Estonian former political prisoner who survived the Soviet camps and co-organized the first open rally of the Baltic independence movement
The Hirvepark demonstration, Ahonen said, 'broke open the path for the expression of opinion,' an historic turn he called 'the icebreaker effect.'
Heiki Ahonen was born in 1956 in Pärnu, Estonia. His grandfather was shot by the NKVD, his father imprisoned in the camps, and his mother deported to Siberia: every member of his family was repressed. Joining the underground resistance in 1977, he distributed samizdat and fed information on Soviet human rights violations to Western journalists; convicted of anti-Soviet agitation in 1983, he served five years in the Perm labour camps. Released in early 1987, he co-organised the Hirvepark rally that August, the first open mass demonstration demanding disclosure of the Nazi-Soviet pact's secret protocols, breaking the dam for the Baltic independence movement; then was forcibly expelled by the KGB, spent a decade in exile, and came home as the founding director of the Museum of Occupations.
Career Timeline
- 1977–1983Underground resistance, samizdat distribution, human rights documentation
- 1983–1987Five years in Perm labour camps (anti-Soviet agitation)
- 1987.08Co-founder of MRP-AEG, co-organiser of Hirvepark rally
- 1988.01Co-founder, Estonian National Independence Party (ERSP)
- 1988–1989Deputy chairman, Help Center for Estonian Political Prisoners (Stockholm)
- 1989–1998Director of Estonian service, Radio Free Europe (Munich/Prague)
- 2003–2012Founding director, Museum of Occupations, Tallinn