression] and the picture of the Bolshevik and the Nazi occupation crimes has become much clearer," said Rummo.
According to Rummo, the commission historians' efforts will provide society with new facts and revelations on Estonia's contemporary history. "This is an ongoing process, and in keeping with its results, we will have to update both internationally distributed material and school textbooks," he said
The commission will analyze existing history textbooks, including those used in the country's Estonian and Russian schools.
The state's concern over interpretation of its history during WWII is mostly a result of Russia's modern-history approach. Rummo said that pressure from Russia became more intense after Estonia joined the EU and NATO. An Oct. 18-dated memo from the minister's office of Population Affairs reads that: "taking into account the escalation of the anti-Estonian disinformation campaign coming mainly from Russia - which includes the dynamic dissemination of an anti-Estonian version of history - the government needs to increase respected Estonian institutions' ability to neutralize this misleading information by using, if necessary, funds from the 2005 state budget."
According to Rummo, there is a fundamental version of Estonia's history based on fact, international law and the solid principles of democratic countries, such as the refusal to recognize the Baltic States as part of the Soviet Union.
