Gallery: Students raise Estonian flag during Resistance Day commemorations

On Friday at sunrise, students from Tallinn School No. 21 raised the Estonian flag at the top of Pikk Hermann Tower to mark Resistance Day.
The Estonian flag was raised by Karl Rudolf Kunnas, Jako Julius Schmid and Gregori Visse, along with other members of Tallinn School No. 21's flag committee.
Representatives of the school also lit candles at the memorial to Estonian state leaders, who died or were killed as a result of the actions of occupying forces.
They later met with Riigikogu Speaker Lauri Hussar (Eesti 200).
The flag committee, which was founded in 1997, is made up of young volunteers from the school in grades 10 – 12. The committee's role is to hoist, guard and protect the school flag and, if necessary, the national flag, in accordance with the Estonian Flag Act. This was the tenth time that the flag committee has taken part in the flag-raising ceremony.
In the summer of 1940, when Soviet troops occupied Estonian territory, the school on Raua tänav, now named Tallinn School No. 21, became the temporary home of the Estonian Defense Forces' (EDF) communications battalion. It was there that the soldiers of the Republic of Estonia fought their only battle during World War 2.
Resistance Day has been marked as a national holiday in Estonia since 2007. On September 22, 1944, Estonia's resistance against the occupying Soviet forces and the fight for a free and democratic Estonia began. On September 18, 1944, the government of Otto Tief took office and declared Estonia neutral in the then ongoing war. However, Estonia was subsequently occupied again, by the Red Army. Resistance continued in various forms until Estonia's independence was restored in 1991.

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Editor: Michael Cole