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| You can see the modern city behind the old-town buildings of Tallinn, Estonia. |
There
was a lot of chaos in Europe during the first part of the twentieth
century. World War I was killing millions of soldiers and
civilians. In Estonia, which had been ruled by the Russian Empire,
Russian troops were retreating and German troops were advancing.
Estonia declared its independence on
this date in 1918, but Germany ignored the declaration and occupied
Estonia. Later in the year, in November, Germany formally handed over
political power to the Estonian government, but the Bolshevik
(Communist) invasion followed. It took another year and a half before
The Republic of Estonia was able to establish peace with Bolshevist
Russia.
Estonia
was a republic for 22 years.
And
then World War II broke out, and the same two nations tore up
Estonia's land and people again—Russia (now the Soviet Union) and
Germany fought over, and occupied, Estonia. When that war was over,
Estonia was (unwillingly) part of the Soviet Union. It took until the
end of the twentieth century, when the Soviet Union
collapsed, for Estonia to regain its independence—which it
re-declared in August of 1991.
The
best part of all this freedom fighting might be the Singing
Revolution, on June 10-11, 1988, when more than two million people
created a human chain that stretched through Lithuania, Latvia, and
Estonia, singing illegal patriotic songs all night long. Actually,
massive sing-alongs sprang out in Estonia for six nights in a row!
The Singing Revolution was non-violent—a much better symbolic,
defining event than the destructive Boston Tea Party or the violent
storming of the Bastille.
Singing
is still important in Estonia. Listen to the crowd singing “The Most Beautiful Songs.”
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| A crater made by a meteorite. |
Here's
a challenging puzzle showing the old-town portion of an Estonian
city. (Click the words “Compose Puzzles” to play. You have to enter a
nickname—NOT your full name or even, necessarily, a nickname you
actually use—and choose your country in order to play.)
Also
on this date:
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