BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

The First Anniversary of the Death of Patriarch Aleksei Rediger ...

This Saturday, we will mark the first anniversary of the death of Patriarch Aleksei Rediger of Moscow and all the Russias. On 4 December, the feast of the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, Patriarch Kirill served a Pannikhida at the tomb of the late First Hierarch at the Epiphany Cathedral in Moscow.

This is a memorial service, usually performed on Friday evenings, on the eve of Ancestors’ Saturdays, or on days that the whole Church commemorates the reposed in general. On the morning of 5 December, Patriarch Kirill will return to the same church to celebrate the liturgy, then, he will serve a Pannikhida at the grave of Patriarch Aleksei in the right side of the cathedral.

On this day, all Orthodox churches and monasteries will serve memorial liturgies for the repose of the soul of the late Patriarch Aleksei. Many parishes will hold commemorative events and exhibitions devoted to the departed patriarch.

The clergy and the faithful will remember Patriarch Aleksei, the First Hierarch of the Moscow Patriarchate during the most recent period in Russian history, a time that saw the revival of church life in the Motherland.

Today, the Museum of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour opened a new exhibition about the life and ministry of the reposed First Hierarch. It will present his personal belongings, and, on Saturday, viewers of TV Pervy Kanal (First Channel) will see the documentary Путь патриарха (Put Patriarkha: The Path of the Patriarch), dedicated to the memory of Patriarch Aleksei. In the film, figures such as Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro and Primorsky, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Aleksei’s assistant, Nikolai Derzhavin, and TV presenter Aleksei Svetozarsky, who did holiday broadcasts from the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, shall give their recollections of the late First Hierarch.

Aug. 23 to become Black Ribbon Day for victims of Nazis + Soviets

OTTAWA – The House of Commons has declared Aug. 23 as Black Ribbon Day to commemorate victims of totalitarian Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes.

MPs gave unanimous consent Monday to a motion proposed by Liberal Bob Rae, which would formalize a day of remembrance which has already been adopted by some ethnic groups.

The day chosen is the anniversary of the notorious Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939.

That was the agreement in which Adolf Hitler's Nazis and Josef Stalin's Soviet Communists divvied up Poland and much of eastern Europe.

Rae's motion spoke of Canadians "superficial and inadequate" knowledge of the evils of the Nazi and Communist regimes.

Last summer, after a commemorative march in Toronto, the Central and Eastern European Council of Canada urged Parliament to formalize Black Ribbon Day.

"The people and government of Canada unequivocally condemn the crimes against humanity committed by totalitarian Nazi and Communist regimes and offer the victims of these crimes and their family members sympathy, understanding and recognition for their suffering," Rae said in his resolution.

Source : THE CANADIAN PRESS

President Ilves sent his condolences to the Russian Head of State after a tragic train accident

"I send my heartfelt condolences to you and the entire Russian nation commemorating those who perished tragically in the accident involving the Moscow-St. Petersburg train on November 27th," President Toomas Hendrik Ilves wrote in his letter of condolence to Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian Head of State. "My thoughts are with the families of the victims and I wish all those who were injured a speedy recovery."

Office of the President
Public Relations Department
Phone +372 631 6229

Estonia celebrates the anniversary of Day of Declaration of Sovereignty

Yesterday was the 21st anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Sovereignty of Estonian SSR, writes the National Broadcasting/LETA.

On this day, the Supreme Council of Estonian SSR declared on an extraordinary session Estonia’s laws having supremacy over the laws of the Soviet Union.

The session of the Supreme Council lasted for 10 hours and 258 MPs voted in favour of the declaration.

Among other things, the declaration stated that due to the Stalinist regimes and the internal policies of the period of stagnation, the demographic situation has become unfavourable for Estonians in Estonia. The environmental situation was catastrophic and the destabilisation of the economy had an adverse impact on the population’s standard of living.

The decision adopted 21 years ago has also been called a test of honesty and openness for the former Supreme Council.

The "Estonia case" to court

The wreckage of the passenger ferry Estonia will be investigated again. The Estonia case will be taken up in a French court.

When Estonia sank in 1994 on its way from Stockholm to Tallinn; 852 of the 989 people onboard drowned. 551 of them were Swedish.

