BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

For Iran, a lesson in hope

By David Keene

TALLINN — Mart Nikul is an Estonian who spent 16 years in the Soviet gulag, much of it in solitary confinement in a concentration camp in Siberia. He was released as the Soviet Union was collapsing, but only after then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan personally asked Mikhail Gorbachev to let him go.

I met him last week here in Tallinn, the capital of the free Estonia he and many others like him spent a lifetime fighting and suffering to make a reality. These largely forgotten warriors have stories worth remembering, but what struck me as we talked over lunch was the reason he was first arrested.

Back in the ’50s, the Soviet Union bragged to the world that life behind what Winston Churchill first dubbed the Iron Curtain was pretty darned good. Pictures circulated in the West of healthy, happy Czechs, Poles and, yes, Estonians, who seemed positively giddy over their good fortune to be living under communism and the protection of their Soviet comrades.

Friendly visitors to the Soviet empire were taken on carefully orchestrated tours of what came to be known as “Potemkin” villages filled with prosperous beneficiaries of Soviet-style socialism. No one was allowed to see what life was really like in places like Tallinn, where men, women and children were living in poverty and being ground down by a political and economic system that didn’t work and rulers who simply didn’t care about ordinary people.

"Lenin is worse than Hitler" : Senior Moscow patriarchate official says

Paul Goble

            Vienna – Today (April, 22nd) is the 139^th birthday of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state whose body remains as it has since his death in the mausoleum on Red Square, an object of veneration by his supporters and an offense of varying degrees to those who see him as the enemy of national tradition, freedom and faith.

            This year, as in every year since Gorbachev’s time, there has been the usual discussion on whether Lenin should be removed from the mausoleum and buried as supposedly was not only his wish but that of his family, with a growing number of Russians saying that they are willing to support or at least not oppose such an action if the government takes it.

            But one statement this year, by Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for Relations with the Armed Forces and Security Services, deserves particular attention because his words likely reflect the views of many in the Church leadership and because they could lead to a break between the church and some Russian nationalists.

            Queried by the Rusk.ru portal, which has close ties with the Patriarchate, about what should be done with Lenin’s remains, Archpriest Dimitry said that “the time for burying Lenin arrived already in April 1870.” Indeed, the Church official said, “it would have been better if this bastard had never been born” (www.rusk.ru/newsdata.php?idar=182479).

            “For me,” Smirnov continued, “Lenin is worse than Hitler.  The decision of the powers to bury him will not lead to any social explosion.  When the body of Stalin who was ‘a living god’ was carried out of the Mausoleum, no one got upset. What is there to talk about [when it comes to Lenin]?”

CIA ran radar monitoring station in Helsinki in 1960s

The US Central Intelligence Agency operated a radar monitoring station in or near Helsinki, a previously top secret CIA report released under the US Freedom of Information Act shows.

The document, penned in January 1967 and approved for release in 2007, reveals that the CIA had planned a "black" operation involving a reconnaissance flight in Finnish airspace in order to provoke advanced Soviet radar installations in Tallinn into action.

"The VA point complex at Helsinki will be operational during the entire mission to intercept the signals from Tallinn when that site is provoked into operation by the Oxcart," the report adds.

Oxcart refers to the Lockheed A-12 spy craft that was capable of flying at more than three times the speed of sound at heights of up to 95,000 feet.

Finnish regional daily Turun Sanomat, which carried a report on the document in its Wednesday issue, quoted Lieutenant-General Matti Ahola, a former commander of the Finnish Air Force, as saying that the mission plan was a match with actual cold war events, including those in Finland.

"Some kind of stimulus had to be used in order to trigger a response so that the signals could be intercepted and analysed," Gen Ahola told the paper.

"Professionalism and discipline dictated that wartime radar modes were not to be used in peacetime airspace surveillance, but in reality this was not always observed - to the benefit of the provoking party."

Gen Ahola was further quoted as saying that he was not familiar with the VA point designation.

Estonia and Latvia remember Soviet crackdown

RIGA : Crowds gathered in Estonia and Latvia yesterday for emotional ceremonies marking 60 years to the day since Stalinist-era security forces deported tens of thousands of people to Soviet camps. The crackdown of March 25, 1949 is etched in the consciousness of citizens of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all Soviet republics until 1991.

In Riga, hundreds gathered at the soaring Freedom Monument to lay flowers in memory of more than 40,000 Latvian families deported.

