Rukkilill – cornflower. Memorial to the victims of Stalinism. Tartu, Estonia.

“Never again” was tought of many people in Europe in 1945. Sadly, for many in eastern parts of the continent 1945 was just a beginning of another era of oppression behind The Iron Curtain. That’s what I’ve learned from history books. 

Events of 1991 I remember myself very well. I was 19, at Santahamina island, Helsinki, doing my military service – playing war games. On the other side of the Gulf of Finland people were stopping Red Army tanks – by bare hands. Before that year ended, Soviet Union was history too. “Never again”, thought many people then, myself included.

In 2015, we unfortunately see it happening again. We are witnessing certain geopolitical goals being advanced by violence and power-politics, we are hearing certain leaders telling lies to international community, time after time. Big disappointment for Europeans who have disappointed many times before.

Back to Tartu. Rukkilill monument is located next block to an old office building in which underground cells people were questioned, tortured, and sent to Siberia by KGB, security agency of Soviet Union. For this very same KGB, in former East Germany, worked also a young intelligence officer Vladimir Putin.