This year's attendance was around 100 higher than that seen last year. Organizers say those soldiers who fell fighting for Estonia's freedom deserve greater recognition.

The battles which make up the Battle of the Tannenberg Line, also known as the Battle of the Blue Hills (Estonian: Sinimäed), in July and August 1944 halted the advancing Red Army for several weeks and allowed tens of thousands of Estonians to flee the ensuing occupation, but the state has as yet not formally recognized as freedom fighters or as veterans those who took part, some commentators pointed out.

"They stood for the possibility of restoring the Republic of Estonia. They gave nearly 100,000 people the opportunity to leave Estonia and maintain the government-in-exile. Today's republic does not recognize them. That is a disgrace. The Riigikogu does not have the courage to recognize an Estonian Legion soldier as a freedom fighter and as a veteran," said Martin Sööt, a board member of the Friends of the Estonian Legion club (ELSK).

The legion is controversial in that the Estonian Legion and its successor, expanded units, were organizationally a part of the Waffen SS, a fact which is often seized upon in Russian propaganda.

Retired high-ranking army officers and MPs spoke at the anniversary event, pledging to reverse the lack of recognition up to now.

One of the speakers, Maj. Gen. (Retd) Riho Ühtegi, former commander of the Defense League and a potential presidential candidate, rejected the link to Nazism.

"I think the reason for this shame is that people immediately start attaching Nazi symbols to it, but it has absolutely nothing to do with Nazi symbolism. Men fell here whose ideas and mental preparedness were to defend Estonia, not to defend Nazi Germany. Somehow this understanding needs to be changed," Ühtegi told "Aktuaalne kaamera."

MP Arvo Aller (EKRE) said recognizing the veterans of the battles in a manner befitting them should be brought before the relevant Riigikogu committee.

"There is now some commemoration taking place here at this memorial stone, but it should still get somewhat higher recognition. The fighting here was not in vain; it was vital to fight here, and it was vital for the Estonian state," Aller said.

Last year's event had been the first time in recent years where politicians had been permitted to speak.

The 1944 defensive battles in the Blue Hills are considered the bloodiest battles in Estonia's history. Nearly 2,500 Estonians alone were killed in the fighting, from July 24 to August 10, 1944.

The memorial was built at the turn of the millennium, to commemorate the Estonians involved.

While the fact that there were Estonians serving in the SS and other World War Two German units is often referred to in Russian propaganda up to the present, a document signed in 1950 by John J. McCloy, chairman of the U.S. investigative committee, found that Baltic units in the Waffen SS were not war criminals and did not follow Nazi ideology.

A much larger Russian force, the Russian Liberation Army, also fought on the German side practically up to the end of the war.

--

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!