Nestor: Estonians never lost their spirit of resistance

Photo: Mihkel Maripuu

On Monday morning, the President of the Riigikogu Eiki Nestor met the students of Tallinn School No 21 who had hoisted the Estonian flag on top of Tall Hermann tower on Resistance Struggle Day. He reminded the young people that the Estonian nation never lost their spirit of resistance while living under foreign rule.

«During our school days, our five-strong group all bought identical check shirts on Viru Street. These were flannel shirts made in Romania and the checks were in the correct shades of blue, black and white. Of course, we were all sent to the Headmaster for this and we were asked the meaning of these colours. We were told to change our shirts and never come to school like that again,» said Eiki Nestor, recounting events from his school days.

MP Reet Roos added that during her schooldays, girls once wrote Gorbatchev's quotes all over their school uniforms and dyed their hair the same shade of red in protest. MP Enn Eesmaa said that when he started working for television, he did his best not to contribute to propaganda, and therefore chose to do cultural programmes and quiz shows.

Estonia is celebrating 22 September as Resistance Struggle Day and Otto Tief Government Day for the seventh year, by a resolution of the Riigikogu. Tallinn School No 21 played a part in assuring that Estonia's resistance to foreign power did not remain passive in June 1940. The schoolhouse on Raua Street had become the temporary barracks of the signal battalion of the Estonian army in summer 1940. That was the location for the only battle fought by the soldiers of the Republic of Estonia in WW II.

On Monday morning, after the flag ceremony, the flag hoisters also met MPs Barbi Pilvre and Kalev Lillo along with Tarmo Kruusimäe, a representative of the Estonian Flag Association, in Kalevipoeg Hall.