Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
Encyclopedia
The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic , often abbreviated as Estonian SSR or ESSR, was a republic of the Soviet Union, administered by and subordinated to the Government of the Soviet Union
. The ESSR was initially established on the territory of the Republic of Estonia on July 21, 1940, following the invasion of Soviet troops on June 17, 1940 and the installation of a puppet government backed by the Soviet Union
, which declared Estonia a Soviet state. The Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the USSR on August 9, 1940. This territory was also occupied by Nazi Germany
from 1941 to 1944.
Most countries did not recognise the incorporation of Estonia de jure
and only recognised its Soviet government de facto or not at all. A number of these countries continued to recognize Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former governments. This policy of non-recognition gave rise to the principle of legal continuity, which held that de jure, Estonia remained an independent state under illegal occupation throughout the period 1940–91.
Independence of the Republic of Estonia was reestablished on August 20, 1991.
The Secret Additional Protocol of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact
signed on 23 August 1939 relegated the Republic of Estonia to the Soviet sphere of influence.
On September 24, 1939 warships of the Soviet Navy appeared off Estonian ports and Soviet bombers began a threatening patrol over Tallinn
and the nearby countryside. Moscow demanded that Estonia allow the USSR to establish military bases and station 25,000 troops on Estonian soil for the duration of the European war. The government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum signing the corresponding mutual assistance agreement on September 28, 1939.
On June 12, 1940, according to the director of the Russian State Archive of the Naval Department Pavel Petrov (C.Phil.), the order for total military blockade of Estonia was given to the Soviet Baltic Fleet
. On June 14, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect while the world’s attention was focused on the fall of Paris
to Nazi Germany
. Two Soviet bombers downed a Finnish passenger airplane "Kaleva
" flying from Tallinn
to Helsinki
carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn
, Riga
and Helsinki
. On June 16, Soviet NKVD
troops raided border posts in Estonia (along with Lithuania and Latvia). Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
claimed that the 1939 mutual assistance treaties had been violated, and gave six hour ultimatums for new governments to be formed in each country, including lists of persons for cabinet posts provided by the Kremlin. The Estonian government decided, according to the Kellogg-Briand Pact
, to not respond to the Soviet ultimatums by military means. Given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, the order was given not to resist, to avoid bloodshed and open war.
On June 17, the Red Army
emerged from its military bases in Estonia and, aided by an additional 90,000 Soviet troops, took over the country, occupying the territories of the Republic of Estonia, and organizing and supporting communist demonstrations all over the country. Most of the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League
surrendered
according to the orders and were disarmed by the Red Army. Only the Estonian Independent Signal Battalion stationed at Raua Street in Tallinn showed resistance. As the Red Army brought in additional reinforcements supported by six armoured fighting vehicle
s, the battle lasted several hours until sundown. There was one dead, several wounded on the Estonian side and about 10 killed and more wounded on the Soviet side. Finally the military resistance was ended with negotiation
s and the Independent Signal Battalion surrendered and was disarmed.
By June 18, military operations of the occupation of the Baltic States were complete. Thereafter, state administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, followed by mass repression.
The Time Magazine reported on June 24, that "Half a million men and countless tanks" of the Soviet Red Army
"moved to safeguard [Russia's] frontier against conquest-drunk Germany," one week before the Fall of France
.
On June 21, 1940, the Soviet occupation of the Republic of Estonia was complete. That day, the President
Konstantin Päts
(deported to Ufa
on July 30 and later arrested) was pressured into affirming the Andrei Zhdanov
appointed puppet government of Johannes Vares
, following the arrival of demonstrators accompanied by Red Army troops with armored vehicles to the Presidential palace. The Flag of Estonia
was replaced with a Red flag
on Pikk Hermann
tower.
On July 14–15 rigged, extraordinary, single-party parliamentary elections were held where all but pro-Communist candidates were outlawed. The goal of occupation authorities was to maximize turnout to legitimize the new system, which included stamping passports in voting facilities for future identification of voting, along with a threat running in Estonia's main daily paper, the Rahva Hääl
, that "It would be extremely unwise to shirk elections.... Only people's enemies stay at home on election day." Each ballot carried only the Soviet-assigned candidate's name, with the only way to register opposition being to strike out that name on the ballot. According to official election results, the Communist
"Union of the Estonian Working People" bloc won 92.8 % of the votes with 84.1 % of the population attending the elections. Time Magazine reported that, following the elections, tribunals were set up to judge and punish "traitors to the people", which included opponents of Sovietization
and those who did not vote for incorporation in the Soviet Union.
Once the elections were concluded, authorities which had previously denied any intention of setting up a Soviet regime, then openly spoke of Sovietization and incorporation into the Soviet Union. On July 21 the parliament (Riigikogu
) proclaimed the formation of the Estonian SSR, and, despite the promises given before the election, petitioned to join the Soviet Union on July 22. In response, the Estonian SSR was formally incorporated into
the Soviet Union
on August 9, 1940, and nominally became the 16th constituent republic of the USSR
. (On July 16, 1956, the Karelo-Finnish SSR
was demoted to the Karelian ASSR
; from then on until 1991, the Estonian SSR was considered the 15th constituent republic.)
all land, banks and major industrial enterprises in Estonia. Peasants were only allotted small plots of land during the land reforms. Small businesses were also later nationalized. The occupation brought with it colonisation
. According to some Western scholars, relations between the Soviet Union and Estonian SSR were those of internal colonialism
.
All banks and accounts were essentially nationalized
; a lot of industrial machinery was disassembled and relocated to other Soviet territories. Before retreating in 1941, Red Army
, following the scorched earth
policies, burnt most industrial constructions, destroying power plants, vehicles and cattle. Millions of dollars worth of goods were also moved from Estonia to Russia during the evacuation of 1941.
On July 19, 1940, the Commander-in-chief
of the Estonian Army Johan Laidoner
was captured by the NKVD
and deported together with his wife to Penza
, RSFSR. Laidoner died in the Vladimir Prison Camp, Russia on March 13, 1953. The President of Estonia
, Konstantin Päts
was arrested and deported to Ufa
on July 30. He died in a psychiatric hospital
in Kalinin (currently Tver
) in Russia in 1956.
800 Estonian officers, about half of the total, were executed, arrested or starved to death in prison camps
.
A total of 59,732 people is estimated to have been deported from Estonia
during the period between July 1940 and June 1941. This included 8 former heads of state and 38 ministers from Estonia, 3 former heads of state and 15 ministers from Latvia, and the then president, 5 prime ministers and 24 other ministers from Lithuania.
The Soviet 1940 occupation of Estonia decimated the local economy, as Moscow began nationalizing private industries and collectivizing smallholding farms. Most of the larger businesses and half of Estonia's housing were nationalized. Savings were destroyed with an imposed artificially low exchange rate for the Estonian kroon to the Soviet ruble.
Other ethnic Russians in Estonia arrested and executed by different Soviet War Tribunals in 1940–1941:
Ivan Salnikov, Pavel Mironov, Mihhail Arhipov, Vassili Belugin, Vladimir Strekoytov, Vasili Zhilin, Vladimir Utekhin, Sergei Samennikov, Ivan Meitsev, Ivan Yeremeyev, Konstatin Bushuyev, Yegor Andreyev, Nikolai Sausailov, Aleksandr Serpukhov, Konstatin Nosov, Aleksandr Nekrasov
, Nikolai Vasilev-Muroman, Aleksei Sinelshikov, Pyotr Molonenkov, Grigory Varlamov, Stepan Pylnikov, Ivan Lishayev, Pavel Belousev, Nikolai Gusev, Leonid Sakharov, Aleksander Chuganov, Fyodor Dobrovidov, Lev Dobek, Andrei Leontev, Ivan Sokolov, Ivan Svetlov, Vladimir Semyonov, Valentin Semenov-Vasilev, Vasili Kamelkov, Georgi Lokhov, Aleksei Forlov, Ivan Ivanov, Vasili Karamsin, Aleksandr Krasilnikov, Aleksandr Zhukov, etc.
Full list at:
, the only foreign powers to recognize the Soviet annexation were Nazi Germany and Sweden.
The United States
, United Kingdom
and several other countries considered the annexation
of Estonia by the USSR illegal following the Stimson Doctrine
—a stance that made the doctrine an established precedent of international law
. Although the US, the UK, the other Allies of World War II
recognized the occupation of the Baltic states by USSR at Yalta Conference
in 1945 de facto
, they retained diplomatic relations with the exiled representatives
of the independent Republic of Estonia, and never formally recognized the annexation of Estonia de jure
.
The Russian government and officials maintain that the Soviet annexation of Estonia was legitimate.
, the Province of Estonia
, Soviet power was established in the end of October 1917. The Estonian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Narva
on November 29, 1918 but fell to counter-revolutionaries and the White Armies
in 1919. In June 1940 Soviet power was restored in Estonia as workers overthrew the fascist dictatorship in the country.
