Abstract
By the end of the Thirties, the escalating international tension caused by Hitler’s expansionist policies cast a menacing shadow over the continued existence of independent states on the eastern shore of the Baltic. Shortly after the Nazi–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact of 23 August 1939, with its secret protocol assigning the Baltic states and Finland to the Soviet sphere of influence, Estonia was faced with demands from the USSR for military bases. These demands were backed by the massing of troops at the border and violations of Estonian air space and territorial waters — what amounted, in effect, to an ultimatum. Finding itself in a hopeless position, the Päts government acquiesced and signed a Treaty of Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union on 28 September 1939, allowing Soviet troops to be based in Estonia.1
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Notes
On Estonia’s foreign relations in this critical period see David M. Crowe, The Baltic States & the Great Powers. Foreign Relations, 1938–1940 (Boulder, 1993);
Seppo Myllyniemi, Die baltische Krise, 1938–1941 (Stuttgart, 1979);
Magnus Ilmjärv, Nõukogude Liidu ja Saksamaa vahel. Balti riigid ja Soome 1934–1940 (Tallinn, 1993);
John Hiden and Thomas Lane, eds., The Baltic and the Outbreak of the Second World War (Cambridge, 1992).
David Kirby, ‘Incorporation: The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact’, in Graham Smith, ed., The Baltic States. The National Self-Determination of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (London, 1994), pp. 69–85;
Jüri Ant, Eesti 1939–41: rahvast, valitsemisest, saatusest (Tallinn, 1999), pp. 97–116.
Karlis Kangeris, ‘Kollaboration vor der Kollaboration? Die baltischen Emigranten und ihre “Befreiungskomitees” in Deutschland 1940/1941’, in Europa unterm Hakenkreuz. Okkupation und Kollaboration (1938–1945) (Berlin, 1994), p. 170. Other leading Veterans who managed to resettle to Germany were Paul Laamann and Viktor Puskar.
Alvin Isberg, Zu den Bedingungen des Befreiers. Kollaboration und Freiheitsstreben in dem von Deutschland besetzten Estland 1941 bis 1944, Studia Baltica Stockholmiensia 10 (Stockholm, 1992), p. 25.
Külli Niidassoo, ‘Hjalmar Mäe ja Eesti Vabastamise Komitee’, Akadeemia, 12 (1998), pp. 2512–18; Kangeris, ‘Kollaboration vor der Kollaboration’, p. 182.
Seppo Myllyniemi, Die Neuordnung der baltischen Länder 1941–1944. Zum nationalsozialistischen Inhalt der deutschen Besatzungspolitik, Historiallisia Tutkimuksia 90 (Helsinki, 1973), pp. 107–8.
Rosenberg had orginally also wanted General Juhan Tõrvand, the former army chief of staff who was imprisoned in 1936 for his role in the Veterans’ conspiracy, as a director, but Tõrvand was deported by the Soviets in 1941, Oskar Angelus, Tuhande valitseja maa. Mälestusi saksa okupatsiooni ajast 1941–1944 (Stockholm, 1956), p. 38.
A. Lossmann, Rahutus maailmas: sõdades, revolutsioonides ja vaba Eesti õnnis-tuses (Stockholm, 1961), p. 235; Angelus, Tuhande valitseja maa, pp. 102–3; Tambek, Tõus ja mõõn, vol. 2, p. 305; Kadak, Mitme taeva all, pp. 141–2.
Myllyniemi, Die Neuordnung der baltischen Länder, p. 276. On Estonians serving under German military command see August Jurs, ed., Eesti Vabadusvõitlejad Teises Maailmasõjas (Toronto, 1987).
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Kasekamp, A. (2000). The Second World War. In: The Radical Right in Interwar Estonia. Studies in Russia and East Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403919557_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403919557_12
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