By 1988, as the Soviet empire showed signs of cracking and all-pervasive sovietisation was coming to an end, the bloodless Singing Revolution was about to make history: a cycle of singing mass demonstrations eventually collected 300,000 Estonians (more than one-fifth of the population) in Tallinn to sing national songs played by rock musicians. On August 23 1989 about two million people from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stood on the Vilnius-Tallinn road, holding hands. The unprecedented living chain measured nearly 600 km in length.

In 1991 the Estonian parliament proclaimed the restoration of the independent State of Estonia.