On August 20, 1991, at 23:02 local time, Estonia officially terminated the illegal annexation on behalf of the Soviet Union and formally restored its independence. You may wonder how we ended up in this situation. That is a long story full of tragic twists and unbelievable coincidences. Let's begin with the precise moment when the Estonian independence was lost.
The fate of the Baltic States was sealed already on August 23, 1939, when all the required signatures were placed under the secret supplementary protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. These protocols determined the borders between the Soviet and German spheres of interest in Eastern Europe. The new USSR-Germany border was drawn across Polish territory, while all the Baltic States were listed as the Soviet sphere of interest(1). Now, it was only a matter of time before the said plans would be executed.
Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop shaking hands (Pact)
The Soviets used threats to force Estonia and its Southern neighbours into signing the military assistance pacts, a formal excuse for the Soviets to place military personnel within the territory of the independent states (2). What followed was a chain of catastrophic events. On the first of September, Germany invaded Poland. The Soviets joined on September 17, 1939. After that, in November 1939, the USSR tried to conquer Finland, resulting in a stalemate that took away over a hundred thousand lives and ultimately triggered the expulsion of the Soviet Union from the League of Nations. In late June of 1940, as German forces decimated the French military on the Western front, the pro-communist puppet regimes with the Baltic States were gaining the typical democratic 99% of votes in the local elections. The occupation started while it was still hard to comprehend (3).
Planned and actual territorial changes in Central Europe 1939-1940 (Map)
The chain of merciless repressions followed once the new order was established. Estonia experienced the first wave of deportations; most of the politically significant figures were arrested, and almost all former members of the Estonian government were executed in Soviet captivity between 1941 and 1944 (2). Another replaced one occupation once the operation Barbarossa started in June 1941. The Baltic States were under German occupation until 1944, when the advancing Soviet forces pushed them back. The Soviets did not intend to restore the Baltic States' pre-war status. The post-war fate of Estonia was partly sealed during the Tehran Conference of 1943 (4).
In Memoriam plaque was installed to commemorate the members of the Estonian Government who perished in Soviet Captivity (1941)
Since 1944, Estonia has had just another red ribbon surrounding the ears of grain on the State Emblem of the Soviet Union. The repressions continued throughout the Soviet Occupation, with specific individuals being targeted by the KGB even in the late 1980s. You can find more information regarding the deportations that occurred in Estonia after the war in one of our previous posts. Soviets were harsh and precise in erasing the reminders of the Baltic States' independence, and yet they failed to rewrite the national identities of the people.
The story of the Estonian resistance started in the 1940s, and while the weaponized resistance managed to survive for around a decade, the cultural protest persisted until the very end. Using your mother tongue while facing oppressors whose desire is to eradicate your culture is the ultimate act of defiance. In the Estonian context, the tradition of organizing song festivals helped to consolidate people and maintain the feeling of belonging to something bigger than your depressing and dehumanizing Soviet block of flats. Singing songs not approved by the Soviet authority and embracing the national identity by wearing traditional costumes was a powerful way of resisting the occupation. Hence, the chain of events that led to regaining independence is referred to as the Singing Revolution (5).
The 1985 Song Festival (Song)
Once Mikhail Gorbachev announced the beginning of Perestroyka with all the benefits of economic readjustments and the limited introduction of freedom of speech, the Estonian Independence movement started gaining momentum. The three institutionalized pillars of the movement were represented by the Estonian Heritage Society, The Popular Front, and the Estonian National Independence Party(6). Such diverse movements provided both cultural and political background for mobilizing people and restoring independence. You can read about the elaborate path of political reforms that prepared Estonia to become independent in this post.
The barricades built in Moscow during the coup. (Wall)
Now, where were we? Ah yes, August 20, 1991, what happened that day?
Following the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, when the Soviet hardliners represented by the State Committee on the State of Emergency tried to depose Gorbachev and oppose the supporters of Russian president Boris Yeltsin in Moscow, the Baltic States decided to act fast. After a long debate and hesitancy connected with the status of Estonia as a new state or as a legal continuation of the Republic that existed before 1940, the Supreme Council of the Republic of Estonia finally voted to restore Estonian Independence. The vote in favour of independence was unanimous.
The very next day, the Soviet paratroopers reached Tallinn's outskirts. Their mission was simple: they had to take control of the governmental facilities and the Tallinn TV tower to ensure that the population would be deprived of any information from sources that were not compliant with the State Committee on the State of Emergency position. The heroic episode of the TV tower defence, as well as the recording of the Supreme Council's iconic meeting, could be found in this fragment of the "Singing Revolution" movie:
Nowadays, August 20 is a national holiday. The Restoration of Estonian Independence is a key event in the contemporary history of the state that opened a window of opportunity for Estonian people to join the domain of European politics and be proud of their cultural identity. You can expect every house to hoist the national flag today, and get ready to hear Estonian songs echoing in every city street across the state.
References (1)Secret Supplementary Protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Non-Aggression Pact, 1939. Retrieved from:
(2) Estonian World (2024) Estonia remembers the Soviet deportations. Retrieved from: https://estonianworld.com/life/estonia-remembers-the-soviet-deportations/
(3) Communist Crimes (2020) Timeline: Soviet occupation of the Baltic states. https://communistcrimes.org/en/timeline-soviet-occupation-baltic-states
(4) United States Department of State. (n.d.) The Tehran Conference 1943. Retrieved from: https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/tehran-conf#:~:text=During%20these%20negotiations%20Roosevelt%20also,the%20question%20in%20a%20referendum.
(5) History (n.d.) Retrieved from: https://singingrevolution.com/about/history/
(6) Zunes, S. (2009) Estonia’s Singing Revolution (1986-1991). Retrieved from: https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/estonias-singing-revolution-1986-1991/
Images
1941. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PlaqueMemorizingEstonianGovernment.jpg
Pact. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Molotov_with_Ribbentrop.jpg
Map. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ribbentrop-Molotov.PNG
Song. Retrieved from: https://estonianworld.com/culture/estonian-song-celebration-timeline/
Wall. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thursday_morning_on_Smolenskaya_(8000376283).jpg
留言