Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II (1939–1945), but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied, first by the Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reinvaded and reoccupied in 1944 by the Soviet Union.
Background
Immediately before the outbreak of World War II, in August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact (also known as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, or the 1939 German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact), concerning the partition and disposition of Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, in its Secret Additional Protocol.
The territory of until then independent Republic of Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Red Army on 16–17 June 1940. Mass political arrests, deportations, and executions by the Soviet regime followed. In the Summer War during the German Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the pro-independence Forest Brothers captured large parts of southern Estonia from the Soviet NKVD troops and the 8th Army before the arrival of the German 18th Army in the area. At the same time, in June–August 1941, Soviet paramilitary destruction battalions carried out punitive operations in Estonia, including looting and killing, based on the tactics of scorched earth ordered by Joseph Stalin. Estonia was occupied by Germany and incorporated into Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941–1944.
Upon the German invasion of the USSR in 1941, thousands of Estonians were conscripted into the Soviet army (including the Soviet 8th Estonian Rifle Corps and other units), and in 1941–1944 to the German armed forces. A number of Estonian men who had avoided these conscriptions were able to flee to Finland, and many of them then formed the Finnish Infantry Regiment 200. About 40% of the Estonian pre-war fleet was requisitioned by British authorities and used in Atlantic convoys. Approximately 1000 Estonian sailors served in the British Merchant Navy, 200 of them as officers. A small number of Estonians served in the Royal Air Force, in the British Army and in the U.S. Army.
From February to September 1944, the German army detachment "Narwa" held back the Soviet Estonian Operation. After breaching the defence of II Army Corps across the Emajõgi river and clashing with the pro-independence Estonian troops, Soviet forces reoccupied mainland Estonia in September 1944. After the war, Estonia remained incorporated into the Soviet Union as the Estonian SSR until 1991, although the Atlantic Charter stated that no territorial arrangements would be made.
Preface Before World War II, the Republic of Estonia and the USSR had signed and ratified the following treaties:
Kellogg-Briand Pact: The 27 August 1928 pact Pact "renounc[ed] war as an instrument of national policy". Ratified by Estonia and the USSR on 24 July 1929.Kellogg-Briand Pact at Yale University
Non-aggression treaty with the USSR on 4 May 1932.League of Nations Treaty Series, Vol. CXXXI, pp. 297–307.
The Convention for the Definition of Aggression: On 3 July 1933, for the first time in the history of international relations, aggression was defined in a binding treaty signed at the Soviet Embassy in London by the USSR and among others, the Republic of Estonia.League of Nations Treaty Series, 1934, No. 3391. Article II defined forms of aggression. "There shall be recognized as an aggressor that State which shall be the first to have committed one of the following actions". Relevant chapters: "Second – invasion by armed forces of the territory of another State even without a declaration of war", and "Fourth – a naval blockade of coasts or ports of another State."
Declaration of neutrality: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania jointly declared their neutrality on 18 November 1938, in Riga, at the Conference of Baltic Foreign Ministers with their respective parliaments passing neutrality laws later that year. Estonia passed a law ratifying its neutrality on 1 December 1938, which was modelled on Sweden's declaration of neutrality of 29 May 1938.Estonian Neutrality Law of December lst, 1938 Also importantly, Estonia had asserted its neutrality in its very first constitution, as well as the Treaty of Tartu concluded in 1920 between Republic of Estonia and the Russian SFSR.
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
Early on the morning of 24 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a 10-year non-aggression pact, called the Molotov–Ribbentrop pact. Most notably, the pact contained a secret protocol, revealed only after Germany's defeat in 1945, according to which the states of Northern and Eastern Europe were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence".Text of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, executed 23 August 1939 In the north, Finland, Estonia and Latvia were assigned to the Soviet sphere. Poland was to be partitioned in the event of its "political rearrangement"—the areas east of the Narev, Vistula and San Rivers going to the Soviet Union while Germany would occupy the west. Lithuania, adjacent to East Prussia, would be in the German sphere of influence, although a second secret protocol agreed in September 1939 assigned the majority of Lithuania to the USSR.Christie, Kenneth, Historical Injustice and Democratic Transition in Eastern Asia and Northern Europe: Ghosts at the Table of Democracy, RoutledgeCurzon, 2002,
The beginning of World War II
World War II began with the invasion of Poland, an important regional ally of Estonia, by Germany. Although some coordination existed between Germany and the USSR early in the war, the Soviet Union communicated to Nazi Germany its decision to launch its own invasion seventeen days after Germany's invasion, as a result, in part, of the unforeseen rapidity of the Polish military collapse.Roberts, Geoffrey "The Soviet Decision for a Pact with Nazi Germany". Soviet Studies, Vol. 44, No. 1 (1992), pp. 57–78
On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded its part of Poland under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. 3 September, Great Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Germany. 14 September, the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł reached Tallinn, Estonia. On 17 September, the Soviet Union invaded its part of Poland under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocol.Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret additional protocol During this invasion, a close coordination of German and Soviet military activity took place. 18 September, Orzeł incident; the Polish submarine escaped from internment in Tallinn and eventually made her way to the United Kingdom; Estonia's neutrality questioned by the Soviet Union and Germany.
