Wednesday 20 February, SCCE continued the tradition of taking part in the celebrations of Estonia’s Independence Day. This year by going back to 1992 and the Estonian History Museum’s new exhibition Vali parem minevik! (Elect a better past!).

As 1992 began, Tallinn’s skyline looked very different compared with today. The only downtown high buildings were Hotel Olümpia and Hotel Viru, the Old Town Port had a lot of cranes and Russian warships could still be seen in the port area. Estonia’s restored independence was just a bit more than four months old and 1992 became a year filled with reforms, rationings, elections and events.

Our special guided tour took us to the rationing of food and goods in very empty store shelves. We could change Russian rubles to Estonia’s new currency Eesti Kroon. We followed the political campaigns (including the hilarious story about the Isamaa party’s campaign van) as well as the elections, where Lennart Meri became President and Mart Laar Prime Minister.

We took a look at videos from the 1992 Rock Summer Festival which had a comprehensive line up of local and international artists. Among them Bob Geldof, Bonnie Tyler, and from Sweden Dr. Alban.

As we sat down for a very nice concluding dinner this evening, we agreed that Estonia has really come very far during the 27 years that have passed since 1992!

The exhibition Vali parem minevik! will continue until 2 June this year and on behalf of the SCCE, I would like to thank the Estonian History Museum and our Tour Guide Maibel Napa for a couple of very interesting hours. My thanks also go to the museum’s restaurant for a very nice dinner.

Sincerely,

Kristiina Sikk - SCCE Ombudsman

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