History rests heavily on the Baltic countries. While particularly Sweden escaped 20th century ordeals, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were ravaged by all available evils. What happened in May 1945, and is now celebrated in Moscow and other places, was just a beginning of another occupation period in Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius.
At least young people, i e those under 70, need an update on Baltic History...see below
Introduction to the History of modern Estonia, up to 1941
Lennart Meri, President of the Republic of Estonia, convened the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against Humanity on October 2, 1998. Max Jakobson, who is also the Chairman of the Commission, as well as Uffe Ellemann-Jensen, Paul Goble, Nicholas Lane, Walter Laqueur, Peter Reddaway and Arseny Roginsky gave their consent to participate in the work of the Commission. At the end of October 1998, also Freiherr Wolfgang von Stetten agreed to participate in the work of the Commission.
At the Commission’s first meeting on January 26 and 27, 1999, the investigation of crimes against humanity committed against the Estonian citizens or on the territory of the Republic of Estonia during the occupation of the Soviet Union and the Nazi Germany, was set down as the main objective of the Commission’s work. It is the aim of the Commission to establish the attendant circumstances of crimes against humanity, and also the relevant historical background. The results of the Commission’s work shall be published as the Commission’s reports in English, so that the information gathered by the Commission will also be available to the international public.
Conclusions of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
Phase I - The Soviet Occupation of Estonia 1940-1941
Historical Background
On February 24, 1918, the Estonian Salvation Committee issued the ‘Manifesto to All the People of Estonia’ and declared Estonia an independent republic. Prior to this, areas populated by Estonians belonged to the provinces of Estonia and Livonia of the Russian Empire. The so-called Baltic Special Rule that applied in those provinces guaranteed extensive autonomy: their own civil code applied, local administration belonged to cities and the local nobility, and the majority of the population belonged to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
In February 1918, the German Imperial 8th Army occupied Estonia and power in Estonia was in the hands of the High Command of the 8th Army from February through November. After the Armistice of Compiègne, an agreement was signed in Riga on November 19, 1918 between the chief commissioner of the German government in Estonia and Latvia August Winnig and representatives of the Estonian Provisional Government whereby Germany transferred supreme power in Estonia to the provisional government. At the same time, Soviet Russia massed Red Army units at the Estonian border and attacked Narva on November 28, 1918. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Estonia declared a general mobilisation on November 29. The Estonian War of Independence began. The fleet of Great Britain and volunteers from Finland, Denmark and Sweden supported the Estonian Army. Red Army units were driven out of Estonia in January and February 1919. The Peace Treaty of Tartu between the Republic of Estonia and Soviet Russia was signed on February 2, 1920. Soviet Russia recognised Estonian independence. Finland recognised Estonia on July 7, 1920, Great Britain, France and Italy followed suit on January 26, 1921, as did the United States of America on July 28, 1922.
Estonia became a member of the League of Nations on September 22, 1921.
According to the Constitution adopted in 1920, Estonia was a democratic parliamentary republic. A 100-member single chamber parliament was elected for a term of three years. There was no head of state. The leader of the government – the Riigivanem (Prime Minister) – fulfilled the ceremonial duties of the head of state when necessary. The census of 1922 indicates that 87.6% of Estonia’s population was Estonian. That proportion was 88.1% in the census of 1934. The larger national minorities were Russians, Germans, Swedes, Latvians, Jews and Poles. Parliament passed the national minorities cultural autonomy act in 1925. Until 1941, Russians, Germans, Jews and Swedes could complete secondary school education in their own language.
The communist party was banned. Estonian communists operated underground as of 1920 as the Estonian section of the Comintern. Estonian communists attempted a rebellion on December 1, 1924 under the guidance of agents sent from the Soviet Union. It was put down the same day. Thereafter, support for the communists dwindled almost to the point of non-existence. The leadership of the Estonian communists operated out of the Soviet Union.
