Estonia commemorates the victims of mass deportations in 1949

From March 25-28, 1949, more than 90,000 people across the Baltics, including more than 20,000 in Estonia, ranging from infants to the elderly, were forcibly removed from their homes by Soviet forces and deported to Siberia as part of Operation Priboi (“Coastal Surf”). Thousands would never return.

Today, on the 25st of March Estonia commemorates this tragical historical event by lighting candles on windows at home. An event organised by the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory where people light 20 000 candles on the Freedom Squre of Tallinn cannot unfortunately take place due to coronavirus.

Estonian folk music group Curly Strings announced today that they dedicated a music video “They won´t catch me” to victims of 1949 Soviet mass deportations.

The song “They Won’t Catch Me” tells the true story of a young man who by chance managed to avoid being deported by Soviet powers in the mass deportations of 1949, known in Estonia as the March deportation. The young man in question was Aksel Herbert Lindal, the grandfather of Curly Strings singer Eeva Talsi.

Read more about the commemoration day on the homepage of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory (25.03.2020).

Listen to the song here:

Read more at news.err.ee (25.03.2020).