|
Although independent for almost 20 years, the Soviets continued to see Estonia and the other Baltic Republics as lost provinces of Russia. Estonia was a small nation and in 1939 faced a Soviet Union that now had a massive army. The NAZI Blitzkrieg against Poland doomed Estonia. Following the NAZI success in Poland, Stalin ordered the Red Army to invade from the east. Within days the Soviets were making demands on the Estonians. The Soviets demanded bases in Estonia for the Red Army (September 24, 1939). The Government yielded to the Soviet ultimatum (September 28.) An estimated 25,000 Red Army soldiers entered Estonia (October 18). Some of the bases were used to launch air strikes against Finland uin the Winter War. Some Estonians went to Finland to fight the Soviets there. The Estonian Government had no real control on the number of Red Army personnel. One source estimates that there were 30,000 Red Army soldiers and 10,000 members of a labor batalion in Estonia (April 1940). The NAZIs launched their Western offensive (May 10) amd entered Paris (June 14). The French were forced to sign a humiliating armitice and it looked at the time like Britain would soon follow. The Allied military dissater removed in any reservations Stalin might have had about seizing the Baltic Republics. The Soviets presented a new ultimatum to Estonia demanding that a new government be appointed and that they accept the total occupation og the country (June 16). The Estonian Government complied (June 17). This essentially meant the end of the Estonian state. The Red Army occupation was accomplished with 160,000 men and 600 tanks. The Soviets used 5 divisions of the Air Force with 1,150 aircraft to control the whole Baltic air space. The Soviet Navy blockaded Estonian and other Baltic ports. The KGB was ordered to prepare to receive 58,000 prisoners of war. One author reports that about 130,000 Soviet soldiers, KGB personnel, and other specialists assigned to establish new Soviet administrative apparatus in Estonia. Arrests, deportment, and executions were to follow. [Walter]
Although independent for almost 20 years, the Soviets continued to see Estonia and the other Baltic Republics as lost provinces of Russia. Independance for Estonia and the other Baltic Republics had been achieved with the help of the Allies and Germany at a time that Russia had been weakened by World War I, the Revolution, and Civil War (1917-20). The situation in 1939 was very different. Estonia was a small nation and in 1939 faced a Soviet Union that now had a massive army.
The NAZI Blitzkrieg against Poland doomed Estonia. The Germans more than any other military, correctly assessed the lessons of World War II. The War in Europe began in
1939 when the German blitzkrieg smashed Poland in only a few weeks. The invasion was made possible the preceeding week when Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler. The Panzers crossed the Polish frontier on September 1 along with a devestating strike by the Luftwaffe. The Polish Army and Air Force was shattered. About 1.8 million
German soldiers surged into Poland. Hitler emerged from the Reich Chancellery in a new grey uniform with his World War I Iron Cross. In a speech at the Reichstag before cheering NAZIs he declared, "I myself am today, and will be from now on, nothing but the soldier of the German Reich." Whithin 6 days Cracow, the center of Polish nationhood, fell. Pincer movements began on September 9 to encirle the major remaining Polish forces. Once certain of Polish defeat, Stalin ordered the Red Army to attack from the East. German and Russian forces met at Brest-Litovsk on September 18. Warsaw fell a few days later after a ruthless bombing assault. The Blitzkrieg tactics that were to prove so devestaing in the West during 1940 were all on display in 1939. Neither the British or French showed much attention, abscribing Polish defeat to military incompetance. The French had promissed the Poles an offensive in the West. It never came.
