In June of 1988 hundreds of thousands of
Estonians (as many as 300,000 or one-third of the Estonian population
by some estimates) gathered for five nights in a row in the capital
city of Tallinn to sing forbidden or politically-risky folk songs.
Similar song festivals were held that summer in Latvia and Lithuania.
This “Singing Revolution,” as it became known, was an important step
toward the independence of the Baltic states from the Soviet Union in
August 1991.
The song festivals galvanized and popularized the nascent resistance
movement by using powerful folk cultural symbols. Many participants
came to the stadium wearing traditional dress and they sang songs that
emphasized their Estonian identity. Under a regime that had used the
homogenization of culture as a tool of repression, the festivals gave
Estonians a chance to stand up publicly as Estonians rather than Soviet
citizens. The presence of 300,000 compatriots took some of the risk out
of such a stance.
The festivals were organized by the Estonian Heritage Society (Eesti
Muinsuskaitse Selts), an unofficial organization that took advantage of
the relative openness of the glasnost era to push for public
celebration of important national anniversaries and to revive key
pre-Soviet national symbols, such as the blue-black-and-white Estonian
flag and the national anthem. In the nearly-bloodless battle for
independence in the Baltics, these symbols became the most powerful
weapons.
Singing traditional songs in public to advocate for cultural rights