According to Soviet sources, pressure from the working people of Estonia forced its government to accept the 1939 proposal for a mutual assistance treaty by the Soviet Union. On September 28, 1939 the Pact of Mutual Assistance was signed which allowed the USSR to station a limited number of Soviet Army
units in Estonia. Economic difficulties, dissatisfaction with the Estonian government's policies "sabotaging fulfillment of the Pact and the Estonian government", and political orientation towards Nazi Germany lead to a revolutionary situation in June 1940. A note from the Soviet government to the Estonian Government suggested that they stuck strictly to the Pact of Mutual Assistance. To guarantee the fulfillment of the Pact, additional military units entered Estonia, welcomed by the Estonian workers who demanded the resignation of the Estonian government. On June 21 under the leadership of the Estonian Communist Party political demonstrations by workers were held in Tallinn
, Tartu
, Narva
and other cities. On the same day the fascist government was overthrown, and the People's government led by Johannes Vares
was formed. On July 14–15, 1940 elections for the Estonian Parliament, the State Assembly (Riigikogu
) were held. The "Working People’s Union", created by an initiative of the Estonian Communist Party received with 84.1% turnout 92.8% of the votes. On July 21, 1940 the State Assembly adopted the declaration of the restoration of Soviet power in Estonia and proclaimed the 'Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic'. On July 22 the declaration of Estonia's wish to join the USSR was ratified and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was petitioned accordingly. The request was approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 6, 1940. On July 23 the State Assembly proclaimed all land to be people's property while banks and heavy industry were nationalized. On August 25 the State Assembly adopted the Constitution of the Estonian SSR, renamed itself the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR and approved the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian SSR.
on June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht
reached Estonia
in July 1941.
Although initially the Germans were perceived as liberators from the USSR and its repressions by those Estonians who hoped for the restoration of independence, it was soon realized that they were but another occupying power. Germans pillaged the country for the war effort and unleashed the Holocaust
. Estonia was incorporated into the German province of Ostland
.
The Soviet Union retook Estonia in 1944, thereafter occupying it for nearly
another half century. This began when the Red Army re-occupied Estonian Ingria, Narva
, and eastern Vaivara Parish
in the Battle of Narva
, Southeast Estonia in the Tartu Offensive and the rest of the country in the Baltic Offensive. Faced with the country being re-occupied by the Soviet Army, 80,000 people fled from Estonia by sea to Finland and Sweden in 1944. 25,000 Estonians reached Sweden and a further 42,000 Germany. During the war about 8,000 Estonian Swedes and their family members had emigrated to Sweden. After the retreat of the Germans, about 30,000 partisans remained in hiding in the Estonian forests, waging a guerrilla war until the early 1950s.
In 1945 some territories of eastern Estonia with the towns of Jaanilinn and Petseri were transferred to the RSFSR.
After re-occupation, the Soviet nationalization policy of 1940 was reimposed, as well as the collectivization of farms. Over 900,000 hectares were expropriated in the few years following reoccupation, while much of that land was given to new settlers from Russia or other locations in the Soviet Union. Rapid collectivization began in 1946, followed in 1947 by a crackdown against kulak
farmers. The kulak repression started as oppressive taxation, but eventually led to mass deportations. Those who resisted collectivization were killed or deported. More than 95% of farms were collectivized by 1951.
The 1949 mass deportation of about 21,000 people broke the back of the partisan movement. 6,600 partisans gave themselves up in November 1949. Later on, the failure of the Hungarian uprising broke the morale of 700 men still remaining under cover. According to Soviet data, up until 1953 20,351 partisans were defeated. Of these, 1,510 perished in the battles. During that period, 1,728 members of the Red Army, NKVD and the militia were killed by the "forest brothers
". August Sabbe, the last surviving "brother" in Estonia, was discovered and killed by KGB agents in 1978.
During the first post-war decade of Soviet rule, Estonia was governed by Moscow via Russian-born ethnic Estonian functionaries. Born into the families of native Estonians in Russia, the latter had obtained their education in the Soviet Union during the Stalin era. Many of them had fought in the Red Army (in the Estonian Rifle Corps), few of them had mastered the Estonian language. For the latter reason they were known under a derogatory term "Yestonians
," alluding to their Russian accent.
Although the United States
and the United Kingdom
, the allies of the USSR against Nazi Germany
during World War II
, recognized the occupation of the Republic of Estonia by USSR at Yalta Conference
in 1945 de facto
, the governments of the rest of the western democracies did not recognize it de jure
according to the Sumner Welles
' declaration of July 23, 1940 Some of these countries recognized Estonian diplomats who still functioned in many countries in the name of their former governments. These consuls persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991.
s were relocated into Estonia, mainly the cities. For example, during the years of 1945-1950, the total urban population count grew from 267,000 to 516,000; over 90% of the increase being fresh immigrants.
A special care was taken to change the ethnic structure of population, especially in Ida-Viru County. For example, a policy of prioritising immigrants before returning war refugees in assigning dwelling quarters was adopted.
after World War II.
Other cemeteries destroyed by the authorities during the Soviet era in Estonia include Baltic German
cemeteries, Kopli cemetery
(established in 1774), Mõigu cemetery
and the oldest cemetery in Tallinn, the Kalamaja cemetery
(from the 16th century). After the re-occupation of Estonia in 1944, the destruction of monuments from the Republic of Estonia, which had survived or had been restored during the German occupation, continued. On 15 April 1945, in Pärnu
, a monument by Amandus Adamson
, erected to 87 persons who had fallen in the Estonian War of Independence, was blown up. The destruction of war memorials continued for several years and occurred across all districts of the country. A comprehensive file concerning the monuments of the Estonian War of Independence, compiled by the Military Department of the EC(b)P Central Committee in April 1945, has been preserved in the Estonian State Archives. Monuments are listed by counties in this file and it specifies the amount of explosive and an evaluation concerning the transportation that were needed. An extract regarding Võrumaa reads:
of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) authorized collectivization of Estonian agriculture. Initially it was implemented with great difficulties in the Baltic republics but it was facilitated by mass deportations of dissident farmers, termed 'kulak
s'. As a result, by the end of April 1949, half of the remaining individual farmers in Estonia had joined kolkhozes. 99.3% of farms had been collectivised by 1957
, but unlike Lithuanians in Lithuanian SSR
) suffered a sharp decline of their proportion in the total population due to the large-scale immigration, mostly of Russians. While in 1934 the Estonians comprised 88 percent of the total population of Estonia, by 1959 and 1970 their number had decreased to 75 and 68 percent, respectively (and to 61.5% by 1989
.)
This decline in percentage was especially severe among the urban and young populations. Within 11 years between 1959 and 1970 the proportion of Estonians in Tallinn declined by as much as 4%, from 60% to 56% of the total population. Population growth throughout the existence of the Estonian SSR was mainly due to immigration from other regions of the Soviet Union. Although the percentage of Estonians in the total population of the Estonian SSR declined due to Soviet migration policies, the total number of ethnic Estonians increased over the Soviet period as a whole. This was due to a positive natural growth rate of some 1 or 2 thousand per year. As an example, in 1970, the number of live births of Estonians was 14,429 and the number of deaths was 12,356, giving natural increase of 2,073 ethnic Estonians.
In 1940–1941 and 1944–1951 during the Soviet deportations from Estonia
tens of thousands of Estonian citizens were forcibly resettled to Siberia
. During the first year of occupation, 1940–1941, alone, an estimated 43,900 lives were irrecoverably lost, not counting refugees. The following three-year Nazi occupation
brought with it a loss of 32,740 lives, again not counting refugees. Another 16,000 deaths were caused through Soviet repressions in the years following 1944.
, traumatism
, occupational diseases and dysentery
. In comparison to the war years, birth rate had increased, mortality (including infant mortality) decreased, and the birth rate again exceeded the death rate.
Despite the immense needs for research, the Faculty of Medicine at the Tartu State University (now University of Tartu
) suffered from major purges, culminating after March 1950. Altogether, 56 staff of the university were purged; in the Faculty of Medicine, 12 professor
s of 17 were removed from their positions. They were replaced with less skilled but politically reliable staff.
, lumber
and, later, uranium ore, as part of the postwar reconstruction program. The first Five Year Plan
of the occupation, called the fourth Five Year Plan, prescribed a total of 3.5 billion roubles of investments for enterprises in Estonia.
One of the important goals in this reformation of Estonia's economy was providing economic support to Leningrad
. To this end, 40% of the total capital investments of the fourth Five Year Plan to be spent in Estonia were intended for investments in oil shale mining infrastructure. Gas-rich oil shale was delivered to Leningrad via a specially built pipeline starting from 1948; gas from this very same source did not reach Tallinn until 1953. In 1961, 62.5% of the gas produced was still delivered to Leningrad.
By the end of 1954, 227,000 apartments in Leningrad were supplied with gas using the output of Kohtla-Järve
; only about three percent of that, or 6,041 apartments, had been supplied in Tallinn.
, were rebuilt.
'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%.
Another positive aspect of the post-Stalin era in Estonia was the regranting of permission in the late 1950s for citizens to make contact 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.
, the venue for the song festivals, were built in 1960
period of 1956 did healthcare networks start to stabilise. Due to natural development, science and technology advanced and popular welfare increased. All demographic indicators improved; birth rate increased, mortality decreased. Healthcare became freely available to everybody during the Soviet era.
which led to controversy since Western countries had not de jure recognized ESSR as part of USSR. During preparations to the Olympics
, sports buildings were built in Tallinn, along with other general infrastructure and broadcasting facilities. This wave of investment included Tallinn TV Tower
, Pirita Yachting Centre, Linnahall
, hotel "Olümpia" and the new Main Post Office building.
became a growing health issue. Up until 1985 and the beginning of glasnost
, it was illegal to publish statistical data on alcohol sales. It is estimated that alcoholism peaked in 1982-1984, when consumption reached 11.2 litres of absolute alcohol per person per annum. (In comparison, in Finland during the same period consumption only 6-7 litres per person per annum).
and the dissident-led Estonian National Independence Party soon followed. By 1989 the political spectrum had 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.
on November 16, 1988, independence resolutions on May 8, 1990, and renamed the Estonian SSR the Republic of Estonia. On August 20, 1991 the Estonian parliament issued a Declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union. On September 6, 1991, Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognized the independence of Estonia., immediately followed by the international recognitions of the Republic of Estonia.