“Sixty years ago the unexpected guests knocked at your door, changing your destiny forever,” said Latvia’s President Valdis Zatlers in a speech near the monument on the cold sunny day. “Today we still ask why,” he said. Former deportee Hilda Petrova laid a bouquet of white carnations at the foot of the 42-metre (140-foot) landmark. “I wanted to remember many innocent people who were deported, imprisoned, died in basements under Soviet rule,” she said with tears in her eyes. Those sent to the Siberian Gulag included opponents of Soviet rule and nationalists as well as so-called kulaks, or wealthy farmers, and their families in an effort to impose collectivisation in the republics recently reabsorbed into the Soviet Union.

In Estonia, hundreds of deportation survivors gathered around the Linda memorial in central Tallinn.

Paju Battle - 90th anniversary - January 31th, 1919

The battle against Red Latvian Riflemen for the Paju Manor near Valga in southern Estonia on 31 January 1919 was the most sanguinary encounter in the early stages in the Estonian War of Independence.

On 30 January the partisan unit headed by Julius Kuperjanov occupied the manor along with the Tõlliste Stage. But during the night the manor again passed into the hands of the Reds. In a battle that lasted the whole following day Finnish volunteers together with the partisans managed to finally gain possession of the manor at the heavy toll of 42 men dead and 113 wounded.

On 1 February the partisans and the Finns marched into Valga without meeting any resistance as the enemy had withdrawn from the Estonian-Latvian border town. This meant establishment of control over an important railway junction and pushing the front outside Estonian borders.

In the Paju Battle the soldiers displayed death-defying courage against overwhelming enemy forces. Julius Kuperjanov, the head of the partisan unit, along with the other wounded, was taken to a hospital in Tartu where he died of wounds on 2 February 1919.

A memorial was erected on the Paju Battlefield in 1994.

tommyfdc @ gmail.com

Friendly undermining of restored independence

The right of self-determination of peoples as defined in the Charter of The United Nations encouraged Estonian nationals in the year 1990 to sever the ties with The Soviet Union, into which the Republic of Estonian was violently forced 50 years ago.

After declaration of independence in 1918, Estonia had to fight the Russian and German forces that were trying to maintain their rule over Estonians. The Independence War ended with Tartu Peace Treaty, signed on February 2, 1920. In that Treaty Russia denounced forever all rights Russia had over the Estonians and their territory until signing the Treaty. The state border between Russia and Estonia was very meticulously defined in the Tartu Peace Treaty.

The documents of 1990, describing how the restoration of independence must be implemented, prevent anyone to conclude that the territory of Estonia shall be reduced to suit changes made by the Soviet. Surprisingly not knowing or not wanting to know that Estonia has a valid Border Treaty with Russia, some influential western friends started soon to advise the inexperienced Estonian politicians to sign a Border Treaty with the Russian Federation.

Sovietization of Baltic States 'worse than any occupation'

VIENNA – On the 18th anniversary of USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev's use of lethal force in Vilnius, a Russian portal has posted a recent lecture by a Russian historian who concludes that the incorporation of the Baltic states into the Soviet Union in 1940 was "worse than any occupation" and created "a headache" for Moscow that continues to this day.

In that talk delivered last month, Elena Zubkova, a senior scholar at the Moscow Institute and the author of "The Baltic Region and the Kremlin' (2008), argued that both Russians and citizens of the Baltic countries have incomplete and often distorted understandings of what happened in 1940 (www.polit.ru/lectures/2009/01/...)

If one looks at Moscow's approach to the Baltic countries in 1939-40, Zubkova said, it is clear that "this was above all an imperial project of Stalin, a project for restoring the empire despite the fact that in its details, its realization was seriously affected by the current political arrangement and in the first instance was connected with the war."
As recent Russian scholarship has shown, she continued, Moscow during the 1920s largely ignored the Baltic countries after recognizing their independence. The Kremlin at that time, Zubkova says, "had neither the forces, nor the time, nor the opportunity to form and carry out a special 'Baltic policy.'"

(One curiosity, however, that is sometimes remarked upon, the Moscow historian said is that until 1925, the Soviet state did not transform its Western Front into a military district. "There was already no war, but there was a front." However, she pointed out, this had far more to do with Poland than with the Baltic countries.)

Only in the 1930s did Stalin begin to focus on the Baltic States as a region of particular interest. The first Politburo decision in the archives, Zubkova notes, dates from 1934, but even then, it reflected a general interest. Only in the spring of 1939, with the threat of war looming, did this interest take on a more precise focus.