The backing of a right wing radical popular movement known as the Vabadussõjalaste Liit (Union of Participants in the Estonian War of Independence) grew in the early 1930’s. The members of this so-called Vaps movement attacked the parliamentary system using populist propaganda and demanded the adoption of a new Constitution giving the president sweeping powers. The draft of the new Constitution proposed by the Vaps movement through popular initiative received 2/3 of the votes in the referendum of 1933. The new Constitution went into effect on January 24, 1934. In order to prevent the presumable victory of the Vaps candidate in the upcoming presidential election, Riigivanem (prime minister) Konstantin Päts declared a state of national emergency on March 12, 1934 and asked the leader of the Estonian Army from the time of the War of Independence, Lieutenant General Johan Laidoner to accept the position of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Vaps organisations were shut down and their leaders were jailed. Vaps members and their sympathisers were removed from the civil service, the army and municipal governments. Since parliament, the Riigikogu, was prescribed in the Constitution as a permanent institution, the government dissolved it on October 2, 1934 but left it in a so-called ‘dormant state’: a new election was not called. The activity of political parties was halted in March of 1935. The Isamaaliit (Fatherland Union) popular movement was established and it was the only legally permitted political movement.
The Rahvuskogu (National Assembly) was convoked in 1937 and it worked out a new Constitution that went into effect on January 1, 1938. The Constitution prescribed a two-chamber parliament: the Riigivolikogu (National Representative Assembly) was the lower house of parliament consisting of 80 representatives elected by the people, and the Riiginõukogu (State Council) was the upper house of parliament consisting of 40 representatives of local municipal councils, the two largest churches, two universities and professional governing bodies (so-called chambers) and 10 members appointed by the president. As head of state, the president had broad powers and was the head of the executive branch of government; the prime minister was the chairman of the government. Konstantin Päts was elected president in April of 1938. The activity of political parties remained outlawed. Fifty-five representatives of the pro-government Isamaaliit and 25 representatives of the opposition were elected to the Riigivolikogu in 1938. The state of national emergency remained in effect.
The affairs of state of the Republic of Estonia were run in an authoritarian manner from 1934 to 1940. President Päts granted an amnesty in May of 1938 by which 183 political prisoners were released from prison. Most of them (104) were communists and their sympathisers that had been sentenced to long prison terms for subversive activity in 1923–1938, along with 79 members of the Vaps movement. In the summer of 1940, 36 individuals who had been convicted of espionage for the Soviet Union and 7 individuals who had been imprisoned for political offences were in prison in addition to criminal offenders.
The Occupation of the Republic of Estonia and its Incorporation into the Soviet Union
On August 23, 1939, the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union (hereinafter the USSR) Vyacheslav Molotov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Joachim von Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany. An additional secret protocol of the pact prescribed the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe. Estonia was included in the sphere of influence of the Soviet Union.
Germany attacked Poland on September 1, 1939 and WWII began. The Red Army of the Soviet Union also attacked Eastern Poland on September 17, 1939. The USSR forced Estonia into a mutual assistance pact on September 28, 1939, according to which army, naval and air force bases at the disposal of the USSR were set up on Estonian territory beginning in October of 1939 with a total of approximately 25,000 soviet troops. At the same time, about 15,000 men were in active service in the Estonian Army.
Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler called upon all Germans living in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy and the Soviet Union to relocate to Germany in a speech given on October 6, 1939. The resettlement of Germans had been co-ordinated with the USSR in negotiations. About 14,000 Germans (the so-called resettlers, Umsiedler in German) left Estonia between October of 1939 and May of 1940. After the occupation of Estonia by the USSR, approximately an additional 7500 individuals (the so-called post-resettlers, Nachumsiedler in German) left Estonia for Germany between January and April of 1941 on the basis of the agreement signed by the USSR and Germany.
On June 16, 1940, Molotov presented an ultimatum to the Estonian envoy in Moscow August Rei in which he accused Estonia of violating the mutual assistance pact and demanded the deployment of a supplementary contingent of troops in Estonia and the formation of a new government. The government of Estonia decided to accept the ultimatum: Estonia could not depend on support from abroad and the government considered armed resistance hopeless. An additional 6 Red Army rifle divisions, a tank brigade and naval and air force units were brought into Estonia on June 17. Together with the forces brought into Estonia earlier, there were over 100,000 USSR military personnel in Estonia by June 21. Still in June of 1940, the leadership of the Baltic Naval Fleet was relocated to Tallinn and the High Command of the 8th Army of the Red Army was relocated to Tartu.
