![]() ![]() Estonia was occupied by Germany and incorporated into Reichskommissariat Ostland in 1941–1944. 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. ![]() 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. Mass political arrests, deportations, and executions by the Soviet regime followed. The territory of until then independent Republic of Estonia was invaded and occupied by the Soviet Red Army on 16–17 June 1940. Neutral countries with military bases established by Soviet Union in October 1939 ![]() Geopolitical status in Northern Europe in November 1939 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. Period of Estonian history from 1939 to 1945Ĭlockwise from top left: Tallinn after the great Soviet bombing raid Platoon of Estonian Forest Brothers Estonian commanders Rebane, Nugiseks and Riipalu Estonian armoured regiment on march in 1940 Estonian MG team in the Battle of Tannenberg Line conscripts of the Estonian LegionĮstonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II (1939–1945), but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied, first by the Stalinist Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reinvaded and reoccupied in 1944 by the Soviet Union.īackground According to the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact " the Baltic States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania)" were divided into German and Soviet "spheres of influence" (German copy) ![]()
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