The Singing Revolution (2006)

I just saw this documentary about how the people of Estonia "fought" the ethnic Russians and the Soviets to regain their independence. The film said that singing has helped Estonians to survive under the many different foreign occupiers (the Russians, Germans and Soviets) throughout their history.

When the Soviets made a pact with the Nazis and invaded Estonia (along with Latvia, Lithuania, parts of Poland and Moldova) they - the Soviets - arrested and deported thousands to Siberian Gulags. Then from 1941-1944 the Nazis occupied the country (killing and arresting many others.) The Soviets came back in 1944 and stayed until 1991. They continued their arrests and deportations and also used a policy of Russification to bring the Russian language, views on socialism/communism and ethnic Russians to Estonia. In 1940 ethnic Russians made up around 1% of the population of Estonia and in 1991 it was 40%.

The Estonians used their singing to help promote Estonian culture, language and history and to bring ordinary Estonians to defy (non-violently) the Soviet Communist Central Government in Moscow. Unlike in Latvia and Lithuania, where the Soviets sent in the military and used weapons against innocent people (Estonia came very close to the same violence,)but thanks in part to Boris Yeltsin defeating the August 1991 Communist Coup in Moscow Estonia regained its independence without violence - hence the name: "The Singing Revolution."

There was some footage in the film where a reporter is asking an ethnic Russian in Estonia about why she is demonstrating to keep the Soviet Union and she said that it was because the "Estonians are very sly people who will be nice to you in your face and stab you in your back." Apparently, that woman does not know anything about Russian or Soviet history (where ethnic Russians have enjoyed countless privileges throughout the Russian Empire and the USSR.)Plus she was in Estonian territory (the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic) and showed both the world and Estonians how arrogant ethnic Russians in the Soviet Union really were - although I'm sure the Estonians already knew that. If she didn't like it she could have always moved back to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.

There was also some footage where Interfront (an ethnic Russian group in Estonia) tried to storm the Estonian Parliament and arrest all the pro-independence Estonians inside. The Estonian Prime Minister went on the air and told the people what was happening and within minutes thousands of ordinary Estonians came to the Parliament building. The Russians were trapped inside while thousands of Estonians surrounded them. In the end, the Estonians let the Russians leave the building with no blood being shed. This shows the true characteristics of both groups. The ethnic Russians became violent for no reason and wanted to use violence to get their goals while the Estonians were calm and collected and used non-violent methods to achieve their goals. That part of the film was the most dramatic for me.