 The bow door on the ship is believed to have failed leading to enormous amount of water on car deck. There have however been a large number of conspiracy theories about weapons, drugs and other forbidden cargo on Estonia and that she was brought down deliberately by someone. None of these theories have however been taken seriously by the authorities.

It is Meyer, the German constructors of the ship and French Veritas, who classified the ship as accaptable for traffic, that are prosecuted in Paris. Behind the trial are survivors and relatives to the victims

France has not sign the international treaty saying that Estonia is a mass grave and should be protected and untouched. The court can thereby demand a new examination of the ship.

It has taken many years for the Paris court to take up the case since they had to wait for other similar cases to be completed.

Tommie Ullman

Patriarch Alexy II Square opened in Tallinn

Patriarch Alexy II Square was ceremonially opened in the capital of Estonia.

“I hope that we will open a monument to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II on the day when the building of the Church of the Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God will be completed here at the square,” the city Mayor Edgar Savisaar told participants in the ceremony.

He called Patriarch Alexy “a great man,” and noted, “Estonian people mourned over his decease with the entire Orthodox world.”

The square financed by the mayor office is located in front of the Orthodox Church of the Quick to Hear Icon of the Mother of God, which is being constructed on donations in residential area Lasnamae.

Tallinn-born Alexy II laid a foundation stone of the church during his visit to Estonia in September 2003.

“Sinking of Estonia will haunt people for a long time to come”

Fifteenth anniversary of sinking

Tuomo Karppinen of Finland’s Accident Investigation Board was in his bathroom shaving on the morning of September 28th, 1994 when he first heard about the sinking of the Estonian car and passenger ferry Estonia off the Finnish coast while en route from Tallinn to Stockholm.
  Karppinen’s daughter came to the door and said: “A ship has sunk in the Archipelago Sea, and 800 people have drowned”.
  “‘A ship can’t sink like that, certainly not in the Archipelago Sea’, I thought.”
  “I went to work and immediately began making calculations of whether or not the load carried on a ship like the Estonia can cause a ship to tip it over in such a way that it would sink like that.”
 
A shipbuilding engineer by profession, Karppinen happened to work at the ship laboratory of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT) at the time.
  “One of the first guesses at the time was that of a sinking caused by a shift of the load. I thought on my own, that the load cannot shift so much that it would cause a ship to sink”, Karppinen recalls.
  “I noted that listing caused by a shifting load would be no more than ten degrees, and that it could not be as much as 30 degrees. A ten-degree list would not sink a ship. Something else must have happened.”
  Karppinen concluded that the only possibility was that the ship must have taken on water.

Death ferry sailed into Baltic storm with faulty door seals

Originally published on 29 September 1994

Greg McIvor, James Meek and Julian Borger

An international commission of inquiry was launched last night into Europe's worst ferry disaster after it emerged that Swedish inspectors allowed the car ferry Estonia to set sail in storm-force winds in the Baltic with defective door seals.

The disaster, which claimed the lives of 823 people early yesterday, plunged Sweden and Estonia into national mourning. Rescue efforts continued all day, but were suspended last night with 141 people found, 42 bodies recovered, and the remainder of the 964 aboard missing presumed dead.

As with the 1987 ferry tragedy off Zeebrugge, which claimed 193 lives, the issue that mattered last night for hundreds of grieving relatives was why the disaster had occurred.

The investigation by Finland, Sweden and Estonia, was expected to focus on the Swedish safety inspectors' discovery, only hours before the ferry sailed from Tallinn en route to Stockholm, of defective seals on a door to the vessel's car deck.

But the Swedish inspectors, who spent five hours on board the doomed ferry, said last night that they had found only minor faults, none big enough to have caused the disaster.

The ferry capsized and sank in high seas several minutes after developing a 30-degree list 23 nautical miles off the Finnish island of Uto.

The memory flight along the route of Baltic road

Sritys: Transportas, Žiniasklaida
Numatoma įvykio data: 2009-08-23
Numatomas įvykio pradžios laikas: 10:00
Numatoma įvykio vieta: Panevezys - Riga - Tallinn - Vilnius

On 23 August 2009, the three Baltic states, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of one of the most unique events in their histories. The Baltijos Kelias (Baltic Road) helped to open the door to the restoration of their independence.

