THE RALLY AT HIRVE PARK IN - ALL SPEECHES

The rally at Hirve Park was a bold statement as publicly contested the validity of the Soviet occupation itself. The event was held on August 23, 1987, the 48th anniversary of the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (MRP).

It began at Harjumäe by the statue of Linda, and was led by Tiit Madisson, the chairman of the MRP-AEG (The Estonian Group for the Disclosure of the MRP). The names of the rest of the members of the group were announced: Heiki Ahonen (Tallinn), Ilse Heinsalu (Pärnu), Mati Kiirend (Tallinn), Lagle Parek (), and Jan Kōrb (). Wreaths and flowers were placed by the statue of Linda, and the crowd moved on to Hirve Park, where Tiit Madisson gave the opening speech.

Tiit Madisson’s Speech

Dear compatriots!

Today is a noteworthy day, as well as the anniversary of a sad and shameful event.

According to Soviet jurisprudence, national sovereignty represents the supreme power of a nationality, its political freedom, its real potential to fully direct its own fate, and above all its right to self-determination, including its right to secede and to create an independent state. National sovereignty can neither be abolished nor given away, but it can be either violated or restored.

Dear participants! Let us go back 48 years in history. On August 23, 1939, a treaty of cooperation and non-aggression was concluded between the German Reich and the Soviet Union. A top-secret protocol was added to the treaty, dividing Eastern Europe into so-called spheres of influence. Finland, , Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Bessarabia and North Bukovina were the subjects of the secret talks between the People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the Stalin regime Vyacheslav Molotov and Hitler's Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop. According to the secret deal, Estonia, Latvia and Finland fell into the U.S.S.R.'s sphere of influence; Lithuania went to Germany. According to a new German-Soviet friendship and border agreement signed on September 28, Lithuania was finally "trusted" to the U.S.S.R. Poland was to be divided between the two powers. World War II began with Fascist Germany's attack on Poland on September I, 1939. On September 17, the already battered Poland was attacked by the Soviet Union. Poland was divided between the two great powers. The 10,000 Polish officers captured by Soviet forces during the so-called "Polish campaign" were murdered on Stalin's orders in Smolensk in March of 1940. This fact has been revealed to the Polish people by the official Polish press, with the permission and approval of the current Soviet leader M. Gorbachev. But what about the crimes committed against us - - the Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians? When will they be made public?

On September 28, 1939, a mutual cooperation and defense treaty was concluded between the U.S.S.R. of Stalin and the Independent Republic of Estonia - - whose independence had been guaranteed for ever by Vladimir Lenin in the 1920 Peace Treaty of Tartu. Within a month, 25,000 Soviet troops were brought into Estonia. They were to defend us against a supposed attack by Germany. And yet a year later, in 1940, Stalin drank to the health of the "Great Leader of Germany - - the Führer" at a reception. It seems that one month before the signing of the Estonian-Soviet treaty,

www.singingrevolution.com 1 our homeland had already become small change in a deal between two larger powers. These are the historic facts. Such is the fate of small nations.

On June 21, 1940, a new government was formed in Estonia, in response to an ultimatum from the U.S.S.R. Additional Soviet troops had marched into Estonia a few days earlier. The government of Estonia had allegedly not fulfilled its agreements with the U.S.S.R., but rather had schemed with Latvia (population two million) and Lithuania (population three million) to attack the U.S.S.R.

These days there's a lot of discussion about the "blank spots" in our recent history. These "blanks" must be filled in! But who will fill them? Historians such as Gustav Naan, who rewrote our history in the early fifties? /long applause, shouts of "Bravo!"/ We've started to discuss the mistakes that have been made, including the crimes of the Stalinists. This is undoubtedly a big step forward, thanks to the democratization process started by Mikhail Gorbachev /long applause/. But is the whole truth being revealed about all of the Stalin decades? "There is no such thing as a half-truth, just as there is no such thing as half-pregnant" /applause, laughter/ - - in the words of a Russian man of letters.

The topics of articles and discussions publicized before the current era have been limited to the crimes committed by the Stalinist clique against "honest and passionate Communists," who became victims of undeserved repression. But don't the so-called simple people, the non-members of the Communist Party, deserve to be talked about, to be remembered as well? How many of our native sons and daughters did our people lose between 1940-1953? Those numbers have never been officially disclosed.

