Estonia Ended Tyranny With a Song, New Film Shows
By Kevin Mooney
CNSNews.com Staff Writer
November 30, 2007
(CNSNews.com) - Caged like an animal and deported to Siberia as a 14-year-old girl is to know a level of brutality that seems fantastic, according to one gulag survivor in a new documentary about
Estonia. But that brutality was real, and it was experienced by thousands of Estonian children.
The new film, "
The Singing Revolution," examines the
USSR's brutal occupation of
Estonia, which began in 1940, and chronicles its re-birth as an independent nation after the collapse of Soviet communism in 1991.
When the Soviet Union began its occupation of
Estonia -- a country that borders the northwest corner of
Russia -- prison quotas were set for Russian soldiers. As a result, many soldiers grabbed anyone they could find to haul off to Soviet prison camps, according to the documentary's narrator.
In the end, one-third of the people deported to Siberia from
Estonia, starting in 1940, were children.
"No, I did not cry because it was so unreal," Tiia-Ester Loitme recollects in the documentary. "You see, when you get up and go to school for a piano lesson that day but wind up like an animal, you have to say that's bizarre."
The journey away from tyranny and toward freedom was no less bizarre for Loitme and other Estonians who maintained their national identity despite intense oppression.
The Baltic nation's methodical drive toward independence and self-determination in the waning days of the Soviet empire is a story that has been largely untold until now, in "The Singing Revolution."
The title of the film is taken from a massive demonstration of more than 2 million people in 1989. They formed a human chain that stretched through
Estonia,
Latvia and
Lithuania, and the chain of people sang in revolt against the Soviet occupation.
To have acquired freedom through singing, after living through a long period of subjugation, is a unique episode in human history that is difficult to explain through words and is best captured on film, said Jim Tusty, who co-directed and co-produced the documentary with his wife, Maureen Castle Tusty.
"Maureen and I firmly believe the film is not just about
Estonia but about humankind's indomitable drive for self-control, freedom and independence," Tusty told
Cybercast News Service.
"Even during the harshest conditions under Stalin, when people were being tortured and executed, Estonians never lost their drive for self-determination. I chose to believe this more human than just Estonian," Tusty added.
As a dual citizen of both
Estonia and the
U.S., Tusty found himself ideally positioned to make a documentary that would describe the Baltic nation's independence movement in a compelling manner that could be universally understood.
The important role singing played in undermining Soviet authority became apparent to Tusty and his wife during a trip to
Estonia in 1999. They began to connect with average citizens who had lived through the revolution while teaching a class on filmmaking.
"The Estonians are a very self-effacing people," Tusty said. "This is just their nature. But we became more intrigued, and we began to ask more questions. We were concerned they might feel that two people who live thousands of miles away don't have the right to tell their story. However, as it turned out, Estonians felt an outside perspective was needed so others could better understand what had transpired."
The documentary focuses particular attention on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, also known as the Hitler-Stalin Pact: a secret deal between Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler that divided Eastern Europe, including
Estonia, into "spheres of influence."
The sad and often brutal existence Estonians endured -- Nazi Germany occupied the country from 1941 to 1944; the Soviets occupied in 1940, then from 1945 to 1994 -- helped to sharpen a unique set of skills that would come into play when Mikhail Gorbachev rose to power in the mid-1980s, said Tusty.
"What the Estonians mastered was the art of pushing the system exactly as far as it could be pushed," he said. "So they started to test the system under Gorbachev when they saw openings."
The first crucial test came in 1986, when Estonians organized a protest against a strip-mining project to see how far "glasnost" would go. Strictly speaking, it was not legal to hold protests in the absence of permits under the Soviet system, Tusty said. Nevertheless, the Estonians went forward.
"It was not political or confrontational," Tusty said. "There were no criticisms of communism. Instead, it was just about the environment, and the protest was successful, the mining project was stopped."
On its surface, the event did not seem particularly significant or momentous at the time, he said. But in retrospect, it became evident the protest marked a crucial turning point, he added.
"Gorbachev made one very, very basic fundamental mistake," Trivimi Velliste, an independence-activist, states in the film. "He didn't realize that whenever you give free speech to people, then things get out of hand. The ghost gets out of the bottle."
Shortly after the environmental protest, an emboldened group of activists staged a more politically charged demonstration in
Hirve Park, the capital city of
Tallinn. They took the opportunity to openly denounce the Hitler-Stalin Pact and to commemorate the victims of Stalinism.
But it was the singing that proved to be the coup de grace.
Soviet officials who had worked to censor musical expression not in keeping with their government's official doctrine were overwhelmed when they attempted to silence defiant crowds. Founded in 1869, the Song Festival, known as "Laulupidu," helped
Estonia to maintain its cultural identity throughout the 50 years of Soviet occupation.
In 1947, Gustav Ernesaks managed to bypass Soviets censors and insert a tune patterned after the lyrics of a century-old national poem called "
Land of My Fathers, Land that I Love." It became the country's unofficial national anthem.
"The tradition of singing is innate to the culture, and it goes back thousands of years," Tusty said. "What the Estonians did was really very clever. After all, how do you jail someone just for singing?"
As
Estonia prepared to mark the 100th anniversary of the festival in 1969, the Soviets forbade their captive citizens from singing the patriotic tune that Ernesaks had previously inserted. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of Estonians did sing it.
Heinz Valk is an activist credited for coining the term "the singing revolution." When the forbidden song found expression in the face of adversity in 1969, it showed the Estonian spirit was alive and that it was possible to come together as a nation, Valk says in the film.
In contrast to the "destruction, burning, killing, and hate" of previous revolutions, the Estonian drive toward independence was started with a "smile and song," Valk says.
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Film Review: The Singing Revolution
December 13th, 2007 by Zach Freeman
“What role can singing play when a nation is faced with annihalation by its neighbors?” asks narrator Linda Hunt in James Tusty’s new Estonian historical documentary The Singing Revolution. In this case, the answer is “plenty.” The Singing Revolution is a moving documentary that, among other things, explores the years between 1986 and 1991 when members of the Baltic country of Estonia fought to rid themselves of the decades-long Soviet occupation. In the words of the documentary itself, it is a “story of how culture saved a nation.”
Including an in-depth and engaging look at the history of Estonia (including a good deal of information about Stalin’s repressive regime in the ’40s and Gorbachev’s “perestroika” and “glasnost” in the ’80s), the film somehow manages to encapsulate both the information of a History Channel special and the entertainment value of a feature documentary. All of the history leads up to the Laulupido song festival (a gigantic singing festival held in Estonia every year) where 30,000 Estonians take the stage and hundreds of thousands of audience members express their pride in their heritage and their dedication to maintaining their freedom.
The exploration of peaceful action leading to the freedom of a country is the most rewarding part of this film-watching experience. There are several incredible examples of people working together to actively seek freedom without resorting to violence. From the 600 kilometer human chain that reached across Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia to the surrounding of tanks by civilians when the Russian national guard was sent in. The 90-minute feature is an especially timely treat as it displays a prime example of creating change “not by violence but through creating a democratic alternative.”
Currently making the festival rounds and appearing in NY and LA, the film also won both the Audience Favourite and the Jury Prize at the 3rd Annual Estdocs Festival at the end of October.
Zach’s Rating: A-
Perfect For: A moving, informative documentary about peaceful revolution
Stay Away if: Peaceful revolutions don’t interest you as much as violent coups
For more information on The Singing Revolution, and for theatrical screening dates, visit the film’s homepage
http://www.bloggernews.net/112342
