"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." (Oscar Wilde)
Dear Readers:

Russian Diplomat Maria Zakharova is known around the world for her pithy put-downs of Russia's enemies. She is like a Russian, female, version of Oscar Wilde. In this story, Maria takes on the Estonians. Granted, it's like shooting fish in a barrel, but it's still fun to watch.

The topic is the 80th anniversary (celebrated last Saturday, March 9) of a Soviet air attack (March 9, 1944) on Nazi-occupied Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. Tallinn was actually bombed many times in the course of WWII. First by the Germans, in the first few days of the war, and later by the Soviets, several times over the next few years, in the course of driving the Germans out.

Tallinn residents
© Awful AvalancheTallinn residents light candles to commemorate the Soviet bombs.
Apparently the Estonians didn't mind being bombed by the Germans, whom they considered to be their friends, but deeply resented the Soviet bombings. Which is why the Estonian Foreign Ministry decided make a big deal out of the 1944 anniversary. In their communique they termed the enemy bombers as "Russian" rather than "Soviet", and bemoaned the loss of life and property.

While it's true that bombs were not as "smart" in those days, and didn't always hit their target, the target was certainly fascist military formations. And yet the Estonian government, in its communique, insisted that the "Russians" were deliberately targeting "residential areas and cultural objects, just as they are doing now in the Ukraine."

Zakharova commented on her Telegram channel: "It is no secret to anyone that the current Estonian government associates itself with the Hitlerites... In fact, their rabid Russophobia would be envied by Goebbels himself."

Kaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia
© AlamyKaja Kallas, Prime Minister of Estonia.
Zakharova wanted to correct the record from the falsifiers of history: These bombing runs were part of an operation conducted by the Soviet military to liberate the Baltic states from the Nazis. "The Soviet army did not strike any civilian or cultural objects. The only targets were military targets." She stressed that the legitimate military targets included Headquarters of the Gestapo and Abwehr, Nazi air defense complexes, their naval arsenal, stores of gunpowder, and the Nazi communications network. "I don't exclude that, for the Kallas clan and for the descendants of Estonian collaborators, such objects may indeed be deemed holy sites or cultural objects, but for the rest of us, normal, people, these constitute legitimate military targets."

Zakharova also noted Estonian fakery in their "false parallels" and deceptive use of photographs. Purporting to show Soviet destruction of civilian objects in 1944, the Estonians, in their display, presented a photo that was actually taken in August of 1941, when the Soviet fleet was retreating from the Baltics, and the German invaders actually caused all the damage.

Zakharova also reminded Estonians that the Red Army soldiers, when they re-entered Tallinn in 1944, were greeted by ordinary Estonians as liberators, notwithstanding the years of fascist propaganda and brainwashing. "Several local residents even risked their lives to help the Soviet soldiers. One should also not forget that, in this operation to liberate Tallinn, the most active role was actually taken by Estonians themselves, namely warriors of the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps of the Red Army. These men were true patriots of their Motherland, the current crop cannot even be compared to them," Zakharova concluded contemptuously.