Estonia's victims of communism memorial, 2018
Estonia's victims of communism 1940–1991 memorial was opened in Maarjamäe, Tallinn on 23 August 2018, on the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism, According to the website www.memoriaal.ee “the communist regime of terror was established with the occupation of Estonia on 17 June 1940 and ended with the restoration of Estonia’s independence on 20 August 1991. As the consequence of this, Estonia lost every fifth person of its population of slightly over a million, of which more than 75,000 were murdered, imprisoned or deported. The Memorial to the victims of communism is dedicated to all of them. The memorial consists of two parts – the Journey with plaques bearing the names of those who perished in the terror, and the Home Garden, to which are added location stones with information texts marking the locations where the terror was carried out. A monument to Estonian officers who fell victim to the communist terror is also part of the Memorial. The names of those people of Estonia who perished in the course of the terror, that is the persons who were murdered or died in imprisonment or in banishment, are entered on the memorial wall of the Journey. The names of those thousands of victims who did not make it back home and whose fate is not known are not on the memorial wall. This wall is in memory of them as well. Part of the Memorial is an electronic memorial, where all persons who suffered in the communist terror in 1940–1991 are entered, including those who perished, who were extrajudicially repressed or groundlessly convicted by the Soviet Union’s occupying regime and were released, and also persons who were subject to deportation but whom the occupation authorities did not succeed in deporting. These photos were taken in May 2022.