In 1992, Heinrich Mark
, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia in exile, presented his credentials to the newly elected President of Estonia Lennart Meri
. On February 23, 1989 The flag of the Estonian SSR was lowered on Pikk Hermann
, and replaced with the blue-black-white flag of Estonia
on February 24, 1989.
The last Russian troops withdrew from Estonia in August 1994.
By 1947, the private sector had entirely disappeared, accompanied by a rapid industrialization that occurred soon after Soviet reoccupation. Soviet planners expanded oil shale mining and processing in the late 1940s, taking over that industry in northeast section of Estonia. In the 1970s, the Soviet economy experienced stagnation, exacerbated by the growth of a shadow economy.
National income per capita was higher in Estonia than elsewhere in the USSR (44% above the Soviet average in 1968). Official Estonian sources maintain that Soviet rule had significantly slowed Estonia's economic growth, resulting in a wide wealth gap in comparison with its neighboring countries (e.g., Finland
, Sweden
). For example, Estonian economy and standard of living exceeded that in Finland prior to World War II . Despite Soviet and Russian claims of improvements in standards, even three decades after World War II Estonia was rife with housing and food shortages. Eastern Bloc economies
experienced an inefficiency of systems without competition or market-clearing prices that became costly and unsustainable and they lagged significantly behind their western European counterparts in terms of per capita
Gross Domestic Product
. Estonia's 1990 per capita GDP was $10,733 compared to $26,100 for Finland. Estonian sources estimate the economic damage directly attributable to the second Soviet occupation (from 1945 to 1991) to lie in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars. Similarly, the damage to Estonian ecology
were estimated at around 4 billion USD.
, and some of them were then invested back in the local economies. Thus, investment figures do not represent actual income; rather, they resemble the spending side of the national budget
.
. The territory was therefore heavily militarized and added to the Soviet Baltic Military District
which included a strong presence of the Soviet Air Defence, Navy
and also the Strategic Rocket Forces
. The Baltic Military District
included the following units:
144th Guards Motor Rifle Division
, (Tallinn); 182nd Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment, (Klooga
)
188th Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment, (Klooga); 254th Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment, (Tallinn)
148th Independent Recon-Battalion, (Klooga); 295th Independent Engineer-Battalion, (Klooga)
228th Tank Regiment, (Keila
); 450th Artillery Regiment, (Klooga)
170th Naval Shturmovik Aviation Regiment, (Ämari)
; 321st Naval Shturmovik Aviation Regiment, (Ämari)
366th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Pärnu)
; 384th Interceptor Aircraft Regiment, (Tallinn)
425th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Haapsalu); 655th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Pärnu)
656th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Tapa)
; 66th Soviet Attack Air Regiment, (Kunda)
192nd Military Transport Aviation Regiment, (Tartu)
; 196th Military Transport Aviation Regiment, (Tartu)
132nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment, (Tartu); 2nd Air-Defence Army
Red-Banner Baltic Fleet
; (Tallinn)-(Paldiski
)
.
During the time of glasnost
and the reassessment of Soviet history in the USSR, the USSR condemned the 1939 secret protocol
between Nazi Germany and itself that had led to the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries. The collapse of the Soviet Union
led to the restoration of the Republic of Estonia's sovereignty. (See History of Estonia: Regaining independence).
According to the European Court of Human Rights
, Government of Estonia, EU, USA Estonia remained occupied by the Soviet Union until restoration of its independence in 1991 and the 48 years of Soviet occupation and annexation is not rendered legal by most international governments.
A Wall Street Journal article claims that Russian reconsideration of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states
raised concerns among "some historians" that "Kremlin is -- quite literally -- trying to rewrite history in a way that risks breeding ultranationalism and whitewashing the darkest chapters of Russia's past."
The Russian government maintains that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate and that the Soviet Union annexed those countries due to the Nazi threat at that time. It is commonly stated that the Soviet troops had entered the Baltics in 1940 following the agreements and with the consent of the then governments of the Baltic republics. They state that the USSR was not in a state of war
and was not waging any combat activities on the territory of the three Baltic states against them, and the word 'occupation' cannot be used. "The assertions about [the] 'occupation' by the Soviet Union and the related claims ignore all legal, historical and political realities, and are therefore utterly groundless." (Russian Foreign Ministry)
Government of the Soviet Union
The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was the de jure government comprising the highest executive and administrative body of the Soviet Union from 1946 until 1991....
. The ESSR was initially established on the territory of the Republic of Estonia on July 21, 1940, following the invasion of Soviet troops on June 17, 1940 and the installation of a puppet government backed by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, which declared Estonia a Soviet state. The Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the USSR on August 9, 1940. This territory was also occupied by Nazi Germany
Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Army Group North reached Estonia in July.Initially the Germans were perceived by most Estonians as liberators from the USSR and its repressions, having arrived only a week after the first mass deportations from the Baltics...
from 1941 to 1944.
Most countries did not recognise the incorporation of Estonia de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
and only recognised its Soviet government de facto or not at all. A number of these countries continued to recognize Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former governments. This policy of non-recognition gave rise to the principle of legal continuity, which held that de jure, Estonia remained an independent state under illegal occupation throughout the period 1940–91.
Independence of the Republic of Estonia was reestablished on August 20, 1991.
Stalin era: initial Soviet occupation in 1940
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
signed on 23 August 1939 relegated the Republic of Estonia to the Soviet sphere of influence.
On September 24, 1939 warships of the Soviet Navy appeared off Estonian ports and Soviet bombers began a threatening patrol over Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
and the nearby countryside. Moscow demanded that Estonia allow the USSR to establish military bases and station 25,000 troops on Estonian soil for the duration of the European war. The government of Estonia accepted the ultimatum signing the corresponding mutual assistance agreement on September 28, 1939.
On June 12, 1940, according to the director of the Russian State Archive of the Naval Department Pavel Petrov (C.Phil.), the order for total military blockade of Estonia was given to the Soviet Baltic Fleet
Baltic Fleet
The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
. On June 14, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect while the world’s attention was focused on the fall of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Two Soviet bombers downed a Finnish passenger airplane "Kaleva
Kaleva (airplane)
Kaleva, registered OH-ALL, was a civilian Junkers Ju 52 passenger and transport plane, belonging to the Finnish carrier Aero O/Y. The aircraft was shot down by two Soviet Ilyushin DB-3 bombers during peacetime between the Soviet Union and Finland on June 14, 1940, while en route from Tallinn to...
" flying from Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
to Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
and Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. On June 16, Soviet NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
troops raided border posts in Estonia (along with Lithuania and Latvia). Soviet leader Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
claimed that the 1939 mutual assistance treaties had been violated, and gave six hour ultimatums for new governments to be formed in each country, including lists of persons for cabinet posts provided by the Kremlin. The Estonian government decided, according to the Kellogg-Briand Pact
Kellogg-Briand Pact
The Kellogg–Briand Pact was an agreement signed on August 27, 1928, by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Weimar Germany and a number of other countries.The pact renounced war , prohibiting the use of war...
, to not respond to the Soviet ultimatums by military means. Given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, the order was given not to resist, to avoid bloodshed and open war.
On June 17, the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
emerged from its military bases in Estonia and, aided by an additional 90,000 Soviet troops, took over the country, occupying the territories of the Republic of Estonia, and organizing and supporting communist demonstrations all over the country. Most of the Estonian Defence Forces and the Estonian Defence League
Estonian Defence League
The Estonian Defence League is the name of the unified paramilitary armed forces of the Republic of Estonia. The Defence League is a paramilitary defence organization which aim is to guarantee the preservation of the independence and sovereignty of the state, the integrity of its land area and its...
surrendered
Surrender (military)
Surrender is when soldiers, nations or other combatants stop fighting and eventually become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their officers. A white flag is a common symbol of surrender, as is the gesture of raising one's hands empty and open above one's head.When the...
according to the orders and were disarmed by the Red Army. Only the Estonian Independent Signal Battalion stationed at Raua Street in Tallinn showed resistance. As the Red Army brought in additional reinforcements supported by six armoured fighting vehicle
Armoured fighting vehicle
An armoured fighting vehicle is a combat vehicle, protected by strong armour and armed with weapons. AFVs can be wheeled or tracked....
s, the battle lasted several hours until sundown. There was one dead, several wounded on the Estonian side and about 10 killed and more wounded on the Soviet side. Finally the military resistance was ended with negotiation
Negotiation
Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or parties, intended to reach an understanding, resolve point of difference, or gain advantage in outcome of dialogue, to produce an agreement upon courses of action, to bargain for individual or collective advantage, to craft outcomes to satisfy...
s and the Independent Signal Battalion surrendered and was disarmed.
By June 18, military operations of the occupation of the Baltic States were complete. Thereafter, state administrations were liquidated and replaced by Soviet cadres, followed by mass repression.
The Time Magazine reported on June 24, that "Half a million men and countless tanks" of the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
"moved to safeguard [Russia's] frontier against conquest-drunk Germany," one week before the Fall of France
Battle of France
In the Second World War, the Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries, beginning on 10 May 1940, which ended the Phoney War. The battle consisted of two main operations. In the first, Fall Gelb , German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and...
.