This event 20 years ago was a milestone in the struggle of the three states towards the elimination of the legal and political effects of their occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940.

The Aeroclub of Lithuania - the biggest general aviation organization in Lithuania is organizing and coordinating the memory flight along the route of Baltic road together with pilots of three Baltic countries.

The group leaded by historical An 2 from Lithuanian army and followed by 15 private airplanes will try to recall the Baltic road on the August 23, 2009. The group will fly in one chain, in the height of 300 meters above the ground.

During the first part of flight the group will fly from Panevėžys – EYPI airfield - to Riga city boundary, later overfly the city a little bit north of TV tower. The approximate time above Riga city is 11.45 local time. After the Riga the formation of planes will fly to Tallinn CTR point SAKU along the E 67 motorway, later will overfly the city to MUUGA point at Tallinn CTR and overfly city to the south to VAIDA point at Tallinn CTR. After Tallinn the group will land at Rapla – EERA aerodrome. The approximate time above Tallinn is 13.10 local time. In Rapla the formation will be greeted by Estonian pilots and media.

In the route back the group will fly from Rapla – EERA - to Kyviskes airfield – EYVK - all along the E67 motorway. The formation will enter Vilnius CTR at Avizieniai fly to the Cathedral square and leave Vilnius CTR at Liepynai point. The AN 2 will drop flowers above Cathedral square. Approximate time above Cathedral square is 19.00 LT.

The pilots from three Baltic countries will join our group and will form the unforgivable formation of airplanes.

Kontaktinis (-iai) asmuo (-enys):
Mr. Ignas Krivickas, tel +370 67023237
Mr. Dalius Liekis, tel +370 698 81480

Baltic presidents urge residents to participate in "Heartbeat for Baltics" relay race

The three Baltic States' presidents urge the residents of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to put aside their daily chores to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Baltic Way by taking part in the "Heartbeat for Baltics" unity run, as President's Press Office informed LETA.

The symbolic 24-hour relay from Vilnius and Tallinn to Riga will once again manifest the unity of the Baltic nations, the presidents point out.

The start signal for the run will be given by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite in Lithuania and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves in Estonia, whereas Latvian President Valdis Zatlers will receive the participants of the relay race in Riga, where the run will finish at the Freedom Monument.

Zatlers underlines that 20 years ago, the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined their hands in the Baltic Way, and the power of unity of the three nations is remembered in the world as unique evidence of the Baltic singing revolution.

As reported, marking the 20th Anniversary of the Baltic Way, the Baltic unity run "Sirdspuksti Baltijai" (Heartbeat For Baltics) will take place on August 22-23.

The twenty-four-hour run will start in Tallinn and Vilnius, and the finish of the run will take place at the Freedom Monument in Riga at 8 p.m. on August 23.

The 671-kilometre distance will be divided in one-kilometer long relay run, and every inhabitant of the Baltic States will be called to join the leading relay runners in their chosen kilometer.

The Baltic unity run will be held to revive the unity between the Baltic nations and to remind about the joint fight for freedom and aspirations to prove the vitality of the national consciousness.

Commission plays down Estonia ferry disaster conspiracy theory

Tallinn — The latest enquiry commission into the sinking of a passenger ferry - the Estonia - in the Baltic Sea in 1994 agreed Thursday with previous probes that a design and construction flaw was most likely to blame for the disaster. The Estonia sank en route from Tallinn in Estonia to Stockholm in Sweden on September 28, 1994, with the loss of 852 lives. There were just 134 survivors from one of the world’s worst maritime disasters.

An Estonian government commission established in 2005 concluded on February 19 that there was no evidence the disaster was linked to the covert transportation of Swedish military equipment on board the vessel.

Previous enquires established that Swedish military intelligence shipped equipment using the Estonia on September 14 and 20, 1994, but the commission found no proof it was carrying a third consignment when it set sail on September 27.

The commission did not entirely rule out the possibility that there may have been a hole in the hull, though an interim report published in 2007 discounted theories that one could have been caused by an explosion of undeclared military ordinance, as some relatives of victims have suggested.

