PALDISKI
22 min.
2006
b&w
images : Eléonore de Montesquiou
original music : Liis Jürgens
Paldiski, a coastal resort near Tallinn, was destroyed during WWII.
During the Soviet period, from 1944 until Estonia’s independence in 1991, Paldiski became a Soviet military training centre for nuclear submarines. The town was closed, even to the Estonian people and did not figure –or only rarely- in film, photo and map archives in Estonia.
Since 1991, the city has been open and has reoriented its outlook. After Estonia became an independent state, the Russian army walked out of Paldiski, and these new circumstances meant that the working conditions changed in no time and the very reason for this city's existence vanished. The Russian people who had settled there became a minority, unable to speak the official language, in an independent Estonia.
There are today two parallel systems of education, one in Estonian, one in Russian, and many of the inhabitants of Paldiski work in Tallinn. The city is becoming better integrated in the socio-economical life of the country.