6/14/2013


It's June the 14th. It's the national remembrance day here in Estonia. It's a day when we remember and honour those fellow Estonians who suffered from the Soviet terror.

Of all the nations caught up in the World War II Estonia was one of the most unfortunate ones. We got caught between two evil empires. Which one of them was more evil, I don't know. But which one caused more suffering to Estonians, that I do know.

In the middle of the night on the 14th of June 1941 about 10 000 innocent people were woken and arrested. The crime was being wealthier and more intellectual than the rest of the nation. Well-fixed farmers, police officers, politicians who hadn't been shot by that time, teachers, writers, other intellectuals, their families - all were sent to Siberia against their will, in cattle cars. Half of them never returned, they died there of hunger and diseases.

The next day Soviet newspapers reported of 10 000 happy Estonians who were thrilled to leave and who were eagerly waiting for a new life in their new homeland...

Another 20 000 people were mass deported to Siberia in 1949.

There's not a single Estonian family who would have been untouched by this horror. Actually, I've sat on a couch of an old church member and seen the scars on her arms and legs and heard her bloodcurdling stories of how they - little children - ate grass and bark in Siberia in order not to starve to death.

We don't know for certain but it's likely that my grandfather was on the deportation list in 1949. It was four years before my mom was born. Why the Soviet soldiers didn't knock on his door that night, we still don't know. If they had, things would be very different now. Most likely my mom would not be here. Most likely I would not be here...

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