“Such theories cannot be convincingly disproved by theoretical studies based on the existing evidence,” the commission said, adding that only a detailed exploration of the wreck on the sea bed could establish whether the Estonia had been holed.

On the basis of available evidence collected the established theory that the bow doors were poorly designed or constructed remained the most likely scenario, the commission concluded.

Estonia: no new ferry disaster probe

Estonia on Thursday decided against opening a new probe into the 1994 Baltic Sea ferry disaster which claimed the lives of 852 victims, discounting claims of a cover up.

• Engine fire forces Baltic ferry evacuation (2 Dec 08)
• Estonia victim families demand new probe (21 Nov 08)
• Estonia report supports official investigation (27 Nov 07)

Estonian government spokeswoman Kateriin Leini told AFP ministers had reviewed a report by a commission which upheld previous findings and concluded there were insufficient grounds to launch a new investigation.

The ferry "Estonia" sank on the night of September 28, 1994, as it sailed from the Estonian capital Tallinn to Stockholm in Sweden.

All but 137 of the 989 passengers and crew on board perished. Most of the victims were Swedish.

An international probe in 1997 ruled that faulty bow doors which gave way in a storm had caused the accident, the worst in the Baltic in peace time.

Victims' relatives demand new probe of 1994 Baltic ferry disaster (2)

"Thats the correct version of ferry story" (gotlandvisby @yahoo.com)

by Anneli Reigas

TALLINN - Relatives of the victims of a 1994 Baltic Sea ferry sinking that claimed 852 lives are stepping up pressure for a new probe of enduring claims that the disaster was caused by an explosion.
  
   "So much new evidence has emerged in recent years that we no longer have even the slightest doubt that the international report and its conclusions compiled and published in 1997 did not indicate the true reasons why the ship sank," Helje Kaskel, head of the Estonia Litigation Association, told AFP Friday.

   The association of victims' relatives will Sunday launch a week-long publicity campaign to highlight why a new international investigation is needed, she said.

   The ferry Estonia sank on the night of September 28, 1994, as it sailed from the Estonian capital Tallinn to Stockholm in Sweden.

   All but 137 of the 989 passengers and crew on board perished. Most of the victims were Swedish.

   An international probe in 1997 ruled that faulty bow doors which gave way in a storm had caused the accident, the worst in the Baltic in peace time.

   But both Estonia and Sweden opened new investigations in 2005 after many relatives of the dead, shipping experts and politicians claimed the ferry went down following an explosion.

   An acknowledgment by Sweden that Soviet military equipment had been transported on the ferry on several occasions in 1994 gave credence to the theory.

   Estonia had broken free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, but the Red Army only left the country on August 31, 1994.

   The Estonian report, issued in 2007, said that chemical analyses had ruled out an explosion, at least near the bow doors.

   But Kaskel, whose organisation groups victims' relatives, said the use of the ferry to transport Soviet equipment to unknown recipients remained "among the most disturbing information" to have emerged.

   The Estonian probe, led by state prosecutor Margus Kurm, had taken issue with several areas of the 1997 report.

   Kurm's report included testimony from two crew members who said that they had first seen water on the deck below the the car-deck, where the ramp had remained closed. This undermined the 1997 finding that the water came in via the car-deck.

   "Until it's known when and how the water got below the car deck, it is not possible to describe the sinking of the ship accurately," Kurm told AFP this week.

   Kurm also complained that Swedish authorities had consistently rejected his request to meet the Swedish divers who observed and filmed the wreck in 1994, before the access to the underwater grave site was permanently prohibited.

   Fuelling theories about the sinking is the fact the United States has acknowledged it holds documents about the disaster but that they cannot be released for security reasons.

   There have even been suggestions that the ferry could have collided with a submarine. There were NATO manoeuvres in the Baltic at the time

   But Kari Lehtola, a Finnish member of the 1997 probe team, has said there are no unanswered questions.

   "When catastrophes occur, people feel a need to find someone to blame," Lehtola was quoted as saying recently in the Estonian daily Postimees.

Estonia victim families demand new probe

Relatives of the victims of a 1994 Baltic Sea ferry sinking, which claimed the lives of 501 Swedes, are stepping up pressure for a new probe of enduring claims that the disaster was caused by an explosion.

