80th anniversary of the Baltic University

A special screening of Helga Merits' documentary "The Story of the Baltic University" will take place on March 19 at the Vabamu Museum in Tallinn to mark the 80th anniversary. The Baltic University in Exile was established in 1946 in Germany by Baltic refugees to educate students from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, who had been forced to put their studies on hold and flee the advancing Red Army. The university started in Hamburg and later relocated to Pinneberg where it had around 1,200 students in its eight faculties. 

A total of 76 students graduated from the Baltic University, including seven Estonians. Those who did not complete their studied left because they found permanent homes and jobs in other countries.

My grandfather Alexander was a student at the Baltic University and studied economics and agriculture. His student record revealed he planned to emigrate to Brazil, but later changed his mind and moved to Australia instead. The Baltic Unversity is considered a remarkable success in terms of providing high-quality education to Baltic refugees under extremely difficult post-war circumstances. The university closed in September 1949 and today, the main archive of the Baltic University is kept at the Uppsala University Library in Sweden.

Historic Estonian flag to return home from Australia

An Estonian Presidential flag that was rescued in September 1944, where it had flown in front of Kadriorg Palace in Tallinn during the interim government of acting prime minister Otto Tief, is on its way back home to Estonia from Australia.

The flag was rescued by Eugen Vilder, an Estonian soldier who retrieved it from the flagpole, preventing it from being destroyed by the occupying Soviet forces. Joined by his mother and sister, Vilder fled the capital with the flag wrapped around his body under his clothes. The flag was then transported to Germany and eventually made its way to Australia in 1949 where Vilder kept it safe until his death in 2021. His descendants only discovered the flag recently, and decided to return it home to Estonia. An official handover ceremony took place today at the Sydney Estonian House and the flag will be transported to the Estonian National Museum in Tartu.

Australia is home to the seventh-largest Estonian community abroad which numbers approximately 11,500 people.

82nd anniversary of the bombing of Tallinn

Today marks the anniversary of one of the saddest events in Estonian history - the bombing of Tallinn. On the evening of 9th March 1944, over 300 Soviet aircraft dropped more than 3,000 bombs on the city of Tallinn in two waves. The raids targeted Tallinn's city centre and harbour area and destroyed thousands of buildings, including the Estonian National Opera and many historic landmarks. Around 760 people were killed, 600 wounded and more than 20,000 residents left without shelter.

This was one of many horrendous crimes committed by the Soviet Union during World War Two. For some Estonians, it is still part of their living memory.  The event will never be forgotten.

 

Bears starting to wake from their winter slumber

Estonia has issued an official notice that bears have begun to wake up from hibernation. People are advised to keep dogs on a leash and calmly back away if they encounter a bear. Estonia has around 1,000 bears in the wild. Estonian brown bears live primarily in the northeastern and eastern parts of the country, particularly within the vast and dense forests of the Alutaguse region.

 

 

Learn more about bears and their habitat in this video.

'Discover Alutaguse National Park in Estonia'.

 

Photo flashback: Tallinn 1912

 Colourised photograph of Uus Turg / New Market in Tallinn, 1912.

New Estonian Documentary: "Tallinn in Flames" (Tallinn leekides)

Last Saturday, Mart Sander's historic documentary "Tallinn in Flames" (Tallinn leekides) had its world premier at the 7th Tbilisi International Documentary Festival and received the Audience Choice Award. The film tells the story of the fateful night of March 9, 1944, when the Soviet Air Force dropped over 800 tons of explosive and incendiary bombs on Tallinn.

The Estonian premier of the film will be screened at Cinema Artis on March 9 at 8pm.

Estonian maestro Paavo Järvi named new London Philharmonic Orchestra chief conductor

The London Philharmonic Orchestra announced today that Paavo Järvi will succeed Edward Gardner as chief conductor from the 2028-29 season, when Gardner’s current contract comes to an end.

Paavo Järvi, 63, was born in Tallinn into a musical dynasty. His father Neeme is also a conductor as well as his younger brother Kristjan. The family moved to the USA in 1980, and Järvi studied at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music and at the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute with Leonard Bernstein.

 

Järvi's distinguished career has seen him work with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Malmö Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Tokyo’s NHK Symphony and the Orchestre de Paris, where he was music director from 2010-2016.

 

The London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) was founded in 1932 by Sir Thomas Beecham and is now a resident orchestra at London's Southbank Centre. It has served as the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival's resident symphony orchestra since 1964 and also performs in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, alongside international tours. Järvi is already conducting the LPO in a program of works by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius at the Royal Festival Hall tomorrow.