June 14 - Keeping historical memory alive

On Sunday, June 14, diplomats and community representatives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will gather at Tribute to Liberty, Memorial to Victims of Communism, in Ottawa to commemorate victims of the June 1941 deportations. Prior to the official ceremony, members of the Lithuanian community will read names of those who were deported from Lithuania.

June 14 is an official day of mourning and a flag day in Estonia, when Estonian flags are flown at half-mast on all state and government buildings. The memory of this tragic day, and of the March 1949 deportations will remain forever in the collective memory of Estonians.

National identity and history are kept alive through remembrance and observance. Leading Estonian intellectual and poet Hando Runnel has written: "In the corridors of international power nations are treated according to whether they are peoples with history or peoples without history. Peoples without history are left to drift, and their fate is to disappear. The suppression of historical memory is a primary goal of all illegitimate foreign powers."

The deliberate erasure of history and cultural heritage was evident during the Soviet occupation of Estonia and today, in Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine. Russian propaganda relies on ideological manifestos claiming that Ukraine lacks legitimate historical rights to independent statehood. Russian forces have destroyed or damaged hundreds of historic churches, theatres, and monuments. Museums are looted and historical artifacts stolen. Local libraries are targeted to destroy Ukrainian-language books. In occupied territories, Russian authorities have banned Ukrainian curricula in schools and replaced them with Kremlin-approved textbooks. Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported to camps in Russia, where they are subjected to brainwashing aimed at erasing their cultural memory.

The Russian modus operandi is tragically familiar to Estonians. On June 14, 1941, Soviet authorities loaded 10,000 – 11,000 Estonian men, women, and children onto railway freight cars and deported them to prison camps and penal colonies across the Soviet Union, where the majority perished. Estonians endured decades of oppression, loss of freedom including speech and suppression of historical memory under Soviet occupation.

Estonians everywhere have a responsibility to keep historical memory alive by telling their personal stories and sharing Estonia’s story with others. The European Union's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas often speaks of her grandparents and her mother, who was just 6 months old when deported to Siberia by the Soviets, in March 1949.

The more we know, the more we speak, the less we forget. Never forget.

 Estonian Central Council in Canada