The government of Prime Minister Jüri Uluots resigned on June 18, 1940. The secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (hereafter CPSU) and the leader of the Leningrad branch of the CPSU, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU Andrei Zhdanov arrived in Tallinn on June 19 and dictated the composition of the new government to President Päts. President Päts appointed this government to office under pressure from Zhdanov on June 21, 1940.
From June 21 to August 25, 1940, the national institutions, police force, army, financial and economic system of the Republic of Estonia were liquidated, the reorganisation of educational institutions according to the pattern of the USSR was begun and civil associations were dissolved. Similar actions were carried out in Latvia and Lithuania as well. Elections of new ‘parliaments’ organised by the governments according to the orders of representatives of the USSR were carried out simultaneously in the three Baltic countries on July 14 and 15, 1940. Sessions of these ‘parliaments’ also took place simultaneously on July 21, during which they declared their countries soviet socialist republics and applied for acceptance in the USSR. The ‘parliaments’ declared land the property of the state, thus eliminating private ownership of land, and also declared the nationalisation of banks and industrial enterprises.
The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Josif Stalin, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Central Committee of the CPSU itself directed the processes in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Their decisions concerning reorganisations in the Baltic countries have been published in part by the present day. Zhdanov, who resided in the legation of the USSR in Tallinn from July 2, 1940 until the end of July, co-ordinated the reorganisations in Estonia. The local co-ordinator of the incorporation of Estonia into the USSR was Vladimir Bochkarev, who operated as trade representative and advisor at the legation of the USSR in Tallinn since the end of the 1930’s. He was appointed envoy of the USSR in Estonia in June of 1940 and worked as the representative of the Central Committee of the CPSU and of the Council of the People’s Commissars of the USSR from September of 1940 to August of 1941.
The government of Prime Minister Johannes Vares placed in office on June 21, 1940 received its orders from Zhdanov, Bochkarev and other officials of the Soviet legation, and also from the representatives of various fields (finance, economy, foreign trade, the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs, the railway) who had been sent to Estonia.
In early August of 1940, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR officially registered the acceptance of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania into the USSR. The replacement of former national structures with soviet structures began. The ‘parliaments’ of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declared themselves ‘provisional Supreme Soviets’ on August 25, 1940 and adopted new constitutions that were composed according to the example of the constitutions of already existing union republics of the USSR. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU had approved the text of the declarations (these were the same in all three countries) made by the ‘parliaments’ on August 25 in advance. The ‘governments’ that had been appointed to office on June 21, 1940 resigned and Councils of People’s Commissars consisting almost without exception of members of the Communist Party were placed in office. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU had approved their compositions in advance.
The conclusive sovietisation of Estonia took place from August of 1940 to the summer of 1941. By the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and on the order of the People’s Commissar for Defence of the USSR Semeon Timoshenko, the Estonian Army (like that of Latvia and Lithuania) was reorganised in August of 1940 as a territorial rifle corps of the Red Army and placed under the control of the political leaders of the Red Army. The monetary system of the USSR and the criminal, civil and litigation codes of the Russian SFSR were put into effect in Estonia (like in Latvia and Lithuania) in the late autumn of 1940. Local municipal governments were sovietised in January of 1941: the Presidium (a permanent body of the Supreme Soviet) of the provisional Supreme Soviet of the Estonian SSR (hereinafter ESSR) appointed by its decision the compositions of the Executive Committees of the ‘Soviets of Workers’ Representatives’ of counties, towns and rural municipalities by name without formally electing the soviets.
The CPSU directed all processes at both the national and local levels in the USSR. The Estonian Communist (Bolshevist) Party (hereinafter ECP) had been formally joined with the CPSU in October of 1940 and held its congress in February of 1941. Individuals who had come from the Soviet Union were appointed to most of the leading posts by the congress.
The commission concludes that as of June 17, 1940, the USSR occupied the Republic of Estonia (like Latvia and Lithuania as well) using the threat of military power. The objective of the USSR was the permanent incorporation of the Baltic countries with its own territory. The ‘voluntary’ joining of the Baltic countries with the Soviet Union was staged and the forced sovietisation of these countries began.
