A Lifetime Ago…….In a Country Far Far Away………

This is long overdue as I sit here wondering where the last 5 years have gone since I moved from the UK to Estonia.

I had intended to write a travellers guide to Estonia but time flies and I find myself less of a traveller and more of being part of this lovely little country.

Nestled away in the north-eastern corner of Europe, Estonia is difficult to define. Is it Eastern European, Northern European, Nordic, Baltic, Scandinavian?

I think it depends on the context.

A BRIEF HISTORY IN TIME

If you think back to the Soviet Occupation [though they would call it a ‘liberation’] then Estonia, along with Latvia, Lithuania, and other countries in the region was classified as Eastern Bloc, Behind the Wall, USSR.

Estonians knew very little about what was happening in the West, and their history was one which was constructed and sanitized to fit the ideology to which they were subjected.

The social structure and way of life was dictated by an evil regime which sought only to punish the landowners, intellectuals, and any one who dared speak out. There is not a single Estonian family which was not affected by the deportations, executions, and strict confinement which meant that they could not even go to the beach for fear of being ‘shot whilst trying to escape’.

Things we took for granted in the UK were either considered luxuries, or not available at all.

Shops with empty shelves, special shops for ‘Party Members’, long queues outside a shop if word got round that there might be some bread, or meat being delivered.

My wife’s parents waited 17 years for a telephone at their home, others never even got that lucky.

If you wanted a car then you either joined the waiting list, or relied of the favour of a Party Member to put in a good word for you.

If you visited a club or bar then there was always a Party Member there watching everything, and censoring a musician’s setlist in case there were subversive lyrics.

Anyone who believes that this ‘Perfect Socialist System’ was the answer has serious issues of denial and ignorance. It did not work, and does not work. End of!

Behind the ‘Iron Curtain’ atrocities took place which even today people either choose not to believe happened, or did not know about.

Families torn apart, transported to Siberia where a large number never returned. Family betraying family, Friends betraying Friends. There was not trust, only suspicion.

When the ‘knock at the door’ came you were given only minutes to decide what was important to take with you. The smart ones took proper clothing and filled their single suitcase with essentials for survival. The stupid ones took gold, jewellery and valuables, expecting to bribe their way to an easy life. They suffered the consequences when the guards took these from them for no favour in return.

If you were arrested and forced to give names to the KGB, then they did not consider you to be a friend of the Party, they considered you untrustworthy for betraying your friends and so both of you suffered at the hands of these sadists. Rarely was the outcome positive.

The Russian Mafia was rife in Estonia and gang law ruled.

Estonia is not a large country by population with only around 1.5 million in the country and all around the world, and so any resistance to invasion, whether it be Russian, or German in the 20th Century was futile.

What these evil dictatorships did not fully understand though was the inner strength which Estonians possess. A quiet determination and resistance which has seen them survive invasion, oppression, and all manner of intimidation, which still continues as Russia looks across the Narva River with jealous eyes.

How Estonia finally became free is wonderfully shown in ‘The Singing Revolution’ a 2006 documentary film created by Americans James Tusty and Maureen Castle Tusty.

You can find it online or through Amazon and is well worth seeing.

Freedom though came at a price……