Mass arrests had already begun in Estonia in June 1940. By August 7th, 7,043 persons had been arrested. They were regarded as enemies of the new order and supporters of the independent Republic of Estonia. To what can we compare this great number? During the so-called "bourgeois dictatorship," as the independent Estonian nation state is called today, there were only 258 political prisoners in the space of 20 years - - 27 times less than were imprisoned or sent to concentration camps during the first two months of Soviet rule.

June 14, 1941 was a black day for the Estonians and the other Baltic peoples: 10,156 persons were deported to Siberia from Estonia alone. Men were separated from their wives and children. After the war, about 3,000 of them returned to Estonia. Siberia became the grave for the rest. These days we can read about the "mistakes" that were made: that innocent people were sent away, and that some people opposed to Soviet rule had remained in Estonia. Some memoirs give you the impression that Stalin did not believe until the last minute that his recent ally would attack him. Our historians and other ideologists have labeled the June 14 campaign "purging the home front" before the attack by Fascist Germany. Their argument is unconvincing.

The war began. The 33,303 men mobilized in Estonia during the summer of 1941, along with those who had fought in the Territorial Corps, were sent to the logging areas of Archangelsk, Perm and Chelyabinsk. One year's extremely hard labor and starvation rations sent one-fourth of our Estonian men to their death. Why weren't all the mobilized Estonians sent immediately to the front in 1941, when every bayonet was sorely needed, instead of letting them perish in the logging camps?

The Fascist occupation of Estonia began. Between 1941-44, Fascist terror claimed tens of thousands of victims of many nationalities in Estonia, including many Estonians. Monuments to the murder victims have been erected at Klooga, at Kalevi-Liiva, at the Tartu antitank ditch, by Lake Viljandi and elsewhere. Today we commemorate them too. They are the victims of a totalitarian state. Unfortunately, monuments for the victims of Stalinist terror

www.singingrevolution.com 2 have not yet been erected. For this reason we are here today, by the crying figure of Linda, mourning her Kalev. Linda symbolizes the mother of Estonia.

Between August 1944 and September 1945 in Estonia, 373 Estonians were sentenced to death, and 2,078 to long terms in forced labor camps. Between September 1945 and April 1953, 3,796 persons were sentenced to terms of 10-25 years. Once more, the trains headed east - - to the extermination camps of Siberia and Perm.

In 1944, about 70,000 Estonians fled to the West. In no way had the majority of the refugees compromised themselves by collaborating with the Germans. They were driven by fear... fear that the events of June 14, 1941 would be repeated. Indeed, they were repeated - - and on an even grander scale than in 1941…

On March 24, 1949, 63,796 persons were deported from their Estonian homes to Siberia. Just recently, this action against our people was referred to as "the liquidation of the kulaks as a class." 20,000 Estonian farmsteads were left empty.

This casts serious doubts on the ideals in whose name so much blood has been shed and so much suffering has been caused.

A nation that doesn't know or remember its history has no future /long applause/. The Hitlerites' crimes against humanity have been condemned, and the murderers have been allotted due punishment. The poet August Sang wrote: "Nothing in the world will change, if we won't change it. You must do all you can, even if it's not a lot."

We must disclose honestly the history of our people. Many things must be re-evaluated in the process. All crimes against humanity must be resolutely condemned. Stalinist executioners, many of whom are collecting a government pension today, must be put on trial! /very long applause. Shouts of "Bravo! "/ Only then can we be sure that all this will never be repeated.

The secret deals of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of August 23, 1939 must be publicized! /Applause/.

After the applause, Tiit Madisson gives the floor to two other former political prisoners, Heiki Ahonen and Erik Udam, and to Willy Rooda from Pärnu.

Heiki Ahonen’s Speech

Estonians are demonstrating all over the world today: in the United States, Sweden, the Federal Republic of Germany, Canada, and Australia. Presumably, our demonstration is one of the smallest. Our history of repression and the mechanisms of bureaucracy have destroyed the last traces of public and social life. Despite that, there are still enough people who have come to express their free will...without being paid or forced to do so. /Applause./ We've already heard that it's the right time to take advantage of the fact that our present Party leader is talking so much about greater openness and democracy. Without the support of the people, there can be no talk of true democracy. But aren't we, ourselves, the people? And shouldn't we support the Party leader in this endeavor? I believe that by gathering here and commemorating the victims of Stalinism, and by appealing for the honest removal of the "blank spots" in our history, we have taken the first step towards supporting the Party leader's plans. /Applause./ Because without our help, his call for democratization could remain fruitless. Even now these fruits are not yet within reach. As I finish, let me add: if anyone here is interested in joining the newly formed group (MRP-AEG), please step up here or try to contact me www.singingrevolution.com 3 some other way. The size of the group is unlimited, and whoever wants to lend us some support may do so. Yes, step right up!

