Deportation Stories – Matti Päts
The Singing Revolution Educational Content • 6m 20s
Matti Päts is the grandson of Estonian President Konstantin Päts. When the Soviets occupied Estonia in 1939, President Päts, his children and grandchildren became the second family to be deported to the Gulag (the first being Estonian Army General Laidoner’s family). At 8 years old, Matti was sent to a Soviet orphanage along with his younger brother, who died of starvation. Hear his family’s story.
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