History of Estonia: Encyclopedia II - History of Estonia - Period of Soviet and German Occupation

History of Estonia - Period of Soviet and German Occupation

History of Estonia - Creation of Estonian SSR

On June 16-17, 1940, the Soviet troops occupied the whole territory of Estonia and demanded a change to a new pro-Soviet puppet government. Similarly to the developments in neighboring Latvia and Lithuania, the occupation and change of government was then in the three countries followed by "parliamentary elections" where all but pro-Communist candidates were outlawed. The "parliament" so elected proclaimed Estonia a Socialist Republic on July 21, 1940 and unanimously requested Estonia to be "accepted" into the USSR. Estonia was formally annexed into the Soviet Union on August 6 and renamed the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. The 1940 occupation and annexation of Estonia into the Soviet Union was considered illegal and never officially recognized by the United States and other Western democracies.

The Soviet authorities, having gained control over Estonia, immediately imposed a regime of terror. During the first year of Soviet occupation (1940-1941) over 8,000 people, including most of the country's leading politicians and military officers, were arrested. About 2,200 of the arrested were executed in Estonia, while most others were moved to prison camps in Russia, from where very few were later able to return alive. On June 14, 1941, when mass deportations took place simultaneously in all three Baltic countries, about 10,000 Estonian civilians were deported to Siberia and other remote areas of the USSR, where nearly half of them later perished. Of the 32,100 Estonian men who were forcibly relocated to Russia under the pretext of mobilisation into the Soviet army after the German invasion of USSR in 1941, nearly 40 percent died within the next year in the so-called "labour battalions" through hunger, cold and hard work.

History of Estonia - German Occupation

After Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, most Estonians greeted the Germans with relatively open arms and hoped to restore independence. But it soon became clear that sovereignty was out of the question. Estonia became a part of the German-occupied "Ostland".

Estonia had a relatively small Jewish population of 4,500 people before the war. During the first Soviet occupation of 1940-41 about 500 Jews were deported to Siberia. Round-ups and killings of Jews began immediately following the arrival of the first German troops in 1941, who were closely followed by the extermination squad Einsatzkommando (Sonderkommando) 1A, part of Einsatzgruppe A. Arrests and executions continued as the Germans, with the assistance of local collaborators, advanced through Estonia. About 75% of Estonia's Jewish community, aware of the fate that otherwise awaited them, managed to escape to the Soviet Union; virtually all the remainder (between 950 and 1000 men, women and children) were killed before the end of 1941. Less than a dozen Estonian Jews are known to have survived the war in Estonia. The Nazi regime also established 22 concentration and labor camps in Estonia for foreign Jews, the largest, Vaivara, had 20,000 Jewish prisoners pass through its gates, and several thousand foreign Jews were killed at the Kalevi Liiva camp.

Despite the German refusal to recognize Estonia's sovereignty, many Estonians heeded the call to fight the Soviets, especially in 1944 when, with the Allied victory over Germany becoming certain, the only option to save Estonia's independence was to stave off a new Soviet invasion of Estonia until Germany's capitulation. The initial formation of a volunteer SS Estonian legion was eventually to become in 1944 a full-sized Waffen SS volunteer division, the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian). The Estonian units saw action defending the Narva line throughout 1944.

As the Germans retreated in September 1944, Jüri Uluots, the last prime minister of the Estonian Republic, assumed the responsibilities of president (as dictated in the Constitution) and appointed a new government while seeking recognition from the Allies. The new government fled to Stockholm, Sweden and operated in exile until 1992, when Heinrich Mark, the prime minister of the Estonian government in exile acting as president, presented his credentials to incoming president Lennart Meri.

History of Estonia - After World War II

In World War II Estonia suffered huge losses. Ports were destroyed, and 45% of industry and 40% of the railways were damaged. Estonia's population decreased by one-fifth, about 200,000 people. Some 10% of the population (over 80,000 people) fled to the West between 1940 and 1944. More than 30,000 soldiers were killed in action. In 1944 Russian air raids destroyed Narva and one-third of the residential area in Tallinn. By the late autumn of 1944, Soviet forces expelled the last German troops from Estonia, ushering in a second phase of Soviet rule, followed again by a wave of arrests and executions of people considered disloyal to the Soviets.

An anti-Soviet guerrilla movement known as the "Metsavennad" ("Forest Brothers") developed in the countryside, reaching its zenith in 1946–48. It is hard to tell how many people were in the ranks of the Metsavennad, however it is estimated on different times there could be about 30,000–35,000 people. Probably the last Forest Brother was caught in the September of 1978, and killed himself during his apprehension.

In March 1949, 20,722 people (2.5% of the population) were deported to Siberia. By the beginning of the 1950s, the occupying regime had suppressed the resistance movement.

After the war the Communist Party of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (ECP) became the pre-eminent organization in the republic. The ethnic Estonian share in the total ECP membership decreased from 90% in 1941 to 48% in 1952.

After Stalin's death, Party membership vastly expanded its social base to include more ethnic Estonians. By the mid-1960s, the percentage of ethnic Estonian membership stabilized near 50%. On the eve of perestroika the ECP claimed about 100,000 members; less than half were ethnic Estonians and they totalled less than 2% of the country's population.

One positive aspect of the post-Stalin era in Estonia was the re-permission in the late 1950s of citizens' contacts with foreign countries. Ties were reactivated with Finland, and in the 1960s, a ferry connection was opened from Tallinn to Helsinki and Estonians began watching Finnish television. This electronic "window on the West" afforded Estonians more information on current affairs and more access to Western culture and thought than any other group in the Soviet Union. This heightened media environment was important in preparing Estonians for their vanguard role in extending perestroika during the Gorbachev era.

In the late 1970s, Estonian society grew increasingly concerned about the threat of cultural Russification to the Estonian language and national identity. By 1981, Russian was taught in the first grade of Estonian language schools and was also introduced into the Estonian pre-school teaching.

By the beginning of the Gorbachev era, concern over the cultural survival of the Estonian people had reached a critical point. The ECP remained stable in the early perestroika years but waned in the late 1980s. Other political movements, groupings, and parties moved to fill the power vacuum. The first and most important was the Estonian Popular Front, established in April 1988 with its own platform, leadership, and broad constituency. The Greens and the dissident-led Estonian National Independence Party soon followed. By 1989, the political spectrum widened, and new parties were formed and re-formed almost daily.

The republic's Supreme Soviet transformed into an authentic regional lawmaking body. This relatively conservative legislature passed an early declaration of sovereignty (November 16, 1988); a law on economic independence (May 1989) confirmed by the U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet that November; a language law making Estonian the official language (January 1989); and local and republic election laws stipulating residency requirements for voting and candidacy (August, November 1989).

Although the majority of Estonia's large Russian-speaking diaspora of Soviet-era immigrants did not support full independence, they were divided in their goals for the republic. In March 1990 some 18% of Russian speakers supported the idea of a fully independent Estonia, up from 7% the previous autumn, and by early 1990 only a small minority of ethnic Estonians were opposed to full independence.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Period of Soviet and German Occupation", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki