Estonia to Open First International Victims of Communism Museum

Paul Goble

            Staunton, March 2 – The Estonian government has announced plans to open an International Museum for the Victims of Communism in Tallinn’s Patarei fortress. Used as both a coastal artillery facility and a prison, the museum, already familiarly referred to as the Red Terror Museum, is to become a center for research on the subject.

            Martin Andreller, its curator, says that the museum will host “international research into the fates of the countries that were occupied and whose peoples suffered as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and then making this research available to the public” (rus.err.ee/916049/v-batarejnoj-kreposti-budet-mezhdunarodnyj-muzej-pamjati-zhertv-kommunizma).

            What makes this development intriguing is that it not only is in addition to the Occupation museums which already exist in Tallinn and other Baltic capitals but also represents part of an international effort to open victims of communism museums in various countries so that no one will forget what the communist regimes did.

            Among the capitals where such a museum is being planned is Washington, D.C.