By the end of 1939 Soviet troops had forced their
Way into garrisons in the Baltic states of Estonia,
Latvia, and Lithuania. In 1940 the Soviets forcibly
annexed the three Baltic states into the USSR.
Line 5 But in 1941 Hitler double-crossed Stalin: he launched an attack on the Soviet Union. The Baltic nations Were
caught in the middle of the treachery. In 1945, when
the War ended, Estonia remained occupied by the Soviets.
10 After nearly 50 years of Soviet occupation, when
agitations for independence came in the late 1980s,
the protestors pointed back to the Molotov-Ribbentrop
Pact, a secret non-aggression treaty between
the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. If the Kremlin were
15 to acknowledge the existence of this protocol, they
reasoned, it would be admitting that the Baltic States
had no legal "marriage" with Moscow, but that these
nations were forcibly abducted with the collusion
of the World's most heinous fascist regime. So the
20 occupied nations had every right to ask for their
freedom, and with no need for a legal "divorce.”
The Baltic states had been morally supported with
the firm stand taken in 1940 by the United States not
to recognize the legality of the forceful annexation
25 of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. But politics Were
effective only if the Estonians had some other leverage.
A nation of barely one million, burdened with half
a million foreign settlers and 100,000 Soviet troops,
could not threaten the Soviet Union militarily or
30 economically, so it had to do it with the force of its
culture. Estonia had always been a nation of singers.
Its wealth of folk songs gave rhythm to village life
and Work, and its earnest anthems often invoked the
longing for self-determination. Estonians had lived for
35 centuries in servitude, and the themes of their music
were often grim: sorrow, slavery, soil, blood, birch
forests, and sacrifice. But there was always hope in
their hearts.
Early in their national awakening, about 140 years
40 ago, Estonians established a history of mass song
festivals, held when money and politics allowed
celebrations that would kindle and fortify the courage
to express their love of language and nation, and their
reluctance to be absorbed by anyone. The festivals were
45 a nationwide phenomenon, as Were similar
festivals held in Latvia and Lithuania.
In Tallinn the massive modern song stage held
some 30,000 singers and the outdoor amphitheater
could accommodate as many as 300,000. Often, 30
50 percent of all Estonians Would be there-at a single concert. During the Soviet years the festivals were
forced to pay tribute to Communist icons and the
solidarity of the Soviet peoples. Choirs from other
parts of the vast empire Would come and all Would
55 whip up a rousing tribute to Stalin or Lenin. To these mandatory performances Estonians Would introduce
patriotic songs disguised as love songs or folk music.
An unofficial national anthem, by the popular choir
director Gustav Ernesaks, established itself in 1947,
60 and survived the entire Soviet occupation despite a serious attempt by officials to eliminate it in 1969.
By the late 1980s the nation was simmering. A
movement of young historians Was already defying
Soviet authority in speeches that laid history bare under
65 the cover of Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or "free speech." And the burden of protest songs had passed to
rock-and-rollers, young men whose energized patriotic
tunes blared from every radio.
Momentum built to a Crescendo in the Summer
70 of 1988 when a rock concert in Tallinn's Old Town
spilled into the Song Festival grounds and massive
crowds gathered for six straight nights to lift arms,
SWay in unison, and sing patriotic songs. Emboldened,
Estonians brought out forbidden blue-and-black-and
75 White national flags, some from attics and basements
where they had been hidden since 1940. Shockingly, no
one stopped them. For the finale of these "Night Song
Festivals" more than 200,000 Estonians gathered.
This was the heart of "The Singing Revolution."
80 a spontaneous, non-violent, but powerful political
movement that united Estonians With poetry and
music. After that there Was no backing up. Sedition
hung in the Wind, Waiting to be denied.