Hitler/Dönitz and the Baltic Sea

One of the more perplexing aspects of the war on the Eastern Front was Adolf Hitler's propensity to withhold permission for withdrawals beyond the moment when they had become necessary, even if combat units were facing imminent encirclement and annihilation. Repeatedly, large German formations found themselves cut off, surrounded, and without hope of relief. Countless battles large and small and countless units from the smallest battle groups to entire armies experienced such hopeless situations.

It also happened to Army Group North, whose primary mission throughout the war was to capture Leningrad. During the summer of 1944, the successful conclusion of the Soviet summer offensive against Army Group Center presented the Red Army with an opportunity to destroy Army Group North through envelopment from its southern flank. The resulting battle, the battle for Courland, saw the army group cut off from the main German forces and forbidden from either breaking out or withdrawing to the west.

The Soviets knew the isolated German army group could make no further contribution to the war and, after creating a more or less effective seal, left the pocket unmolested until the final German surrender in May 1945. The obvious question then and now is why Hitler deprived himself of hundreds of thousands of men and large amounts of equipment at such a critical stage of the war. The usual explanation is that Hitler simply refused to let any units, regardless of their size or the imminence of the disaster facing them, withdraw from their positions.

THE CROSS OF LIBERTY AND THE MONUMENT TO THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE

War of Independence and the Cross of Liberty

In the Estonian War of Independence, which took place from 1918–1920, the Estonian side lost 3 588 men, with 13 775 injured.

To recognise the service of participants in the War of Independence, the first Estonian state decoration, the Cross of Liberty, was created in 1919. The Law on the Establishment of the Cross of Liberty stated that those who provided military and civilian services during the creation of the Republic of Estonia could receive the decoration.

Strict guidelines were followed in awarding the Cross of Liberty, so it became Estonia’s most distinguished award, as well as the only one whose holders were legally given a number of privileges and concessions. The first seven Crosses of Liberty were bestowed in August 1919 on officers of the British fleet that helped Estonia during the War of Independence. Altogether 3 215 Crosses of Liberty were given out. Among those decorated with Cross of Liberty are Estonians as well as Finns, Britons, Russians, Swedes, Baltic Germans, Danes, Latvians, and Poles, as well as representatives of many other nationalities.

The most famous holders of the Cross of Liberty included King Albert I of Belgium, King George V of the United Kingdom, Danish King Christian X, Swedish King Gustav V, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and Marshal Józef Piłsudski, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, Latvian President Kārlis Ulmanis, and Finnish President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg.

The Cross of Liberty and the monument to the War of Independence in Tallinn

War of Independence and the Cross of Liberty

In the Estonian War of Independence, which took place from 1918–1920, the Estonian side lost 3 588 men, with 13 775 injured.

To recognise the service of participants in the War of Independence, the first Estonian state decoration, the Cross of Liberty, was created in 1919. The Law on the Establishment of the Cross of Liberty stated that those who provided military and civilian services during the creation of the Republic of Estonia could receive the decoration.

Strict guidelines were followed in awarding the Cross of Liberty, so it became Estonia’s most distinguished award, as well as the only one whose holders were legally given a number of privileges and concessions. The first seven Crosses of Liberty were bestowed in August 1919 on officers of the British fleet that helped Estonia during the War of Independence. Altogether 3 215 Crosses of Liberty were given out. Among those decorated with Cross of Liberty are Estonians as well as Finns, Britons, Russians, Swedes, Baltic Germans, Danes, Latvians, and Poles, as well as representatives of many other nationalities.

The most famous holders of the Cross of Liberty included King Albert I of Belgium, King George V of the United Kingdom, Danish King Christian X, Swedish King Gustav V, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Polish Prime Minister Władysław Sikorski and Marshal Józef Piłsudski, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, Latvian President Kārlis Ulmanis, and Finnish President Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg.

Narva in the snow

Our Great Northern War reenactment friends have just done an exciting event at Narva in Estonia - watch this clip to see how it went. I am highly impressed by the GNW scene and have great expectations for the future....and they get real snow too!

Digging in Tallinn's Freedom square reveals 5,000-year-old settlement

Excavations carried out as part of the reconstruction of the Vabaduse (Freedom) Square in Tallinn have revealed signs of human activity dating back 5,000 years.

On the basis of the finds, it may be assumed that 5,000 years ago the shoreline of the sea ran through the spot where the front entrance stairs of the city government building lie today.

The excavations show the lower city as having a several thousand year’s longer history than was previously thought, Vice Mayor Taavi Aas said.