So much new evidence has emerged in recent years that we no longer have even the slightest doubt that the international report and its conclusions compiled and published in 1997 did not indicate the true reasons why the ship sank," Helje Kaskel, head of the Estonia Litigation Association, told AFP Friday.

The association of victims' relatives will Sunday launch a week-long publicity campaign to highlight why a new international investigation is needed, she said.

The ferry Estonia sank on the night of September 28, 1994, as it sailed from the Estonian capital Tallinn to Stockholm in Sweden.

All but 137 of the 989 passengers and crew on board perished.

Lennart Berglund, chair of the Sweden-based Stiftelsen för Estoniaoffren och Anhöriga (‘Foundation for the Relatives of the Estonia Victims’ – SEA), said his group supports efforts from counterpart organizations in Estonia to bring attention back to some of the unanswered questions surrounding the Estonian disaster.

His group has demanded that the victims be retrieved from the wreck and has long called for additional efforts to gather more evidence about what caused the Estonia to sink.

“We’ve been trying to work with politicians and authorities in Sweden to get them to authorize the gathering of more evidence,” he told The Local.

According to Bergland, Estonia had indicated it was open to returning to the site of the wreck to search for new evidence, something Swedish authorities have refused.

“Why the Swedish authorities are so unwilling to cooperate, we have no idea.”

An international probe in 1997 ruled that faulty bow doors which gave way in a storm had caused the accident, the worst in the Baltic in peace time.

But both Estonia and Sweden opened new investigations in 2005 after many relatives of the dead, shipping experts and politicians claimed the ferry went down following an explosion.

An acknowledgment by Sweden that Soviet military equipment had been transported on the ferry on several occasions in 1994 gave credence to the theory.

Estonia had broken free from the crumbling Soviet Union in 1991, but the Red Army only left the country on August 31, 1994.

The Estonian report, issued in 2007, said that chemical analyzes had ruled out an explosion, at least near the bow doors.

But Kaskel, whose organization groups victims' relatives, said the use of the ferry to transport Soviet equipment to unknown recipients remained "among the most disturbing information" to have emerged.

The Estonian probe, led by state prosecutor Margus Kurm, had taken issue with several areas of the 1997 report.

Kurm's report included testimony from two crew members who said that the car-deck ramp remained closed, raising the question of why divers found water on the deck below.

"Until it's known when and how the water got below the car deck, it is not possible to describe the sinking of the ship accurately," Kurm told AFP this week.

Kurm also complained that Swedish authorities had consistently rejected his request to meet the Swedish divers who observed and filmed the wreck in 1994, before the access to the underwater grave site was permanently prohibited.

Fuelling theories about the sinking is the fact the United States has acknowledged it holds documents about the disaster but that they cannot be released for security reasons.

There have even been suggestions that the ferry could have collided with a submarine. There were NATO manoeuvres in the Baltic at the time

But Kari Lehtola, a Finnish member of the 1997 probe team, has said there are no unanswered questions.

"When catastrophes occur, people feel a need to find someone to blame," Lehtola was quoted as saying recently in the Estonian daily Postimees.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

The birthplace of the Head of State Jaan Teemant will be marked

Stenbock House – On Wednesday, 24 September, a memorial stone will be dedicated at the birthplace of the Head of State Jaan Teemant, in Pärnu County.

At the dedication of the memorial stone in Paatsalu Village, Varbla Rural Municipality, at 14.00, President Arnold Rüütel, State Secretary Heiki Loot, Varbla Rural Municipality Mayor Sivar Tõnisson, and the representative of the family, Mari Adler, will speak.

At the gathering following the dedication of the memorial stone at the Varbla culture centre, Jaan Teemant will be recalled as a lawyer, statesman, prosecutor and citizen, by Professor Peeter Järvelaid, Chief Public Prosecutor Norman Aas and Kaire Veeroja, the researcher of the family tree of Jaan Teemant.

24 September is the 136th anniversary of the birth of Jaan Teemant. Jaan Teemant was born on 24 September 1872, in Illuste, in Lääne County. His childhood, however, passed in Kohila Rural Municipality, in the present Priidiku-Teemanti farm, which will also be marked with a memorial stone.

