Estonia

Estonia, the smallest and most northerly of the three Baltic States, started the Second World War as an independent republic and ended it as an involuntary component of the USSR.

In 1939, Estonia (capital Tallinn) was ruled by the nationalist dictatorship of the Peasant Party of K. Päts. As in Latvia, the regime was motivated by fears of Soviet agitation and of the influence of dispossessed German landowners. Estonia was a member of the League of Nations. Its independence had been established by a treaty signed with the USSR in January 1920, and was guaranteed by the Soviet–Estonian Non-Aggression Pact of 4 May 1932.

However, the Nazi–Soviet Pact of August 1939 secretly assigned Estonia to the Soviet sphere of influence. As a result, Moscow demanded the conclusion of a Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation, which permitted the stationing of Soviet troops on Estonian territory. This treaty, signed on 28 September 1939, was activated in June 1940. The entry of the Red Army was soon followed by subversive agitation against the Estonian government; by widespread killings and arrests; by fraudulent elections conducted by Soviet security organs; and by the declaration of an Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic that was formally admitted to the Soviet Union on 6 August 1940.

The first Soviet occupation ( June 1940– July 1941) was a time of mass terror, when all Estonia's native institutions were destroyed. The German population was deported to Germany.

The German occupation ( July 1941–1944) saw Estonia incorporated into the Reich Commissariat Ostland. Estonian police and military units were formed under German command, and served in the front line round Leningrad. An Estonian Waffen-SS Division was recruited. The small Jewish community was deported and killed (see Final Solution).

The second Soviet occupation, which began in January 1944, was accompanied by a renewed wave of terror, and by forced collectivization of the peasantry.

Estonia's population was much diminished by deportations and repressions and by the loss of the German and Jewish elements. It was replenished by a post-war influx of Russians.

Norman Davies