Tallinn Trip – Estonian History Museum (Old Estonian Flag)

The museum isn’t quite sure, but they think this might have been the flag that was flown at the proclamation of the Republic of Estonia in Pärnu on 23 February 1918. It was discovered in 1969 in the attic of a house where stage manager Aleksey Rodyonov lived and he was one of three men who helped a flag on the roof of the theatre when the Manifesto of Independence was read out from the balcony of the Endia Theatre in the city. The flag was hastily made and the museum notes that the age of the cloth gives reason to believe that it was the tricolour that flew at that important moment in Estonia’s history. The flag design is only from the late nineteenth century, but it had become the flag of the nation by the time it became independent. It serves as a tangible and interesting link to a pivotal event in Estonian history and symbolises the nation’s enduring pursuit of self-determination and freedom.

There was a fire in the Endia Theatre in 1944 and it was never repaired, but its symbolic link to Estonian independence was important and so the Soviets blew it up in 1961. Today there is a monument in its place and the old balcony has been recreated and it’s possible that this flag was there at the time. There’s an image of the theatre at https://visitestonia.com/en/monument-to-declaring-the-independence-of-the-republic-of-estonia and so that’s another place I’ve decided that I want to go…..