Sillamae – the town of fresh sea wind | Reportage Online
Home » Multimedia

Sillamae – the town of fresh sea wind

15 November 2009 2 Comments
The town of Sillamae in Estonia was a secret for over forty years, closed to the outside world. During the Soviet regime, factories in Sillamae refined uranium for use in power plants and weapon facilities, and was made inaccessible for security reasons. Lauren Day and Johanna Lindfors report from Estonia.

GEJI reporter and UTS Journalism student Lauren Day and University of Helsinki journalism student Johanna Lindfors produced this report during a field trip to Estonia.

Share |
  • Yasmin

    Hi I have comments from the Estonian people on Video of Sillamae from Estonian people.

    Re: News report

    “What an interesting finding! I have always loved Sillamae, Its like our “Odessa”,
    the city by the sea with beautiful stairs and parks to the sea. Even though nobody never swim there (bcs of chemical factory). All habitants are russians. The story of the city was simple, it was established after the WWII to develop nuclear weapon bcs they found uranium there. They built so beautiful houses and grandieuse cultural center and cinema and brought all the residents from russia. As you can imagine they almost all worked for this factory. They had many benefits, like the food and delicatessens that you never couldnt find in normal cities… but people who didnt live there couldnt enter the city (there was bord control?) and it was never shown on maps.. a secret city, forbidden city… The things went worse after the collapse of soviet union… no one there speaks estonian, they started to close down factory (environmental reasons) and you can only imagine what kind of social catastrophe that was to former privileged city. Its worth to visit when you are in Estonia, especially for journalist! Great story!”

    Estonian journalist

    ****

    thanks. nice video. bad translation subtitles from Russian, but well
    made footage :)

  • Yasmin

    Hi I have comments from the Estonian people on Video of Sillamae from Estonian people.

    Re: News report

    “What an interesting finding! I have always loved Sillamae, Its like our “Odessa”,
    the city by the sea with beautiful stairs and parks to the sea. Even though nobody never swim there (bcs of chemical factory). All habitants are russians. The story of the city was simple, it was established after the WWII to develop nuclear weapon bcs they found uranium there. They built so beautiful houses and grandieuse cultural center and cinema and brought all the residents from russia. As you can imagine they almost all worked for this factory. They had many benefits, like the food and delicatessens that you never couldnt find in normal cities… but people who didnt live there couldnt enter the city (there was bord control?) and it was never shown on maps.. a secret city, forbidden city… The things went worse after the collapse of soviet union… no one there speaks estonian, they started to close down factory (environmental reasons) and you can only imagine what kind of social catastrophe that was to former privileged city. Its worth to visit when you are in Estonia, especially for journalist! Great story!”

    Estonian journalist

    ****

    thanks. nice video. bad translation subtitles from Russian, but well
    made footage :)