Johannes Bach Rasmussen, founder and secretary of the Baltic Initiative and Network, recently contacted Estonian World Review,. He wrote to inform us of a new initiative that would very likely interest our readers.
Mr Rasmussen advised that the Initiative has a new website -
www.coldwarsites.net. Here one can read about the initiative and among others one can find small videos featuring Estonian people – two children of Forest Brothers and a former member of the underground schoolchildren’s organization,” Blue-Black-White”. You can also find descriptions on Estonian sites and museums connected to the Cold War period.
Their main objective is to create more mutual understanding among the countries around the Baltic Sea based on information about the newest history, mainly the Cold War period.
You can also download a guidebook, “Travel guide. Traces of the Cold War Period. The Countries around the Baltic Sea”, with 550 illustrations.
The contacts in Estonia are Kristjan Luts, director of the Estonian War Museum - General Laidoner Museum, and Helle Solnask of the Estonian Heritage Society.
The website notes that the main objective of the Initiative is to strengthen mutual understanding between the countries around the Baltic Sea through an exchange of information on the Cold War period. The idea is that history should be told from the historically valuable sites at which events took place. Relevant sites include, for example: military installations and towns, prisons and prison camps, partisan bunkers, execution sites, secret police offices, sculptures and architecture or simple squares or buildings where memorable events took place.
The information is normally handled by museums. The Initiative believes that recent history can be told, effectively, from these sites – it happened here - with the significant help of eyewitnesses. The main task up until now has been to initiate and participate in concrete, international activities and co-operation projects that can improve this mutual understanding. Their main activity thus far has been to support and participate in international cooperation projects that strengthen these activities.
All countries on the Baltic Sea are represented, not merely those affected by totalitarian rule.
