87 years since Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact marked with memorial events across Estonia

87 years since Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact marked with memorial events across Estonia Sunday marked 87 years since the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed. The agreement, between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, paved the way for Estonia's over 50 years of occupation. The pact's secret protocols carved up Central and Eastern Europe into Nazi German and Soviet spheres of influence, with Estonia falling under the latter category. In Tallinn, the anniversary was marked with a public meeting in Hirvepark, a key location in the Singing Revolution of the late 1980s which led to the restoration of Estonia's independence. A remembrance ceremony at the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Tallinn was also held. The day is marked not only in Estonia but also Europe-wide, particularly in those countries most affected by the pact, and against the backdrop of the war on Ukraine conducted by the Soviet Union's successor state, the Russian Federation. Justice Minister Liisa Pakosta (Eesti 200) said in her speech that Sunday's European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes is primarily observed by countries that suffered under both German and Soviet occupations. "Elsewhere, there seems to be a sense that the matter was settled with the Nuremberg trials, but in reality that was not the case. One side was punished and the other went unpunished. The war in Ukraine today is a continuation of that impunity," Pakosta said. Karl Erik Kirss of the Estonian school student councils' union said the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (MRP) and the events that followed it also directly concern young people today, born many decades later. "Such tragic historical events, which led to what happened in the 20th century, still affect us today. We can still see the remnants of the Soviet era nowadays," Kirss said. Anne Eenpalu, board chair of Tallinn Memento, called it important to preserve the Estonian language. Everyone who has settled, or intends to settle, in Estonia should also learn the language to the best of their ability. "I, who was born in Siberia into a family of deportees, am highly grateful that I am in my free Estonian state, and I love my Estonian language. Every nationality has its own ethnic culture, its own customs and its own food traditions, and these must be respected, but in a free country, people must know the language of that country," Eenpalu said. Memorial service held in Viljandi County Also on Sunday, a memorial service for victims of communism and Nazism in Pilistvere, Viljandi County, was attended by around 200 people. The Estonian Memento Union (Eesti Memento liit) and the local Pilistvere congregation jointly held the service, which commemorated MRP Memorial Day too. Speeches were given at Pilistvere, but people were also able to relate their own personal experiences, including those who were alive at the time of the Siberian deportation of Estonians and were caught up in that atrocity. "We were given half an hour, and then the journey to Siberia began. My father was so frightened, he did not know what to do about it; he had never harmed anyone. They used to say that children and women would not be deported, but everything turned out the reverse," Viivi Lemberpuu-Tootmaa, one victim of the March 1949 deportation, told "Aktuaalne kaamera." Many never returned to their homeland – commemorating their memory is a big part of the Estonian Memento Union's remit. "Our relatives – fathers, mothers, grandfathers, grandmothers – have often remained in a foreign land, where they have neither a cross nor a stone. And in 1988, stones symbolizing release from sorrow began to be brought here. So it is our sacred duty to return here again," said Arnold Aljase, board chair of the Estonian Memento Union. Pilistvere has a noted occupation memorial site as well as war memorials. An amendment to the Russian Federation's constitution made in 2020 stated that it is the successor to the Soviet Union. -- Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update! Editor: Andrew Whyte, Marko Tooming Source: 'Aktuaalne kaamera,' reporters Anne Raiste and Olev Kenk