It is believed that a seasonal settlement of fishers and seal hunters lay on the sea coast near the present-day city government building 5,000 years ago.

"This Stone Age settlement site marks the start of the history of Tallinn, even though it took thousands of years before the fishing site evolved as a town," the vice mayor said.
"Stone Age finds are scarce in north-western Estonia. Something similar has been earlier discovered only in excavations near the estuary of Jagala River," Guido Toos, the archaeologist in charge of the excavations, said.

Toos said the cultural layer underneath Vabaduse Square was in places up to 50 centimetres thick, and time and patience were needed to fully examine it.
The items found, as well as visual material about the Stone Age settlement and the excavations, will be displayed in the atrium of the pedestrian area of the renovated square.

Letters from friend in a German Office

My husband knows I hate his people and he is unhappy about it, but I can’t help it, I can’t lie.

Mrs Lilian Culshaw, Nottingham

Lilian Culshaw was a 14 years old when she began corresponding with Dagmar Farber, a pupil from a high school in Tallinn, Estonia. Mrs Culshaw still has 70 letters written over those years. They had nicknames for each other – Lilian was Lily, and Dagmar was Teddy.

This letter from Dagmar, dated 1946, tells of her experiences – including working in a German office in Estonia, and her efforts to obtain documents to enter Germany.

My dearest Lily,

I am very, very happy that we have found each other. My poor dear Lily, I am sorry you were unhappy because you didn’t find me in Estonia any more. I have to tell you a lot, and I think I’ll start there too where we left off. But you must excuse me when there are terrible mistakes in my letter, but I haven’t had a chance to speak English for the five years I’ve been in Germany, and I have forgotten a lot.

First I want to tell you how glad my husband and I are to hear that you and your husband don’t hate the German people. It shouldn’t hurt me if you did, because I am an Estonian and will be forever. I don’t like German people, they are selfish, cold-hearted and foolish, and I have seen too much of their heartlessness so I can’t like them. My husband knows I hate his people and he is unhappy about it, but I can’t help it, I can’t lie.

Estonian Nazis will hold a cerimony on 19 October 2008 with aim to glorify the ex-members of the Estonian Waffen SS and Nazi ideology

By Helga

These are the simbols of the Estonian Nazi Waffen SS brigades :

Comments : On Monday, September 29 2008, 01:14 by Symbologist

Those symbols at the beginning of your article, the three lions and the tri-colour and the "E" with the bent arm holding a sword, are not Nazi symbols. The "E" with the bent arm comes from the Estonian War of Independance of 1920. The bend arm forms a "V" under the "E", so the image represents "EV", or "Eesti Vabadus", or "Estonian Liberty" in English.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

When You see these symbols You know that the matter is with Estonian Nazis and ex members of the Estonian Waffen SS brigades, called else Estonian Legion.

During the WW II a lot of Estonians were willingly entered in the Nazi Waffen SS brigades, and embraced the Hitler ideology. They compiled many bloody crimes, killing and torturing inhabitants of Estonia of all nationalities and doing bloody actions in the Ukraina and other countries. Thanks to their efforts, Estonia became the first and only country free of the Jewish. The camp of extermination was created at Klooga (nearby Tallinn), some information in English about it can be seen at : http://www.bronze-soldier.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=5&Itemid=35 .

The crossing of the Great Belt

On January 28, 1658, Charles X arrived at Haderslev in South Jutland.

His meteorologists estimated that in a couple of days the ice of the Little Belt would become firm enough to bear even the passage of a mail-clad host. The cold during the night of 29 January became most severe ; and early in the morning of the 30th the Swedish king gave the order to start, the horsemen dismounting on the weaker spots of ice and cautiously leading their horses as far apart as possible, until they swung into their saddles again, closed their ranks and made a dash for the shore.

Swedish arms quickly overpowered the Danish troops lining the opposite coast and won the whole of Funen with the loss of only two companies of cavalry, which disappeared under the ice while fighting with the Danish left wing. Pursuing his march, Charles X, with his eyes fixed steadily on Copenhagen, resolved to cross the frozen Great Belt also.

PETER’S DISASTER : NARVA NOVEMBER 1700

The accession of the young Charles XII (1697-1718) of Sweden raised expectations among Sweden’s neighbours of a possible end to Swedish hegemony in the Baltic. The conclusion of the Ottoman war released Russian forces, while the recent accession of Augustus, Elector of Saxony, as King of Poland marked the arrival of a new, ambitious player in Baltic diplomacy.

