Estonia in World War II - The Beginning of World War II

The Beginning of World War II

World War II began with the invasion of an important regional ally of Estonia – Poland, by Germany. Although some coordination existed between Germany and the USSR early 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.

• On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded its part of Poland under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
• September 3, Great Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand declare war on Germany.
• September 14, the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł reached Tallinn, Estonia.
• On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded its part of Poland under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact's secret protocol. During this invasion, a close coordination of German and Soviet military activity took place.
• September 18, 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 September 24, 1939, with the fall of Poland to Nazi Germany and 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, 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 September 28. 1939.

The Pact was made for ten years:

1. 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;
2. 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;
3. USSR and Estonia undertook to defend each other from "aggression arising on the part of any great European power"
4. It was declared: the Pact "should not affect" the "economic systems and state organizations" of 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 the Soviet troops marched into Estonia the guns of both nations gave mutual salutes, bands played both the Estonian anthem and the Internationale, the anthem of USSR at the time.

Similar demands were forwarded to Finland, Latvia and Lithuania. Finland resisted, and was attacked by the Soviet Union on November 30. Because the attack was judged as illegal, the Soviet Union was expelled from the League of Nations on December 14. Finland held out in the Winter War until March 1940, when the Moscow Peace Treaty was signed.

The first population loss for Estonia was the repatriation of about 12,000–18,000 Baltic Germans to Germany.