The Estonian state has already contributed €250,000 toward a War of Independence monument planned to be build next to Pühalepa Church. This money has largepy gone toward the organization of an architectural competition, a plan for the monument as well as its completed flag square.

The government's initial allocation, earmarked for only the new monument, had totaled €500,000, but half of that was used to renovate the Hiiumaa church.

In the meantime, the cost of erecting the monument has gotten more expensive than expected.

"With the winning design, all Hiiumaa residents who fought in the War of Independence or had been directly connected with it would be memorialized by name," explained Hiiumaa Municipal Mayor Hergo Tasuja. "Since research has turned up more names over time, the number of plaques that will bear these names has gone up significantly."

Now, at least another €400,000 would be needed to complete the monument. Hiiumaa municipal government is asking the Ministry of Defense for €350,000 of this; the remaining €50,000 tab would be contributed by the municipality by itself.

According to Tasuja, for their municipality, even that is a significant contribution.

"Nowadays, making €50,000 financial allocations ia a much greater challenge than it was five years ago," the municipal mayor acknowledged.

"If the ministry considers this War of Independence memorial important enough, then Hiiumaa Municipality will certainly also consider it important enough and will be capable of making financial choices," he added.

The Ministry of Defense told ERR that the building of war memorials is funded by the Estonian War Museum.

According to War Museum director Hellar Lill, they have nowhere to pull that kind of money from.

"Each year, the War Museum can support all kinds of nonprofit organizations and foundations involved in the promotion of wartime heritage," Lill explained. "Among them have been smaller memorials that we have supported in cooperation with local governments, nonprofits and foundations. But the magnitude [of funding] involved has been several times smaller. We definitely don't have the kind of money that Hiiumaa is asking for in our budget."

The mayor of the island municipality likewise understands that in a difficult security situation, it isn't easy for the state to come up with that kind of money.

Even so, he believes that the past must be remembered.

"Given the current security situation, it should be very important to remember history – what country we live in and how this country came to be," Tasuja underscored.

The project to erect a new War of Independence memorial in Hiiumaa has been ongoing for nearly ten years now, and the reason for that is simple – there isn't enough money.

To date, Hiiumaa remains the only county in Estonia without a memorial or monument to the Estonian War of Independence. In all, some 650 such memorials exist across the rest of the country.

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