Word: tallinn
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...that 400 such monuments were taken down last year. A recent decision to remove a statue paying tribute to the Red Army in Lviv in western Ukraine brought harsh criticism from the Russian government, reminiscent of the outcry when Estonian authorities had a similar statue dismantled and relocated in Tallinn in 2007. "We have a shared history, but our views of it are very different," says Stanislav Kulchytsky, deputy director of the Institute of Ukrainian History in Kiev...
...attack governments of former Soviet Republics and Eastern Bloc countries that have increasingly moved towards the West. The most recent example - which is still making waves in Russia - was the 2007 row in Estonia over the moving of the statue of a Red Army soldier from a central Tallinn square to a nearby war cemetery, a decision which triggered riots and caused an international incident. (Read: "Estonians Under Siege in Moscow...
...partied quite as hard as the tiny Baltic states. The end of communist rule and the liberalization of their economies, together with the promise of joining the E.U. (which all three did in 2004), drove dizzying growth. Rapidly rising wages and property prices fueled the exuberance. In cities like Tallinn, families borrowed to buy their own homes for the first time. Flashy cars bumped along cobblestone streets, while high-end restaurants catered to the new moneyed class, serving mojito cocktails and champagne for lunch. "It was like New York City in the 1980s," says Imre Kose, chef de cuisine...
...prices began to fall last year, people like Lepik, who had grown accustomed to making 50% a year on their real estate investments, suddenly struggled to sell. As the banks that helped finance the boom clamped down on credit, dozens of companies went bust. Land on the outskirts of Tallinn that had cost $0.50 per square meter in 2000, and peaked at $90 per square meter in 2006, now fetches just...
...pain in property and construction has spread. Estonia's stock index is down 60% in the past year. Tourist numbers have fallen. A third of restaurants in Tallinn's old city center are expected to close in the next few months. It doesn't help that a diplomatic spat between Estonia and Russia, which erupted last year following Estonia's decision to relocate a Russian war memorial, has resulted in a 30% drop in exports through Estonia's ports. Combine all that bad news and it's little wonder that Estonia's unemployment rate, just 4.7% in 2007, is predicted...