{"id":292542,"date":"2025-07-26T05:57:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292542\/"},"modified":"2025-07-26T05:57:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T05:57:14","slug":"russia-charges-estonian-museum-director-with-rehabilitating-nazism-over-putin-hitler-banner-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/292542\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia charges Estonian museum director with \u2018rehabilitating Nazism\u2019 over Putin-Hitler banner – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

Russia has pressed charges of \u201crehabilitating Nazism\u201d against the director of a museum in Narva, Estonia, after the institution displayed a large banner showing images of Vladimir Putin and Adolf Hitler combined into one face\u2014and captioned \u201cPutler War Criminal!\u201d\u2014on its exterior.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Investigative Committee, an equivalent of the FBI,\u00a0announced the latest charges<\/a>\u2014which also include \u201cpublic dissemination of knowingly false information about the Russian armed forces\u201c\u2014against Maria Smor\u017eevskihh-Smirnova, the director of the Narva Museum, on 17 July. Smor\u017eevskihh-Smirnova has been\u00a0targeted by Russia<\/a>since last year in a campaign that echoes Russia\u2019s attacks on Ukrainian culture. Russia claims the city of Narva, like many Ukrainian cities, as part of its patrimony.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Maria Smor\u017eevskihh-Smirnova has not responded directly to the charges<\/p>\n

Courtesy of Narva Museum<\/p>\n

The museum is located in a castle just across the river from Russia, with the Ivangorod fortress dramatically positioned on the other side in a scene reminiscent of the Middle Ages. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania\u2014once annexed by the Soviet Union\u2014are now members of the international alliance Nato, which currently has very tense relations with Russia. Analysts have speculated<\/a> that Narva could be the launching point for a Russian incursion into Estonia.<\/p>\n

Narva has a strong Russian ethnic population, and before cross-border automobile travel was banned in response to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, St Petersburg was only a short drive away from the city. The Estonian government has, in recent years, been working with cultural entrepreneurs and organisations\u00a0to support arts institutions in Narva\u2014and promote its European identity. Narva was, for example, a nominee<\/a> for European Capital of Culture in 2024.<\/p>\n

The banner with the image depicting Putin and Hitler was unfurled on 9 May<\/a>, on Russia\u2019s Victory Day, which commemorates the Soviet Union\u2019s victory over the Nazis. The museum has hung other posters of Putin, calling him a war criminal, on its building on the same date over the past two years. The museum has reacted to Russia\u2019s invasion in other ways too: it hosted, for example, a conference titled \u201cCulture and War\u201d\u2014featuring Ukrainian and Estonian heritage specialists\u2014on 8 May.<\/p>\n

Narva and Smor\u017eevskihh-Smirnova were not available for comment about the charges when contacted by The Art Newspaper. Speaking to <\/a>the Russian-language section of Estonian Public Broadcasting earlier this year, however, the director referenced European values and her views on speaking out about the invasion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the end of the Second World War, it was peace and freedom, respect for sovereignty, and the principles of solidarity that became the basic values of the European Community,\u201d she said. \u201cAt the same time, a full-scale war, unleashed by Putin, is going on for the fourth year next to us. We call a dictator a dictator, and war crimes war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Estonia\u2019s\u00a0minister of culture,\u00a0Heidy Purga, tells The Art Newspaper that Smor\u017eevskihh-Smirnova \u201chas done an excellent job leading the Narva Museum, while also addressing our country\u2019s difficult history and crimes of Soviet power\u201d and \u201cdefending Estonian values and the historical truth\u201d. Estonia, Purga says, will not back down. \u201cAny attempts by Russia to threaten our cultural institutions or people, or to rewrite history, only strengthen our resolve to stand for democratic values that represent the free world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anu Viltrop, the chief executive officer of the\u00a0Estonian Museum Association<\/a>, says in an email: \u201cIn Narva and other cities across the country, Estonians encounter Russia\u2019s influence operations in multiple dimensions of daily life\u2014social, cultural, and political. These dynamics are part of the everyday experience. Estonian society continues to function, adapt, and endure. Estonia\u2019s independence, freedom, and identity are deeply important and precious to us\u2014and this narrative is reflected in the exhibitions and programming of the Narva Museum.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russia has pressed charges of \u201crehabilitating Nazism\u201d against the director of a museum in Narva, Estonia, after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7655],"tags":[1112,4842,332,7661],"class_list":{"0":"post-292542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-russia","8":"tag-estonia","9":"tag-museums-heritage","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-russia-ukraine-war"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114918002394969396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}