Erected in 1947, this world-famous monument was originally located in front of the National Library and commemorated Soviet soldiers who died fighting in WWII, and from the point of view of locals, occupying Estonia. It served as a kind of ‘tomb of the unknown soldier,’ at one point having an ‘eternal flame’ burning in front. After the Soviet Union fell, the monument was one of the few of its kind to survive, mainly due to objections by the local Russian-speaking population. The plaques that now flank the soldier simply read ‘For those fallen in World War II’ with no reference to nationality. Due to huge and destructive clashes between police and drunken demonstrators largely from Russia, the statue was relocated to the Defence Forces cemetery in the spring of 2007. Visitors to Tallinn can even find Bronze Soldier related t-shirts, DVDs and other memorabilia dedicated to these events.