Erik Udam’s Speech

The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact is one of the most shameful transactions of this century. Great powers in the civilized world divided small nations among themselves, ignoring international law. The resulting events (World War II, deportations, deaths, Stalinist terror in Estonia) have dealt serious blows. We can include the current phosphorite affair as one of the results of this pact. /Applause./

We cannot enter a just future if we do not understand the mistakes that were made, and if we do not propose to the successors of the German Reich (the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic) and to the government of the Soviet Union, that they renounce the Molotov- Ribbentrop pact and its additional secret protocol. /Long applause./

Willy Rooda’s Speech

Countrymen! There is an old saying that goes: as long as you are alive, you can change anything about yourself. We are alive! We can see it now, here in Hirve Park, that the Estonian nation is alive. Consequently we are able to change anything. For this, I wish you all much strength and willpower! /Applause./

Tiit Madisson invites others to express themselves. His appeal to "use Hyde Park" draws special applause. Merle Jääger, recent political prisoner Lagle Parek and Jüri Mikk step forward to speak.

Merle Jääger’s “Birches of Home” (performed by the author)

Gravely through the meadow I step, On the ground lies the dew, pure and wet. My footprints make gaps in the dew; Wild on the hillock, raspberries grow. On this spot, a home once stood... Birches of home, birches of home.

Fresh goutweed growing over the roots, Barbed wire wrapped around the trunks, Like chastity belts around the waists Of desirable young maidens -- Barbs embedded in their white flesh... Birches of home, birches of home.

Into my back, a gun's muzzle is pressed. Damn! I'm not afraid of death! You see those birches, as I do, The same blue sky is familiar to you – You, who will shoot me in the back... Birches of home, birches of home.

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On the green grass, the blood lies dark, Blood on the clean white birch's bark. The trunk notched by bullets, Old harrows on the hillock, And the morning pours copper over The birches of home....of home.

Lagle Parek’s Speech

Dear Estonians! We've talked a lot; now it's time to get down to work. The first thing we can do is to organize an initiative group to pursue the erection of a monument to the victims of Stalinist terror. This is my proposal.../applause/. Anyone wanting to join the initiative group, please contact me. Then we'll get down to business. /Applause./ I'll be standing right here until one-thirty. Anyone wishing to contact me, please come here. /Applause./

Jüri Mikk’s Speech

I'm sorry I'll be repeating much of what the other speakers have said, but it's August 23 and this date sets the theme. I'm not a public speaker. I don't have a lot of education. I'm a worker with an interest in the history of his land and people, and I've thought about it and drawn my own conclusions. I have a conscience, and that's why I'm here, speaking because my conscience demands it.

I believe that the Estonian people can no longer live like this. We can't, because we're becoming a minority in our own country. /Long applause./ This is a fact that needs no verification, and it's also a fact that our nation's renewed suffering got its start from the agreement signed in Moscow on August 23,· 1939 by representatives of Germany's Nazi government and the Soviet Union - - the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. /Applause./ Up to now, this stage in history has been kept a secret from us. I ask - why? Using the current drive for greater openness, I demand the disclosure to the Estonian people of the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop criminal pact with all its secret clauses, which have had a great effect, and not a good effect on the history and welfare of our people. /Applause./ And then let us judge, who is who, and where is the truth, and where is justice.

I'm saying this at my own initiative; nobody has forced or influenced me. And so I'd like to know, dear countrymen, do you agree with my thoughts? /Long applause, shouts of "Yes!"/ If you do, then please turn your faces symbolically toward Moscow and demand the disclosure of this pact by lifting your fist three times. We demand it! /crowd: "We demand it!"/ We demand it! /crowd: "We demand it!"/ We demand it! /crowd: "We demand it!” Applause./

Tiit Madisson's Proposal to the Party Members and Security Personnel Monitoring the Rally

I'm sure we have some opponents here among us, who might not agree with what we've been saying. I invite the opposition to come and speak, here before the public. /Applause./ Please, boldly! I wouldn't want the republican and all-Union press to sling mud at us later. Let our opponents speak their minds here, so all can hear. /Applause./ Please come forward!. .. According to the City Executive Committee, we still have half an hour for our rally. Any speakers, please! We have to end the rally by one-thirty....

