The Estonian War of Independence (0)

The Estonian War of Independence
The Estonian War of Independence began with the attack of the Red Army of the Soviet Russia on Narva on the 28 November 1918 and lasted until a ceasefire on the 3 January 1920 (juridically until the 2 February 1920). In the War of Independence, Estonia received support from the UK, Finland , Latvia and the White Russian Northwestern Army.
In the defence of the independent statehood of Estonia in the battlefield participated at least 130 students and 11 teachers of the Gymnasium for Boys , which was the name for Gustav Adolf Grammar School at that time. Johan Laidoner has said that it was the schoolboys who brought “the belief , that we would win and that is the greatest gift they have given to the Republic during its birth .” (point to the list of students on the slide.) The youngest students of our school in the War of Independence were 15 and the oldest, Martin Hendrikson, celebrated his 21st birthday in 1918, making the average age for our schoolboys 17 years .
After a few weeks of training for troops, boys went to war with the battalion for students, the armored trains, the naval battalion and naval landing. Some went to the machine -gun company, the Estonian Defence League , Kalevi Malev or straight to battle . The teachers formed their own unit . (point to the picture of teachers)
In December 1918, the youngest of the teachers in our school at that time joined the battalion for teachers in the Tallinn’s Defence League and went to war on the 14th January 1919. The unit of teachers took part in battles in the southern parts of Estonia and in the areas of Latvia. The unit was dismissed and the teachers returned to schoolwork in March 1919. The school year continued where it was left off.
In the picture, amongst others , sits Aleksis Kuusik (point to the bearded guy in the second row, second from the left), who was the teacher of physics, maths and cosmography in our school at that time and later became the headmaster for 23 years. In addition, there is Aleksander Veiderma (point to the noticeable man in the middle of the picture), who was the chief of the unit for teachers and the head of the government of schools in Tallinn at that time, later the minister of education and the headmaster of the Tallinn’s School of Commerce and Trade for Girls .
During the War of Independence, seven of our schoolboys died: Heinrich Vellmann, Gunnar Ambrosius, Hugo Läänemets, Artur Viikmann, Hans Püss, Raoul Kallismaa, Nikolai Reinok (show the list of the pupils and the teachers who went to war behind the glass coverage). There is a marble plaque dedicated to those seven boys in our school assembly hall, which was ceremonially opened on the 4th anniversary of the War of Independence in 1922. (point to the picture of that plaque) Many of those who returned from the war were honoured with war decorations and all of them were granted with free education until their graduation from university .
A statue was erected to all of the pupils from the schools in Tallinn who fell in battle. The statue is situated in the schoolyard of Reaalkool and it is named “Reaali poiss” which can be translated into English as the Boy from Reaalkool. (point to the picture of the statue) On the statue are Horatio ’s words: “What joy, for fatherland to die!” Our school has the tradition of visiting this statue and also reading out loud all the names of the boys from our school, who deceased in the war, during the Independence Day assembly.