The remains of Medical Sergeant Yelena Varshavskaya, killed in action in September 1944, were passed to her cousin, Vladimir Parnes, a resident of Israel, after DNA tests confirmed his identify.
A total of thirteen Red Army personnel were laid to rest in the grave in central Tallinn towards the end of World War Two. A Bronze Soldier monument was erected by it to commemorate their sacrifice in liberating Estonia from Nazi Germany.
The dismantling of the monument and its relocation to a cemetery on the outskirts of the city on April 27 triggered protests in Estonia and across Russia. In Moscow, Russian officials called the move an "act of blasphemy," and street protests left one person was killed and tens injured.
Estonia was annexed to the USSR after WWII and did not regain its independence until the early 1990s, so for many in the Baltic country, the Bronze Soldier memorial was a painful reminder of the Soviet "occupation."