The most active role in negotiating an anti-Swedish alliance was taken by Denmark. Danish attempts over the previous quarter-century to reconquer Scania and to dominate Holstein-Gottorp had suffered from the lack of any diversion of Swedish strength to the eastern Baltic. Augustus hoped to gain Livonia and to use it as the basis for establishing a hereditary Saxon dynasty in Poland. It was therefore agreed that in 1700 Peter the Great would invade Ingria, Augustus would invade Livonia, and Frederick IV of Denmark would invade first Holstein and then southern Sweden. It was assumed that these attacks would divide the Swedish forces and ensure speedy success.

Charles, however, responded rapidly. A landing on Zealand threatened Copenhagen and, by the Treaty of Travendal, Frederick IV abandoned the war, restoring the pro-Swedish Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Swedish forces were then sent to the eastern Baltic where the quiescence of most of the Livonian nobility and the strength of Riga’s defences had ended the Saxon invasion. Charles was thus able to focus on the Russian army besieging Narva under Peter. In November 1700, 11,000 Swedes defeated 24,000 Russians through a combination of professionalism and the favourable direction of a snowstorm.

Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic was declared in North-East Estonia

Sandra Taimre

Information is spreading in Russian media that two farms located near the Russian border in North-East Estonia have declared Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic.

The two farms declared themselves ESSR and asked Russia to recognize their independence. Estonian Defense Police says it is a clear provocation, Delfi writes.

Defense Police’s press representative Andres Kahar said that they are dealing with the question at the moment and there is nor reason for panic.

Stalinism was just as bad as nazism

MART LAAR

Last week Russia furiously attacked President Bush for his proclamation on Captive Nations Week (July 20-July 26), which was established to raise awareness of countries living under communist and other oppressive regimes. Mr. Bush said that, "In the 20th century, the evils of Soviet communism and Nazi fascism were defeated and freedom spread around the world as new democracies emerged."

The Russian Foreign Ministry claimed that treating Nazi fascism and Soviet communism as "a single evil" was an insult that "hurt the hearts" of World War II veterans in Russia and in allied countries, including the United States. "While condemning the abuse of power and unjustified severity of the Soviet regime's internal policies, we nevertheless can neither treat indifferently attempts to equate Communism and Nazism nor agree that they were inspired by the same ideas and aims," the ministry said in a statement.

Actually, the Bush statement is correct: There is really no big difference between Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. When World War II began in September 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union were allies; indeed Stalin and Hitler launched the war together.

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty of Aug. 23 was a nonaggression pact between Germany and Russia; but a secret protocol in the treaty also opened the way for the division of Europe by carving Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania into spheres of influence. Germany invaded Poland on Sept. 1 from the north, south and west; Stalin invaded Poland from the east on Sept. 17.

And this was only the beginning. The second campaign of the war was Soviet aggression against Finland in November 1939; only the third campaign, against Denmark and Norway (in April) was a pure German operation. The fourth campaign, the invasion of France in May 1940, was accompanied by Stalin's annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In this period, Stalin was a most devoted ally of Hitler. Without Soviet oil and grain, Hitler would probably not have survived the first year of the war. Stalin even ordered European communists not to help their governments fight against Hitler.

Forgotten transports : to Estonia

By ALISSA SIMON

A Falcon release of a Total HelpArt production, supported by the Czech State Fund for the support and development of Czech cinematography. (International sales: Menemsha, Los Angeles.) Produced by Lukas Pribyl, Ondrej Trojan. Directed, written by Lukas Pribyl.

With : Gisela Danzig, Helena Freund, Doris Rauch, Emma Morgenstern, Zuzana Fallek, Zndenka Fishl, Anna Kraus, Edita Heilig.

Clearly the result of meticulous research, Lukas Pribyl's moving "Forgotten Transports : To Estonia" bears witness to some little-told stories of the Holocaust. Docu traces the harrowing three-year odyssey of roughly 100 young Czech Jewish women after they arrived in Estonia on Sept. 5, 1942, and were separated from their families. Setting the scene with title cards, pic uses survivor interviews, rare archival footage, photos and documents to introduce virtually unknown concentration camps and strategies inmates used to survive. Important contribution to WWII history will likely travel to Jewish fests and enjoy a long life in ancillary.

Now living all over the world, pic's eloquent subjects speak several languages; however, when recounting what camp commandants said, all switch to German. Their most painful memories center on separation from parents and refusal to believe rumors about loved ones' cruel fates; the most gripping moments come from their unique tales of survival. Majority of the visual materials used are prewar family photos. Broadcast-friendly tech package is pro, although the shrill score irritates. Briskly paced pic is part of a Pribyl quartet that includes feature-length docus on transports to Latvia, Belarus and eastern Poland.