On June 21, 1940, the Soviet occupation of the Republic of Estonia was complete. That day, the President
President of Estonia
The President of the Republic is the head of state of the Republic of Estonia.Estonia is a parliamentary republic, therefore President is mainly a symbolic figure and holds no executive power. The President has to suspend his membership in any political party for his term in office...
Konstantin Päts
Konstantin Päts
Konstantin Päts VR I/1 and III/1 was the most influential politician of interwar Estonia. He was one of the first Estonians to become active in politics and started an almost 40-year political rivalry with Jaan Tõnisson, first through journalism with his newspaper Teataja, later through politics...
(deported to Ufa
Ufa
-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...
on July 30 and later arrested) was pressured into affirming the Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
appointed puppet government of Johannes Vares
Johannes Vares
Johannes Vares , commonly known as Johannes Vares Barbarus, was an Estonian poet, doctor, and politician.Vares was born in Heimtali, now in Pärsti Parish, Viljandi County, and educated at Pärnu Gymnasium...
, following the arrival of demonstrators accompanied by Red Army troops with armored vehicles to the Presidential palace. The Flag of Estonia
Flag of Estonia
The national flag of Estonia is a tricolour featuring three equal horizontal bands of blue , black, and white. The normal size is 105 × 165 cm...
was replaced with a Red flag
Red flag
In politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
on Pikk Hermann
Pikk Hermann
Pikk Hermann is a tower of the Toompea Castle, on Toompea hill in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The first part was built 1360-70. It was rebuilt in the 16th century...
tower.
On July 14–15 rigged, extraordinary, single-party parliamentary elections were held where all but pro-Communist candidates were outlawed. The goal of occupation authorities was to maximize turnout to legitimize the new system, which included stamping passports in voting facilities for future identification of voting, along with a threat running in Estonia's main daily paper, the Rahva Hääl
Rahva hääl
Rahva Hääl was the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Estonia during Soviet occupation of Estonia. It was founded shortly after the first Soviet takeover in 1940 based on offices and resources of Uus Eesti , an earlier Estonian newspaper.-See also:*Eastern Bloc information dissemination...
, that "It would be extremely unwise to shirk elections.... Only people's enemies stay at home on election day." Each ballot carried only the Soviet-assigned candidate's name, with the only way to register opposition being to strike out that name on the ballot. According to official election results, the Communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
"Union of the Estonian Working People" bloc won 92.8 % of the votes with 84.1 % of the population attending the elections. Time Magazine reported that, following the elections, tribunals were set up to judge and punish "traitors to the people", which included opponents of Sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
and those who did not vote for incorporation in the Soviet Union.
Once the elections were concluded, authorities which had previously denied any intention of setting up a Soviet regime, then openly spoke of Sovietization and incorporation into the Soviet Union. On July 21 the parliament (Riigikogu
Riigikogu
The Riigikogu is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. All important state-related questions pass through the Riigikogu...
) proclaimed the formation of the Estonian SSR, and, despite the promises given before the election, petitioned to join the Soviet Union on July 22. In response, the Estonian SSR was formally incorporated into
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
on August 9, 1940, and nominally became the 16th constituent republic of the USSR
Republics of the Soviet Union
The Republics of the Soviet Union or the Union Republics of the Soviet Union were ethnically-based administrative units that were subordinated directly to the Government of the Soviet Union...
. (On July 16, 1956, the Karelo-Finnish SSR
Karelo-Finnish SSR
The Karelo-Finnish Soviet Socialist Republic was a short-lived republic that was a part of the former Soviet Union. The republic existed from 1940 until it was merged back into the Russian SFSR in 1956 ....
was demoted to the Karelian ASSR
Karelian ASSR
The Karelian ASSR was an autonomous republic of the Russian SFSR, Soviet Union, with the capital in Petrozavodsk.The Karelian ASSR was formed as a part of the Russian SFSR by the Resolution of the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of June 27, 1923 and by the Decree of...
; from then on until 1991, the Estonian SSR was considered the 15th constituent republic.)
Development
On July 23, 1940, the Estonian SSR nationalizedNationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
all land, banks and major industrial enterprises in Estonia. Peasants were only allotted small plots of land during the land reforms. Small businesses were also later nationalized. The occupation brought with it colonisation
Colonisation
Colonization occurs whenever any one or more species populate an area. The term, which is derived from the Latin colere, "to inhabit, cultivate, frequent, practice, tend, guard, respect", originally related to humans. However, 19th century biogeographers dominated the term to describe the...
. According to some Western scholars, relations between the Soviet Union and Estonian SSR were those of internal colonialism
Internal colonialism
Internal colonialism is a notion of structural political and economic inequalities between regions within a nation state. The term is used to describe the uneven effects of economic development on a regional basis, otherwise known as "uneven development", and to describe the exploitation of...
.
- the earlier economic structures constructed mostly in 1920-1940 were purposefully destroyed;
- new production structures were constructed only to satisfy interests of the colonial power, assigning priorities according to an all-union production chain network;
- local environmental resources were used in an extensive, robber-like manner;
- the employment and migration policies were tailored towards assimilating the native population;
- former economic ties of Estonia were cut off and Estonian economy was isolated from non-Soviet markets.
All banks and accounts were essentially nationalized
Nationalization
Nationalisation, also spelled nationalization, is the process of taking an industry or assets into government ownership by a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being...
; a lot of industrial machinery was disassembled and relocated to other Soviet territories. Before retreating in 1941, Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
, following the scorched earth
Scorched earth
A scorched earth policy is a military strategy or operational method which involves destroying anything that might be useful to the enemy while advancing through or withdrawing from an area...
policies, burnt most industrial constructions, destroying power plants, vehicles and cattle. Millions of dollars worth of goods were also moved from Estonia to Russia during the evacuation of 1941.
Sovietization, deportations, executions and nationalizations
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.On July 19, 1940, the Commander-in-chief
Commander-in-Chief
A commander-in-chief is the commander of a nation's military forces or significant element of those forces. In the latter case, the force element may be defined as those forces within a particular region or those forces which are associated by function. As a practical term it refers to the military...
of the Estonian Army Johan Laidoner
Johan Laidoner
Johan Laidoner was a seminal figure of Estonian history between the world wars. His highest position was Commander-in-chief of the Estonian Army in 1918–1920, 1924–1925, and 1934–1940.-Education:Laidoner was born in Viiratsi , Governorate of Livonia, then part of the Russian Empire...
was captured by the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
and deported together with his wife to Penza
Penza
-Honors:A minor planet, 3189 Penza, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1978, is named after the city.-Notable residents:...
, RSFSR. Laidoner died in the Vladimir Prison Camp, Russia on March 13, 1953. The President of Estonia
President of Estonia
The President of the Republic is the head of state of the Republic of Estonia.Estonia is a parliamentary republic, therefore President is mainly a symbolic figure and holds no executive power. The President has to suspend his membership in any political party for his term in office...
, Konstantin Päts
Konstantin Päts
Konstantin Päts VR I/1 and III/1 was the most influential politician of interwar Estonia. He was one of the first Estonians to become active in politics and started an almost 40-year political rivalry with Jaan Tõnisson, first through journalism with his newspaper Teataja, later through politics...
was arrested and deported to Ufa
Ufa
-Demographics:Nationally, dominated by Russian , Bashkirs and Tatars . In addition, numerous are Ukrainians , Chuvash , Mari , Belarusians , Mordovians , Armenian , Germans , Jews , Azeris .-Government and administration:Local...
on July 30. He died in a psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
in Kalinin (currently Tver
Tver
Tver is a city and the administrative center of Tver Oblast, Russia. Population: 403,726 ; 408,903 ;...
) in Russia in 1956.
800 Estonian officers, about half of the total, were executed, arrested or starved to death in prison camps
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
A total of 59,732 people is estimated to have been deported from Estonia
Soviet deportations from Estonia
As the Soviet Union had occupied Estonia in 1940 and retaken it from Nazi Germany again in 1944, tens of thousands of Estonia's citizens underwent deportation in the 1940s...
during the period between July 1940 and June 1941. This included 8 former heads of state and 38 ministers from Estonia, 3 former heads of state and 15 ministers from Latvia, and the then president, 5 prime ministers and 24 other ministers from Lithuania.
The Soviet 1940 occupation of Estonia decimated the local economy, as Moscow began nationalizing private industries and collectivizing smallholding farms. Most of the larger businesses and half of Estonia's housing were nationalized. Savings were destroyed with an imposed artificially low exchange rate for the Estonian kroon to the Soviet ruble.
Repressions against ethnic Russians
According to Sergei Isakov, almost all societies, newspapers, organizations of ethnic Russians in Estonia were closed and their activists persecuted.- Sergei Zarkevich, an activist involved with Russian organizations in Estonia. The owner of the "Russian Book" store: arrest order issued by NKVDNKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
on June 23, 1940, executed on March 25, 1941. - Oleg Vasilovsky, a former General in the Russian Imperial Army. Arrest order issued by NKVD on July 1, 1940. Further fate unknown.
- Sergei Klensky, one of the former leaders of the Russian Peasants Labor Party. Arrested on July 22. On November 19, 1940, sentenced to 8 years in a prison camp. Further fate unknown.
- Mikhail Aleksandrov
- Arseni Zhitkov.
