On 1 January 2004 the Persons Repressed by Occupying Powers Act entered force. The act is designed to support those who fought for and suffered in the fight for Estonia’s freedom. The Estonian state decided to offer these people relief through a range of benefits. Relief does not mean compensation – those receiving the benefits retain the right to demand and obtain compensation from the countries which occupied Estonia for the trauma they caused.

In legal terms, those repressed by occupying powers include victims of genocide; those imprisoned because of their beliefs, financial status, origins or religion; freedom fighters who rose up against a foreign power (including the ‘forest brothers’); those deported; those forced to work in hard labour camps; those confined to psychiatric hospitals; victims of nuclear and radioactive catastrophes; and children born in Siberia.

The act covers periods of occupation by both Germany and the place Soviet Union. Taken into account in the development of the definition of a repressed person was the fact that in future it may increase demands for international compensation.

The act provides the victims of foreign powers with a range of health, financial and cultural benefits. The pension rights of repressed people since the introduction of the Persons Repressed by Occupying Powers Act remain largely the same as previously. These rights have been extended to children born in exile or incarceration.