Camera (color, DigiBeta), Jakub Simunek; editor, Vladimir Barak; music, Peter Ostrouchov. Reviewed at Karlovy Vary Film Festival (competing), July 7, 2008. Czech, German, English dialogue. Running time: 85 MIN.

Estonian veterans of Nazi Forces meet

By : iStockAnalyst

TALLINN - Veterans of an Estonian unit of Nazi Germany's armed forces had a traditional annual meeting on Saturday.

In speaking at the event, held in Sinimae, near the Russian border, Estonian parliament deputy Trivimi Velliste said Estonians who had served in the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of elite Nazi military organization SS fought to liberate Estonia from Bolsheviks and should therefore be considered "liberators."

"Parliament should officially grant them the status of liberation fighters and make them equal in status to participants in the Liberation War of 1918-1920," Velliste said.

The same point was made by veterans who spoke at the meeting about fierce battles against advancing Soviet forces in 1944.

Veikko Luhalaid, governor of Vaivara municipality, where Sinimae is located, was present at the meeting.

Those present also included skinheads, many young people with Nazi symbols on their clothes, and SS veterans from Norway and Denmark.

Simultaneously, about ten members of Night Watch, a group that has campaigned against last year's removal of a Soviet war memorial from the center of Tallinn to a military cemetery outside the city, gathered near the site of the SS veteran's meeting. They laid flowers at a nearby monument to fallen Soviet soldiers.

Police said the SS veterans' meeting had been a peaceful event.

Just a small thought about the true meaning of those battles near that hill and in Narva

by Reimo

The Soviet attack began in 14th January, 1944, near Leningrad and I'm making an assumption that they would have straight up succeeded to force themselves through the frontline near Narva river and whole Estonia. So ?

Remembering that by the time of 2th Feb the Soviets had moved from Volhov river to Narva river and had already made a first landing on the western bank of Narva river. The German forces were in a hasty retreat at that time and if the Estonian units would not have been able to stall the enemy advance in Narva with some German units in good fighting condition and battle-hardened Wiking division, then it would have been hardly possible to put up defensive lines in Sinimäed and on the Emajõgi (Mother River, flows through Tartu, connecting lakes of Võrtsjärv and Peipsi). So, within a month not only Estonia, but also Latvia and Lithuania would have been taken and by the end of March the Soviet forces would have been at the northern border of Eastern Prussia.

Hannah

Hannah, 27, is Estonia’s biggest pop star and the country’s tourism ambassador. She recalls a summer day spent hiding from the invading Soviets in her grandparents’ cellar. Only then did she learn the shocking truth about her family’s tragic past.

When I was a child, my brother, Jaanus, and I would always get excited about the summer holidays because we knew we were going to stay with our grandparents. We lived in Estonia’s capital, Tallinn, and they had a small summer house near the village of Kabli on a beautiful stretch of the Estonian coastline. It was surrounded by pine forests and close to wonderful beaches where we’d swim and play games for hours. It was idyllic.

Inside the house, my grandmother spent a lot of time in the kitchen pickling and preserving — onions, eels, tomatoes, gherkins, all sorts. We’d get up in the morning to find pots boiling on the stove and vinegars, oils and spices on the table. Meanwhile, Grandfather picked blackberries and wild strawberries for us to have with our porridge.

It was one such holiday. I was 10; my brother was 14. What made it stand out were the constant TV clips of Estonian politicians demanding independence from the Soviet Union, which was finally declared on August 20, 1991. I was still too young to understand the importance of that day in our history, but the following day I was to get a strong sense of what it meant to my grandmother. I was outside with Jaanus when we heard this strange rumbling noise. It was coming from the highway — a few metres away. We ran inside to tell my grandmother, who came to the gate.

Book tells of Soviet crime against Estonians

By Keith Ruscitti 

LAKEWOOD — Sixty-seven years ago this weekend, Estonia residents were dragged from their beds, shepherded to the train station and shipped to a Siberian labor camp by the Soviet Red Army.

To those who lived in the small Baltic country of Estonia at the time, it is an event known as the Great Deportation.

On Sunday morning, a memorial service for those victimized by the Great Deportation was held at the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Ghost.

One of the invited guests was Tiina Ets, the translator of "We Shall Live in Heaven,'' a first-hand memoir written by Pastor Harri Haamer on his days spent at a Soviet slave labor camp.