Other ethnic Russians in Estonia arrested and executed by different Soviet War Tribunals in 1940–1941:
Ivan Salnikov, Pavel Mironov, Mihhail Arhipov, Vassili Belugin, Vladimir Strekoytov, Vasili Zhilin, Vladimir Utekhin, Sergei Samennikov, Ivan Meitsev, Ivan Yeremeyev, Konstatin Bushuyev, Yegor Andreyev, Nikolai Sausailov, Aleksandr Serpukhov, Konstatin Nosov, Aleksandr Nekrasov
Aleksandr Nekrasov
Aleksandr Ivanovic Nekrasov was a Russian mathematician known for his mathematical contributions to hydromechanics and aeromechanics....
, Nikolai Vasilev-Muroman, Aleksei Sinelshikov, Pyotr Molonenkov, Grigory Varlamov, Stepan Pylnikov, Ivan Lishayev, Pavel Belousev, Nikolai Gusev, Leonid Sakharov, Aleksander Chuganov, Fyodor Dobrovidov, Lev Dobek, Andrei Leontev, Ivan Sokolov, Ivan Svetlov, Vladimir Semyonov, Valentin Semenov-Vasilev, Vasili Kamelkov, Georgi Lokhov, Aleksei Forlov, Ivan Ivanov, Vasili Karamsin, Aleksandr Krasilnikov, Aleksandr Zhukov, etc.
Full list at:
International reaction
Immediately following the June 1940 Estonian occupation by the Soviet Union and forcible incorporattion as a result of a Soviet-supported Communist coup d'étatCoup d'état
A coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, the only foreign powers to recognize the Soviet annexation were Nazi Germany and Sweden.
The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and several other countries considered the annexation
Annexation
Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...
of Estonia by the USSR illegal following the Stimson Doctrine
Stimson Doctrine
The Stimson Doctrine is a policy of the United States federal government, enunciated in a note of January 7, 1932, to Japan and China, of non-recognition of international territorial changes that were executed by force. The doctrine was an application of the principle of ex injuria jus non oritur...
—a stance that made the doctrine an established precedent of international law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
. Although the US, the UK, the other Allies of World War II
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
recognized the occupation of the Baltic states by USSR at Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
in 1945 de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
, they retained diplomatic relations with the exiled representatives
Estonian Government in Exile
The Estonian Government in Exile refers to the formally declared governmental authority of the Republic of Estonia in exile, existing from 1953 until the reestablishment of Estonian sovereignty over Estonian territory in 1992...
of the independent Republic of Estonia, and never formally recognized the annexation of Estonia de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
.
The Russian government and officials maintain that the Soviet annexation of Estonia was legitimate.
Soviet historiography
Pre-Perestroika Soviet sources reflecting Soviet historiography described the events in 1939 and 1940 as follows: in a former province of the Russian EmpireRussian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
, the Province of Estonia
Governorate of Estonia
The Governorate of Estonia or Estland, also known as the Government of Estonia or Province of Estonia, was a governorate of the Russian Empire in what is now northern Estonia.-Historical overview:...
, Soviet power was established in the end of October 1917. The Estonian Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Narva
Narva
Narva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border, on the Narva River which drains Lake Peipus.-Early history:...
on November 29, 1918 but fell to counter-revolutionaries and the White Armies
White movement
The White movement and its military arm the White Army - known as the White Guard or the Whites - was a loose confederation of Anti-Communist forces.The movement comprised one of the politico-military Russian forces who fought...
in 1919. In June 1940 Soviet power was restored in Estonia as workers overthrew the fascist dictatorship in the country.
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
units in Estonia. Economic difficulties, dissatisfaction with the Estonian government's policies "sabotaging fulfillment of the Pact and the Estonian government", and political orientation towards Nazi Germany lead to a revolutionary situation in June 1940. A note from the Soviet government to the Estonian Government suggested that they stuck strictly to the Pact of Mutual Assistance. To guarantee the fulfillment of the Pact, additional military units entered Estonia, welcomed by the Estonian workers who demanded the resignation of the Estonian government. On June 21 under the leadership of the Estonian Communist Party political demonstrations by workers were held in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Tartu
Tartu
Tartu is the second largest city of Estonia. In contrast to Estonia's political and financial capital Tallinn, Tartu is often considered the intellectual and cultural hub, especially since it is home to Estonia's oldest and most renowned university. Situated 186 km southeast of Tallinn, the...
, Narva
Narva
Narva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border, on the Narva River which drains Lake Peipus.-Early history:...
and other cities. On the same day the fascist government was overthrown, and the People's government led by Johannes Vares
Johannes Vares
Johannes Vares , commonly known as Johannes Vares Barbarus, was an Estonian poet, doctor, and politician.Vares was born in Heimtali, now in Pärsti Parish, Viljandi County, and educated at Pärnu Gymnasium...
was formed. On July 14–15, 1940 elections for the Estonian Parliament, the State Assembly (Riigikogu
Riigikogu
The Riigikogu is the unicameral parliament of Estonia. All important state-related questions pass through the Riigikogu...
) were held. The "Working People’s Union", created by an initiative of the Estonian Communist Party received with 84.1% turnout 92.8% of the votes. On July 21, 1940 the State Assembly adopted the declaration of the restoration of Soviet power in Estonia and proclaimed the 'Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic'. On July 22 the declaration of Estonia's wish to join the USSR was ratified and the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was petitioned accordingly. The request was approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 6, 1940. On July 23 the State Assembly proclaimed all land to be people's property while banks and heavy industry were nationalized. On August 25 the State Assembly adopted the Constitution of the Estonian SSR, renamed itself the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR and approved the Council of People's Commissars of the Estonian SSR.
Hitler era: Nazi occupation 1941–1944
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
on June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
reached Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
in July 1941.
Although initially the Germans were perceived as liberators from the USSR and its repressions by those Estonians who hoped for the restoration of independence, it was soon realized that they were but another occupying power. Germans pillaged the country for the war effort and unleashed the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
. Estonia was incorporated into the German province of Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland
Reichskommissariat Ostland, literally "Reich Commissariat Eastland", was the civilian occupation regime established by Nazi Germany in the Baltic states and much of Belarus during World War II. It was also known as Reichskommissariat Baltenland initially...
.
Stalin era continues
another half century. This began when the Red Army re-occupied Estonian Ingria, Narva
Narva
Narva is the third largest city in Estonia. It is located at the eastern extreme point of Estonia, by the Russian border, on the Narva River which drains Lake Peipus.-Early history:...
, and eastern Vaivara Parish
Vaivara Parish
Vaivara Parish is a municipality of Ida-Viru County in northern Estonia. It has a population of 1,800 and an area of 397.97 km².-Settlements:Small boroughs:Olgina , Sinimäe Villages:...
in the Battle of Narva
Battle of Narva (1944)
The Battle of Narva was a military campaign between the German Army Detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front fought for possession of the strategically important Narva Isthmus on 2 February – 10 August 1944 during World War II....
, Southeast Estonia in the Tartu Offensive and the rest of the country in the Baltic Offensive. Faced with the country being re-occupied by the Soviet Army, 80,000 people fled from Estonia by sea to Finland and Sweden in 1944. 25,000 Estonians reached Sweden and a further 42,000 Germany. During the war about 8,000 Estonian Swedes and their family members had emigrated to Sweden. After the retreat of the Germans, about 30,000 partisans remained in hiding in the Estonian forests, waging a guerrilla war until the early 1950s.
In 1945 some territories of eastern Estonia with the towns of Jaanilinn and Petseri were transferred to the RSFSR.
After re-occupation, the Soviet nationalization policy of 1940 was reimposed, as well as the collectivization of farms. Over 900,000 hectares were expropriated in the few years following reoccupation, while much of that land was given to new settlers from Russia or other locations in the Soviet Union. Rapid collectivization began in 1946, followed in 1947 by a crackdown against kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
farmers. The kulak repression started as oppressive taxation, but eventually led to mass deportations. Those who resisted collectivization were killed or deported. More than 95% of farms were collectivized by 1951.
The 1949 mass deportation of about 21,000 people broke the back of the partisan movement. 6,600 partisans gave themselves up in November 1949. Later on, the failure of the Hungarian uprising broke the morale of 700 men still remaining under cover. According to Soviet data, up until 1953 20,351 partisans were defeated. Of these, 1,510 perished in the battles. During that period, 1,728 members of the Red Army, NKVD and the militia were killed by the "forest brothers
Forest Brothers
The Forest Brothers were Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian partisans who waged a guerrilla war against Soviet rule during the Soviet invasion and occupation of the three Baltic states during, and after, World War II...
". August Sabbe, the last surviving "brother" in Estonia, was discovered and killed by KGB agents in 1978.
Yestonians
Yestonians was the derogatory epithet for Estonians brought from Russia to Estonia after World War II to staff the political structures of the Soviet Estonia with loyal cadre...
," alluding to their Russian accent.
Although the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, the allies of the USSR against Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, recognized the occupation of the Republic of Estonia by USSR at Yalta Conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
in 1945 de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
, the governments of the rest of the western democracies did not recognize it de jure
De jure
De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact".De jure = 'Legally', De facto = 'In fact'....
according to the Sumner Welles
Sumner Welles
Benjamin Sumner Welles was an American government official and diplomat in the Foreign Service. He was a major foreign policy adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and served as Under Secretary of State from 1937 to 1943, during FDR's presidency.-Early life:Benjamin Sumner Welles was born in...
' declaration of July 23, 1940 Some of these countries recognized Estonian diplomats who still functioned in many countries in the name of their former governments. These consuls persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Estonia's independence in 1991.
