Monument to Forest Brothers in Puutli Memorial site

The Puutlipalo monument and bunker site is situated in the village of Mutsu in Võru County. On 28 March 1953 the last large-scale skirmish took place between the Forest Brothers and the Soviet security forces in Puutlipalo. All eight people hiding in the woods were killed – three women and five men. The bunker was destroyed and the bodies brought out of the forest and buried in an unknown location.

This monument, dedicated to the fallen Forest Brothers, was unveiled on 20 May 1989 near the former site of the bunker. It was the first monument to Estonian resistance fighters erected while the country was still under Soviet occupation and the Forest Brothers were still officially referred to as bandits. Contrary to many similar monuments erected later, which were blown to pieces by the communists, the monument in Puutlipalo remained untouched owing to its hidden location. The original stone tablet is the only feature to have been replaced, as it was mistakenly inscribed (due to years of being kept secret by the state) with the name of a resistance fighter who died in another battle.

DNA tests done during an investigation by the Internal Security Service in January 2013 revealed the identities of the eight Forest Brothers killed in Puutlipalo. On Resistance Fighting Day that year they were reinterred in the cemetery in Vastseliina.