The Estonian War Museum, a century-old center with very good historical pieces

@ElentirENG ES 6·30·2024 · 23:55 0

Estonia is a small country that has one of NATO's smallest armies, but their military history has been very extensive.

The Parolan Panssarimuseo, an exceptional armored vehicle museum in Finland
The tanks and other contents of the National Museum of Military History of Luxembourg

It must be remembered that in the last century, with a modest Army of 19,000 men, 70 field guns and 230 machine guns, Estonia was the first country to defeat the Red Army, during its War of Independence between November 1918 and February 1920 (in July and August 1920 the newborn Soviet dictatorship would suffer new defeats in Lithuania, Poland and Latvia). Estonia thus began its first stage as an independent nation, which would come to an end with the Soviet invasion of June 1940.

Before the Estonian War of Independence ended, Estonia founded its first military museum in the former Viimsi mansion in 1919. The museum managed to bring together a wide collection of military, historical and artistic objects that were looted and partially destroyed by the Soviets during the occupation from 1940 onwards. After the independence of Estonia in 1990 the museum began a second stage, in which the Viimsi mansion had to be subjected to a restoration process due to its deterioration. The museum, called Eesti Sõjamuuseum (Estonian War Museum) was reestablished in 2001, being an official institution dependent on the State.

Nowadays, the museum is not only dedicated to exhibiting military objects, but also organizes historical reenactments, some of which represent episodes of the war that the small Estonian Army was capable of. to defeat the Red Army. You can see some of its contents here.

The largest piece in the museum is the Armored Train No. 7 "Wabadus", which was added to its collection at the end of May. It is a recreation of one of the six armored trains that the Estonian Army had during its War of Independence.

A Soviet T-34-85 tank from World War II.

A Sturmgeschütz III assault gun. It is represented as a German vehicle from World War II, but the one preserved in the museum was operated by the Finnish Army.

The museum's military equipment hangar has vehicles from different eras, including some used by the Estonian Army after its independence in 1990.

A recreation of Camp Kratt (Camp Bastion) of the Estonian Army during the Afghanistan War, in the Afghan province of Helmand. This facility includes a sauna that Estonian soldiers used in camp and which was brought back to Estonia at the end of that deployment.

The museum also includes pieces from the World War II, including uniforms and weapons from the German Army and the Red Army.

The museum's artillery exhibition includes 24 cannons and three mortars that were donated by the Finnish War Museum.

Uniforms of the Estonian Army. We see four uniforms from the current era and, on the right, a uniform from the interwar period.

A Mercedes Unimog truck of the Estonian Army, used in Afghanistan, next to a mannequin with a uniform used by Estonian soldiers in that operation.

You can find more information about this museum on its official website: esm.ee.

If you want to see more, recently the channel Rula published this video in which it goes through this museum:

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Photos: Eesti Sõjamuuseum.