Development
Immediately after the war, major immigration projects were undertaken, labeled "brotherly aid under Stalinist nationality policies". For postwar reconstruction, hundreds of thousands of RussophoneRussophone
A Russophone is literally a speaker of the Russian language either natively or by preference. At the same time the term is used in a more specialized meaning to describe the category of people whose cultural background is associated with Russian language regardless of ethnic and territorial...
s were relocated into Estonia, mainly the cities. For example, during the years of 1945-1950, the total urban population count grew from 267,000 to 516,000; over 90% of the increase being fresh immigrants.
A special care was taken to change the ethnic structure of population, especially in Ida-Viru County. For example, a policy of prioritising immigrants before returning war refugees in assigning dwelling quarters was adopted.
Destruction of graveyards and war memorials
Estonian graveyards and monuments from the period of 1918-1944 were dismantled and destroyed. Among others, in the Tallinn Military Cemetery the majority of gravestones from 1918–1944 were destroyed by the Soviet authorities. This graveyard was then re-used by the Red ArmyRed Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
after World War II.
Other cemeteries destroyed by the authorities during the Soviet era in Estonia include Baltic German
Baltic German
The Baltic Germans were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today form the countries of Estonia and Latvia. The Baltic German population never made up more than 10% of the total. They formed the social, commercial, political and cultural élite in...
cemeteries, Kopli cemetery
Kopli cemetery
Kopli cemetery was Estonia's largest Lutheran Baltic German cemetery, located in the suburb of Kopli in Tallinn. It contained thousands of graves of prominent citizens of Tallinn and stood for over 170 years from 1774 to shortly after World War II when it was completely flattened and destroyed by...
(established in 1774), Mõigu cemetery
Mõigu cemetery
The Mõigu cemetery ) was a large Baltic German cemetery, located in the Tallinn suburb of Mõigu in Estonia. It served as the primary burial ground for the usually wealthy and noble citizens of the Toompea parish of Tallinn...
and the oldest cemetery in Tallinn, the Kalamaja cemetery
Kalamaja cemetery
The Kalamaja cemetery in Tallinn in Estonia was once the city's oldest existing cemetery, located in the suburb of Kalamaja in the north of the city...
(from the 16th century). After the re-occupation of Estonia in 1944, the destruction of monuments from the Republic of Estonia, which had survived or had been restored during the German occupation, continued. On 15 April 1945, in Pärnu
Pärnu
Pärnu is a city in southwestern Estonia on the coast of Pärnu Bay, an inlet of the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea. It is a popular summer vacation resort with many hotels, restaurants, and large beaches. The Pärnu River flows through the city and drains into the Gulf of Riga...
, a monument by Amandus Adamson
Amandus Adamson
Amandus Heinrich Adamson was an Estonian sculptor and painter.-Life:...
, erected to 87 persons who had fallen in the Estonian War of Independence, was blown up. The destruction of war memorials continued for several years and occurred across all districts of the country. A comprehensive file concerning the monuments of the Estonian War of Independence, compiled by the Military Department of the EC(b)P Central Committee in April 1945, has been preserved in the Estonian State Archives. Monuments are listed by counties in this file and it specifies the amount of explosive and an evaluation concerning the transportation that were needed. An extract regarding Võrumaa reads:
"In order to carry out demolition works, 15 Party activists and 275 persons from the Destruction Battalion must be mobilised. 15 workers are needed for the execution of each demolition and 10 people are needed for protection.... In order to carry out demolition works, 225 kg of TNT, 150 metres of rope/fuse and 100 primers are needed, since there is no demolition material on the spot. 11 lorries, which are available but which lack petrol, are needed for carrying the ruins away."
Collectivization
On May 21, 1947, the Central CommitteeCentral Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) authorized collectivization of Estonian agriculture. Initially it was implemented with great difficulties in the Baltic republics but it was facilitated by mass deportations of dissident farmers, termed 'kulak
Kulak
Kulaks were a category of relatively affluent peasants in the later Russian Empire, Soviet Russia, and early Soviet Union...
s'. As a result, by the end of April 1949, half of the remaining individual farmers in Estonia had joined kolkhozes. 99.3% of farms had been collectivised by 1957
Deportations
Mass deportations of ethnic Estonians during the Soviet era together with migration into Estonia from other parts of the Soviet Union resulted in the proportion of ethnic Estonians in the country decreasing from 88% in 1934 to 62% in 1989. While the Baltic republics had the highest living standard in the Soviet Union and high rates of industrialization, the ethnic Estonians in Estonian SSR (similarly to Latvians in Latvian SSRLatvian SSR
The Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Latvian SSR for short, was one of the republics that made up the Soviet Union. Established on 21 July 1940 as a puppet state during World War II in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Latvia after it had been occupied by...
, but unlike Lithuanians in Lithuanian SSR
Lithuanian SSR
The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , also known as the Lithuanian SSR, was one of the republics that made up the former Soviet Union...
) suffered a sharp decline of their proportion in the total population due to the large-scale immigration, mostly of Russians. While in 1934 the Estonians comprised 88 percent of the total population of Estonia, by 1959 and 1970 their number had decreased to 75 and 68 percent, respectively (and to 61.5% by 1989
Soviet Census (1989)
The 1989 Soviet census, conducted between January 12-19 of that year, was the last one conducted in the former USSR. It resulted in a total population of 286,730,819 inhabitants...
.)
This decline in percentage was especially severe among the urban and young populations. Within 11 years between 1959 and 1970 the proportion of Estonians in Tallinn declined by as much as 4%, from 60% to 56% of the total population. Population growth throughout the existence of the Estonian SSR was mainly due to immigration from other regions of the Soviet Union. Although the percentage of Estonians in the total population of the Estonian SSR declined due to Soviet migration policies, the total number of ethnic Estonians increased over the Soviet period as a whole. This was due to a positive natural growth rate of some 1 or 2 thousand per year. As an example, in 1970, the number of live births of Estonians was 14,429 and the number of deaths was 12,356, giving natural increase of 2,073 ethnic Estonians.
In 1940–1941 and 1944–1951 during the Soviet deportations from Estonia
Soviet deportations from Estonia
As the Soviet Union had occupied Estonia in 1940 and retaken it from Nazi Germany again in 1944, tens of thousands of Estonia's citizens underwent deportation in the 1940s...
tens of thousands of Estonian citizens were forcibly resettled to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. During the first year of occupation, 1940–1941, alone, an estimated 43,900 lives were irrecoverably lost, not counting refugees. The following three-year Nazi occupation
Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany
After Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, Army Group North reached Estonia in July.Initially the Germans were perceived by most Estonians as liberators from the USSR and its repressions, having arrived only a week after the first mass deportations from the Baltics...
brought with it a loss of 32,740 lives, again not counting refugees. Another 16,000 deaths were caused through Soviet repressions in the years following 1944.
Health care
In the year 1950, the major problems meriting medical research were declared to be tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, traumatism
Physical trauma
Trauma refers to "a body wound or shock produced by sudden physical injury, as from violence or accident." It can also be described as "a physical wound or injury, such as a fracture or blow." Major trauma can result in secondary complications such as circulatory shock, respiratory failure and death...
, occupational diseases and dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
. In comparison to the war years, birth rate had increased, mortality (including infant mortality) decreased, and the birth rate again exceeded the death rate.
Despite the immense needs for research, the Faculty of Medicine at the Tartu State University (now University of Tartu
University of Tartu
The University of Tartu is a classical university in the city of Tartu, Estonia. University of Tartu is the national university of Estonia; it is the biggest and highest-ranked university in Estonia...
) suffered from major purges, culminating after March 1950. Altogether, 56 staff of the university were purged; in the Faculty of Medicine, 12 professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
s of 17 were removed from their positions. They were replaced with less skilled but politically reliable staff.
Industry
A number of large-volume capital investments were undertaken by the Soviet central power to exploit resources on Estonian territory of Oil shaleOil shale
Oil shale, an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock, contains significant amounts of kerogen from which liquid hydrocarbons called shale oil can be produced...
, lumber
Lumber
Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....
and, later, uranium ore, as part of the postwar reconstruction program. The first Five Year Plan
Five-Year Plan (USSR)
The Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the Soviet Union were a series of nation-wide centralized exercises in rapid economic development in the Soviet Union. The plans were developed by a state planning committee based on the Theory of Productive Forces that was part of the general...
of the occupation, called the fourth Five Year Plan, prescribed a total of 3.5 billion roubles of investments for enterprises in Estonia.
One of the important goals in this reformation of Estonia's economy was providing economic support to Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
. To this end, 40% of the total capital investments of the fourth Five Year Plan to be spent in Estonia were intended for investments in oil shale mining infrastructure. Gas-rich oil shale was delivered to Leningrad via a specially built pipeline starting from 1948; gas from this very same source did not reach Tallinn until 1953. In 1961, 62.5% of the gas produced was still delivered to Leningrad.
By the end of 1954, 227,000 apartments in Leningrad were supplied with gas using the output of Kohtla-Järve
Kohtla-Järve
Kohtla-Järve is a city and municipality in north-eastern Estonia, founded in 1924 and incorporated as a town in 1946. The city is highly industrial, and is both a processor of oil shales and is a large producer of various petroleum products. The city is also very diverse ethnically: it contains...
; only about three percent of that, or 6,041 apartments, had been supplied in Tallinn.
Soviet capital investments
Cities, such as Tallinn, partially destroyed during the World War IIBombing of Tallinn in World War II
The Soviet Long Range Aviation bombed the Estonian capital Tallinn several times during World War II. The first instance was during the Summer War of 1941 . A number of bombing missions followed in 1942–43. The largest of the bombings occurred in March 1944 in connection with the Battle of Narva...
