Today, Estonia commemorates one of the blackest days in its history - the start of the Soviet-era mass deportations - with a number of memorial events held around the country.
On June 14, 1941, Soviet occupation forces deported over 10,000 people, mainly women and children, to Siberia in the first wave of several directly targeting the civilian population.
Public
events in Tallinn will begin at the Linda Statue adjacent Toompea Castle at
12:00. There, speaker of Parliament Ene Ergma and Chairman of the Tallinn
Memento Association Leo Õispuu will deliver speeches. The event will also
include a prayer by the Archbishop of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran
Church Andres Põder and a wreath-laying ceremony. Survivors of the 1940s-era
deportations, including those from local Latvian and Lithuanian communities,
will be on hand.
From
13:00 to 20:00, Freedom Square will play host to an event called Kogu me Lugu
(Collect our Story), which aims to gather stories and information from the
families of the 1940s-era deportation victims. Organized by seven NGOs, the
project invites participants to share their stories by having them recorded on
video. Written documents and photos can also be scanned on-site. The stories
will also be marked on a wooden map of Estonia, which will later become an
exhibit at the Museum of Occupations.
The
same museum will today be opening a new exhibition titled "Totalitarianism
in Europe, Fascism - Nazism - Communism.
During
the Soviet occupation, June 14 was recognized in the US as Baltic Freedom Day,
as part of the country's policy of non-recognition of the Soviet
invasion.
Memorial
events also will be taking place in Latvia, which marks June 14 as the
Commemoration Day of Victims of Communist Terror, and in Lithuania, where it is
called The Day of Mourning and Hope.
In
Riga, a moment of silence will be held at the Skirotava and Tormkalns railway
stations and wreath-laying ceremony will take place at the Freedom Monument.
Lithuanian
youth will take part in the annual “Mission Siberia” project, traveling to
sites in Siberia to maintain the grave sites of deportees as well as meet with
ethnic Lithuanians still living there.
