The tourism route called the Tsar's Route is intended to connect Narva and Tartu, following the example of the Postal Road (Postitee) and the Onion Route (Sibulatee) and mark the route once traveled by Russian rulers.

The Tsar's Route does not even exist yet, but it has already been described in the media as an attempt at Russification and as promoting the history of the Russian Empire — an entirely inappropriate undertaking given the current security situation. Narva City Council Chair Urbo Vaarmann, who initiated the tourism route, said the Tsar's Route is a clear and understandable name for foreign tourists, but that the idea is more important than the name.

"We are creating a major tourism product that connects the rest of the world with Narva and has to be equally understandable to everyone. After all, we're talking about manor houses and crowned heads who traveled along this route. The historical period we're dealing with here is very, very broad. And to link it to the war — come on, don't take it to the point of absurdity."

Vaarmann acknowledges that tsars also traveled between Narva and Tallinn, but said the route toward Tartu has been somewhat neglected from Narva's perspective and that a new tourism route would bring visitors to Narva from both Latvia and Lithuania.

"There are around 70 sites between Narva and Tartu that can be visited. It's like a never-ending story that can be developed not just for years, but for decades. I like to use the American example of U.S. Route 66 where even at the individual stops you pass through, you make sure to take a picture."

To help ensure the idea's success, Vaarmann is even willing to change the route's name.

"It doesn't have to be the Tsar's Route. Help come up with a name and I promise I'll put whoever can find a name that resonates with everyone on the committee."

Ida-Viru tourism developers do not want to criticize the Tsar's Route because, they say, the issue has already become too political. However, the route also has supporters, including avastaEESTI.ee guide Marko Kaldur.

"I'm not going to shy away from or be afraid of the fact that the word 'tsar' might rub someone the wrong way. All these issues that politicians, for the most part, complain about can be presented from very different perspectives — a neutral one if necessary — and all the historical aspects can be explained if needed. Calling all of this bad or inappropriate is simply some kind of hang-up among a small group of people, or a need to prove themselves somehow and hypocritically portray themselves as the ones standing up for the Estonian state."

Vaarmann believes it will take several years to get the Tsar's Route up and running as a tourism product. Kaldur will begin offering Tsar's Route tours this fall.

Former mayor: Tsar's Route inappropriate in the modern world

Katri Raik, who was removed as mayor of Narva in late July, said the historical Tsar's Route focusing on Russian tsars is ill-suited to the present day and, in her view, does not entirely align with historical facts either.

Raik acknowledged that more than 10 years ago she herself proposed the idea of promoting a route taken by tsars in Narva and onward to Tallinn, but said the new city government's idea differs from what she proposed at the time. Historians, she said, understand the Tsar's Route to mean the former Tallinn-Narva-St. Petersburg postal road, which connected St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, with Western Europe.

"There is certainly a connection between the Russian tsars and Narva. But as a rule, rulers traveled from here onward to Tallinn and from there by ship to Europe, or back to St. Petersburg. Their route did not take them to Torma and Tartu County, home turf of Narva's new city leaders. A Russian Tsar's Route is not appropriate today, nor is it consistent with historical facts," Raik wrote on social media. She added that before the arrival of the railroad, the postal road was an important transportation link for Russia, with Narva located along the route.

Historian Pärtel Piirimäe wrote in the thread under Raik's social media post that the importance of the St. Petersburg-Narva-Torma-Tartu-Riga postal road should not be underestimated, however.

"Russian emperors also used it when traveling to Tartu and Riga. I haven't researched it specifically, but Catherine II and Alexander I, for example, definitely traveled that way to Livonia. Calling the old postal road the Tsar's Route is, of course, silly, and at this particular moment simply provocative," the historian said.

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