, were rebuilt.
Khrushchev era
After Joseph StalinJoseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
'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%.
Another positive aspect of the post-Stalin era in Estonia was the regranting of permission in the late 1950s for citizens to make contact with foreign countries. Ties were reactivated with Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, and in the 1960s, a ferry connection was opened from Tallinn to Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
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
Perestroika
Perestroika was a political movement within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1980s, widely associated with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev...
during the Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
era.
Capital investments
In 1955 the TV Centre was built in Tallinn, that began TV broadcasts on June 29 of that year. The Tallinn Song Festival GroundsTallinn Song Festival Grounds
-History of Song Festivals:In 1869 Johann Voldemar Jannsen established the Estonian Song Festival while the nation was still a province of the Russian Empire. This festival was considered responsible for fostering an Estonian national awakening...
, the venue for the song festivals, were built in 1960
Health care
Only after the Khrushchev ThawKhrushchev Thaw
The Khrushchev Thaw refers to the period from the mid 1950s to the early 1960s, when repression and censorship in the Soviet Union were partially reversed and millions of Soviet political prisoners were released from Gulag labor camps, due to Nikita Khrushchev's policies of de-Stalinization and...
period of 1956 did healthcare networks start to stabilise. Due to natural development, science and technology advanced and popular welfare increased. All demographic indicators improved; birth rate increased, mortality decreased. Healthcare became freely available to everybody during the Soviet era.
Brezhnev 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 Estonian pre-school teaching.Moscow Olympic Games of 1980
Tallinn was selected the host of the sailing eventsSailing at the 1980 Summer Olympics
Sailing/Yachting is a Olympic sport starting from the Games of the 1st Olympiad . With the exception of 1904 and possible 1916 sailing was always a part of the Olympic program....
which led to controversy since Western countries had not de jure recognized ESSR as part of USSR. During preparations to the Olympics
1980 Summer Olympics
The 1980 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event celebrated in Moscow in the Soviet Union. In addition, the yachting events were held in Tallinn, and some of the preliminary matches and the quarter-finals of the football tournament...
, sports buildings were built in Tallinn, along with other general infrastructure and broadcasting facilities. This wave of investment included Tallinn TV Tower
Tallinn TV Tower
The Tallinn TV Tower is a free-standing structure with an observation deck, built to provide better telecommunication services for the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics regatta event . It is located near Pirita, six km north-east of the Tallinn city center...
, Pirita Yachting Centre, Linnahall
Linnahall
Linnahall is a concert/sports venue in Tallinn, Estonia. It is situated on the harbour, just beyond the walls of the Old Town and was completed in 1980....
, hotel "Olümpia" and the new Main Post Office building.
Alcoholism
AlcoholismAlcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
became a growing health issue. Up until 1985 and the beginning of glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
, it was illegal to publish statistical data on alcohol sales. It is estimated that alcoholism peaked in 1982-1984, when consumption reached 11.2 litres of absolute alcohol per person per annum. (In comparison, in Finland during the same period consumption only 6-7 litres per person per annum).
Gorbachev era
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 GreensEstonian Greens
Estonian Greens is an Estonian green political party. Valdur Lahtvee, an organizer, reported that on 2006-11-01, more than 1000 members had been recruited for the Green Party Initiative Group to register as a political party under Estonian law, opening doors for running at the coming parliament...
and the dissident-led Estonian National Independence Party soon followed. By 1989 the political spectrum had widened, and new parties were formed and re-formed almost daily.
The republic's Supreme Soviet
Supreme Soviet
The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union was the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union and the only one with the power to pass constitutional amendments...
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
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
(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
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
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.
Republic of Estonia following independence
The first freely elected parliament during the Soviet era in Estonia had passed Estonian Sovereignty DeclarationEstonian Sovereignty Declaration
The Estonian Sovereignty Declaration , fully: Declaration on the Sovereignty of the Estonian SSR was issued on November 16, 1988 during the Singing Revolution in Estonia. The declaration asserted Estonia's sovereignty and the supremacy of the Estonian laws over the laws of the Soviet Union...
on November 16, 1988, independence resolutions on May 8, 1990, and renamed the Estonian SSR the Republic of Estonia. On August 20, 1991 the Estonian parliament issued a Declaration of Independence from the Soviet Union. On September 6, 1991, Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognized the independence of Estonia., immediately followed by the international recognitions of the Republic of Estonia.
In 1992, Heinrich Mark
Heinrich Mark
Heinrich Mark was born on October 1, 1911, in Krootuse, Kõlleste Parish, now in Põlva County, Estonia. He died on August 2, 2004, in Stockholm, Sweden....
, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia in exile, presented his credentials to the newly elected President of Estonia Lennart Meri
Lennart Meri
Lennart Georg Meri was a writer, film director and statesman who served as the second President of Estonia from 1992 to 2001. Meri was a leader of the Estonian independence movement.-Early life:...
. On February 23, 1989 The flag of the Estonian SSR was lowered on Pikk Hermann
Pikk Hermann
Pikk Hermann is a tower of the Toompea Castle, on Toompea hill in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. The first part was built 1360-70. It was rebuilt in the 16th century...
, and replaced with the blue-black-white flag of Estonia
Flag of Estonia
The national flag of Estonia is a tricolour featuring three equal horizontal bands of blue , black, and white. The normal size is 105 × 165 cm...
on February 24, 1989.
The last Russian troops withdrew from Estonia in August 1994.
Economy
By 1947, the private sector had entirely disappeared, accompanied by a rapid industrialization that occurred soon after Soviet reoccupation. Soviet planners expanded oil shale mining and processing in the late 1940s, taking over that industry in northeast section of Estonia. In the 1970s, the Soviet economy experienced stagnation, exacerbated by the growth of a shadow economy.
National income per capita was higher in Estonia than elsewhere in the USSR (44% above the Soviet average in 1968). Official Estonian sources maintain that Soviet rule had significantly slowed Estonia's economic growth, resulting in a wide wealth gap in comparison with its neighboring countries (e.g., Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
). For example, Estonian economy and standard of living exceeded that in Finland prior to World War II . Despite Soviet and Russian claims of improvements in standards, even three decades after World War II Estonia was rife with housing and food shortages. Eastern Bloc economies
Eastern Bloc economies
After the Soviet Union's occupation of much of the Eastern Bloc during World War II, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin implemented socioeconomic transformations of each of the Eastern Bloc economies that comported with the Soviet Communist economic model...
experienced an inefficiency of systems without competition or market-clearing prices that became costly and unsustainable and they lagged significantly behind their western European counterparts in terms of per capita
Per capita
Per capita is a Latin prepositional phrase: per and capita . The phrase thus means "by heads" or "for each head", i.e. per individual or per person...
Gross Domestic Product
Gross domestic product
Gross domestic product refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. GDP per capita is often considered an indicator of a country's standard of living....
. Estonia's 1990 per capita GDP was $10,733 compared to $26,100 for Finland. Estonian sources estimate the economic damage directly attributable to the second Soviet occupation (from 1945 to 1991) to lie in the range of hundreds of billions of dollars. Similarly, the damage to Estonian ecology
Ecology
Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...
were estimated at around 4 billion USD.
Budgetary system
In the Soviet system, all local proceeds were initially appropriated into the federal budget at MoscowMoscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, and some of them were then invested back in the local economies. Thus, investment figures do not represent actual income; rather, they resemble the spending side of the national budget
Budget
A budget is a financial plan and a list of all planned expenses and revenues. It is a plan for saving, borrowing and spending. A budget is an important concept in microeconomics, which uses a budget line to illustrate the trade-offs between two or more goods...
.
Militarization
The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic did not have armed forces of its own. Because of the strategic geographical location, Estonia was considered as a strategic zone for the Soviet Armed ForcesSoviet Armed Forces
The Soviet Armed Forces, also called the Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Armed Forces of the Soviet Union refers to the armed forces of the Russian SFSR , and Soviet Union from their beginnings in the...
. The territory was therefore heavily militarized and added to the Soviet Baltic Military District
Baltic Military District
The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces, formed briefly before the German invasion, and then reformed after World War II and disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991....
which included a strong presence of the Soviet Air Defence, Navy
Soviet Navy
The Soviet Navy was the naval arm of the Soviet Armed Forces. Often referred to as the Red Fleet, the Soviet Navy would have played an instrumental role in a Warsaw Pact war with NATO, where it would have attempted to prevent naval convoys from bringing reinforcements across the Atlantic Ocean...
and also the Strategic Rocket Forces
Strategic Rocket Forces
The Strategic Missile Troops or Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or RVSN RF , transliteration: Raketnye voyska strategicheskogo naznacheniya Rossiyskoy Federatsii, literally Missile Troops of Strategic Designation of the Russian Federation) are a military branch of the Russian...
. The Baltic Military District
Baltic Military District
The Baltic Military District was a military district of the Soviet armed forces, formed briefly before the German invasion, and then reformed after World War II and disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991....
included the following units:
- Ground units:
144th Guards Motor Rifle Division
32nd Rifle Division
The 32nd Rifle Division was first raised in 1934 at Vladivostok and organized as a Siberian Rifle Division. The division initially served Far Eastern Military District as part of the 39th Rifle Corps. It took part in a number of border skirmishes on the Manchurian border near Lake Khasan...
, (Tallinn); 182nd Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment, (Klooga
Klooga
Klooga is a small borough in Keila Parish in Harju County in northern Estonia. It has a population of 1,029 .During th German occupation in World War II a Nazi labor camp was situated in Klooga....
