100 stories from the hiking route

1924 – Harju-Risti memorial

Information

Topic

Wars and occupations

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.23058611

Longitude: 23.99838611

L-EST 97

x: 6565801.3
y: 499907.9

Location

Peraküla-Aegviidu Hiking route

Ants Piip, prime minister of the Republic of Estonia at the time, initiated the establishment of memorials for the Estonian War of Independence by calling a meeting on 8 November 1920 to discuss the commemoration of those that perished in the war. A decision was made that memorials had to be established all across Estonia.
And thus, memorial stones and plaques appeared in almost all rural municipality centres and towns, as well as partly in schools and clubhouses. This endeavour was funded mostly by donations and fundraisers. According to historian Mati Strauss, a total of 170 memorials related to the War of Independence were established in Estonia after the war.
Most of these memorials were destroyed during the Soviet occupation, some twice – first in 1940–1941 and then after the end of the Second World War. Some of the memorials were restored during the German occupation but were later destroyed again during the Soviet occupation. The Harju-Risti memorial for the War of Independence is – along with the Vormsi, Pilistvere and Järva-Peetri memorials – one of the few memorials for the War of Independence that remained intact during the whole of the soviet era.
The memorial is made of Vasalemma marble and surrounded by a forged fence, the author was a local man called Emil Weiss.