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None of those present feel the need to say an opposing word at the moment, or perhaps those individuals lack the necessary courage ... at any rate, the rally continues after a moment with songs proposed by Tiit Madisson. The first to ring out at Hirve Park is "Land of My Fathers, Land That I Love," after which comes "The Waves of our Sea are Free." By the refrain "Be free, Estonian seas ... ," most of those present are singing along. As the singing continues, an unidentified man steps forward. It is obvious from his fragmented speech that the man is on the verge of a breakdown due to some inner tragedy. And yet his problems are so removed from the events of 48 years ago that the participants interrupt him repeatedly.

Unidentified Man’s Speech

There's probably little time...we can sing at home and every day and here in the park too. Allow me to speak at today's rally. I've been a spectator, a listener, but now I came to speak. I'm a spectator, not a member of the active group. But I have something to say. You may photograph me, send everything to the Executive Committee and everywhere. That doesn't interest me. /The singing ends here. Applause./

Dear friends! I'm an Estonian. I don't know my precise origins, but I'm still an Estonian. Before the war I was a boy, living in Narva. My father was a political prisoner during the bourgeois years. He was a political prisoner and killed himself in '35, when I was six. Later I lived with my mother in Narva. My little brother, who lives in Sweden now - - by the way, he lives like a human being… /Applause, laughter./

You see, on September I5, '41, the Gestapo arrested my mother. She was shot at, shot down, murdered - - a 33-year old woman. The Germans shot her. I lived ... I became a well-known builder in the Estonian S.S.R. I was the head of the State Building Committee for 34 years. I built in Tallinn, Narva, Tartu, Pärnu - - all over the Republic. Today I'm a disabled invalid, a Group Two cripple. Now this Ribbentrop and Stalin pact didn't have a lot to do with this, but the present, Estonia today had a lot to do with it.

So what happened? I want to talk about those moments that have crippled me now, and that still haunt me. I'd say I've fallen into the clutches of a "rough Mafia." On February 11, eleven law enforcement officers forced their way into my apartment and went to my 8-year-old child's room. She was sick, she wet the bed. She was sick, they woke her up, made her stand up, and took away her bed. Imagine that - - the great Soviet Union took away a small child's bed. /Applause./ They took away a sick child's bed, right from under her... All them, these men, who, damn it! walk around ... /Laughter, applause./ They should all be, damn it! strung up on a limb, like they did ....

I'm glad about Linnas. Linnas got what he deserved. Some sympathized, some didn't... They brought him here and he perished, because he really destroyed a lot of people.

But I was attacked now in sunny peacetime, my child was attacked, my 88year-old daughter, Kristiina. Here's her picture. Damn it! These bums, they attacked her!

What happened on the 19th? I was in my room sleeping, sick. My wife was with the child, with the little one. Two boys, 13 and 16, were outside in the van. A militia car drove up, like these men walking around here. Drove up, pushed open the door, pulled the children out of bed, hit them in the eyes, muffled their mouths with their hands, pulled them into the car, 13 and 16. They pulled the other one out, started beating and punching him at the door. He had pneumonia ... And they took him with his poor health ... and beat him. He fell. They kicked him in the face with their feet, here and www.singingrevolution.com 6 there. And when he got up and ran, one of the Russians pulled out his weapon. "Stop! Or I'll shoot!," that's what he said ...

Now yesterday .... The day before yesterday I submitted a complaint to Vaino at the Central Committee, to call the criminals to account. What's the meaning of this? When will it end? Don't you like it anymore? Doesn't the active group? Let's destroy and break children! Not me. You can't do any more to a cripple like me. But what are we doing with the children, our successors, the sunny generation? If anyone is here from the Voice of America, let us know, let him speak today. Tell the president what we do to children here.

You can take me and detain me, if you want to. I'm a cripple anyway. By the way, my dears, you're talking about. ...

At this point, the interruptions are getting too loud. Tiit Madisson tries to calm the man and to sympathize on behalf of all the participants. The man finishes, confused: "I talk like this, I've always talked like this. When I was building, did I talk any different?" Next in line to speak are Raivo Raave and P. Afanasjev from Moscow (whose Estonian-language speech has been linguistically edited).