)
188th Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment, (Klooga); 254th Guard Motorized Rifle Regiment, (Tallinn)
148th Independent Recon-Battalion, (Klooga); 295th Independent Engineer-Battalion, (Klooga)
228th Tank Regiment, (Keila
Keila
Keila is a town and an urban municipality in Harju County in north-western Estonia. It is also the administrative centre of the surrounding rural municipality – Keila Parish.-History:...
); 450th Artillery Regiment, (Klooga)
- Air units:
170th Naval Shturmovik Aviation Regiment, (Ämari)
Ämari Air Base
Ämari Air Base is an air base in Harjumaa, Estonia located 7 km south of Lake Klooga...
; 321st Naval Shturmovik Aviation Regiment, (Ämari)
366th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Pärnu)
Pärnu Airport
Pärnu Airport is an airport in Estonia. The airport is situated 4 km from the city of Pärnu.In October 1937 Pärnu town council designated an area of 0.28 km² for the building of an airport. Operations at the new airport began in 1939....
; 384th Interceptor Aircraft Regiment, (Tallinn)
425th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Haapsalu); 655th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Pärnu)
656th Interceptor Aviation Regiment, (Tapa)
Tapa Airfield
Tapa is an air base in Estonia located 3 km southwest of Tapa. During the Cold War it was home to 656 IAP which flew MiG-23 aircraft. In 1987, interceptor aircraft were dispatched from Tapa to intercept Mathias Rust's Cessna 172 in a famous Cold War incident ....
; 66th Soviet Attack Air Regiment, (Kunda)
192nd Military Transport Aviation Regiment, (Tartu)
Raadi Airfield
Tartu Air Base is a former air base in Estonia located 4 km northeast of Tartu. It is a fairly extensive base with 24 large revetments and over 30 small ones. It was home to 132 TBAP which flew Tupolev Tu-16 and Tupolev Tu-22M aircraft...
; 196th Military Transport Aviation Regiment, (Tartu)
132nd Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment, (Tartu); 2nd Air-Defence Army
- Naval units:
Red-Banner Baltic Fleet
Baltic Fleet
The Twice Red Banner Baltic Fleet - is the Russian Navy's presence in the Baltic Sea. In previous historical periods, it has been part of the navy of Imperial Russia and later the Soviet Union. The Fleet gained the 'Twice Red Banner' appellation during the Soviet period, indicating two awards of...
; (Tallinn)-(Paldiski
Paldiski
Paldiski is a town and Baltic Sea port situated on the Pakri peninsula of north-western Estonia. Originally a Swedish settlement known as Rågervik, it became a Russian naval base in the 18th century. The Russians renamed it Балтийский Порт Paldiski is a town and Baltic Sea port situated on the...
)
Controversies
While views diverge on history of Estonia, the core of the controversy lies in the varying interpretation of historical events and agreements during and after World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
During the time of glasnost
Glasnost
Glasnost was the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s...
and the reassessment of Soviet history in the USSR, the USSR condemned the 1939 secret protocol
Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
between Nazi Germany and itself that had led to the invasion and occupation of the three Baltic countries. The collapse of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
led to the restoration of the Republic of Estonia's sovereignty. (See History of Estonia: Regaining independence).
According to the European Court of Human Rights
European Court of Human Rights
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...
, Government of Estonia, EU, USA Estonia remained occupied by the Soviet Union until restoration of its independence in 1991 and the 48 years of Soviet occupation and annexation is not rendered legal by most international governments.
A Wall Street Journal article claims that Russian reconsideration of the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
raised concerns among "some historians" that "Kremlin is -- quite literally -- trying to rewrite history in a way that risks breeding ultranationalism and whitewashing the darkest chapters of Russia's past."
The Russian government maintains that the Soviet annexation of the Baltic states was legitimate and that the Soviet Union annexed those countries due to the Nazi threat at that time. It is commonly stated that the Soviet troops had entered the Baltics in 1940 following the agreements and with the consent of the then governments of the Baltic republics. They state that the USSR was not in a state of war
State of War
State of war may refer to:*a situation where two or more states are at war with each other, with or without a real armed conflict*State of War , a book by James Risen which makes numerous controversial allegations about Central Intelligence Agency activities*State of War , a real-time strategy...
and was not waging any combat activities on the territory of the three Baltic states against them, and the word 'occupation' cannot be used. "The assertions about [the] 'occupation' by the Soviet Union and the related claims ignore all legal, historical and political realities, and are therefore utterly groundless." (Russian Foreign Ministry)
See also
- EstoniaEstoniaEstonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
- Molotov-Ribbentrop PactMolotov-Ribbentrop PactThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
- History of EstoniaHistory of EstoniaEstonia was settled near the end of the last glacial era, beginning from around 8500 BC. Before the German invasions in the 13th century proto-Estonians of the Ancient Estonia worshipped the spirits of nature...
- Demographics of EstoniaDemographics of EstoniaThe demographics of Estonia in the twenty-first century are the result of historical trends over more than a thousand years, just as for most European countries, but have been disproportionately affected by events in the last half of the twentieth century...
- List of Chairmen of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
- List of Chairmen of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic
- Museum of OccupationsMuseum of OccupationsThe Museum of Occupations in Tallinn, Estonia, is located at the corner of Toompea St. and Kaarli Blvd. It was opened on July 1, 2003, and is dedicated to the 1940-1991 period in the history of Estonia, when the country was occupied by the Soviet Union, then Nazi Germany, and then again by the...
, a project by the Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation - Purge, by Sofi Oksanen
External links
- The Global Museum on Communism Estonia Exhibit
- Estonian International Commission for Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
Further reading
- Jaska, Elmar (1952). The Results of Collectivization of Estonian Agriculture. Land Economics 28 (3), 212-217.
- Kareda, Endel (1949). Estonia in the Soviet Grip: Life and Conditions under Soviet Occupation 1947-1949. London: Boreas.
- Kukk, Mare (1993). Political opposition in Soviet Estonia 1940-1987. Journal of Baltic StudiesJournal of Baltic StudiesThe Journal of Baltic Studies, the official journal of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies , is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary academic journal founded in 1970 and published quarterly by Routledge, dedicated to the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the Baltic...
24 (4), 369-384. - Kulu, Hill (2003). Residence and migration in post-war Soviet Estonia: the case of Russian-born Estonians. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 94 (5), 576-588.
- Kurman, George (1977). Literary censorship in general and in Soviet Estonia. Journal of Baltic StudiesJournal of Baltic StudiesThe Journal of Baltic Studies, the official journal of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies , is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary academic journal founded in 1970 and published quarterly by Routledge, dedicated to the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the Baltic...
8 (1), 3-15. - Mander, Ülo (1994). Changes of landscape structure in Estonia during the Soviet period. GeoJournalGeoJournalGeoJournal is a peer-reviewed international academic journal on all aspects of geography founded in 1977. Twelve issues a year were published by Springer Netherlands until December 2009 and can be accessed via SpringerLink...
33 (1), 45-54. - Mettam, Collin W. and Stephen Wyn Williams (2001). A colonial perspective on population migration in Soviet Estonia. Journal of Baltic StudiesJournal of Baltic StudiesThe Journal of Baltic Studies, the official journal of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies , is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary academic journal founded in 1970 and published quarterly by Routledge, dedicated to the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the Baltic...
27 (1), 133-150. - Mettam, Colin W. and Stephen Wyn Williams (1998). Internal colonialism and cultural division of labour in the Soviet Republic of Estonia. Nations and NationalismNations and NationalismNations and Nationalism is an interdisciplinary academic journal covering nationalism and related issues. It is published quarterly on behalf of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism by Wiley-Blackwell. The journal is edited by Anthony D. Smith.- Aim :The first issue of Nations...
4 (3), 363-388. - Parming, Tõnu (1972). Population changes in Estonia, 1935-1970. Population Studies 26 (1), 53-78.
- Parming, Tõnu (1980). Population Processes and the Nationality Issue in the Soviet Baltic. Soviet Studies 32 (3), 398-414.
- Parming, Tõnu and Elmar Järvesoo (eds.). A Case Study of a Soviet Republic: The Estonian SSR. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1978.
- Rebas, Hain (2005). Dependence and opposition. Problems in Soviet Estonian historiography in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Journal of Baltic StudiesJournal of Baltic StudiesThe Journal of Baltic Studies, the official journal of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies , is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary academic journal founded in 1970 and published quarterly by Routledge, dedicated to the political, social, economic, and cultural life of the Baltic...
36 (4), 423-448. - Taagepera, Rein (1980). Soviet Collectivization of Estonian Agriculture: The Deportation Phase. Soviet Studies 32 (3), 379-397.
- Taagepera, Rein. Estonia: Return to Independence. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8133-1703-7.
- Tammaru, Tiit (2002). Universal and Specific Features of Urbanization in Estonia under Socialism: The Empirical Evidence of the Sources of Urban and Rural Population Growth. The Professional GeographerThe Professional GeographerThe Professional Geographer was originally a journal of the American Society of Professional Geographers, before it became a journal of the Association of American Geographers in 1949....
54 (4), 544–556. - Virkkunen, Joni (1999). The politics of identity: Ethnicity, minority and nationalism in Soviet Estonia. GeoJournalGeoJournalGeoJournal is a peer-reviewed international academic journal on all aspects of geography founded in 1977. Twelve issues a year were published by Springer Netherlands until December 2009 and can be accessed via SpringerLink...
48 (2), 83-89.