The Estonian National Council in Sweden was established in 1947 and was one of the oldest and largest Estonian central organisations in Sweden. The Estonian National Council was a broad coalition of Estonian political parties in exile, which maintained close contacts with Swedish democratic political parties. The main task of the ENC had been preservation and development of Estonian national and cultural heritage in exile. The ENC consisted of prominent Estonian personalities and supporters of various nationalities, all in number 9000 people.
The representatives of the ENC had participated in 1000 international conferences, working for breaking the wesward advance of communist totalitarism and preserving Estonian national identity in anticipation of the time when Estonia would be again free nation which occurred after the collapse of Soviet Union.
Famous quotes containing the words national and/or council:
“We are constantly thinking of the great war ... which saved the Union ... but it was a war that did a great deal more than that. It created in this country what had never existed before—a national consciousness. It was not the salvation of the Union, it was the rebirth of the Union.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Daughter to that good Earl, once President
Of England’s Council and her Treasury,
Who lived in both, unstain’d with gold or fee,
And left them both, more in himself content.
Till the sad breaking of that Parliament
Broke him, as that dishonest victory
At Chaeronea, fatal to liberty,
Kill’d with report that old man eloquent;—”
—John Milton (1608–1674)