ESTONIAN SYMPHONIC MUSIC. THE FIRST CENTURY 1896-1996.
However, at the end of the decade it became obvious that the reforms had not been
effective. At that time, one could observe a new aggravation of the internal political
situation.
The new leaders, after a short period of liberalisation, took a turn towards
conservatism and from there to regression. Political persecution started again, as did the
Russification in other Soviet republics. During those years, the so-called Brezhnev’s
doctrine was molded: the despotic supremacy of the Soviet Union to control all of its
East-European members, both economically and militarily. The end of the “thaw”
became evident in August 1968 when the Soviet military forces brutally suppressed the
new liberal communist tide in Czechoslovakia.
The population of Estonia was incessantly growing on the account of
immigrants from the East, on average 9,000 people per year1.
The suppression of critical opposition, revived political trials, created a
annaabi.ee 
