Eastern Estonia
April, 2022
In the north-eastern region of Ida-Virumae, which consists mostly of Russians, there are (as of April 2022) still some old Soviet artefacts to be found.
A train goes from Tallinn to Narva multiple times a day, and the journey takes approx 3 hours. The city lies on the border with Russia and is known for “Narva castle”, which stands right opposite of the “Ivangorod castle” in Russia:
Walking north from Narva along the river one comes across a monument to a Soviet Lieutenant from WW2:
I walked 10km along the river due North to reach a WW2 Soviet tank, which sadly the Estonian government has now removed:
To be uploaded
In Narva itself there is not much Soviet going on, other than near the border:
To be uploaded
The town also has an cool Orthodox Church surrounded by apartment buildings:
One can rent a bike from a shop near the river (I believe 10€/day) and cycle up to the Electric station, which has this monument (likely Soviet)
In Narva I stayed in this hotel with a cute mini-zoo. You can find it on Booking.com
From Narva I took a local bus to Sillamae, a closed town in Soviet times due to the extraction of Uranium there. Bald and Bankrupt also visited this town:
The city itself is very Soviet, with little to none non-Soviet buildings. The main attractions of the town for the Soviet Explorer would be the House of Culture and the old cinema “Rodina”, which unfortunately is not accessible::
The House of Culture features Russian writers:
There is also a museum in the Town: half of the museum is about old Soviet times, the other half about different types of rocks. The rocks were actually so interesting I forgot to take a picture, but only managed to take a picture of an old Hammer and Sickle emblem laying on the ground next to the museum:
From there I went to Jarva which also has a beautiful House of Culture:
And this monument to the workers of the Soviet Union:
Lastly, but not so Soviet, I was recommended by a receptionist in the hotel I stayed at to visit an orthodox women’s monastery in Kuremäe. I was skeptic as I thought I had already seen what this region had to offer. Having spent the previous day studying for an exam in my hotel room, I went to the monastary – and to my surprise, it was actually the best experience I had in Estonia:
I went inside and listened to the singing and watched the people who prayed. Unfortunately I had to leave as the last bus out of the city was at around 17.
Overall I had to look hard for the Soviet remains – but they are there and can be found! The people were friendly. I went in spring, and found myself either freezing or being too hot in all my clothes. I would recommend visiting in winter or summer, and not in between.