The Museum of Occupation in Estonia – Chronicling Recent History 4536
By Joel Chusid
I recently returned to the Baltic countries of Estonia and
Latvia after some time and discovered a museum genre that hadn’t existed earlier
– that of occupation. While I wasn’t able to visit the Latvian Museum of
Occupation the Monday I was in Riga as it was closed, I did spend some time at
the Museum of Occupation in Tallinn, Estonia. I later learned that Lithuania has
its own Museum of Genocide Victims as well.
The Baltic countries have long had their share of invasions
and occupations. My own grandparents were born in Latvia and places had both
German and Latvian names because of the changes in regime. In the 1930s, these
countries all enjoyed independence and discovered their cultural riches. Life
was good. My own great-grandfather wanted to return to the land of his birth and
had my grandfather not burned his father’s passport, who knows what would have
turned out.
My last visit to Estonia was in the mid-seventies when it
was part of the Soviet Union. The capital, Tallinn, has a beautiful old city. It
was charming when I first visited, but the entire country felt under a greyish
Soviet influence. Today, the Baltic countries are exquisite jewels, with
magnificent architecture, fine food, a rich culture, their own unique language,
attractive people with a high standard of living (they are in the EC but not yet
on the Euro), and through tourism they are anxious to show off their own
culture, something they were not able to do very much during the Soviet era. A
number of ethnic Russians still reside in the Baltics, preferring life there,
and this sometimes creates local tension.
The Museum of Occupation and of the Fight for Freedom, as
it is officially called, in the capital of Tallinn, lies just outside the Old
City, easily reachable on foot in minutes. Built new in 2003 and funded by a
foundation established by Estonian-American Dr. Olga Kistler-Ritso, the museum
chronicles three relatively recent periods of occupation in the country’s
history: the first Soviet Occupation of 1940 to 1941, the German occupation from
1941 to 1944, and the second Soviet occupation from1944 to 1991.
Entering the three story building, there is a main exhibit
area featuring artifacts from the three eras, some behind glass and larger items
on open display, an upper level office area that houses documents and material
for research, and a basement, which includes the large statues of Lenin and
other Soviet era leaders, displayed fittingly just outside the restrooms. A
small theatre shows films, and screens around the exhibits show old Communist
and Nazi propaganda films and newsreels.
In the middle of the museum a large red star and swastika
are displayed. While these were ubiquitously found all over the country in their
respective historical eras now, the only place they’re found now is in a place
like this or at an antique dealer. The large exhibits range from the emotional
– the row of cell doors from the political prisons and suitcases from escapees –
to the somewhat quaint Soviet era telephone booth and automobile. The
chronological window displays have propaganda books, posters, badges, pins,
bugging equipment, Soviet computers and radios, and testimonies on screens. The
films can even be downloaded for viewing from the museum’s website,
www.okupatsioon.ee which also has interesting links and articles on the
research the foundation fosters.
The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00am to 6:00pm
and is located at Toompea Street 8, 10142 Tallinn. Phone +372-6680-250. There is
a small entrance fee. If you’re visiting Helsinki, Tallinn is an easy day trip
as it’s but 90 minutes away by fast and comfortable ferry. I chatted with John
Rasmus, who was in charge the day I visited, amiably let me take his photo, and
who spoke excellent English. (Estonian isn’t very useful abroad, so most locals
do speak English.) |
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