Jaan Teemant was the Head of State from 15 December 1925 to 9 December 1927 and from 19 February to 19 July 1932.

Teemant was also a member of the Estonian Province Assembly and the Constituent Assembly and was the Prosecutor of the Republic of Estonia.

In the anniversary year of the Republic of Estonia, the State Chancellery will mark the birthplaces of the Estonian heads of state which have not been marked yet. Earlier during the anniversary year, the birthplace of the Head of State August Rei, in Pilistvere, the birthplace of Aleksander Warma, the Prime Minister acting as the President in exile, at Viinistu, the birthplace of the Prime Minister and Head of State Otto Strandman in Kadrina Rural Municipality, Vandu Village, and the birthplace of the Chairman of the Estonian Province Assembly and Prime Minister Ado Birk, in Tarvastu Rural Municipality, Mõnnaste Village have been marked.

Read more about the biography of Jaan Teemant at :
http://www.president.ee/en/estonia/heads.php?gid=81969

Riina Soobik
Government Communications Office
Tel: +37253400736, 6935950
E-mail : riina.soobik@riigikantselei.ee
_____________________________________
Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo briifinguruum
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/ 
press@riik.ee 

Victory Day, 23 June 2008 Tallinn, Pirita tee

Dear members of the Defence Forces and the Defence League,
dear fellow countrymen, good friends!

Today, 89 years ago, the army of the people of Estonia gained a victory in the Battle of Võnnu, helping to secure our independence and freedom. This victory allows us, the successors of those combatants, to proudly celebrate the 90th anniversary of our state this year.

The battles and activities of our forefathers as well as, more broadly speaking, the entire history of the independent Estonia puts before us the one and only question: “Where is freedom won and lost?”

We have to know and feel the answer to the first part of the question – “Where is freedom won?” – every day, at any moment: the victory of freedom is the victory of our will, our values and the victory of our love for our fatherland over the adversaries and enemies of freedom. If someone wants to take our freedom, we do not have time to think or argue in this critical moment.

There are many more answers to the question about losing freedom. In secure moments we can discuss them together. Allow me to do the same today.

Freedom is won by fighting for freedom – it is never awarded. Freedom may be lost by yielding to a stronger enemy, but also unnoticeably, in secret and without acting.

Every officer knows that a battle lost without resistance deprives one not only of freedom but also honour, and it brings humiliation. This takes the power from the people’s spirit. Therefore, as a free state we have to pay an old debt of honour to the body of officers who have suffered due to repressions. The political and military leaders of the time did not give their officers the chance to fight and fall in a battle under our flag.

We do have a memorial church for fallen soldiers in Tori and war graves have been gradually restored. However, I find that one of the first duties of our Defence Forces and the Ministry of Defence is to preserve the memory of the repressed members of the Defence Forces.

On the Day of Mourning, Saturday, The President of the Republic, the President of the Riigikogu and the Prime Minister issued a joint statement

Tallinn – Today, on the Day of Mourning, the President of the Republic Toomas Hendrik Ilves, the President of the Riigikogu Ene Ergma and Prime Minister Andrus Ansip issued a joint statement in which the heads of state call for the remembrance of the price Estonian citizens have paid for freedom, and the sacrifices our nation was forced to make due to the lack of freedom.

“Today is the day to think about both the night of deportation 67 years ago, and other mass repressions. On those horrible nights, we were a people without freedom, a people who had lost their country. Today we can declare: our independent state is the guarantee for our freedom. So let us remember our history, let us keep our memories. Let us cherish, honour and love our country,” the joint statement said.

The statement recalls how, on the night of 14 June, 1941, thousands of Estonian families were forcefully taken from their homes and sent to Siberia in animal wagons. The occupation was eliminating “socially dangerous elements” – which, actually, was nothing but violence towards the ordinary, active citizens and families of the Republic of Estonia. More than one half of the ten thousand June deportees either perished or were executed; of the 3500 men who were sent to concentration camps and taken away from their families, only a few hundred survived. Numbers are only numbers, and no matter however expressive, they cannot convey the feelings and deep pain lying beneath.

