I am the daughter of a freedom fighter. My father Georg Vaher took up arms in 1944 to defend his country from the soviets. He was a 17-year-old boy and he, like many other young boys his age, responded to the appeal of admiral Johan Pitka who was organizing the resistance. But resistance was not what our president Konstantin Päts had in mind. He and his friend, general Johan Laidoner with whom he'd seized power in 1934, thought that it was far more profitable for them to let the soviets occupy our country than it was to resist the occupation. They were promised that they'd still be in power if they agreed to the occupation and the poor and greedy fools believed that. And so happened that Estonia let the soviets in, courteously, even opening the gates for the troops. Not a single shot was fired.
My father told me that the people had wanted to resist, men had wanted to take up arms and defend their homes and families, but that chance was taken away from them. The dictator and his military commander decided to collect all the guns, making the men defenseless. Proud officers were later slaughtered like lambs in Siberian prison camps. At least 30 000 people, somebody from almost every family, including children and the elderly were deported to Siberian working camps.
Estonians are somewhat afraid of this truth. It seems awful that our only president could have acted like this. That he was not "the father of our nation" but in fact the destroyer of that little freedom we had. Estonia became an idependent nation only in 1918. We'd had our precious freedom for 20 years, when it was taken away again - for 50 years. As a newly free state, naturally we've started searching for OUR "founding fathers".
I'd compare Konstantin Päts to Saddam Hussein. They both silenced the media and threw their opponents in jail. Okay, Päts did not actually kill people but when it comes to tyranny and lack of freedom, does it really matter if there is any blood?
9 kommentaari:
This is primitive interpretation of history.
tehniliselt võttes, kui te räägite 1944. aastast, siis päts ei olnud ammu enam president, sest ta küüditati 1940 juba eestist kuhugi nsvl-i avarustesse.
ja see, et vastupanu ei osutatud, ei vasta ka päris tõele, sest sinimägede kaitselahingutes sõdis näiteks 20. eesti diviis(jah, saksa vägede koosseisus)
ja loomulikult ka pitka formeeritud endanimeline löögirühm
Primitive or not, but let the facts tell. Technically, Estonia in 1944 was part of the Soviet Union, occupied by Nazi-Germany. The Estonian divisions that were formed under Nazi forces, and the Pitka guys, fought for Estonian freedom, but were later not recognized by the Big3: USA, Russia and Britain. Thus came pressure to take down the monument in Lihula, put up in memory of those Estonian freedom-fighters wearing Nazi-style helmets.
The right time for Estonians to fight for their freedom was before 1940. And one more factor, the Baltic Germans, who had been the real governors, the elite in the Baltic countries for some 700 years (like Swedes in Finland), left for Germany in 1939 (all Germans gathered in Germany before their historic Grand Operation to become the Masters of Universe), thus betraying the Baltics and leaving it to Russian influence. Swedes stayed in Finland and the country remained free.
Estonian dealing with Russia was extremely harmful for Finland, as the Gulf of Finland was mined and all the info about the mines was given to Russia, that used it to fight Finland. Also, Russian military compounds in Estonia were used to bomb Finland.
One may only speculate, what could the life had been, if the Finns hadn't opposed Russia. The Soviet Union could have been still alive and stretched from Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.
Oletame, et Päts ei oleks 1939. septembris Moskava nõudmistele järgi andnud ja ei oleks baaside lepingule alla kirjutanud. Mis siis juhtunud oleks? 29. septembril 1939 oleks Nõukogude Liit Eestile kallale tunginud. Tuleb meeles pidada ka seda, et mingit välisabi sõja korral ei oleks Eesti saanud. Alates 23. augustist 1939 oli Saksamaa ju Nõukogude Liidu liitlane.
Kui kaua oleks suudetud vastupanu osutada? Vaevalt küll, et kauem kui neli-viis nädalat. Nõukogude ülekaal lennukite ja tankide osas oli ju väga suur. Ja küll siis oleksid kõik vares-barbarused, säred, lauristinid ja teised neile määratud rolle mänginud. N. Liidu koosseisu inkorporeerimine oleks toimunud 1939. a. hilissügisel ja kohe oleks alanud ka küüditamised ja arreteerimised. Nii et põhimõtteliselt oleks tulemus ikka sama olnud.
That´s certainly true that Päts and Laidoner are the ones to blame for consequences but still I wouldn´t call it "joining the USSR" like Irja does. Let´s stick to the facts- "joining" took place by force when red troops were in and again by force disbanded the parliament and put veto to all other politic parties except communist one and forced people with aimed guns to go to "parliament elections" where they could choose between--which political forces and candidates? And then that "legally elected parliament of Estonian Republic" decided to take to agenda "joining the USSR". And you still call it joining? If that´s not sharade then I don´t know what is.
kuulge noored, ärge nüüd sellest turtola käsitlusest nii segi kah minge, lugege ikka teisi allikaid kah.
/volts/
I said in my post that proud generals were slaughtered like lambs. They'd have preferred to die standing up, with a gun in their hand, not be tortured to death in prison camps.
Lets not think like slaves. As long as there is hope, there is hope. If the people wanted to resist, they should have had the chance.
Franz, 1939 was too late. Mr. Päts & Mr. Laidnoner should have had start thinking at 1936 or something like that - buying some arms etc.
And if Estonians were to start freedom fighting against Päts sooner then the other states would have maybe step up for us a bit more in case of occupations. But now - why anyone should help a fascist state in 1939/40? But many of estonians were too ignorant of what was happening in the world - and even in their own state, so they did nothing.
The worst what Stalin did to Estonians was that he stole from us a chence to overthrow our own dictator by making him a martyr instead.
Exactly, lis!
Postita kommentaar