100 stories from the hiking route

1941—Vaivara orphanage was evacuated to Russia

Information

Topic

Wars and occupations

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.3737654

Longitude: 27.8798755

L-EST 97

x: 6588129.0
y: 720454.4

Location

Kauksi-Aegviidu Hiking route

In 1926, Vaivara Manor was readjusted into an orphanage under the direction of the famous Tallinn building company Treubeck. The renovated manor building had 58 high and airy rooms. The upper floor was intended for girl’s rooms and the orphanage director’s office and living quarters, the ground floor for boy’s rooms and educators’ living quarters. The orphanage that was opened in such a grand building impressed the media back then, and it was called the first perfect orphanage in Estonia. The reconstruction was finally completed in 1932.
Vaivara orphanage had it’s own farmstead with 24,56 ha of arable land, 34 ha of haying land and 28 ha of pasture. In 1934, the farm had 6 horses, 18 cows and 40 chickens. Pigs were also kept. The farm also had a few beehives and a greenhouse where in addition to vegetables and flowers grew 8 vinetrees. All the farmwork was done by the orphans. During summers, only children of weaker health remained in the orphanage while others were give into foster homes or worked as shepards in the neighborhing farms.
In August 1941, the children were evacuated from the orphanage to the Uralic Mountains and the retreating Russian army burned down the castle. One can read about the fates of the evacuated children in Russia from Ene Hion’s books Saatust ei valita (1990) and Valged varesed (2014).