The occupation of Estonia, just like that of Latvia and Lithuania, was the fulfilment of the long-term expansionist objectives of the USSR. The tactical starting point for the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was the non-aggression pact signed in August of 1939 between the USSR and Germany.The military necessity of safeguarding the borders of the USSR at the time of WWII, which is sometimes cited as the grounds for the occupation of Estonia in 1940 does not justify the actions of the USSR.
The actions of the Vares’ government appointed to office in Estonia on June 21, 1940 and the ‘parliament’ elected on July 14–15, 1940 were directed by representatives of the USSR in Tallinn according to directives of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU. As a result of this, the decisions adopted by these institutions are not decisions made in the interests of the Republic of Estonia but rather in the interests of the USSR in order to annex Estonia.
The commission concludes that responsibility for the annexation of the Republic of Estonia and its incorporation into the USSR rests primarily with Stalin and the leadership of the CPSU and in particular with its Politburo that made or approved all the more important decisions in the occupation of the Republic of Estonia. Responsibility also rests with the Central Committee of the CPSUand the Council of People’s Commissars (government) of the USSR since the decrees and decisions of these two bodies formed the basis on which the sovietisation of the Republic of Estonia was carried out beginning in August of 1940. The roles of Zhdanov and counsellor of the legation of the Soviet Union in Tallinn, and later envoy, Bochkarev, both of whom co-ordinated the annexation of Estonia locally, must be emphasised separately.
The commission concludes that responsibility for assisting with the annexation of Estonia rests with those citizens of the Republic of Estonia who together with the Soviet officials prepared for and carried out the take-over of power, and also the actual measures for the annexation of Estonia. In particular, this group includes:
1) the members of the Vares’ government appointed to office on June 21, 1940 who were also responsible for the measures implemented by virtue of their position;
2) the members of the Riigivolikogu (National Representative Assembly) elected on July 14 and 15, 1940 who made the formal decision to liquidate the Republic of Estonia;
3) the members of the Council of People’s Commissars of the ESSR appointed to office on August 25, 1940 who directed the implementation of measures for the sovietisation of Estonia in 1940–1941;
4) The Bureau and members of the Central Committee of the ECP who directed the practical implementation in Estonia of the directives of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU and of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Criminal events in Estonia 1940–1941
1. The Prosecution and Conviction of Citizens and Residents of the Republic of Estonia
In June of 1940, an operational group of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the USSR (hereinafter NKVD) entered Estonia together with Red Army units or right after them and administered the imprisonment of Estonian citizens and residents in the territory of the Republic of Estonia. The first arrests were made as early as June 1940 already. Within a few days of their arrest in Estonia, individuals considered more important by the NKVD operational group were taken to Leningrad or Moscow, where they were formally arrested again.
From June to August of 1940, the occupation authorities of the USSR attempted to create the impression that the laws of the Republic of Estonia continue to apply in the territory of Estonia. The Estonian political police was used to mask the actions of the NKVD operational group. Former underground communists were appointed commissars (heads of local departments) and lower officials of the Estonian political police as of the end of June, 1940 according to the decision of the minister of internal affairs of the Vares’ government. Decrees issued by the communist commissars of the political police that were formally based on the law of the Republic of Estonia establishing a state of national emergency formed the basis for the arrest of people. Arrested individuals who were not immediately taken to Russia were mostly imprisoned in the Central Prison of Tallinn, where NKVD investigators brought into Estonia with the NKVD operational group interrogated them with the assistance of interpreters. After imprisonment, cases were processed on the basis of the criminal code and criminal proceedings code of the USSR, although their validity was not formally extended to Estonia until December of 1940.
From June to August of 1940, higher officials of the Estonian political police, some members of the military, some judges, former Estonian ministers of internal affairs, national leaders of the Estonian Defence League and some of its local leaders who were accused of ‘repressing the labour movement, counterrevolutionary activity, espionage against the Soviet Union’ and other such accusations, were all arrested. Politicians, police officials, military officials and judges who were associated with the arrest and conviction of Estonian communists since 1918 were actively pursued. Yet people were arrested on the basis of denunciations as well. The NKVD operational group paid particularly close attention to the leaders and members of organisations of former Russian White Guards that had operated in Estonia, who were arrested first of all.