The Soviet Union had the largest army in the world. While it had many weakenes, they were not of a kind that Estonia or the other Baltic republic could take advantage of even if they worked in unison. The Soviets after the NAZI invasion of Poland (September 1, 1939), began concentrating forces along the border of the Estonia, the other Baltic Republics and Poland. Soviet forces on the Estonian border apparently reached 160,000 men and 600 tanks. Estonia had a minuscle army and even if fully mobilized would total only about 100,000 men with 30 tanks. The Soviets first invaded Poland (September 17). A week later the Soviets gave the Esyonian Government an ultimatum. The soviets demanded that the Estonian Government permit them to set up bases on Estonian territory (September 24). Estonian authorities had no real option. They signed a treaty put before them by the Soviets--the Pact of Defense and Mutual Assistance (September 28). This permitted the Soviets to station 25,000 soldiers in Estonia. Practically there was, however, no way to control tge number of Soviet soldiers. The Estonians had no way of counting the Soviet soldiers nor even if they had evidence that the Soviets had exceeded the amount specified in the Treaty, of relalistically appealing to Soviet authorities. One source estimates that there were 30,000 Red Army soldiers and 10,000 members of a labor batalion in Estonia (April 1940). [Walter]This meant in realistic terms the end of Estonia's brief period of independence. The era from the entry of Soviet troops to formal Soviet seizure of power the following year is known as the Period of the Bases. Soviet troops first crossed the Estonian border (October 18). That same the first ship carrying Baltic Germans back to the Reich departed Tallin. Soviet military authorities began building bases immediately. They did not immediately, however, intervene in Estonian political and government affairs or to promote Estonia's Communist Party.
The Baltic Germans were referred to as the "Tsar's loyal Germans", They lived for several centuries within the Russian Empire, but heald on to their cultural traditions. With the fall of the Russian empire they were all but forgotten. Perhaps the best known is Baron von Muenchhausen. As part of the NAZI-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, Hitler called the Baltic Germans home to the Reich. Stalin did not impede this. Virtually all of Baltic Germans complied, especially those in cities. The architecture of many Baltic cities is all that remains in the Baltic today. The NAZIs as part of the Non-Aggression Pact were handing the Baltic Republics over to Stalin, but did not want to hand over the ethnic Germans. For Stalin the numbers were trifling and he probably saw himself as getting rid of a potential irritant in NAZI-Soviet relations. Most of the Baltic Germans complied with Hitler's instructions. There were about 12,000 repatriated. I'm not sure how families that had inter0married with Estonians were handled. Many of the Baltic Germans repatriated were used in an effort to Germanize areas of western Poland. Polish farmers were forcibly evicted from their farms with no compensation and the Baltic Germans used to replace them.
It was the Soviet Union not Germany that first struck after the invasion pf Poland. Only 2 months after seizing eastern Poland, the Soviet Union on November 30, 1939 invaded Finland, launching the Winter War. Stalin sought a security belt to the west. Finland was the next step in that process. Soviet planes and naval vessels bombarded Finish cities. Roosevelt called in the "rape of Finland". [Freidel, p. 324.] Some of Soviet bases were used to launch air strikes against Finland uin the Winter War. Some Estonians went to Finland to fight the Soviets there. They fought in the International SISU brigade. Estonians radioed warnings as to the movements of Soviet aircraft.
The Germans proceeded to conquer virtually all of Western Europe. After a few months of the "Phony War", France's turn came. The Germans struck on a wide front against the neutral Netherlands, Belgiym, and Luxemburg (May 10). The terror bombing of Rotterdam convinced the already hard-pressed Dutch Army to surrender. The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) rushed north to aid the Dutch. The Germans then struck in the Belgian Ardenes which allowed them to avoid the formidable Maginot Line. The French and Belgians considered the Ardenes impassable to tanks. The Germans managed to easily penetrate the rough terraine, crossed two
substantial rivers, and the XIX Panzer Corps rapidly reached the English Channel--cutting the BEF off from the French and rendering the Maginot Line uselss. The French entrenched behind the Maginot Line simply could not cope with the exposive highly mobil style of Blitzkrieg warfare. The Panzers surrounded the Belgian Army which King Leopold III surrendered. The BEF was within Hitler's grasp. Paris soon fell (June 14) and the French signed a NAZI imposed armistace. The collapse of France after only a few weeks was a disaster of emense proportions. It was the French Army that had provided the bulk of the allied War Western Front in World War I. The German victory was not accomplished with massivelyu superior numbers or weaponry. In fact they had fewer men and tanks. What they had was a superior tactical doctrine. The Germans were amazed to find, for example, that French tanks were not even equipped with radios, and a more disciplined fighting
force. NAZI propaganda began to describe Hitler as " Der grösste Feldherr Allerzeiten " (the greatest field commander of all time). [Davidson, p. 483.]
