by CKR
I may be the world’s worst person to write a review of “The Singing Revolution.” It’s a story I know well, having sought it out because it was so inspiring. So I know, not only how the story turns out, but also every step along the way. Shortly after Pat Kushlis and I met, we realized that we both wanted to write the same book: the history that this film recounts. The reason for that was that it seemed to contain so many lessons for the United States and other big countries that might be overimpressed with the power of their guns and tanks.
If you want a feel-good documentary with impressive historical footage, this is it. The vastly outnumbered and overpowered Estonians outlast and outsmart the latest in a long string of occupiers, the Soviet Union, through patience, pluck, luck and song. The songs selected tend toward the most rousingly patriotic of those sung at the song festivals; I would have liked to hear just a bit of “Sinu Aknal Tuvid” or “Sireli, Kas Mul Õnne” There were a few tiny lines from “Viire Takka,” not enough.
The Estonians were astute in their political judgements and their juggling of demonstrations and legislation through Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost and perestroika, which gave the Estonians the openings they needed to press forward, cautiously, relentlessly, toward reinstating their country’s independence.
And they won.
The story is told very well indeed. I have imagined so many events for which the film had footage; the singing of the substitute national anthem at the 1969 song festival; the first flying of the sini, must, valge (blue, black, white) flags in Tartu in 1988 and the popping up of the real Estonian flags later that year at the song festival grounds in Tallinn; the human chain from Tallinn to Vilnius on the anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in August 1989; or, most impressively, the Estonian response to Russian demonstrations at the parliament building in Tallinn.
Russians had been brought to Estonia to work the oil shale mines and the defense factories, like Sillamäe, the one I’ve been working with. They were frightened by the movement toward independence and, with the help of Moscow, formed their own political party, Interfront. Interfront organized a demonstration in May 1990 that drew a large crowd outside the pink parliament building on Toompea hill in Tallinn. The crowd broke through to the interior courtyard, a man was on the roof to replace the Estonian flag with the flag of the Estonian Socialist Republic of the USSR. Members of the Estonian government, which had passed a number of acts moving away from the USSR, were trapped in the building.
But they had a radio station, and broadcast an appeal to Estonians to come and help, which they did.
They surrounded the Russians. Action almost stops. This is where people begin tearing up paving stones and throwing them at each other, you think as you watch the grainy footage.
But they didn’t.
Estonian men begin to part the crowd and line a pathway for the Russians to leave. The Russians walk through with dignity, still holding their flags high. Nothing is thrown, no word said.
After the Russians are gone, Marju Lauristin, a member of Parliament who was trapped in the building, thanks the crowd. Her “Aitäh, aitäh, aitäh!” is obviously heartfelt.
The song festivals reminded Estonians of who they were, and the logistics that they required were essential for the demonstrations, particularly the Baltic Way human chain, which, I am told, was continuous, no breaks, people all the way from Tallinn to Vilnius, with multiple strands to accommodate all the people in the cities who wanted to participate.
The Soviet Union is long gone, but big countries still haven’t learned all the lessons of this story.
The neocons believed that once Saddam Hussein was gone, Iraq would become democratic, just as Eastern Europe had emerged from the Soviet Union. But the members of the governments of many of the new countries after the Soviet Union collapsed were the same people who had been in the Supreme Soviets. Yes, Marju Lauristen and Edgar Savisaar and Arnold Rüütel were Communists. They were, however, much more nationalists, and Lauristen and Savisaar helped to form the National Front. That’s not mentioned in the film; probably too complicated to explain.
The Estonians directed events themselves. They came to the US Embassy in Helsinki, where Pat Kushlis met them, to confer with Americans and others about their struggle. But they got their forty and more political parties together and passed legislation and organized demonstrations. It wasn’t done from outside.
There’s another big power that just can’t figure it out. It was a year ago that ethnic Russians were demonstrating in Tallinn over a Soviet monument to the Soviet unknown soldier. According to a recent Russian analysis, the Russian government hoped to turn the ethnic Russians in Estonia into a fifth column that could be manipulated from Moscow. Russia is still coming to terms with the breakup of the Soviet Union, and may be dealing with that for a long time to come.
So go see this documentary. Sign up at the website if it hasn’t come to your community yet. Buy the DVD when it becomes available.
And recommend it to your legislators. I haven’t begun to lay out all the lessons. Maybe Pat and I should still write that book.
And, in case you’re wondering, Üldlaulupidu, the All-Estonian Song Festival is next year, first weekend in Juuli. I plan to be there.
[All photos by CKR. 1. CKR in the song festival stadium by herself, to give an indication of its scale. 2. The sea gate to Tallinn's old town. 3. The park in front of the Palace of Culture in Sillamäe. 4. Parliament Building on Toompea with Estonian flag flying on Pikk Herman tower.]