The last Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces General Laidoner was deported on July 17, 1940 with his wife to banishment in Penza. President Päts was deported on July 30, 1940 with his son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons to banishment in Ufa. Both were imprisoned in the summer of 1941 after the beginning of the war between the USSR and Germany. General Laidoner died in Vladimir Prison in 1953 and President Päts died in a special mental hospital in Kalinin oblast in 1956.
The arrest of over 300 people is known of from June through August of 1940. The total number of arrests is most likely greater because not all the files of arrested persons are in Estonia or have survived and summarised data is not at the disposal of researchers.
After the formal linking of Estonia to the USSR, arrests took place from August of 1940 to the autumn of 1941 analogously to the procedure in effect in the USSR of that time. The People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) of the ESSR was formed on August 29, 1940 according to written order no. 001067 of the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. In February and March of 1941, the hitherto existing General Administration of State Security (GUGB) was separated from the NKVD of the Soviet Union along with some other sub-units and these were subsequently combined to form the People’s Commissariat of State Security (hereinafter NKGB). This reorganisation was also extended to Estonia in March and April of 1941.
The decision to imprison an individual was in most cases made by local operatives of the General Administration of State Security or the NKGB with the approval of their superior. Decisions were approved by the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs Boris Kumm, who was appointed People’s Commissar of State Security in February of 1941, or his deputy Aleksei Shkurin. Arrests were authorised by the State Prosecutor’s Office of the ESSR (State Prosecutor Kaarel Paas or his deputy in special affairs Sergei Nikiforov and the prosecutors of his special department) or the military prosecutor of the NKVD Baltic District Forces (Military Prosecutor Palkin). The summaries of the indictments were approved by the same organs. County prosecutors also consented to approve summaries of indictments and forward them for judicial trial. Prosecutors of the special department of the ESSR State Prosecutor’s Office participated as prosecutors in the work of tribunals. Prisoners were convicted mostly according to various passages of Article 58 of the criminal code of the Russian SFSR. In a large number of cases, indictments were not based on specific deeds but rather the general professional or social activity of the prisoner thus far and participation in civil associations.
A variety of military tribunals made most of the decisions. Military tribunals of the NKVD Baltic District Forces operated in Estonia, but the Railway, Baltic Special Military District, Red Army 8th Army, Baltic Naval Fleet and other military tribunals also passed judgements concerning Estonian citizens. Individuals taken to Leningrad or Moscow right after arrest were convicted by military tribunals in those locations. Some convictions were decided by NKVD Special Commissions (NKVD operative instruments for deciding punishments and sentencing prisoners). Trial sessions of the Special Commissions were not held and defendants were not brought before the Special Commissions. Decisions were made in absentia on the basis of documents. Individuals sentenced to prison camp were sent to prison camps in the USSR and those sentenced to death were executed in Estonia.
A civil court system also existed in the USSR. But there were only single cases, when individuals imprisoned for political purposes in 1940–1941 were tried by Supreme Court of the ESSR. After the beginning of the war with Germany, most prisoners who had not yet been sentenced were sent to the Soviet Union where local tribunals as well as NKVD Special Commissions and the criminal councils of local district courts continued to process their cases.
2. The Imprisonment of Citizens and Residents of the Republic of Estonia
The NKVD imprisoned nearly 1000 citizens and residents of the Republic of Estonia in 1940 and the NKVD and NKGB imprisoned nearly 6000 in 1941. The overwhelming majority of them were convicted and sent to prison camps in the USSR where most of them died. Alternatively, they were executed in Estonia on the basis of death sentences or in the USSR when the death sentence was passed after the beginning of the war and/or the prisoner had been taken away from Estonia. According to existing data, of those arrested in 1940, at least 250 prisoners were executed and nearly 500 died in imprisonment; of those arrested in 1941, over 1600 prisoners were executed and nearly 4000 died in imprisonment.
The policy of the USSR was aimed primarily against the elite of Estonian society: national and local politicians, prominent figures in economics and finance, members of the military, active members of the National Defence League, the more prosperous farmers, professionals and others were imprisoned.
