 Mis olen Mordin Andreller ja olen vasteist Mõtlida 1944, bible jääb, ka kõigud välja, tõi õrkust võimalist, kõige võimalist ilmast. Kui kõigud võimalist on see muzium, olga Kisle Ritso on võimalist. See mõtlida 1944, just before the Red Army or the Soviet Union occupied Estonia again. Around 90,000 Estonians just went away as a war refugees towards Europe or with boats and ships towards Sweden over Baltic Sea. Olga left as well as a nurse and she ended up in the United States of America. In 1990s, when Estonia got away from the Soviet rule, we got our independence back, then Olga wanted to give something back to her homeland. The discussions were held and similar museums are in Latvia, in Lithuania, in other states in Eastern Europe and Estonia didn't have one at the time. Then it was decided that she's going to build that museum for the Estonian people. The museum was opened in 2003 and it's still and most likely it's going to be the only museum that just concerns only for that time period, 1940 to 1991 concerning all the subjects and teams from the time era and introducing the recent history to the Estonians of course and also to our visitors from all over the world. In 2003, when the museum was opened and a permanent exhibition was made as well and it covers 1940 to 1941 the first radia, so to speak, the first Soviet occupation, 1941 to 1944 the Nazi occupation and then from 1944 to 1991 and the second Soviet occupation. The main exhibition is built on the chronological basis, so we have all the year markings in the display and under that specific year are the items from the year, documents, handmade items from the Siberian prison camps or from the deported persons. And of course the exhibition itself is divided into seven specific time eras or frames with a documentary film also on our internet homepage you can see them. And those films then are like the extra material with the interviews of the actual witnesses of the different events and so on so which helps to describe it everything. When the museum was opened then of course people started to donate different documents and materials to the museum as well. Of course most of the official records, like the Soviet state security forces files, well let's say the KGB files, then it's much simple. They are preserved in the Estonian state archive as most of the official documents. But of course people have donated their own papers that were given to them for example when they were released from the prison camps and those have ended up in the museum collection in our archive. But most of the official materials as I said are preserved by the Estonian state in the state archives. In 1944 in the end of the year when the German Armed Forces retreated from Estonia and the Red Army so to speak liberated us again as they tend to say but actually occupied Estonia for the second time then Estonians hoped that the western countries the western democracy won't forget us that when the second world war ends in the world in general as it has ended in Estonia at the time then the western democracy will help us they will tell the Soviet Union that you have to go out of the Baltic states and from the Eastern Europe which is not your land. And people started to hide themselves they already knew from the year 1941 that most likely they will get arrested those persons who were actively against the communists against the Soviet Union regime, the totalitarian regime. They started to hide themselves collect weapons their main aim was just to survive until the help from the west arrives. Of course in 1945-1946 they attacked the local authorities the communists let's say militia stations and so on. In 1947-48 the operations weren't held in that big proportions they started to realize that the help from the west isn't coming so we just have to survive until well, in my opinion they still had the hope that some day the things were going to change in 1949 in March over 22,000 Estonians were deported to Siberia mostly also the members of the Estonian armed resistance their families, their relatives, their friends as the forest brothers had stated before that that they will do everything that they can to prevent that kind of mass deportation to be held again. Of course the forest brothers Eston resistance in Estonia didn't have the Estonian wide network of our organization we had several attempts of building that kind of network but it failed, the KGB as it was later named at the time the name was different a bit so its state security forces did their job let's say quite good in their point of view they managed to arrest over 8000 Estonian forest brothers over 2000 of them were killed in different battles in different actions and around 5000 remord and legalized in the end of 1950s Joseph Stalin the dictator of the Soviet Union died in 1953 a couple of years later the regime itself got a bit softer and it was actually said to the armed resistance members that you can come out of the woods and we will not do you any harm so some of them came out of the woods but forest brothers were still active or fighting in 1960s, 1970s the armed resistance kind of kept alive the memory of the Estonian independence kept alive the hope that someday we will get their independence back or freedom back and there were kind of the moral support let's say civilians who were living their everyday life in the villages in the towns that somebody is going actively against the terror regime somebody is fighting, somebody is there when we need them then they will come to help us the forest brothers divided different leaflets they made even their own newspapers they quoted different news from the western radio stations about events in the world and then of course let's say political leaflets and banners about that we can make it we just have to survive a bit more and then it's possible to get their independence back the stories of the armed resistance were told to children I even remember one story told by my grandfather his good friend was a forest brother and the story was that Adu, as it was the forest brothers name was at his home in his home farm eating lunch for a brief moment and as the farm is just in the middle of the fields on one side is river so it's just a plain field you can't hide anywhere and Adu noticed from the kitchen window that the state security forces are actually coming he didn't have anywhere to run he had a little barn in the yard he went there, opened the hatchet under the barn was a small hideout where he could see and observe what happens in the farmy out he was there waiting, had nothing to do anymore and he noticed the state security forces walking into the yard the officer went into the house and returned with Adu's jacket which he had forgotten there he had a talk with them the talk sniffed the jacket