Collections
The Estonian War Museum is a research centre for culture and military history whose main activities in addition to exhibiting include collecting, preserving and researching Estonian military history. The museum is commissioned with collecting materials and memories documenting Estonian military history and with preserving, conserving and restoring the registered museum exhibits.
Donating
If you wish to donate an item to the Estonian War Museum, please contact kogud@esm.ee.
To start a donation process the following data is required: name, contact information, personal code. Acceptable is also a cover letter, that contains personal data of the person making the donation, a statement about the wish to donate and a signature.
The decision about accepting the donation is made by a commission. If the donation is refused by the comission, then the item(s) are returned to the owner.
Researching
The collections of the Estonian War Museum are continuously digitized and available for search in the Estonian Museums Public Portal MuIS. To access an item on-site, please contact kogud@esm.ee
Requests are processed within 30 calendar days.
Uniforms
The War Museum's uniform collection is the best collection of historical military uniforms in Estonia. The collection includes uniforms from the First World War, historical uniforms of the Estonian Defence Forces and modern uniforms. Estonian uniforms worn in the Soviet Army, the US Army and the Canadian Army.
Phaleristics
This collection contains several unique personal collections including the collection of decorations of General Johan Laidoner, Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces.
Archival collection
The archival collection of the War Museum include memoirs, a collection of articles on military history, a collection of maps, documents, certificates, diplomas, posters and many more.
Photo collection
The photo collection is the most used collection of the War Museum. The collection includes original photos from the Estonian War of Independence, photographs of the Estonian Defence Forces 1920-1940 and of Estonians in the Soviet Union's armed forces.
Armoury
The collection of the Estonian War Museum includes more than 930 weapons and weaponry related items. Most of them are on display in the permanent exhibition of the War Museum or in military museums elsewhere in Estonia. The main focus of the collection is on armaments that were used and produced in Estonia, such as the Estonian armament of the War of Independence and the products of the Arsenal factory.
Defence League History Collection
Since 2020, the Estonian War Museum's collections include the history collection of the Estonian Defence League. The task of the Defence League History Collection is to collect, preserve and exhibit the history of the Defence League.
Museum of the Estonian Military Academy collection
Collection of the Museum is focused on the history of Estonian military education: instructional materials, documents, photos, objects, weapons, films, maps, memories, etc.. The museum’s badge, photo, object and publication collections contain altogether more than 10,000 items of museum pieces today, only a part of which are simultaneously exhibited.
History
The collections of the Estonian War Museum – General Laidoner Museum are new. The War Museum was established in January 1919 during the Estonian War of Independence. The extensive collections of the Museum of the Estonian War of Independence, later renamed the War Museum, were destroyed in the course of looting begun in 1940 and systematic pro‑Soviet destruction launched in 1950. Only single items remained from the earlier collections, which have now been deposited with the collection of the Estonian History Museum. Photographs were fortunately preserved in larger quantities and have now been deposited with the Estonian Film Archives (see: Meediateek).
After Estonia had restored its independence, a museum dedicated to General Laidoner, the Commander‑in‑Chief of the Estonian War of Independence was opened in 1994 in Viimsi.
Restoration
The War Museum was restored in 2001, and the General Laidoner Museum in Viimsi was merged with the War Museum. At present, the War Museum collects, preserves, researches and exhibits Estonian military history and heritage, and records the history of the Estonian Defence Forces. When adding to the museum collections, we examine the relevance of the items, visual objects and artefacts for Estonian military history.
The War Museum actively collects materials related to Estonian military history. We are interested in materials that would add to exhibitions on earlier military history and on the Soviet period. We also collect materials from abroad that are linked to Estonian military history.
Read more in Yearbook 2018.