Estonia commemorates June 1941 deportations

On June 14th Estonia commemorates and mourns the victims of the June deportation. On June 14 in 1941, the Soviet authorities deported over 10,000 persons, including children and the elderly, to Siberia. Such crimes must never have a place in the world and right now we stand against the genocide that Russia implements today in Ukraine.

The fresh memory of the deportations and terror of the first Soviet occupation (from June 1940 to July 1941) was the main reason 75 000-80 000 people fled from Estonia in the late summer and autumn of 1944, as the Red Army advanced into and occupied Estonia again.

In their adopted countries (from Sweden, to North America, to Australia and elsewhere) the war refugees formed various organisations of expatriate Estonians that focused on preserving Estonian culture and fighting for independence, forging the global Estonian community that exists and still flourishes to this day.

Gallery: New names added to Tallinn's Victims of Communism memorial

Photos: Victims of June 1941 deportations commemorated in Tallinn