The Allied military dissater removed in any reservations Stalin might have had about seizing the Baltic Republics. The Soviets whike the world's focus was revited on France proceeded to seize power in Estonia and the other Baltic Republics. The Red Army issued orders to commanders in Estonia to proceed to occupy the country (June 9). Red Army units were put on full alert (June 10). Soviet commanders sealed off Estonia and the other Baltic states with a naval and air blockade (June 14). The Soviets used 5 divisions of the Air Force with 1,150 aircraft to control the whole Baltic air space. The Soviet Navy blockaded Estonian and other Baltic ports. On the same day the NAZIs entered Paris. Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov presented Lithuania an ultimatum (June 14). Molotov delivered the same ultimatum to Estonia (June 16). The Soviets demanded that a new government be appointed with Communist participation. The Soviets also demanded the total occupation of the country (June 16). This essentially meant the end of the Estonian state. The Soviet military would be given complete freedom of action and access to all Estonian territory. Molotov issued an identical ultimatum to Latvia. Estonia again had no alternative but to acceed to the Soviet demands.
Author disagree somewhat with the Soviet firces entering Estonia (June 17). One source estimates that the Soviets deployed 160,000 men and 600 tanks. The KGB was ordered to prepare to receive 58,000 prisoners of war. [Walter] Another author reports that about 130,000 Soviet soldiers, KGB personnel, and other specialists were assigned to establish new Soviet administrative apparatus in Estonia. The Soviet occupation was overseen by a close associate of Stalin, Andrei Zhdanov. He was dispatched from Leningrad (June 19). Zhdanov was as a special representative of the Soviet Government. He set up a new government from Communists and left-wing activists. The government was headed by Johannes Vares, who was confirmed by President Päts (June 21). The new government, however, simply followed instructions issued by Zhdanov installed in the Soviet embassy. Zhdanov orcestrated Communist demonsrations supported by Soviet troops in 12 Estonian cities. This was the first step in dismantling the independent Estonian government and social structure. The new government held elections violating the Estonian constitution (July 14-15). In each parlimentary destrict, there was only one candidate--a member of the Communist Party. The Communists who controlled the tabulation of the ballots nnounced that the Party candidates received nearly 93 percebnt of the vote. No one knows what the actual vote was. The Soviet occupation authorities proceeded to arrest about 8,000 people and deport over 10,000
people. Much of this was done in a country-wide action on June 14, 1941--Just days before the German invasion. About 2,200 local people were executed, but many more died because of the terrible conditions in the camps and areas to which the deportees were sent. Before the NAZI invasion, the KGB had killed about 800 Estonian officers, about a half of the
total. They were executed or starved to death in prison camps. Only about half of the deportees ever returned to Estonia and the numbers of those who were arrested that survived was much smaller. After the NAZI invasion (June 22, 1941), the Soviet authorities deported another 33,000 men and 2,000 more were mobilized for labor.
Estonians who were deported provide us detailed discriptions of their experiences. Few of those who were arrested survived, but about half of the deportees did survive and returned to Estonia. As a result, there are many discriptiojs of what occurred. The accounts are heart rending. Unlike the Holocaust, there are no known photographs of the arressts and transports. There are, however, images from the settlements around the camps. Much of the process was similar to the Holocaust, but conditions in the transports were not as horific and gas chambers did not await the deportees.
Davidson, Eugene. The Unmaking of Adolf Hitler (Univesity of Missouri: Columbia, 1996), 519p.
Freidel, Frank. Franklin D. Roosevelt: Rendezuous with Destiny (Little Brown: Boston, 1990), 710p.
Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation. (We used an article in their web site, but I am nor sure who the author was or what the title of the article was.)
Walter, Hannes "Estonia in World War II", webpage accessed April 9, 2004.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to Main Soviet World War II aggressions page]
[Return to NAZI-Soviet Non-agression Pact page]
[Return to Estonian World War II page]
[Return to Main Estonian page]
[About Us]
[Aftermath]
[Biographies]
[Campaigns]
[Children]
[Countries]
[Deciding factors]
[Diplomacy]
[Geo-political crisis]
[Economics]
[Home front]
[Intelligence]
[POWs]
[Resistance]
[Race]
[Refugees]
[Technology]
[Totalitarian powers]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Return to Main World War II page]
[Return to Main war essay page]
[Return to CIH Home page]
