Valga military festival recalls deportations and 1941 Summer War
Saturday 15th August 2026 on 20:15 in
Estonia
Valga’s 18th military history festival focused on the stories of people left behind in Estonia during the deportations and on the 1941 Summer War, ERR reported. Military history clubs staged a battle reenactment, while law enforcement agencies presented their work and equipment.
Actor and director Merili Viks, who is from Valga and studied in London, presented her play “One Did Not Come” for the third time at the festival. The performance explored the feelings of families and friends whose loved ones were sent to Siberia.
“Because there were also deportations in 1941, I approached it from that angle,” Viks said. She added that she wanted to show that every person involved in a war, whether a civilian or a soldier, has a story and a family.
The festival’s focus on deportations was followed by a battle reenactment in Valga city park recalling events from the 1941 Summer War. Front-Line Eesti staged it with military history clubs from Estonia, Latvia and Poland.
The reenactment included episodes in which Estonian and Latvian Forest Brothers fought together. Organisers acknowledged that the events did not take place in Valga, but said similar cooperation occurred near Pärnu, where Latvian partisans from Ainaži came to help fight the Red Army near Häädemeeste.
“The Summer War meant victorious battles for our men, Estonians and Latvians,” said Reimo Leol, head of the nonprofit Front-Line Eesti. He contrasted this with 1944, when the fighting involved more retreats, and said Estonian men also fought effectively against the Red Army alongside German forces in 1941.
Major Meelis Kivi, head of the Valga Military History Museum, organised the festival for the 18th time. The programme also included discussion of lessons from the war in Ukraine and an introduction to the major work “Between War and Peace,” which covers the Forest Brothers movement.
An evening of Ave Maria film music at Valga church commemorated those killed while fighting for Estonia. Kivi said the festival was dedicated to Estonia’s military history, with a particular focus on young people and encouraging them to explain Estonia’s historical choices to friends and acquaintances around the world.