Estonia at 108: Many Reasons to Remember

Estonia’s 108th anniversary of independence is soon approaching. Let me take you on a short stream-of-consciousness journey. 

All four of my grandparents were born in the 19th century and were young adults at the time of the nation’s birth. I got to know three of them; however, I’m not aware that they had ever discussed that moment of independence in my presence. I was too young to comprehend such weighty matters. I’m sure they discussed the politics of the day, and indeed, I heard very interesting snippets of their stories from before and after that historic moment. My mother’s father, after all, was in the nascent Estonian army and was seriously wounded in a military operation soon thereafter. Thanks to his wound, he later met my grandmother in Tallinn as he was convalescing. That was the silver lining.

During the time I knew my grandparents, especially my mother’s parents in Sweden, I began to appreciate and understand Estonia a little more. A generation later, my parents were both born in a free Estonia, but they did not experience life there as adults. At least not until they visited many decades later.

It’s hard to believe that I’ve lived over 60% of the time since Estonia first declared independence. Of those 108 years, Estonia has been de facto free for 56 of them. In turn, I’ve experienced a free and independent Estonia for 34 of my 66 years, which is twelve years longer than my grandparents experienced during the first period of the First Republic, 1918-1940.