"... Then, in 1965, at age forty, Ruuben was finally able to return to Estonia. But he was disappointed to realize that the world had changed without him. His sister, whom he had last seen when she was six, met him with two children. And even worse was the fact that most of those in their twenties knew nothing of the deportations, political arrests or the Forest Brothers’ resistance. “Carefully, with ironclad consistency, the Soviets had successfully brainwashed people. They weren’t allowed to know anything about freedom, so anything mentioned in literature, on monuments – not to mention people themselves – had to be totally destroyed. Even as babies were learning to speak, they were told about Stalin, his accomplishments, and that we were indebted to him.”

“Older people who did remember were afraid to even whisper, since any wrong word would return them to the slave camps. So, I took it upon myself to explain what had actually happened to those whom I met, so that they could be enlightened. Such nice discussions led the authorities to ask me whether I wanted to return to the camps. I responded that I had said nothing wrong. They claimed I was harassing people. I said that was their problem, and that I’m not a criminal, I haven’t attacked anyone. But times had changed in 1967-1968, and I continued to share facts until the Baltic Chain and Singing Revolution, when the feelings of unity and desire for freedom came alive.”

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