Skip to main content

Hoia, Jumal, Eestit


This Sunday is the 95th Anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of the Estonian Republic.

 22 years and five months after February 24th 1918, the first independence ended with the overthrow of the Estonian State by the Red Army. There then followed the wholesale slaughter of anyone- from Ministers to Postmen- who had served the free Republic in any capacity. Following the subsequent German occupation in June 1941 and the return of Soviet troops in Autumn 1944, tens of thousands of people were arrested, deported to Siberia or simply shot out of hand. There was a deliberate attempt to destroy any resistance- though despite this the country was not pacified for almost a decade. There then followed 47 years of the so-called Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. The economic, social and cultural repression of Estonia and the colonization of the country by Russian speakers (who comprised less than 5% of the population in 1940, 24% today) left a shocked and fractured society. Yet in the 22 years since the reborn Republic was restored, Estonia has made giant strides- not merely in economics, but also politically and socially. The country has not become the corrupt kleptocracy that for example disfigures Russia, in fact it has developed Nordic social attitudes, and as the Nordic states abandon their failed Social Democratic experiments, Estonia's politics have converged with their Western and Northern neighbours.

 In the next five years, the country seems set to overcome the fear that Putinist Russia still tries to engender in its neighbours. Even in the past five years the country has visibly moved on from joining any and all of the international clubs simply as an expression of fear for their security. Now the country is more confident about asserting a dissenting point of view within the European Union for example. There is a growing sense of confidence and the country is beginning to learn to smile. The trauma is healing as time passes and a new generation has grown up with no experience of the humiliations of Soviet power.

 Yet still, for as long as the corrupt and aggressive Putin regime holds power in the Kremlin, Estonia- like all the countries that endured Soviet occupation- takes precautions. This Autumn, for the first time, NATO will be conducting exercises in the Baltic region. Following the recent Russian manoeuvres, which pointedly simulated a nuclear attack on Warsaw, it is clear that Russia still regards NATO as an enemy. The fact that it regards an alliance of democratic states in that light- even when they might have joined the alliance in the early 1990s- tells you what kind of state Vladimir Putin has created.

 So as Estonia settles down to celebrate the extraordinary advances of the past few years, as it recognises its own achievements- not least survival in the face of overwhelming odds-  the other members of NATO should recognise in their turn that the political health of the Baltic is a litmus test for Russia. Threats and pointedly hostile comments from Russia should be challenged not ignored. European states should not tolerate even veiled hints that the crimes visited upon the Estonian Republic could ever be repeated.

 I will watch the raising of the Estonian flag at sunrise on Sunday with a sense of profound respect for the recovery that the Estonian state and nation has made, and a small sense of happiness that I have been privileged to be involved. 

 Elagu Eesti!

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKJ_DYveDZI
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Concert and Blues

Tallinn is full tonight... Big concerts on at the Song field The Weeknd and Bonnie Tyler (!). The place is buzzing and some sixty thousand concert goers have booked every bed for thirty miles around Tallinn. It should be a busy high summer, but it isn´t. Tourism is down sharply overall. Only 70 cruise ships calling this season, versus over 300 before Ukraine. Since no one goes to St Pete, demand has fallen, and of course people think that Estonia is not safe. We are tired. The economy is still under big pressure, and the fall of tourism is a significant part of that. The credit rating for Estonia has been downgraded as the government struggles with spending. The summer has been a little gloomy, and soon the long and slow autumn will drift into the dark of the year. Yesterday I met with more refugees: the usual horrible stories, the usual tears. I try to make myself immune, but I can´t. These people are wounded in spirit, carrying their grief in a terrible cradling. I try to project hop...
Post a Comment
Read more

One Year On

  Head vabariigi iseseisvuspäeva! Happy Estonian Independence Day! It is one year since I stood outside the Estonian Parliament for the traditional raising of the national flag from Tall Hermann tower. Looking at the young fraternities gathered with their flags, I was very sure that Estonia too would soon be facing the aggression of the criminal Russian regime. A tragic and dark day. 5 eyes intelligence had been clear: an all out invasion was going to happen, and Putin´s goals included- and still include- "restoration" of Russian imperial power across Europe, even to the Atlantic. Yet there was one Western intelligence failure: we all underestimated the guts of the Ukrainian armed forces, the ZSU, and its President and people. One year on, Estonia, and indeed all the front line states against Russia, knows that Ukraine saved us. Estonia used that time to prepare itself, should that "delayed" onslaught ever be unleashed, but equally the determination of Kaja Kallas, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Media misdirection

In the small print of the UK budget we find that the Chancellor of the Exchequer (the British Finance Minister) has allocated a further 15 billion Pounds to the funding for the UK track and trace system. This means that the cost of the UK´s track and trace system is now 37 billion Pounds.  That is approximately €43 billion or US$51 billion, which is to say that it is amount of money greater than the national GDP of over 110 countries, or if you prefer, it is roughly the same number as the combined GDP of the 34 smallest economies of the planet.  As at December 2020, 70% of the contracts for the track and trace system were awarded by the Conservative government without a competitive tender being made . The program is overseen by Dido Harding , who is not only a Conservative Life Peer, but the wife of a Conservative MP, John Penrose, and a contemporary of David Cameron and Boris Johnson at Oxford. Many of these untendered contracts have been given to companies that seem to have ...
Post a Comment
Read more