Estonian flags to be flown at half-mast on Tuesday to commemorate 1941 Soviet deportation

TALLINN - Tuesday, June 14, is the Day of Mourning in Estonia to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the Soviet mass deportation of June 1941, the day will be marked by all state and local government agencies and legal persons governed by public law hoisting the national flag half-mast.

Everyone else may also hoist the flag to commemorate the occasion. The flag is hoisted no later than 8 a.m. and lowered at 10 p.m.

On June 14, 1941 the Soviet occupation authorities deported more than 10,000 people, of whom 80 percent were women, children and old persons, from Estonia to Siberia. Around 6,000 of the Estonians deported on that day perished through cold, hard labor, hunger and diseases or were executed. The day or mourning is held to commemorate the victims of repressions.

Starting from 9 a.m. on Tuesday, an installation, titled "Pisarate vagun" ("Wagon of Tears"), will be displayed on Freedom Square in Tallinn. At 4 p.m. a commemorative ceremony and concert will start at the memorial to victims of Communism in Tallinn's Maarjamae area.

Mourning flags are hoisted at sunrise or at 8 a.m. and lowered at 10 p.m. so that the bottom edge of the flag is located at the middle of the flagpole. On hand-carried flags, a 50-mm-wide black ribbon is secured to the top of the flagstaff, both ends of which reach the edge of the fabric along the length of the flag.