"None of Tallinn's education leaders should have such an attitude toward deportation," Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski told ERR on Wednesday. "The content and tone of this text are morally unacceptable in the Republic of Estonia. Personally, I find it especially egregious that Mr. Sergei Ptšjolkin justified the deportation of the families of the Forest Brothers to achieve the goals of Stalin's regime. This constitutes an endorsement of a crime against humanity. Naturally, such a person cannot serve as an education leader in Tallinn. I have conveyed my assessment to Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin," Ossinovski added.

In a Facebook post published on Tuesday, Ptšjolkin wrote about the post-war situation in the Baltic states: "It's 1948. The authorities are unable to overcome the anti-Soviet resistance in the Baltic states, and to eradicate its social base, they carry out the first mass deportation of 'hostile elements' after the war," wrote the hobby school director.

He went on to mention the June 1941 deportation, during which around 40,000 people were taken from their homes in the three Baltic states. He noted that Stalin succeeded in what the Germans could not: making the Balts love Germany.

"The 5th Division of the NKVD reports the elimination of hundreds of bandit groups, yet underground forces continue to carry out sabotage and assassinate party workers. The Forest Brothers – that's the name for the partisans – are sympathized with by the indigenous population. In 1948, Operation Spring was carried out: the families of the fighters were deported to the Urals and Siberia – it's clear that without the help of the farmers, these units would not have survived," Ptšjolkin continued. "Depriving them of support accelerates the collapse of the underground resistance. And from the 1950s onward, the authorities began elevating local cadres to leadership positions: let them deal with their own tribespeople," Ptšjolkin wrote.

The Tondiraba Hobby School, located on Punane tänav in Tallinn, is a municipal educational institution that offers extracurricular education to children living in Tallinn and its surrounding areas. According to the school's website, it operates 75 different groups with over 2,500 students.

Sergei Ptšjolkin (born 1985) has been a member of the Estonian Center Party since 2009 and is also a member of the Tallinn City Council. He ran in the Lasnamäe district at the previous local elections. While Ptšjolkin got 184 votes, Mihhail Kõlvart's landslide victory (27,663) secured him a place on the council.

Ptšjolkin: I take a negative view of deportations

The hobby school principal said he was unaware of the mayor's recommendation to dismiss him and only learned about it from ERR.

Ptšjolkin emphasized that he often references events in Estonian history in his posts, drawing primarily from the book series Namedni (Observations) by Leonid Parfyonov, a legendary Russian journalist and publicist currently in opposition to the Russian government.

"The content of this post is not something I invented; it was taken from Parfyonov's book. I use this book in my posts and try to introduce my readers to history through it. So, I'm not making anything up – I write as Parfyonov wrote. I put it in black and white in that post," he said.

"As for the Red Army's arrival in Estonia in 1939 and again in 1944, there is nothing more to say except that in 1939, a pact was signed between the Soviet Union and Germany, which included a secret protocol that placed Estonia within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. This led to the first occupation by the Soviet Union and the Red Army. Then World War II occurred, followed by the German occupation, and after the German occupation, from 1944 to 1991, there was the second Soviet occupation. That's how it was, and it's not even my opinion – it's a fact," Ptšjolkin continued.

He stressed that the content of the post was not his personal assessment but rather a presentation of facts, which are clearly stated in Parfyonov's book. "In short, after World War II, the Soviet Union couldn't manage the Forest Brothers, so they decided to organize deportations to somehow eliminate their social base," he remarked.

When asked about his personal view on the deportations, Ptšjolkin responded, "I have a negative view! How else could one view deportations? It's a very sad event in Estonian history, where people who were guilty of nothing were taken away based on who knows what and deported."

Deputy Mayor Jašin: It is unfortunate when people clash with fundamental Estonian values

Tallinn Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin told ERR's Russian-language news team that he has not yet spoken with Ptšjolkin or the Education Department, which formally has the authority to dismiss a school director.

"The deputy mayor cannot dismiss anyone directly; the principal's employment contract is with the Tallinn Education Department. Therefore, if there is an issue concerning his employment relationship, it must be resolved by the Education Department. However, of course, the decision will be made jointly," Jašin said.

He added that he agrees with the mayor's assessment of Ptšjolkin's post.

"I also looked at the post made by our school director, and I agree with Ossinovski's assessment that its content does not align with the values we expect from city school leaders. Understandably, I will speak with him first, but it certainly looks very bad, and it's unclear where he got this from," the deputy mayor said.

"It remains unclear where this post originated, but unfortunately, it appears to reflect his viewpoint," Jašin said in response to the claim that the text came from Parfyonov.

"I don't understand how the leader of such an institution could make a post like this without considering its implications. He is very active on social media, which is great, and his posts can also be critical, but it's unfortunate when the criticism touches on the fundamental values of the Estonian state," Jašin added.

The article was updated to add comments from Sergei Ptšjolkin and Aleksei Jašin.

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