The idea was developed through the year and finally The Estonian Popular Front was established on 1 October 1988 with a massively crowded congress which turned to a culmination of the first phase of the Singing Revolution.

The Baltic States were in a unique category among the constituent parts of the USSR in that they had been European parliamentary democracies in the interbellum and had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940.

Savisaar initiated the founding in April 1988 in a live broadcast (Mõtleme veel) on Estonian TV, advocating support of Gorbachev’s perestroika.

[1] Popular Front organised series of much-crowded and well-published events and actions which stressed on Estonian national pride but on democratic values as well.

The Popular Front of Estonia together with the Popular Front of Latvia and the Sąjūdis organised the Baltic Way mass "arm-in-arm" manifestation extending through three Baltic states on 23 August 1989 that marked 50th anniversary of 23 August 1939, when the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which resulted in the forcible incorporation of these three states into the Soviet Union and the loss of their independence.