While Estonia became independent in August 1991, it took another three years for the last soldiers from the former Soviet occupying regime to leave, and while this was done in a largely orderly manner, more recent events in Ukraine have given added poignancy to the Estonian experience, and a reminder that while Estonia is free of occupying armies' boots, some other countries are not so fortunate.

Drawing the dots between the two, long-term Estonian resident and U.S. national Chuck Czepyha has spearheaded a campaign to raise money for Ukraine while commemorating the events of 1994 – and more specifically a major rock concert which took place in Estonia.

"I first came to Estonia one week after the Russians left, and one souvenir I bought was the PAKA! concert poster," Czepyha told ERR News.

"Paka," a Russian word, could approximately be translated as "(good)bye," in this context.

"Realizing that some, mostly younger people, may not know the event's significance, I have included four articles on the back of the reprint poster—two in English, from The Guardian and AP, and two in Estonian," Czepyha went on.

"One of the Estonian articles is about the concert itself," he added.

The reprint poster is original size.

 The reprints will be on sale at selected outlets which so far are: Shimo Baar on Müürivahe 50, Pudel Baar in the Telliskivi district, and at AFTRWRK in Ülemiste City.

The poster can be obtained for a minimum €10 donation and the proceeds go to the Help99 charity.

Help 99 forms part of the NAFO meme phenomenon, and organizes other initiatives, such as "adopt a drone," and the Svjata Vatra patches fundraiser, named after the Estonian-Ukrainian folk-rock band.

Additionally, Help99 is also holding a campaign where all donations to the charity of €100 or more are entered into a raffle, with the poster being one of the prizes.

Shimo Baar is also having t-shirts made up of the poster and will be playing songs from all the bands who appeared at the 1994 concert the weekend of Friday and Saturday August 30 and 31.

Russian troops leaving Estonian soil was a prerequisite to Estonia joining the EU and NATO, which became a reality a decade later, in 2004 – indeed Russia's current invasion of Ukraine is likely in part aimed at forestalling Ukrainian membership of those two organizations, as it had already done in Georgia in 2008.

In the case of NATO, states at war cannot join the defensive organization.

On the other hand, once in, friendly troops and their equipment can, and in Estonia's case are, be deployed by mutual agreement on home turf.

In return, Estonia will bring to the alliance its own strengths – most notably with the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence (CCDCOE), based in Tallinn.

All a radically different state of affairs compared with being occupied by hostile troops from an autocratic nation in decline.

 In the immediate term, Russian troops leaving Estonia spelled the end of transit demands, military personnel straying far from their bases and other undesirable societal effects.

The withdrawal itself, as negotiated between Estonian President Lennart Meri and his Russian counterpart, Boris Yeltsin, was required to be conducted "early, orderly, completely."

These boxes were largely ticked, though the looting of bases was not unheard of, as well as the environmentally harmful pumping of aviation fuel into the ground.

Some facilities were left intact, for instance the nuclear reactors at Paldiski – now dormant but used, not for generating electricity for the grid, but as part of a land-based nuclear submarine training facility.

More controversially in the long view, no reparations have yet been paid by Russia for the occupation and also for the aftermath, for instance the long-running clean up of military ordnance at land and sea.

In that broader perspective, the departure of Russian troops from Estonian territory on that day at the end of August 1994 could be taken as the real end of World War Two and yet the ongoing invasion of Ukraine at present makes it hugely relevant to today's world as well.

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