The letter was first published abroad on December 10, 1980 in Eesti Päevaleht in Stockholm, a weekly newspaper run by Estonians in exile.
This distribution round, in turn, led to a number of tertiary copies, meaning hand-written transcripts of the reading from the broadcasts began to circulate underground in Estonia.
In November 1980, the Soviet government took a number of repressive measures against the signatories: they were "interviewed" at work and by various Party structures, and invited to renounce their signatures.
The Soviet KGB conducted a search at the home of Jaan Kaplinski, whom it suspected was the originator of the letter.
Academician Gustav Naan in turn sent a letter entitled "Some Thoughts About the Ideological Situation" to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Estonia, demanding reprisals against what he described as the “gang of forty”.