Estonian wrestler confirmed as model for controversial Soviet statue

National hero told daughter of posing for sculpture

print this

The daughter of Estonian Olympic medalist and national hero Kristjan Palusalu (1908-1987) has confirmed that her father served as the model for the bronze statue of a Soviet soldier, sparking a major dispute between Russia and Estonia.
     The Estonian government's decision to move the monument from the centre of Tallinn to a military cemetery sparked rioting in the city and led to a severe cooling of relations between Estonia and Russia.
     "Father told me about it in the 1960s", says Kristjan's daughter, Helle Palusalu, 68, at home in Tallinn.
     "Victory Day was no big celebration back then. Representatives of the government brought flowers to the statue. Father said that if they only knew that they were bringing flowers to him."
     According to Helle Palusalu, her father had modelled for art students at the Estonian Academy of Art on many occasions since 1932, and he continued to do so into the 1970s.
     "He had a good body and well-balanced muscles."
     Sculptor Enn Roos and architect Arnold Alas designed the monument to the "liberation" of Tallinn in 1946, when Palusalu was unexpectedly released from custody, where he had been held on a well-founded suspicion of desertion from the Red Army to Finland.
     
Preliminary versions of the sculpture were made, and sent to the Council of Culture for assessment.
     "They recognised Palusalu immediately and said that he cannot be the model for this statue", Helle Palusalu says. "Then the face of the statue was altered according to the features of my father, architect Alas, and an assistant of the artist, and the one whose features displayed the greatest power was the one that was chosen.
     The statue was not changed except for the face. "For instance, the hands are completely his", Helle Palusalu says.
     
The statue was set up in the centre of Tallinn in 1947, where it stood until late April when it was moved to a nearby military cemetery, sparking anger among Estonia's ethnic Russians, and in Russia itself.
     "Whenever I went to the library, I would walk past it and look at Father", Helle Palusalu says. "I never brought any flowers, and the name Alyosha [given to the statue by the Russian population] was never to my liking."
     
The daughter of the Olympic hero lives in a house built by her father in the early 1960s in a pleasant neighbourhood on the northeast side of Tallinn.
     "It's too bad that Father is a part of this", Helle Palusalu says, commenting on the issue that was the centre of the dispute. "I would not have wanted the statue to be destroyed. I said once that they should bring it here."


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Model for controversial Tallinn memorial defected to Finland during war (2.5.2007)
  Kanerva defends EU action in Estonian-Russian statue dispute (9.5.2007)

Helsingin Sanomat