Victims of Stalinism, Nazism Remembered
On August 23, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism (aka International Black Ribbon Day), a ceremony will be held at 13:00 near Tallinn's War of Independence Victory Monument.
Flowers will be placed at the foot of the monument, the Defense Forces orchestra will perform, and speeches will be delivered by the defense minister, an MEP, the Latvian ambassador and an archbishop, reported uudised.err.ee.
The program will later move to the Occupation Museum, where a historical documentary will be shown from 12:00-13:30, followed by a discussion of the pro-independence rallies held at Hirvepark in the 1980s. Hirvepark itself will host a traditional soapbox event at 15:30.
The internationally-observed day commemorates the day in 1939 when the signing of a non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany, also known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, decided the fate of millions and lead to communist and Nazi war crimes.
The day was officially recognized by the European Union in 2008 as "a Europe-wide day of remembrance for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes."
Robin Ilves