Military Rubbish

The Soviet-era military airfield left behind a huge amount of rubbish and environmental pollution. This was the start of the challenge: how to give new meaning to the history of the area, what should be kept as a warning and what stories from around the historic park of Raadi Manor are important in the context of European cultural history. The army leaves behind dumped barbed wire, unexploded mines and polluted ground water, but the mark they leave on the environment lasts longer than it takes to remove the pollution or reconstruct the ruined buildings. Everyday living does not return overnight. During the Cold War years of the Soviet period more than 1.500 military sites were created in about 800 locations in Estonia, covering 87.000 hectares, which is nearly 2% of Estonia’s total area. Besides unexploded mines and missiles, the environment was under threat from numerous missile bases, which leaked poisonous liquid fuel into ground water. Raadi has long been linked to the military. There was a Tsarist army infantry regiment based there as early as the turn of the 19th and 20th century, and cavalry and air force regiments during the first Republic of Estonia. After WWII the Soviet Union established a military airfield at Raadi, which became one of the biggest military airfields in the Warsaw Pact countries. Raadi became the most polluted military site in the whole of Estonia.

The new Estonian National Museum building and Raadi manor house.

Raadi area was cleaned as part of the architecture competition and the construction of the new museum building, whereas many of the examples of the hazardous waste became part of the new permanent exhibition Encounters.

Waste sub-class: hazardous waste in the urban environment.