In Estonia, History Students Watch a Historic Day Unfold : Independence: Peaceful struggle to be free at last ends in victory. ‘It is like being born into a new life,’ one citizen says.

It was their country’s first free day in half a century, and the 11th- and 12th-grade Estonian history classes at Tallinn Secondary School No. 1 took a break from their planned lessons Friday to discuss their tiny Baltic country’s independence from the Soviet Union.

“We were so determined that our little nation would not be destroyed by the Russians that we became like one person,” said Heiti Valguee, a bright-eyed 11th-grader. “We held on to each other. We felt the power of togetherness, and in this way we won our freedom.”

If the 360-year-old school could talk, it would tell many tales of the history of Estonians living under the domination of one or another big nation but stubbornly refusing to assimilate, refusing to disappear.

In almost 800 years, Estonia has only been the supreme ruler of its own land for one period--between World War I and 1940, when it was invaded by Soviet troops and taken over under a pact with Nazi Germany. Over the centuries, the small nation has been dominated by Germans, Swedes, Poles and Russians.

But under Soviet power, the threat to the Estonian people was greater than ever before. Moscow exiled and arrested tens of thousands of Estonians. It sent hundreds of thousands of Russians and other Slavs to the tiny republic. And it pressured Estonians to accept the Russian language and Soviet culture in place of their own.

“We were saved by the strong national self-awareness of our peoples,” said Ain Siimann, headmaster at the school and a historian. “This could not be destroyed in 50 years. There was a great danger that Estonians, as a people, would cease to exist. Already, 40% of our population is not Estonian. This was prime stimulus for our battle for independence.”

After five decades in the grips of the Kremlin, the Estonians and their Baltic neighbors, the Latvians and the Lithuanians, have freed themselves--through their resolve and the grace of history.

Their peaceful struggle started in 1988 when Estonians--then Lithuanians and then Latvians--bravely raised their long-banned national flags and marched through the cobblestoned streets of their historic cities.

First at small demonstrations, then at large rallies, they proudly sang their long-silent national hymns. Tears welled in the eyes of those who remembered the days of freedom before the tanks of the Red Army roared into their country, bringing the rule of terror and fear.

On Friday, they became the undisputed victors in their fight for independence with the Kremlin’s recognition of their statehood.

“We feel like a person who has just emerged from a very long and very grave illness and is at last healthy enough to stand in the sun in a courtyard and smell the fresh air and listen to the birds,” Siimann said. “It is like being born into a new life.”

Not long after the news of the Kremlin’s concession reached Tallinn, Estonia’s capital, two old friends met by chance at a bakery near the school.

“Have you heard that we are free now?” Eve Pajula, 55, a retired postal worker, asked her friend as she grasped her hand tightly.

“What? Is it true?” asked Aino Koppel, a hospital receptionist.

Tears filled her eyes as her friend nodded in affirmation.

Kullo Arjakas, 31, a prominent historian and member of the Estonian Parliament, said the Baltic peoples have back their independence because they were in a special position to take advantage of reforms begun by Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev and of the quickly crumbling Soviet power. They were the last republics to be gobbled up by the Soviet Union. They each had experienced some span of independence before annexation. And all three had centuries of ties with Western Europe.

“We used all of Gorbachev’s slogans,” Arjakas recalled. “He said, ‘Go forward to democracy!’ We said, ‘OK, let’s go!’ He said, ‘Go forward with glasnost !’ We said, ‘OK, let’s go!’ ”

Jan Kross, the patriarch of modern Estonian writers, said the Estonians’ ability to hold tight to their national identity and resist Soviet pressure is a result of their individualistic character: “Estonian peasants only feel comfortable if they cannot see each other’s houses--they feel better still when they are in the forest.”

Because of this individuality, Estonians who were peasants until this century resisted German, Swedish, Polish, Russian and finally Soviet influences. “A favorite Estonian proverb is, ‘My personal beliefs are my king,’ ” Kross said. “We never believed in anyone’s propaganda. We are individualists. But we are also capable of coming out of the forest and standing together and being enthusiasts.”

Through the difficult years of Soviet rule, headmaster Siimann recalled, song festivals gave the people a way to express their love for their captive nation. Despite the pressure to adopt “Soviet culture,” they continued the tradition, begun in 1869, of a national song festival every five years.

“Seeing hundreds of thousands of Estonians of all ages together in one place, singing the same songs, gave us the motivation to hold on in our battle against the evil Soviet empire,” Siimann remembered.

Because Estonians were converted to Christianity by German rulers and became literate under the Swedish crown, their national identity also was well formed before the Russian czar extended his borders to include Estonia in 1721. “All of these alien forces neutralized each other, giving us the possibility to develop and synthesize,” Kross said. “So they did not destroy, but actually helped to strengthen our autonomy.” This assisted Estonians in resisting assimilation, he said.

“In 1926, there were 200 nationalities in the Soviet Union, and in 1979 only 120 remained,” Arjakas said. “That means 80 groups of people just disappeared. Perhaps all that was left of them was a folklore dance group. All their education was in Russian, as was their press. But this did not happen to Estonians--we have held on.”

Their ways of protesting Soviet rule were varied. For 20 years after the invasion, guerrillas held out in forests against Soviet forces before they were finally defeated, Arjakas said. But most people were more passive in their resistance.

“Estonians did not learn Russian well and tried to avoid speaking to Russians in their language,” Arjakas said, himself speaking accented Russian. “It was a kind of protest against the regime.” One study, he said, showed that only a tiny ethnic group near the Arctic Circle was worse at Russian than the Estonians.

Although Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania share a stretch of the Baltic coast only 360 miles long, their histories, languages, national characters and styles of seeking independence are very different.

Estonia and Latvia were both dominated by Germany for 700 years, most of their past, but Lithuania has had a grand history. In the 13th Century, the Lithuanian kingdom ruled to the Black Sea, including much of the modern Soviet republics of the Ukraine and Byelorussia. It united with Poland in the 16th Century and slowly began to lose territory. But Lithuania did not come under the Russian empire until the early 19th Century.

“During our struggle for independence, all the Lithuanian people remembered that Lithuania was once a great power,” said Vladas Grauzinis, 44, a Lithuanian engineer. “We are very proud of this past. Because of it, Lithuanians are much bolder than Estonians and Latvians, who are not nearly as hot emotionally as we are. This set the tone for our battle for independence.”

Religious differences also played a role, Arjakas said, noting: “Estonians and Latvians are Lutherans, and so they are modest as Lutherans tend to be. But Lithuanians, like Catholics everywhere else in the world, are more emotional and have greater self-confidence and self-pride.”

While Lithuanians forged their path to independence with defiant, often provocative steps, Estonians and Latvians took a non-confrontational approach to the Kremlin. But their goals were the same.

“For any nation, the highest political form is an independent state,” Kross said. “This is what we all wanted.”