WORLD : Estonia Runs Up Its Old Flag

TALLINN, Soviet Union — Estonia today dropped the words “Soviet Socialist” from its name and adopted the republic’s old tricolor flag in place of the red banner of socialism as it took another step toward independence.

The Estonian Parliament, without formally declaring independence, reinstituted several paragraphs from the Baltic republic’s 1938 constitution, including an opening proclamation that Estonia is “an independent republic, with the supreme state power vested in the people.”

Nationalist parliamentarians regard the move as another step in a phased march toward independence and not in itself a formal break with Moscow.

The Parliament also declared that the step, in large part symbolic, was intended as a show of solidarity with the sister Baltic republics of Lithuania and Latvia, which have declared full independence.