It's Estonian Independence Day today. Will it be the last one?
Today, February 24th, is the 104nd anniversary of the day the people of Estonia declared independence from Russia.
They fought hard for that freedom, after nearly 200 years of czarist rule. They lost that freedom again during WW2, and regained in in 1991. But now that Putin has attacked Ukraine, will he also go after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania? They are EU and NATO members, but will that suffice to deter him? I don't know the answer.
For background, Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians are not Slavic people such as Russians, Ukrainians, Poles and others. Estonians and their language are closely related to the Finnish and more distantly to Hungarians.
Unlike nearly all other languages in Europe, the Finno-Ugric languages are not part of the large Indo-European family of languages, but are of separate origin. Latvian and Lithuanian are Indo-European languages.
All in all, the Estonian people suffered close to 700 years of occupation and rule by foreigners, beginning with a papal order to attack and Christianize them. (Ironically, Estonians are considered the least religious people in the world now.) The Estonians lost to the Danish and the Teutonic knights, Germany purchased Estonia from them and sent in the so-called Baltic Germans to seize land, create manors, and rule over a population reduced to serfdom.
Baltic Germans, the descendants of these original occupiers, controlled the land for centuries, even though Estonian rule passed from Germans and Danes to Swedes and Poles, and finally to the Russians in 1721. Baltic Germans in essence ran the country while native Estonians remained serfs. When Russia took over Estonia in 1721 the serfs, who had some rights, were reduced to slaves. Under the Russians, Estonians could be bought and sold, traded, beaten, and put to death for minor offenses until some time in the early to mid-19th Century. They could not own property, and before about 1835, could not even have last names.
On a personal note, I found a record in the Estonian online archives noting the sale of two of my ancestors from one manor to another.
After declaring independence in 1918, they got to enjoy freedom for a mere 20 years, before being occupied by the Germans and then forcibly annexed into the Soviet Union. Large numbers of Estonians were arrested, murdered or deported to Siberian labor camps. The USSR sent hordes of Russians to occupy Estonia. About 300,000 Russians still live there, providing Putin with a convenient pretext to invade and "defend" them, should he decide to do so.
(Again on a personal note, my parents and grandmother fled Estonia during WW2 and managed to make it to the U.S. after living in an Allied displaced persons camp in Germany for some years. At some point in the war my father was captured by Nazis and was going to be executed with some others, when their captors fled before the Allied advance.)
"Within six years of the first Soviet troops arriving in Estonia, the country lost about 25% of its population to execution, imprisonment, deportation, and escape," according to the website "The Singing Revolution."
(The following paragraphs in quote marks are from that web site)
"Most people don’t think about singing when thinking about revolutions. But in Estonia song was the weapon of choice when, between 1987 and 1991, Estonians wanted to end decades of Soviet occupation.
"The Singing Revolution is the name given to the step-by-step process that led to the reestablishment of Estonian independence in 1991. This was a non-violent revolution that overthrew a very violent occupation. It was called the Singing Revolution because of the role singing played in the protests of the mid-1980s. But singing had always been a major unifying force for Estonians while they endured fifty years of Soviet rule.The Estonians and Latvians formed a long human chain across the two countries to protest Soviet occupation."
"Momentum and courage grew. The Estonians calculated that as long as they shed no blood, Gorbachev wouldn't’t be able to send in tanks to quash demonstrations. Such blatant censorship would be an international embarrassment to his carefully cultivated image. So people pushed Moscow as far as they could, taking great care to stay non-violent.
"Matters came to a head in 1991 when Moscow hard-liners staged a coup d’état and placed Gorbachev under house arrest. As troops rolled into Estonia to quell any independence-minded thinking, Estonians decided to escalate their bid for freedom. Unarmed people faced down soldiers and tanks, while political leaders assembled to declare Estonia’s independence."
Unfortunately, the Russians, particularly Putin, have never given up the notion that they own Estonia and its Baltic neighbors.
https://singingrevolution.com/about-the-history
= new reply since forum marked as read
So saddened to read of your ancestors' & their country's strife caused by shitbag Russia! 
If Ukraine isn't safe, who is?
This bloodthirsty sociopath makes Sauron look like a nice guy,
My grandma came to the US in the early 1900s, just before Hitler swept through Poland. And slaughtered the rest of my family there.
Poland is another country that is constantly yanked around by assholes, so I truly get it.
Have you seen this post:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216350811
Perhaps some hope that someone will get to the madman & remove him from power! 🤞🤞🤞
