Day Trip to Paldiski

Paldiski is a Baltic Sea port in north-western Estonia.  Originally it was a Swedish settlement known as Ragervik in 1783.  In 1962, Paldiski became a Soviet Navy submarine training base and hosted over 16,000 military personnel.  They also built two nuclear reactors that were, at the time, the largest in all of the Soviet Union.  Because of its importance, Paldiski became a closed city and completely closed off to civilians.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Soviets began to withdraw from Estonia and by 1994, Paldiski was reopened to civilians again.  Left behind were several military barracks and other structures, some of which, have remained untouched to this day.  The nuclear reactors were shutdown and decommissioned and the fuel was sent back to Russia.  Paldiski is only a 50 minute drive from Tallinn and some people have found it much cheaper to rent there and commute to work in Tallinn on the train.  Our main purpose was to allow Sister Allred to do her visiting teaching to a young family who recently moved there.  The picture that follow are some of the things we saw there.  We will go back again, I am sure.

The wind was very strong and about blew my hat off

The Paldiski shelf, it abruptly ends at the sea.

Lighthouse at the point

White caps on the Baltic

This Russian Orthodox Church

was originally built in 1851

but was recently renovated

Evacuation of Ingrid Finns

During the first months of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union (June 1941), Germany had conquered the greater portion of an area in Russia (around St. Petersburg) called Ingria.  This area was inhabited by about 65,000 Finns. Because of famine, early winter and the ravages of war, the Ingrid Finns faced starvation.  Not willing to supply food for the Finns, German authorities proposed to resettle the people back to Finland.  Initially, Finland rejected the idea but later changed their mind by the end of 1942.  By this time, Germany no longer agreed to the plan and agreed to send only 12,000 Finns.  However, many more managed to escape and traversed through Estonia to refugee camps.  One of these camps was in Paldiski.  Conditions were harsh and about 2,000 Finns died there due to sickness in the camps. Eventually 63,000 Finns were resettled in Finland.  After the armistice was signed in September of 1944, Finland was obligated to extradite the Ingrid Finns back to the Soviet Union.  This memorial is to commemorate the Ingrid Finns who died here while waiting passage to Finland.

Memorial to Ingrian Finns

This house has no historical significance, we just liked it a lot