Tallinn Soviet Tour — In the Footsteps of the Soviet Era

This tour in the footsteps of the Soviet era takes you to the places where the occupation left its strongest mark — and asks what those traces tell us today. Did the promise of life in a socialist paradise match reality, or was it merely skilful red propaganda that had nothing to do with the real world? Over two hours we walk through the heart of the city, glance behind the facades and trace how one regime tried to rewrite a nation’s memory

The Soviet era left its mark on the story of Tallinn’s Old Town — under the Soviet regime, Freedom Square was renamed Victory Square. The building of the Sõprus (“Friendship”) cinema carries the same ideological burden: it rose on the ruins of a quarter burned empty on the night of the March 1944 bombing, hiding political propaganda behind its seemingly friendly name. That tragic spring night turned the once lively and densely populated Harju street into a bleak heap of ruins. More than one house in Tallinn’s Old Town still hides the screams of times when the information the system needed was extracted from people by inhuman means. In the fragile hope of the 1980 Olympic Games and of freedom, the word “Eesti” mysteriously appeared on the roof of a building on Pikk street. The tour in the footsteps of the Soviet era ends at the former KGB headquarters — an institution that shattered the lives of countless families. If you wish, the excursion can continue in the KGB prison cells.