IT is easy to forget that although Jersey was liberated in May 1945, for many Europeans further to the east, their freedom was short-lived.
A guest of honour in Liberation Square on Saturday was His Excellency Sven Sakkov, Estonia’s ambassador to the UK.
Expressing the natural affinity “between two small nations”, Mr Sakkov described Saturday’s events as “beautiful”, with the themes of freedom and gratitude as relevant to his country as it is to Jersey.
That said, Estonia’s liberation did not arrive until 1991, and with Russian president Vladimir Putin continuing to threaten the country’s sovereignty, reconciliation and rapprochement with Estonia’s most recent occupier and neighbour is not on the cards.
Far from it: Estonia’s conscripted forces are fully focused on protecting its 180-mile frontier with Russia and the relatively tiny country is investing heavily in both its air defences and offensive capabilities, helped by the UK and other allies.
It is a lesson that liberty cannot be taken for granted and needs to be defended.
Talking to the JEP from the government’s headquarters in Union Street, Mr Sakkov said: “I was really honoured to be invited here for Liberation Day. It was a beautiful commemoration and ceremony; I think you do this very well.
“We have our own way of commemorating historically important events: in March, for example, we commemorate a big deportation from Estonia to Siberia in 1949, when 20,000 Estonians were taken from their homes by Soviet occupation authorities and corralled into cattle wagons. Many did not come back.
“We had a population of one million at the time so one in 50 people were deported.”
He added: “For half of Europe, May 1945 was about liberation and rebuilding lives and economies but for the other half, it was the start of 46 years of domination, occupation, repression, and political prisoners”.
Although its official Independence Day came in 1918, Estonia’s own ‘Liberation Day’ is marked as 24 August 1991, when it finally shook off the shackles of the Soviet Union. That said, many western powers including Great Britain, did not officially recognise communist rule over the country.
Mr Sakkov said: “After a hiatus of Soviet economic repression and the stupidity of a communist economics system, Estonia was able to start developing economically again. We still have some way to go but, as an example, in 1939, Estonian and Finnish GDP per capital was pretty much the same.
“In 1991, when we gained independence, the difference was 17 times to the advantage of Finland. Now, it is just 1.4 times.”
One contributing factor to that narrowing has been the digitalisation of the Estonian economy. It has been estimated that every Estonian resident saves two weeks of time a year because every interaction is processed in a safe, encrypted way online. It saves the country 2% of GDP every year by eliminating the bureaucracy, such as queues and telephone calls, sitting between a citizen and the government.
Mr Sakkov said: “This digital infrastructure has also helped to facilitate the growth of tech companies in Estonia. We take great pride in the fact that we are home to at least ten ‘unicorns’ [which is a privately held startup company with a current valuation of US$1 billion or more] which makes us number two globally, in terms of unicorns per capita. Tech is by far the fastest growing sector in the Estonian economy.”
It is something he hopes Jersey and Estonia can continue to work together on, as well as develop potential tourist links between the two jurisdictions.