and ran straight to the barn crawled under the stair and Adu said that I had my pistol and I thought that when the talk attacks I will shot it and then I will shot myself I will not surrender to them and then he said it was very strange the talk kind of started to cry waved his tail and then crawled out of the barn and ran the other way and the forces ran behind him and I was saved and I still figured that the talk was just pitting me thinking that when you are living like a rat under the house then why should I bother you although the fact is that the service talk was just poorly trained but well who knows it's just part of the legend the legend of the resistance the freedom and independence which just continued through the years of the occupation I think that's the biggest achievement we can say about term resistance nowadays I was born in 1985 on the 23rd of December so my memories of course from the Soviet time era are quite let's say small I remember one time in the kindergarten when we were playing in the yard the fighter planes flew over very low and it was very frightening and I remember in those days when the singing revolution was taking place in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania in the kindergarten we actually saw videos from Vilnius where the tanks were driving around and then our teacher came into the room saw it and then just switched the TV off and said there's nothing to see here for you don't mind that it was just a film although we understood that it's not a film it's happening real at somewhere from the period when the power was actually changing during the re-independence I remember that I think people were kind of scared at that moment still that something might change that independence we caught might be taken back or I remember just a bit nervous time period when for example my parents were speaking about something but I didn't hear quite well what they were telling and when I asked and they said no it's not of your business but I remember that people were a bit like nervous they were happy but they were still like kind of afraid of something just a heritage of the totalitarian regime we were under I think the history has been always used by the politicians and politics although in my personal opinion history should be left as it was it has to be introduced, explained and people have to make their own opinion about the history and when politicians are going to use let's say our history or your history in some other ways than just to explain and describe that to make some of their programs or ideas to work let's say to use it in a bad way then I think it's not a good thing it's a bad thing history is just stories and things that happened we can explain them we can describe them, we can learn from them but I think we shouldn't use them to change the world nowadays it's in the past we have to keep that of course in mind what happened there has been different memorial events in Europe, in Estonia as well that are supported by the EU commission in August I was in Lithuania on the 23rd of August and the day of remembrance was held and there were different young people from all over Europe actually dedicating that day for the memory of those who suffered under the totalitarian regimes in Europe and that program was I think very good because when we speak of the European memory then we actually have I think we still have that west and east side of the memory just as the iron curtain once was I think the sides of the memories are also divided because our history from the recent past from the 1940s, 50s I think it's not very well known in the west Europe in England, in Spain for example and of course in the Soviet time in the time of totalitarian regimes I think even the history of the western Europe wasn't told in the exact way in here as well it was a bit changed as the totalitarian regimes tend to do that they change history for their own benefit in Europe nowadays we should change the overviews of our history we should share the history of the eastern Europe to the west and vice versa as well actually in that case the history should be common explain more and that kind of events I think helped to make that when we look at let's say nazism and Stalinism or the Soviet regime in total then I think one of the well I don't know if the word problem is the best for that but one of the points are that the west Europe did suffer under the Nazis but not under the Soviet regime and the eastern Europe mostly suffered from the Soviet regime because for example in Estonia 1940-1941 one year the Soviets then three years of the Nazis and then decades of the Soviet regime it's very hard to equalize different regimes it's very hard because with different regimes there are different numbers of persons who suffered there are actual persons behind those sufferings how can we equalize that it's very hard and I think impossible and maybe not needed to say which was more like better or worse we just have to give the opportunity to be able to see the terror made by the Nazis and also the terror made by the Soviets by the Stalin regime and so on of course it's a really tricky question because as the things happened in the recent past it is very recent the people still alive who maybe even participated in those events who were in the deaf camps who were in the prison camps who were in the jail they have their own very strong personal let's say attachment to those events in this museum I have seen lots of persons old men and women who have come to the museum it was I think two or three years ago so the museum was open already for six or seven years when an old lady came in and said that I know you have been open for a while but I was too afraid to come here because I was afraid of what I might see and how it will affect me I was in the prison camp in Siberia for 12 years and then he was just really nervous he was shaking in the whole room and then she went to the tour looked through the items and she stood at the prison doors for a very long time and then she came back to me and said that well it's nicely done I was afraid of what I might see and I saw the items but I saw them in quite neutral way so it's the past and it has to be here there are persons who have studied the history well in schools in the Soviet time who was born after let's say second world war after the mass deportations who don't have any connections with the terror that the totalitarian regime steed they've just studied in the schools the Soviet textbooks of how the Soviet history was so they have their own point of view based on that they don't have the personal connection so they just remember what they've studied in the school for years and now they say that but in my opinion it's totally false there was no occupation in Estonia you wanted it