Sergei Ptšjolkin (Center Party), the director of Tondiraba Hobby School, shared a passage on his social media account from a book by Russian journalist Leonid Parfyonov regarding Soviet deportations. Mihhail Kõlvart, speaking to ERR's Russian-language news portal on Saturday, emphasized that Ptšjolkin was not the author of the text that provoked such a strong reaction from city authorities.

"This passage describes, as I understand it, the repressions that took place on Estonian territory during the post-war period. In my opinion, it is very clear that it talks about repressions, including against peaceful civilians. Thus, these events have been provided a clear judgment," Kõlvart stated.

He added that Ptšjolkin provided explanations immediately after questions arose about his post. "Therefore, in my opinion, there should be no questions regarding the content of this post. However, questions remain for the current city leadership," the Center Party chairman stressed.

Kõlvart criticized Mayor Jevgeni Ossinovski (SDE), noting that the mayor's comments coincided with the interpretation of Ptšjolkin's post. "The mayor said he should be dismissed. It is obvious to me that this is a concealed, low-level political attack by the mayor and deputy mayor (Eesti 200's Aleksei Jašin) to eliminate a representative of a rival party in the city system, who is also a council member," Kõlvart said.

He further accused Ossinovski of dishonesty, citing that neither Ptšjolkin nor Parfyonov used the term "terrorists" in their descriptions of the events. Kõlvart suggested that the current city leadership lacks the basic courage to clarify who is behind these decisions. According to him, Ptšjolkin contacted the mayor to explain the situation but was told that the decision would be made by the deputy mayor. "In other words, the mayor, who made and expressed the decision, did not even have the courage to confirm that it was his decision," Kõlvart added.

"In summary, the city's attack on Sergei Ptšjolkin is yet another demonstration of their deceitful and cowardly politics," the Center Party chairman concluded.

In a Facebook post 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. In Parfyonov's book, the 1948 deportations refer to those that took place in Lithuania.

Ptšjolkin also mentioned the June 1941 deportations, during which about 40,000 people were taken from their homes in the three Baltic States, and noted that Stalin succeeded in making the Baltic people love Germany, something the Germans themselves could not achieve.

The post included a passage: "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."

Speaking to ERR on Tuesday, Ptšjolkin emphasized that he often reflects on events in Estonian history in his posts, primarily based on the book series Namedni (Notes) by the legendary Russian journalist and publicist Leonid Parfyonov, who is currently opposed 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 explained.

Regarding the arrival of the Red Army in Estonia in 1939 and 1944, Ptšjolkin said, "From 1939, there was a pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, which had an additional protocol, under which Estonia was to come under Soviet influence. And then came the first occupation by the Soviet Union and the Red Army. Then came World War II and 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, but 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 take 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."

Tallinn Deputy Mayor Aleksei Jašin told ERR on Thursday that the employment contract with the hobby school director would likely be terminated soon. However, he admitted that there were no complaints about the director's job performance.

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