The song festival that celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the Estonian SSR took place during the dark period of Stalinism. An extensive deportation had just occurred in March and many singers, musicians and conductors had been imprisoned. Application of ideological pressure on all manifestations of art had started. Choirs of miners and soldiers were included in the programme as separate units in order to achieve magnitude and high numbers of participants. Every type of choir had to sing one song in Russian.

CHIEF CONDUCTORS:

Gustav Ernesaks (joint choirs, mixed choirs, male choirs), Jüri Variste (mixed choirs), Ants Kiilaspea (mixed choirs), Juhan Simm (male choirs), Aado Velmet (female choirs), Richard Ritsing (female choirs), Karl Leinus (children�s choirs, miners� choirs), Leopold Vigla (brass orchestras), Jaan Kääramees (brass brass orchestras), Aleksei Stepanov (brass brass orchestras), Vyacheslav Tyumin (Soviet Army choirs).

1106 collectives with 31,907 singers and musicians took part in the festival, but these figures must be regarded with some reservations as the Nationwide Song Festival Guide published at the time does not contain any data about participants and the number of singers in the miners� and soldiers' choirs is also unknown.