The building seen from Pikk Street
THE FORMER KGB BUILDING
ADDRESS
Pikk 59 and Pagari 1, Tallinn.
NEW EXHIBITION
A new exhibition is established in the building’s cellar. Information: www.vabamu.ee
The former KGB building seen from Lai Street (the big grey building). The spire of the neighboring 13th-century St. Olav’s Church was, disrespectful, used by the KGB to send radio transmissions
The memorial plaque at Pikk Street reads: "This building housed the headquarters of the organ of repression of the Soviet occupational power. Here began the road to suffering for thousands of Estonians".
The bricked-up basement windows should mute the sounds from the interrogations and torturing in the basement.
The building seen from Pagari Street.
From the backyard.
A memorial plaque on the building at Pikk Street reads: “This building housed the headquarters of the organ of repression of the Soviet occupational power. Here began the road to suffering for thousands of Estonians”. The building complex Pikk 59, Pagari 1 and Lai was the former headquarter of KGB were “enemies of the state” were interrogated and tortured and then afterward executed or sent to the Soviet Gulag camps. A Soviet-era joke says that this was the tallest building in Estonia: even from the basement, you could see Siberia.
The spire of the nearby Oleviste Church was used by KGB as a radio surveillance station.
The bricked-up basement windows should mute the sounds from the interrogations and torturing in the basement.
The building complex was erected in 1912 and used as apartment and office building. From 1920 it was used by authorities of the free Republic of Estonia. After the Soviet occupation the KGB moved in. After the independence in 1990 the complex was used by the Estonian Ministry of Interior Affairs.