The dissident architect who walked out of a Soviet prison camp and opened Estonia's political road to independence
On 23 August 1987 at noon, Hirvepark stood empty until the stroke of twelve, when two to five thousand people suddenly filled it. Parek recalled: 'Unbelievable! Something had to be done.'
The daughter of an Estonian officer, she was deported to Siberia at seven and spent four years in exile. Working as an architect, she was arrested in 1983 for anti-Soviet samizdat activity and imprisoned for four years; seven months after her release she co-founded the MRP-AEG and organised the Hirvepark rally of August 1987. That rally became the starting point of the Baltic independence movement, and the following year she was elected chair of the ERSP, Estonia's first non-communist party. After independence she served as interior minister in the first post-Soviet government, resigning in the 1993 Pullapää crisis, and later converted to Catholicism, living at Pirita Convent while leading the drive to build a memorial to the victims of Stalinism.
Career Timeline
- 1963–1983Worked as an architect at design institutes in Tallinn and Tartu
- 1983–1987Arrested for anti-Soviet agitation, imprisoned in Dubravlag women's political section
- 1987Co-founded the MRP-AEG, organised the Hirvepark rally
- 1988–1992Chair of the Estonian National Independence Party (ERSP)
- 1990–1992Member of the Congress of Estonia
- 1992Presidential candidate, fourth place with 4.3% of the vote
- 1992–1993Minister of the Interior of Estonia (Mart Laar cabinet)
- 1997–Co-founder and head of Caritas Eesti; resident at Pirita Convent