The Singing Revolution
How a nation used singing to keep their culture alive and spark a rebellion

The Singing Revolution tells the story of a dark time in Estonian history. Beginning in 1939 with an invasion by the Soviet Union, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and again by The Soviets at the close of World War II, for more than 50 years the Estonian people lived through mass executions, deportation, banishment to the Siberian Gulags, and absolute control of all forms of self-expression. Yet the national identity of Estonians somehow survived largely, the film contends, through the Estonian peoples' love of singing. Every five years, thousands of Estonians had a tradition of gathering in a vast 20,000 voice choir to sing folk songs. In 1947, a new song was introduced to the program, a song of defiance that somehow got by the Soviet censors. The Soviets didn't like it, but as one participant observes in the film, when 20,000 people all start singing the same song, it's impossible to shut them up.

It is at the festivals, and, later, through mass rallies based around protest songs by a popular singer that the Estonians can truly speak their mind. They open their mouths and they can't be stopped. The sound of all those voices is powerful.

Because of its trailer and marketing, I think many people might be expecting to hear more singing than is actually in the film. There is plenty of good music, but the bulk of the film is a well-made documentary about a dark time in the history of a country I think most people know very little about. I found all this information very interesting and well presented, and my biggest quibble with the film is that same marketing which, to me, suggests that the Estonians just kept singing until they were free. This is naive and also a disservice to the many other acts of collective and individual courage which played just as much a part of the story.

However, it can't be denied that the singing, joining all those voices in unison, was very much a driving factor in the eventual triumph of hope and courage over the forces of repression and tyranny.