Read the joint statement at http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/index.php?id=293907&tpl=1007&external=&search=&aasta=

_____________________________________
Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo briifinguruum
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/ 
press@riik.ee 

Nils Taube, 1928 - 2008

Who died after suffering a stroke at the age of 79, was probably the longest-serving fund manager operating in the City. He was certainly one of its most successful investors, having returned more than 15pc a year in two funds he ran continuously between 1969 and 2006.

Having fled Soviet-occupied Estonia in 1940, Mr Taube began his investment career after he arrived in London in 1946 and took up a position at the stockbroker Kitcat & Aitken. He rose to senior partner in 1975 and later became the investment adviser to Lord Rothschild.

Having enjoyed a ringside seat at the City's booms, busts and crises over more than six decades, Mr Taube continued to derive great pleasure from investment until the end of his life. In 2007, at the age of 78, he set up Nils Taube Investments, a boutique fund manager, taking big positions in gold ahead of the precious metal's recent surge.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph last year, he said : "Doing what we're doing gives us a lot of amusement. It's like being paid for doing the crossword."

A legendary market timer, Mr Taube invested his last £2,000 in shares for his children at the bottom of the 1974 market slump and successfully predicted the 1987 stock market crash.

Head of State Juhan Kukk’s portrait unveiled in Stenbock House

Stenbock House — Prime Minister Andrus Ansip unveiled the portrait of Juhan Kukk, the author of the Estonian Manifesto of Independence and later Head of State.

Juhan Kukk was the main author of the Estonian Manifesto of Independence. In February 1918, he wrote the Manifesto to All Estonia’s Peoples together with Jüri Jaakson and Ferdinand Peterson. Kukk also organised the printing of the Manifesto in Tallinn.

The Prime Minister recalled that as the first Minister of Finance of Estonia, Juhan Kukk was also responsible for arranging the financing of the Estonian War of Independence. According to Andrus Ansip, Juhan Kukk may also be considered as the father of Estonia’s own currency. At the end of 1918, Juhan Kukk organised the issue of the five percent short-term bonds by the Governmental Payments Office. In circulation, they became, by nature, the first Estonian currency known as kukks (kuked, after Juhan Kukk) and pätses (pätsud, after Konstantin Päts).

In 1917, Juhan Kukk was elected as a member of the Land Council. Later on, he belonged to the Constituent Assembly and the first and second compositions of the Riigikogu. He was the first Minister of Finance of Estonia, then the Minister of Trade and Industry, the President of the first Riigikogu and the Head of State in the years 1922–1923.

The career of Juhan Kukk as an active statesman was short, but meaningful and outstanding. He entered politics together with the birth of the independent Estonian State and left in 1923, when the state had established itself. In 1924–1926, Juhan Kukk served as the Director of the Bank of Estonia.

Juhan Kukk was arrested by the NKVD in 1940 and he died in prison in Russia.

Rein Tammik, the author of the portrait of Juhan Kukk, who is considered to be the first postmodern painter in Estonia, studied at the Tartu Art School from 1964–1974. Rein Tammik lives in Normandy and has held dozens of personal exhibitions in France. His works can be found in museums in Russia, Germany and the US and in private collections in France, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Greece, and elsewhere.

Photos of the unveiling of the portrait http://www.valitsus.ee/?id=7840

_____________________________________
Valitsuse kommunikatsioonibüroo briifinguruum
http://www.valitsus.ee/brf/ 
press@riik.ee 

Independence Day is celebrated in the Republic of Estonia on 24 February

This is the day when the Independence Manifesto was declared in Tallinn 90 years ago. Therefore, this weekend is packed with events in many parts of Estonia. But, a definite highlight is the reception of the President of the Republic of Estonia in the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn. The reception is broadcasted live and is one of the TV broadcasts that have the best rating in Estonia. 

The reception is of great interest to many : socialites are interested in the latest trends of evening gowns and hair-dos; others listen and analyze the speech of the president, enjoy the concert and discuss the menu of the reception.

Yet the main birthday party of the republic has not always been held in Estonia Concert Hall and it does not take place for the 90^th time. Estonia’s first president stepped into office in 1937 and therefore only 3 Independence Day parties took place before the Second World War.