The Second World War
The first period of independence lasted 22 years, beginning in 1918. Estonia had pursued a policy of neutrality, but it was of no consequence after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, 1939 in which the two great powers agreed to divide up the countries situated between them with Estonia falling in the Soviet "sphere of influence".
- 1940–1945, World War II
- 1941, the Summer War
- 1944, heavy battles and attempt to restore independence
- 1945–1978, the Partisan War against the Soviet Union
Read more about this topic: List Of Estonian Wars
Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or war:
“Fantasy is toxic: the private cruelty and the world war both have their start in the heated brain.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)
“You become a reader because you saw and heard someone you admired enjoying the experience, someone led you to the world of books even before you could read, let you taste the magic of stories, took you to the library, and allowed you to stay up later at night to read in bed.”
—Jim Trelease (20th century)
“War and culture, those are the two poles of Europe, her heaven and hell, her glory and shame, and they cannot be separated from one another. When one comes to an end, the other will end also and one cannot end without the other. The fact that no war has broken out in Europe for fifty years is connected in some mysterious way with the fact that for fifty years no new Picasso has appeared either.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)