On 24 September 1939, with the fall of Poland to Nazi Germany and the USSR imminent and in light of the Orzeł incident, the Moscow press and radio started violently attacking Estonia as "hostile" to the Soviet Union. Warships of the Red 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 agreement on 28 September 1939.
The pact was made for ten years: Estonia granted the USSR the right to maintain naval bases and airfields protected by Red Army troops on the strategic islands dominating Tallinn, the Gulf of Finland and the Gulf of Riga; The Soviet Union agreed to increase her annual trade turnover with Estonia and to give Estonia facilities in case the Baltic is closed to her goods for trading with the outside world via Soviet ports on the Black Sea and White Sea; The USSR and Estonia undertook to defend each other from "aggression arising on the part of any great European power"; It was declared: the pact "should not affect" the "economic systems and state organizations" of the USSR and Estonia.
There is no consensus in Estonian society about the decisions that the leadership of the Republic of Estonia made at that time.
When Soviet troops marched into Estonia the guns of both nations gave mutual salutes, and bands played both the Estonian anthem and the Internationale, the anthem of the USSR, at the time.
Similar demands were forwarded to Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. Finland resisted, and was attacked by the Soviet Union on 30 November, launching the Winter War. Because the attack was judged as illegal, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on 14 December. The war ended with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty in March 1940, in which Finland ceded 9% of its territory to the Soviet Union. However, the Soviets' attempt to install their Finnish Democratic Republic puppet government into Helsinki and annex Finland into the Soviet Union had failed.
The first population loss for Estonia was the repatriation of about 12,000–18,000 Baltic Germans to Germany.Estonia in World War II by Hannes Walter. Historical Text Archive, Mississippi. Retrieved link on 6 July 2020.
Soviet occupation
In the summer of 1940 the occupation of Estonia was carried through as a regular military operation. 160,000 men, supported by 600 tanks were concentrated for the invasion into Estonia. 5 divisions of the Soviet Air Force with 1150 aircraft blockaded the whole Baltic air space against Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. The Soviet Baltic Fleet blockaded the operation from the sea. The Soviet NKVD was ordered to be ready for the reception of 58,000 prisoners of war.
On 3 June 1940, all Soviet military forces based in the Baltic states were concentrated under the command of Aleksandr Loktionov.
On 9 June, the directive 02622ss/ov was given to the Red Army's Leningrad Military District by Semyon Timoshenko to be ready by 12 June to (a) Capture the vessels of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Navy in their bases and/or at sea; (b) Capture the Estonian and Latvian commercial fleet and all other vessels; (c) Prepare for an invasion and landing in Tallinn and Paldiski; (d) Close the Gulf of Riga and blockade the coasts of Estonia and Latvia in Gulf of Finland and Baltic Sea; (e) Prevent an evacuation of the Estonian and Latvian governments, military forces and assets; (f) Provide naval support for an invasion towards Rakvere; (g) Prevent Estonian and Latvian airplanes from flying either to Finland or Sweden.
On 12 June 1940, the order for a total military blockade on Estonia was given to the Soviet Baltic Fleet, according to the director of the Russian State Archive of the Naval Department Pavel Petrov (C.Phil.) referring to the records in the archive. Pavel Petrov at Finnish Defence Forces home page documents published from the State Archive of the Russian Navy
On 13 June at 10:40 am the Soviet forces started to move to their positions and were ready by 14 June at 10 pm. (a) 4 submarines and a number of light navy units were positioned in the Baltic Sea, to the gulfs of Riga and Finland to isolate the Baltic states by sea. (b) A navy squadron including three destroyer divisions were positioned to the west of Naissaar in order to support the invasion. (c) The 1st marine brigade's four battalions on transportation ships Sibir, 2nd Pjatiletka and Elton were positioned for landing and invasion of Naissaare and Aegna; (d) Transportation ship Dnester and destroyers Storozevoi and Silnoi were positioned with troops for the invasion of the capital Tallinn; (e) the 50th battalion was positioned on ships for an invasion near Kunda. In the naval blockade participated in total 120 Soviet vessels including 1 cruiser, 7 destroyers, and 17 submarines; 219 airplanes including the 8th air-brigade with 84 bombers: DB-3 and Tupolev SB and the 10th brigade with 62 airplanes.