Vabamu

Vabamu Museum Tour — Estonia’s 50 years of struggle

The Vabamu museum tour walks you through Estonia’s 50 years from Soviet occupation in 1940 to the freedom restoration of 1991. Let me show you how this small nation got its freedom back.

This year, the Republic of Estonia celebrated its 108th anniversary. On the age scale, we have entered a rebellious youth, but for us, this number symbolizes something far deeper and more significant—FREEDOM. To the rhythm of this word, our ancestors have rejoiced, grieved, won, and lost, but even in the darkest moments, Estonians never stopped dreaming of freedom. Deep within their hearts, they always carried that fragile yet unwavering hope: one day, we will live in a free land again.

The twists and turns of history in 1918 gifted Estonia the opportunity to declare its independence and gradually begin building its own state. However, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, signed on August 23, 1939, robbed us of this hard-won freedom for nearly 50 years.

When looking back at the 1940s, what were the actual choices available to the people living here? It was a time when there were simply no “right” choices:

• The heart yearned to stay, but the fear and threat of deportation or execution forced many to leave their homeland behind and flee into the unknown.
• A preference for death here rather than in Siberia, leading to the Forest Brothers movement and armed resistance against the Soviet regime.
• Ending up on the deportation lists and being sent away to the “cold land” (Siberia).
• Adapting to the new rules simply to survive.

Who made the right choice? Did a right choice even exist under those circumstances? These are questions to which answers are incredibly hard to find.

The Vabamu tour can be combined with either the KGB tour or the “Price of Freedom” tour. Upon request, we can also visit the Memorial to the Victims of Communism located in Maarjamäe.

You may also like

• KGB Prison Cells
• Price of Freedom

Find ticket prices and museum opening hours here.