Collections

Digital collections

The museum began assembling its collections in 1998. Today they boast around 40,000 objects.

We invite everyone to examine our digital collections. In them you will find items and stories that help you understand how Estonian society has changed in the last 50 years – and you may even discover some interesting information about your forebears!

Click HERE for access to Entu, the museum’s digital collection. 

Terms of use of collections

Almost every museum object in the database has a low-resolution image attached to it, which can be freely used so long as you adhere to two requirements:

• the image must not be amended (e.g. removing the information bar); and
• when using the image on social media or in a presentation, you must add the URL to the object number. For example, if you use the image for poster 000681/000, the URL https://vabamu.entu.ee/public-fond/entity-91445/000681-000-trykis-plakat must be added. 
  
  

Digital images of museum objects may not be used for commercial purposes, in printed media or in souvenir production.

Orders

To obtain a high-quality file of a museum object or to inquire about the commercial use of an image, please contact collection manager Liisi Rannast-Kask by e-mailing liisi@vabamu.ee.

Collection principles

Vabamu focuses on four main areas in its collection work: occupation, resistance, restoration and freedom.

• Occupation

Our collection is well-stocked with materials from the occupation period. Now we are focusing on collecting items, documents and memorabilia that highlight the peculiarities of the occupation. In the future, these objects will help explain the meaning of such things as ‘deficits’ and ‘under-the-counter commodities’. Do you know what kind of institution Glavlit was?

• Repressions and resistance
  

We are continuing to collect materials connected to repressions and resistance. We are very interested in hand-crafted items made, documents (such as exemption certificates and letters home) dating from, photos taken and diaries kept during deportations and in prison camps.

• Recovery

We collect items, documents and stories related to the revolutionary times of the 1980s and 1990s – also known as the Singing Revolution – and to the restoration of independence. Feel free to share them with us.

• Freedom

This collection theme includes materials and stories related to the development of independent Estonia and the meaning of freedom in the minds of people. What does freedom mean to you?

Collecting campaigns

Vabamu invites everyone to think about their family history and share their stories of items connected to deportations or Siberia so as to keep the past alive and work together to create an exhibition entitled ‘History in Things’ (in Estonian). Take a look at the exhibition and send us your own stories by e-mailing info@vabamu.ee.


Lists of victims of communist crimes

The database of the lists of victims of communist crimes, which is administered by the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, can be found HERE.

Books (in Estonian) about repressed people compiled by the Estonian Memento Union can be found HERE.