New World War II permanent exhibition and an armoured train at the Estonian War Museum
The World War II exhibition focuses on the battles in Estonia in 1941 and 1944 and the fate of Estonia and Estonians in the war. The exhibition focuses on the lives of three Estonian men during World War II: they graduated from the Estonia Military Academy together, but the whirlwind of war led them to fight in different formations under foreign flags.
The curator of the exhibition, historian Sandra Niinepuu, said that the biographies are fictional, but they give a true picture of Estonian men in World War II. “As a country, Estonia did not participate in World War II, but Estonians did. Young men had to go to battle under foreign flag and wearing foreign uniform – some in a hope to protect the homeland, some forcibly,” said Niinepuu. “There were no good choices for Estonians in this war.”
The permanent exhibition of World War II is accompanied by a new temporary exhibition of World War II weapons, where private collectors Aku Sorainen, Kristjan Bachman and Leo Tammiksaar have displayed almost all the handguns, machine guns and anti-tank weapons used in the battles on Estonian soil in 1944 from their collections; a large amount of pioneer equipment, trench art, rare flags and more. The exhibition will remain open until the spring 2025.
Another new exhibition at the Estonian War Museum is armoured train No. 7 “Wabadus” (Freedom), which is modeled on Estonian armoured trains of the War of Independence era. It is stationed in the forecourt of the museum. 50 metres of genuine wooden sleeper track were built in front of the manor for the train. The armoured train, built to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia and the Estonian War of Independence, travelled the Estonian railways throughout 2019 as a mobile exhibition for the War Museum and even made its way to Latvia. The train consists of an artillery wagon, a machine gun wagon, an infantry assault wagon and an ambulance wagon. The train is accessible with a museum ticket during museum opening hours in summer season.