Some examples: 11 men were in office as the Riigivanem (prime minister or head of state) over the period 1918–1940 (President in 1938–1940). Of these men, only August Rei survived by successfully escaping to Sweden in the summer of 1940. Otto Strandman shot himself before the NKVD managed to arrest him. The remaining 9 were imprisoned in 1940–1941. Three of them were executed (shot) while the remainder died in prison camp. In addition to those mentioned above, another 105 men were at some point members of Estonian governments over the period 1918–1940. Of these, 73 were alive and in Estonia at the outset of the Soviet occupation, of which 48 were imprisoned and two committed suicide. Three men of these 48 survived: one escaped while in transit to prison camp at the beginning of the war and made it back to Estonia, and two survived their prison camp sentences. Of the remainder, 15 were executed (shot) and 30 died in prison camp. One former minister was killed in action as a member of the Omakaitse (Home Guard) during the German occupation. A large proportion of those who remained in Estonia fled abroad as the German occupation came to an end. Of the 12 men who remained in Estonia, 9 were imprisoned after the war. In all, 3 former ministers who were in Estonia in 1940 were not imprisoned at all.
3. The Deportation of Citizens and Residents of the Republic of Estonia
According to the joint decree issued by the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR on May 14, 1941, the following were subject to deportation (from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Western Ukraine, Western Byelorussia and Moldavia):
1) active members of so-called counterrevolutionary organisations and members of their families;
2) former leading officials of the police and prisons, also ordinary policemen and prison guards in the event that compromising materials exist (materials concerning anti-soviet activity or connections with the intelligence services of third countries were considered compromising materials);
3) former owners of extensive land property, merchants, factory owners and leading officials of former governments – together with the members of their families;
4) former officers concerning whom compromising materials were available including those who served already in the Red Army territorial corps;
5) the family members of people who had by then been sentenced to death but also of members of counterrevolutionary organisations who were in hiding;
6) individuals repatriated from Germany, also those who were subject to resettlement in Germany (in the event of the existence of compromising materials);
7) refugees from the former Poland who refused to accept Soviet citizenship;
8) criminals who continued to commit crimes;
9) former prostitutes registered with the police who continued as prostitutes.
On June 14, 1941, over 10,000 people (10,861 according to some sources) were deported as whole families from Estonia. Over 5000 women and over 2500 children under the age of 16 were among the deported. About 3000 men and 150 women were separated from the others and sent to prison camps where most of them were executed or died; the remaining women and children were sent into banishment in Siberia. More than 400 Estonian Jews were also deported.
In late June and early July of 1941, approximately another 1000 men, women and children were arrested on the Estonian islands for the purpose of deporting them to the USSR as well. Most of them were spared and managed to return home due to the rapid advance of the German forces.
On June 14, 1941, about 230 Estonian officers serving in the 22nd Estonian Territorial Corps of the Red Army were imprisoned at the summer camp of the Estonian Army in southeastern Estonia. Most of them were sent to the Norilsk prison camp, where most of them either died or were executed.
The deportation of June 14 was co-ordinated locally in the ESSR by the operational headquarters of the People’s Commissariat of State Security of the ESSR consisting of the following individuals: chairman Boris Kumm, People’s Commissar of State Security of the ESSR; members Andres Murro, People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the ESSR; Shkurin, Deputy People’s Commissar of State Security of the ESSR; Veniamin Gulst, Deputy People’s Commissar of State Security of the ESSR; Rudolf James, head of the 2nd department of the People’s Commissariat of State Security.
4. The Forced Transfer of Estonian Men to the Soviet Union in July and August of 1941
Estonia was the only territory occupied by the USSR in 1939–1940 that had not been overrun by German forces by the beginning of July 1941.
Men born in the years 1919–1922 were gathered together on July 2–4, 1941 and sent to Russia under the guise of mobilisation into the Red Army; Estonian Army reservists born in 1907–1918 suffered the same fate on July 22–27. Reservists in Saaremaa born in 1907–1922 were gathered together on August 1–3 to be sent to Russia. Estonian reserve officers and military officials were gathered together on August 8–16. Reservists born in 1896–1906 and the remaining conscripts born in 1919–1922 were gathered together on August 20. Able-bodied men born in 1896–1906 were summoned on August 21 and 462 railway men who had thus far been spared from the call-up were enlisted on August 24.
Naturally, men were gathered together and sent to Russia from only those areas that were still under the control of the Red Army.
