Monthly Archives: June 2014

Kogu Me Lugu (KML) is an oral history initiative to collect video testimonials of people (direct witnesses or their friends and relatives) who have lived under or fled from the Soviet and/or the German occupation in Estonia or migrated as a result of acts committed by these regimes (http://kogumelugu.ee/). We invite and encourage the families of Estonian diaspora to share their story in Tallinn during Laulupidu (July 2-8 2014).

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the 1944 mass exodus from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that was triggered by the Soviet annexation of the Baltic republics. For those who still remember the 1940 elections in Estonia, there are some chilling parallels regarding the recent referendum and resulting annexation of Crimea by Russia.

In the summer and autumn of 1944, approximately 70,000 Estonians escaped across the Baltic Sea to Finland, Sweden, and Germany from the advancing Soviet army.

Enn Nõu’s film material about Estonian refugee culture in Sweden is available for viewing on YouTube.

On April 26, a seminar dedicated to collecting Estonian memory was held at Stanford University.

On April 5, a memorial event was held in Toronto, commemorating Dr. Olga Kistler-Ritso, an Estonian émigré who, together with thousands of other Estonians, was forced to flee the country during World War II.

After the Second World War, some of the largest communities of Estonians in exile formed around the world – Stockholm, Sydney, New York, Lakewood in New Jersey, and so on. One of the most important centres was Toronto, where thousands of Estonians found their new home.

“We hope that some day our story may be told …” “(…) Our institution will be recorded by history; the reason being that it is unique. Refugees do no usually have the mental spirit to create a university, but we had the spirit and therefore, our institution can be regarded as a historical event. (…)” Information Bulletin Baltic University, 13 December 1947.

During the last two centuries, hundreds of thousands of Estonians have emigrated (voluntarily or forcibly) to the other parts of the world – from metropolises like New York to the steppes of Siberia and jungles of Brazil. One colourful page in Estonian migration history is Alberta’s Estonian settlement, which dates back to the year 1899, when the first Estonian pioneers arrived in the province of Alberta.

On April 9, the National Library of Lithuania hosted a book event – the discussion of “The Making and Breaking of Soviet Lithuania: Memory and Modernity in the Wake of War” (London: Routledge, 2013) by Violeta Davoliūtė. In the discussion led by Dalia Cidzikaitė, the author of the book, Violeta Davoliūtė, historian Tomas Balkelis, journalist and translator Jonas Ohman, and philosopher Nerija Putinaitė discussed the strongest and weakest points of the book.