May 9th, 2005
19 min.
2006
Color/ Sound
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
translation: Elnara Taidre with Robin Hazlehurst
The concert and ceremony took place in Sillamäe, near the Russian-Estonian border.
Sillamäe was a secret closed city for nuclear research during Soviet times.
These commemorations aimed to celebrate
the 60th anniversary of the Soviet Army's victory
over the German troops, on May 9th, 1945.
May 9th, 1945 is considered
either as the beginning of the Soviet occupation in Estonia,
or as the day the country was freed from fascism.
The concert was held at Dom Kultuur, the town's cultural centre, in Sillamäe. The participants are inhabitants of Sillamäe.
The veterans march started in Sillamäe and ended in Sinimäe, the “Blue Hills”. On these heights 100 000 men were killed in 1944, on the Soviet-German front. Estonian soldiers had to fight on both sides.
Nowadays, the cemeteries and memorials to World War II - both Russian and German - are located on Sinimäe heights.
Packed buses took us from Sillamäe to Sinimäe. The people present that day were mostly old people and young children since it was not a national holiday in Estonia.