The number of men gathered together in July and August of 1941 is estimated at
50,000 in total, of which 32,000–33,000 were taken to the USSR. About 3000 men perished on the way to the USSR.
5. The Forced Evacuation of Estonian Citizens and Residents to the Soviet Union in the Summer of 1941
About 25,000 individuals, of whom a large proportion were citizens of the Republic of Estonia, were evacuated to the USSR in the summer of 1941. Industrial enterprises, public and governmental offices, agricultural enterprises, transportation enterprises and others were evacuated to the USSR together with their equipment, fittings and personnel. Many among the evacuated went to the USSR voluntarily (party members and so-called soviet activists and the members of their families). Also over 2000 Estonian Jews escaped from the Germans to the USSR. Thousands of people were evacuated to the USSR by compulsion under threat of imprisonment or execution.
6. The Killing of Estonian Citizens and Residents in the Summer and Autumn of 1941 by the Personnel of the NKVD and NKGB, NKVD Destruction Battalions and Retreating Red Army and Baltic Naval Fleet Units
Over 2000 civilians were killed in Estonia from June to October of 1941. This total includes up to a hundred so-called ‘forest brothers’ (Estonian patriotic partisans) who put up armed resistance to retreating units of the NKVD, NKGB or Red Army and can for this reason be considered to have fallen in battle.
Some examples: 11 prisoners held at the Viljandi Prison were executed in the courtyard of the prison on July 8, 1941. On the night prior to July 9, 1941, 198 prisoners who could not be taken to the USSR due to the advance of the German forces were executed in Tartu. On July 9, 1941, 6 people in Lihula and 11 in Haapsalu were executed. Over 100 people were executed in Saaremaa in September of 1941, most of them in Kuressaare according to the verdict of the military tribunal of the Coastal Defence Headquarters of the Baltic Region. Most of those executed, however, were killed by retreating NKVD destruction battalions and Red Army units.
Conclusion
The commission concludes that the crimes enumerated above should be considered crimes against humanity according to Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as ‘a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack’. A portion of the crimes committed in Estonian territory beginning on June 22, 1941 should be considered war crimes according to Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Principles of Responsibility
The commission considers that responsibility for the crimes committed in respect of the above-mentioned events should be assigned in two ways. Firstly, we deem certain people responsible by virtue of the positions they held, for having given orders which resulted in crimes against humanity.
In the second instance, responsibility is solely determined by the actions of an individual.
Detailed Assessment of Responsibility
The commission studied the functions and activities of institutions of the USSR that operated in Estonia or made decisions concerning Estonia in 1940–1941 and of local institutions subordinate to them that operated as implementers of decisions, permitting the identification as follows of offices and individuals who bear responsibility for the crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in Estonia in 1940–1941.
The overall supervision of the processes involved was the jurisdiction of the central institutions of the USSR, meaning Stalin as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Central Committee of the CPSU itself and especially its Politburo, and the Council of People’s Commissars. Consequently, these institutions also bear overall responsibility for the crimes against humanity committed in Estonia. In this respect, the General Administration of State Security of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union (GUGB NKVD) must be singled out here along with the People’s Commissariat of State Security of the Soviet Union (NKGB) formed in February of 1941 on the basis of the former.
The Vares’ government that operated from June through August of 1940 shares general responsibility in Estonia; although the decisions it adopted were made under pressure from representatives of the USSR, they were the source for crimes against humanity. From August of 1940 to late summer of 1941, the Central Committee of the ECP and its Bureau headed by Karl Säre and the Council of People’s Commissars of the ESSR headed by Johannes Lauristin share general responsibility
The Baltic Eye abstains from printing the detailed list of names; those interested can go to President Meris full report
Summary
Crimes against humanity committed in Estonia in 1940–1941 resulted from the policy of the leadership of the USSR, whose objective was the rapid incorporation of Estonia into the USSR and the elimination of social groups and individuals that did not conform to the ideology of the USSR. The position of the commission is that no ideology can justify the imprisonment, maiming and execution of thousands of innocent people. The activity of citizens of the Republic of Estonia in the service of their country and people, in accordance with existing laws of Estonia before the Soviet occupation, could not under any circumstances be grounds for their subsequent conviction according to the laws of the Soviet Union.