Tiit Madisson (4 June 1950 – 21 June 2021) was an

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

n activist, writer, and politician. In the press (especially while living in Sweden), he used the pseudonym Silver Ronk. He was a political

dissident A dissident is a person who actively challenges an established political or religious system, doctrine, belief, policy, or institution. In a religious context, the word has been used since the 18th century, and in the political sense since the 2 ...

and prisoner of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Career

Madisson was born in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. He was one of the organizers of the Estonian

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

movement in the mid-1970s. Madisson was a political prisoner of the Soviet Union from 1980 to 1986. In 1983 he smuggled an open letter from prison in Siberia to the Madrid Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, calling for the Soviet Union to stand by the humanitarianism clauses of the Helsinki Agreement - for which he was put into solitary confinement. He spent four years in political prison camps VS-389/37 and VS-389/36 in the

Perm Perm or PERM may refer to: Places * Perm, Russia, a city in Russia **Permsky District, the district **Perm Krai, a federal subject of Russia since 2005 **Perm Oblast, a former federal subject of Russia 1938–2005 ** Perm Governorate, an administr ...

region, and then settled in East Yakutia (

Kolyma Kolyma (, ) or Kolyma Krai () is a historical region in the Russian Far East that includes the basin of Kolyma River and the northern shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as the Kolyma Mountains (the watershed of the two). It is bounded to ...

). After his release on 15 August 1987 he founded the MRP-AEG group. After a Deer park rally, of which he was one of the leaders, he was expelled from the Soviet Union in September 1987. Madisson lived in Sweden from 1987 to 1990. He contributed to

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

and participated in the activities of the Estonian Imprisoned Freedom Fighters Assistance Center. In 1990, he returned to Estonia, where he participated in politics and was a member of the

Congress of Estonia The Congress of Estonia (Estonian: ''Eesti Kongress'') was a grassroots parliament elected in February 1990 in then Soviet-occupied Estonia and actively participating in the popular nonviolent resistance to the Soviet rule, which resulted in the ...

and the first edition of the Estonian Committee. In 1995, Madisson worked at EMEX. He was sentenced to one year's suspended imprisonment with a two-year probation period and compensation for financial damage (210,280 kroons) to the company. An appeal set aside the damages, but otherwise upheld the original judgment. In 1996, the court convicted Madisson "of being dissatisfied with the situation in Estonia in May 1996, as a member of the Defence League, to prepare for a military coup" and "sought accomplices to implement his plans and ideas". Madisson was sentenced to 2 years' imprisonment, plus two more months, because the new offense had been committed while on probation. He was released early on the basis of the

amnesty Amnesty () is defined as "A pardon extended by the government to a group or class of people, usually for a political offense; the act of a sovereign power officially forgiving certain classes of people who are subject to trial but have not yet be ...

law passed by the

Riigikogu The Riigikogu (, from Estonian ''riigi-'', "of the state", and ''kogu'', "assembly") is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. In addition to approving legislation, the Parliament appoints high officials, including the prime minister and chi ...

on 13 November 1997. From 2002 to 2005, he served as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Lihula Lihula is a town in Lääneranna Parish, Pärnu County, Estonia. Lihula Castle Lihula Castle () was first mentioned in 1211, but it appears the site was used as a fortress since the Iron Age. In 1220, a Swedish army started constructing a ca ...

. At his initiative, a monument "60 Years of Estonian Defense Battles" was erected on 20 August 2004. It was moved on 2 September by order of the Estonian government led by

Juhan Parts Juhan Parts ((, born 27 August 1966) is an Estonian politician who was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2003 to 2005 and Minister of Economic Affairs and Communications from 2007 to 2014. Juhan Parts is a member of Isamaa party. Education Born ...

. In September 2010, Madisson and his wife moved to Spain. He returned to Estonia in August 2016. In 2020, MTÜ Eesti Leegioni Sõprade Klubi awarded him the Estonian People's Thanks Medal no. 2 (No. 1 went to Harald Nugiseks).

References

External links

*
About Tiit Madisson

Tiit Madisson on Dissident.eu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Madisson, Tiite 1950 births 2021 deaths Politicians from Tallinn Pro Patria Union MEPs Soviet dissidents Estonian dissidents Estonian National Independence Party politicians Mayors of places in Estonia 20th-century Estonian politicians 21st-century Estonian politicians Hippies