14/06/2026
A piece of ’s history came home today.
On Estonian Flag Day, the Estonian National Museum received the flag of the President of the Republic – a relic saved from Kadriorg Palace in September 1944 as Soviet forces closed in on Tallinn.
Then 14-year-old Estonian Scout Eugen Vilder helped take the flag down. It was cut in two: one half disappeared, the other travelled with Vilder as he fled Estonia with his mother and younger sister, first to Germany, then to Australia.
For more than 80 years, it remained hidden in exile.
Today, it is back in Estonia.
More than a flag, it is a witness to courage, loss, exile and the continuity of a country that occupation could not erase.
The relic was presented to the museum by the Estonian foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna.
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Photo by the Estonian foreign ministry.
