Work began on Monday morning at 8am, to remove a Soviet-era war monument from Tartu's Raadi Park. The remains of those buried in the graves at the site of the monument will also be removed from the site for reburial in a more suitable location.
Tartu Municipality has failed to reach an agreement with the state regarding the exchange of plots in the immediate vicinity of the Estonian National Museum (ERM). The deadlock means construction work is already underway on the construction of new residential buildings on the plot closest to the museum. Concerns have been expressed that the new buildings will have a detrimental effect on the ERM's architectural value, and that it will now no be longer possible to organize major events on the museum site.
The state has decided to re-inter graves from twenty-two Soviet military cemeteries to locations elsewhere in Estonia, and will also be replacing headstones and other grave markers which bear Soviet insignia, with more neutral edifices.
A museum just outside Tallinn says it is ready to host a controversial tank monument which is in the process of being removed from the eastern Estonian town of Narva by government order.