Ets, whose husband, Agu, is a graduate of Lakewood High School, is a professional interpreter. She spent more than four years translating Haamer's chronicle of life in a Siberian camp.

It was published this year by the Tartu Academy of Theology.

"People need to know what happened at these camps,'' said Ets, who was an interpreter for three U.S. presidents in meetings with Estonian officials. "I didn't even know what happened. Everyone who had family involved has a story or stories similar to some told in the book.''

Book tells of Soviet crime against Estonians

By Keith Ruscitti

LAKEWOOD — Sixty-seven years ago this weekend, Estonia residents were dragged from their beds, shepherded to the train station and shipped to a Siberian labor camp by the Soviet Red Army.

To those who lived in the small Baltic country of Estonia at the time, it is an event known as the Great Deportation.

On Sunday morning, a memorial service for those victimized by the Great Deportation was held at the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Ghost.

One of the invited guests was Tiina Ets, the translator of "We Shall Live in Heaven,'' a first-hand memoir written by Pastor Harri Haamer on his days spent at a Soviet slave labor camp.

Ets, whose husband, Agu, is a graduate of Lakewood High School, is a professional interpreter. She spent more than four
years translating Haamer's chronicle of life in a Siberian camp.

Navy investigates W.W. II-era plane crash

BY ROBERT STERN

The courier assignment that turned out to be Henry W. Antheil Jr.'s last was supposed to be a simple one in the early stages of World War II.

He was to bring diplomatic pouches full of sensitive material from the U.S. legations in the capitals of Estonia and Latvia to the U.S. legation in Helsinki, where the 27-year-old Trenton native worked as a code clerk.

Instead, his mission became entangled in tragedy and mystery -- part of which the U.S. Navy had hoped to solve with a high-tech underwater search earlier this month.

Antheil died 68 years ago today along with the eight other people aboard the Finnish airliner carrying them on the last flight out of Tallinn, Estonia, prior to its occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union.

His death may have placed him among the first American officials to be killed in World War II.

The airliner on which Antheil was flying, called the Kaleva, exploded over the Gulf of Finland en route to Helsinki from Tallinn 50 miles away. The disaster occurred at about 2:05 p.m. local time on June 14, 1940, the same day the Nazi occupation of Paris began.

Although a conclusive determination to the cause of the explosion and crash has never been made, suspicion as early as July 1940 was that Soviet bomber pilots shot down the passenger plane, according to a May 2007 article in Foreign Service Journal.

Antheil "was sent to secure all the military codebooks and all the codebooks," said his nephew, Arthur McTighe of East Windsor.

A look-alike ordinary building

Libby and Aarne

Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem about Cologne, Germany, in which he described the town as being full of “monks and bones, and pavements flanged with murderous stones”. He could just as well have been talking about the Old Town section of Tallinn.

Not only are the streets paved with cobble stones, but there must be thousands of nooks and crannies that have stories. The vast majority of these stories are lost, but some come to life when you read the placards attached to the buildings.

I stumbled on to one of these the other day. It was an ordinary enough building, somewhere down on Pikk street, but the placard told me that this building was far from ordinary.

A rough translation of the placard would be: “Here was housed the offices of the soviet occupation repression headquarters. FROM HERE BEGAN, FOR THOUSANDS OF ESTONIANS, A TRAIL OF SORROW AND SUFFERING.”

Why is Estonia a tech hub ?

by Michael Kanellos 

If you're going to have a revolution, it's best to leave the guns at home.

That's one of the underlying messages in The Singing Revolution, a documentary by Jim and Maureen Tusty about the birth of the Estonian Republic currently touring the independent film circuit. Funded in part by venture capitalist Steve Jurveston, the movie shows how Estonians held their national unity under Soviet domination through singing festivals. Later, during the late 80s and 90s, Estonian activists pushed for independence through parliamentary maneuvering. (Jim Tusty and Jurvetson are also Estonian.)

The film starts a one-week run Friday at San Francisco's Lumiere theater.

Granted, the decisive figure in the revolution turned out to be Boris Yeltsin. Soviet troops and tanks had driven into Estonia and planned to take over the country's main TV tower. Only a few hours before the army was set to take action in Estonia, Yeltsin stood down the coup in Russia. The army subsequently, suddenly reversed course.

SS Foreign Volunteers

The people who live on the Eastern shore of the Baltic Sea are no strangers to adversity. Historically plagued by invading armies and oppressors, from the Teutonic Knights to the Czars of Russia, the three Baltic nations struggled continuously to retain their autonomy. In 1918 it seemed that their hopes for permanent independence would be realized.

