Narva route backers offer to change Tsar Route name

The initiators of a proposed tourist route linking Narva and Tartu are willing to change its name to ensure the idea succeeds, ERR reported. Narva City Council chair Urbo Vaarmann said the concept mattered more than the name.

The proposed Tsar Route would connect Narva with Tartu, following the example of the Post Road and Onion Route tourist routes. It would mark the journey once travelled by Russian rulers, which inspired its name.

The route does not yet exist, but it has already been criticised in the media as promoting Russification and the history of the Russian Empire. Critics have called the initiative inappropriate in the current security situation.

Vaarmann said the name Tsar Route was clear and understandable to foreign tourists because the project would focus on manor houses and crowned heads who travelled through the region.

“We are creating a major product that connects the rest of the world with Narva, and it must be equally understandable to everyone,” Vaarmann said. “We are talking about manor houses and crowned heads who travelled here. This historical layer is very broad. To link it to war, well, please, do not take things to absurd lengths.”

Vaarmann acknowledged that tsars also travelled between Narva and Tallinn, but said the route towards Tartu had been somewhat neglected from Narva’s perspective. He said the new route could bring visitors to Narva from Latvia and Lithuania.

About 70 attractions between Narva and Tartu could be included, Vaarmann said. He compared the idea to US Route 66, where travellers stop at individual points to take photographs.

“It does not have to be the Tsar Route. Help come up with a name, and I promise I will include in the commission the person who can find a name that resonates with everyone,” he said.

Tourism developers in Ida-Viru County do not want to comment on the Tsar Route, saying it has already become too political. The idea also has supporters, including avasta.Eesti guide and hiking leader Marko Kaldur.

“I am not going to shy away from or fear the word ‘tsar’ making someone angry,” Kaldur said. “All the topics that politicians mainly complain about can be presented from very different, and if necessary neutral, perspectives, with all the historical aspects explained. Calling all of this bad or inappropriate is simply a complex held by a small group of people, or a need to prove themselves and hypocritically show that they stand up for the Estonian state.”

Vaarmann estimates that developing the Tsar Route as a tourism product will take several years. Kaldur plans to begin leading Tsar Route excursions this autumn.

Raik says route does not fit the present day

Katri Raik, who was removed as Narva mayor in late July, said a historical route focused on Russian tsars did not fit the present day and was not fully consistent with historical facts.

Raik said she had proposed more than 10 years ago that the route travelled by the tsars in Narva and onward to Tallinn should be introduced to visitors. However, she said the new city administration’s idea differed from her earlier proposal.

Historians use the term Tsar Route to refer to the former Tallinn-Narva-Saint Petersburg post road, which connected the capital of the Russian Empire with Western Europe, Raik said.

“The connection between Russian tsars and Narva exists in itself. However, rulers generally travelled from here onwards to Tallinn and then by ship to Europe, or back to Saint Petersburg. Their route did not lead to the homes of the new Narva city authorities, Torma or Tartu County. The Russian Tsar Route does not fit the present day, and it is not consistent with historical facts,” Raik wrote on social media.