Raivo Raave’s “Message to our People” (performed by the author)

Will pain unify our people with wires in their flesh and bones a manipulable puppet but today, secretly we won't undo the knots to melt together in joy What castle hills lie between you and me just wires in our flesh and bones Is now the time to sit in our lined abodes when there are shadows above your land Pandivere Pandivere Pandivere Is now the time to sigh in buses packed full Who will dispel strangers these hills Oismäe Mustamäe Lasnamäe oh Lasnamäe /Pause. Applause./ it is time to come out to fan the flames that will wipe the curse from your people Estonia /Applause./ faith is like a bicycle it won't stand by itself you must sit on it right now /Applause./ Kahala is everywhere still it is Kahala /Applause./ and I won't ask you not to fall or stumble that it'll be easy for you Estonia when your land crumbles Kabala when the yellow field-flowers no longer grow Kabala when water is a death-drink when the prayer is that your faith won't end www.singingrevolution.com 7

Estonia /Applause./ strengthen your weakening knees Estonia stretch out your limp hands Estonia tell those who are timid don't be afraid be bold solidarity is like a blessed signet ring what you let happen will happen and what you forbid will be forbidden /Applause./ solidarity brings the dew of blessings to your people’s house and its grandeur will be greater than at the first awakening.

Raivo Raave concludes his performance shouting “Long live Estonia and the Estonian people” /Applause./

Speech of the Moscow Intellectual, Platon Afanasyev

I want to remind you for a moment - - you SS-men and members of the Estonian Gestapo, who may be present here - - that in January of 1944, the song that was just sung here had these words: "Our legion is marching, and its step is sure. Our decision - - death or victory." It was here on the streets of Tallinn in January, in a leaflet of the Narva era. Remember it, you former SS-men, remember it, all you former Gestapo members here! I am speaking on behalf of the Military Group of the III International, who worked underground in Tallinn in 1942, '43 and '44. I'm wearing a Military Committee Veteran's pin. I got it because I was directly involved in underground activities as a child, as much as I was able to fight and to help out in the struggle against Fascism and the Fascist government that existed in Estonia for 3 or 4 years. /The crowd starts to whistle. Shouts of "Enough!" "You have a tin ear, you're talking about a different song!"/

It's not enough! It's not enough! It's not enough! Let's learn democracy! Let's learn democracy! Let's learn democracy! You heard one side, now listen to the other side, that's democracy! Let's learn democracy! /Whistles, unsubsiding murmurs. Shout: "There was never a Fascist government in Estonia!"/

Yes, there was - - Mäe! I want to say, it's a shame, that there was support expressed here ... /Voice: "Only the truth was told here!"/ I want to say, that they left SS-men here on the home front as Forest Brethren and... /Chorus of whistles. Shouts: "Stop wasting time!" "Speak after one-thirty!"/

No, I'm not wasting time! I'm really sorry that the Central Committee (of the Communist Party) of Estonia... I'm really sorry... I'm not a Party member, I'm only a Communist by ideology, I'm a nonparty man. For that reason I'm truly sorry that no one from the Party Central Committee of Estonia is present now. Sorry that I have to come here all the way from Moscow to defend the interests of socialism and Communism in Estonia.

The authorities present at the rally (for example, Arnold Meri) remain silent. Tiit Madisson thanks Platon Afanasyev and former political prisoner Kalju Mätik steps forward.

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Kalju Mätik’s Reply

I just want to say that the previous speaker was obviously very unmusical. The Estonian Legionnaires' song has a different melody entirely. /Crowd: "You're right!" "Yes!" Applause./ One of the songs we sang here was "My fatherland is my love," and the other is a well-known one that we all heard in the film "We were eighteen years old," - - a film released during the years of Soviet rule and approved by Soviet censors. /Applause./

Platon Afanasyev tries to counter him, claiming that "the words to 'Our Legion is Marching' weren't in that film." A voice from the crowd replies: "Of course they weren't; neither was the melody."

Conclusion of the Rally

Tiit Madisson moves that "it's time to finish." A voice of protest: "We still have ten minutes left!" T. Madisson emphasizes once more, that "There was never a Fascist government in Estonia, but rather a Fascist occupation," which meets with unanimous approval from the crowd, drawing applause and shouts of "Right!" "Yes!". Since there are indeed a few minutes left and no new speakers step forward, T. Madisson moves to end the rally with the song "The People of Kungla." When the song ends, the crowd disperses without incident.

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