The armies of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia had heroically expelled both the Russians and the Germans from their homelands. By 1922 the Baltic people had won world-wide recogition for their independence. The Soviet Union signed several treaties acknowledging their sovereignty. Yet by 1940 they were no longer free.

During their brief period of independence the Baltic people gained a high degree of personal freedom and economic prosperity. Their standard of living was among the highest in Eastern Europe and illiteracy no longer existed. In addition the Baltic nations contributed fully to the world community through the League of Nations. The overall conditions that existed in Russia during this time were many years behind those in the Baltic States.

The ominous growth of the German and Russian superpowers, both militarily and politically, sealed the fate of the strategic Baltic area. In the German/Russian nonagression pact of 1939, Germany secretly ceded the Baltic Republics to Russia, on the condition that Germany would be allowed to process the extradition of ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsch) from those areas.

In the Autumn of 1939 the three Baltic governments were forced to permit the garrisoning of some 100 thousand Soviet troops in their countries. Starting with Estonia the Russians had lined their troops along the borders and blockaded the seaport of these nations until they were forced to concede. Finland, faced with similar ultimatums was in a posistion to resist. The result was the Winter War of 1939-40, in which tiny Finland sorely humiliated the victorious Russians.

Soviet submarine operations in the Baltic

The Baltic theater of war. German conquest of the Baltic States deprived the Baltic Red Banner Fleet of Tallinn, its main base, in two months. Kronstadt, the rear support harbor, became the only haven for Soviet naval forces. German air supremacy and mining, with skilful Finnish help, in combination with winter ice kept the Red Navy penned up until 1944. Only 26 of 1,738 Axis vessels sailing in convoy during 1942 were sunk.

The shallow waters of the Baltic proved a graveyard for the Red Navy's large but inexperienced submarine force.

The Russian Navy began World War II with the world's largest submarine fleet — 218 strong. Yet of all the major combatant under-sea forces it achieved least. For the loss of 108 boats the same number of merchant ships, totalling 245,525 tons, and 28 small warships were sunk. Official post-war Soviet figures were 323 merchantmen (936,756 tons) and 94 warships. In the shallow waters of the Baltic the sinking of 145,063 tons (45 ships) cost 45 submarines.

When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union on 22 June 1 941 its submarine force was unprepared for war. Thanks to Stalin's purges only a quarter of the submarine com­manders had been serving longer than two years. Nearly 20 submarines of the Baltflot (Baltic fleet) were undergoing repair or unfit for service. Only about 40 were ready to sail. The 1st Submarine Brigade (N. P. Yegipko) had seven submarines stationed in Liepaja (Libau) and eight in Düna­münde off Riga. Nine submarines of 2nd Submarine Brigade (A. E. Oryol) were lying in Tallinn (Reval) and five in the leased Finnish port of Hangö. But most of these submarines were later transferred to Tallinn and ..............

Following up here

Lakes of Armor

Part of me has always wished I had joined the Armor corps. When I built plastic models as a kid it was either German panzers or some type of WW II aircraft. When I got out of the Navy I even toyed around with joining the Army reserves and seeing if I could get hooked up with an armor unit in Kentucky. The problem is of course that you just don’t get a tank to play around with. You are a leader first and “tank lover” somewhere else way down the list. Anyway, I still have a strong fascination with these steel beasts. Here are two photos from Estonia at a location along what was the Narva front during WW II when the German lines were collapsing against the Soviet onslaught…..

“On 19 September 1944, German troops began an organized retreat along the Narva front. It is suspected that the tank was then purposefully driven into the lake, abandoning it when its captors left the area.

At that time, a local boy walking by the lake Kurtna Matasjarv noticed tank tracks leading into the lake, but not coming out anywhere For two months he saw air bubbles emerging from the lake. This gave him reason to believe that there must be an armored vehicle at the lake’s bottom A few years ago, he told the story to the leader of the local war history club ‘Otsing’. Together with other club members, Mr. Igor Shedunov initiated diving expeditions to the bottom of the lake about a year ago. At the depth of 7 metres they discovered the tank resting under a 3-metre layer of peat.”

And the treasure buried in the bog is a captured T-34 with German markings. Apparently it was also almost perfectly preserved. The email I got telling me about this claimed that the diesel engine started up after some basic cleaning. Now if only there was a tiger sitting down there as well.

Pictures are here