Eesti koorilaulu lõhestatusest nõukogude aastail

In Estonia the notion of Estonian song festivals has become synonymous with the name of beloved composer and conductor Gustav Ernesaks (1908–2003). The reasons for this are both unplanned and purposeful, both simple and complex. In marked contrast, the song festivals are not even peripherally associated with the traditions and conductors outside of Soviet-occupied Estonia, who were in many ways the custodians of qualified and non-Sovietised Estonian choir music. Prominent figures such as Juhan Aavik, Eduard Tubin, and Tuudur Vettik, followed by their students Harri Kiisk in Sweden and Roman Toi in Canada, promoted the democratic and freedom-oriented Estonian Song Festival tradition in Sweden, Germany, Canada, and the US for half a century and from 1972 onwards also in transnational ESTO festivals. It is generally maintained that the Estonian diaspora played a distinctive role in the dismantling of Soviet rule in Estonia a quarter-century ago. Consequently, we must accept that song festivals held outside of Estonia effectively kept the spirit of a free Estonia alive. It is therefore time to harmonise the Ernesaks’ excluding phenomenon pertaining to song festivals since World War II with the efforts of Estonian master conductors in Germany, Sweden, Canada, and the US. Their accomplishments far away in the Free World added significantly to the present-day song festival tradition that grows ever stronger in Estonia. It is compellingly clear that the Estonian diaspora song and ESTO festivals should be included in the Estonian paragraph of the 2003 UNESCO World Heritage List. And, if one looks around on the Song Festival Grounds in Tallinn, one easily discovers space enough for Dr Roman Toi of Toronto (b. 1916) beside the statue of Maestro Gustav Ernesaks

Accidental or Deliberate Failure? The Story of Estonia’s Defence Concept of 1993

One of my more important duties as the first post-war constitutional defence minister of Estonia, was to develop a national defence concept. We prepared this together with Colonel Ants Laaneots, who was then Chief of Staff of Estonian Defence Forces. Once the initial framework was established, a couple of officials of the Ministry of Defence became involved; ultimately a large number of external experts from the Academy of Sciences to the Estonian Maritime Administration contributed to the concept. The result of this broad and creative co-operation, the first defence concept, was strongly influenced by Finnish and Swedish total defence thinking. It was proposed to the Riigikogu and debated in pleno in March 1993. Surprisingly, given a strong government coalition majority,the concept was rejected. The reasons for this most unusual parliamentary outcome may be found in domestic politics. Was the failure accidental? Or may it have been deliberate? As we know, three years later, in 1996, the next Riigikogu approved a concept for the defence policy of Estonia, a document little more than a more verbose development of our concept from 1993

Republic of Estonia on the Road Back to the West… Background and Reality of the Israeli Weapons Deal, 1992/1993

In the early 1990s not a single Western government agreed to sell arms to the newly independent Estonia. As the constitutional government of Mart Laar (1992) declared a strong interest in Western collective security, even NATO membership, Soviet weapons became unacceptable and insupportable. In contrast,a plentiful supply of highly vaunted Western arms was considered a guarantee for the Republic’s continued independence and a precondition for future acceptance in Western security policy structures – and ultimately membership in NATO.