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President Ilves opened an international scientific conference, organised by the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory

09.06.2011

"History must be studied using honest and transparent methods,” told President Toomas Hendrik Ilves today, as he opened an international scientific conference entitled “The Shaping of Identity and Personality Under Communist Rule: History in the Service of the Totalitarian Regimes in Eastern Europe”, which is being organised by the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory.

The Estonian Head of State reminded those present that several archives, which are needed to study our recent history, are not located in the Baltic states and are unavailable for local research specialists; the public sources that were available back then did not disclose events, regardless of their background. Therefore, we must also investigate verbal sources, as long as they are still available.

According to President Ilves, understanding the events that took place in the 20th century is especially important for the young people who did not experience the events personally and who may construe many of the events, which took place in our recent past, as unbelievable.

“History has been politicised by those who lack the courage to face history,” told the Estonian Head of State. “The creation and maintenance of legends, not the honest investigation of history, is important for them, as an honest approach may demolish their self-justification.”

Only truth will help us to stand up against concealing, emphasised President Ilves, who initiated the establishment of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory back in 2008 and gave it the purpose of providing a substantial and objective overview of the situation of human rights in Estonia during the occupation by the Soviet Union.

The international scientific conference “The Shaping of Identity and Personality Under Communist Rule: History in the Service of the Totalitarian Regimes in Eastern Europe”, which takes place in Tallinn today and tomorrow, is being organised by the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory in co-operation with the Unitas Foundation.

Tomorrow, the international committee of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, consisting of acknowledged historians and human right specialists, and participated in by President Ilves, will convene in Kadriorg.

For additional information, please see: http://www.mnemosyne.ee/

 

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