Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany in the context of "Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic"

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⭐ Core Definition: Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany

In the course of Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded Estonia in July–December 1941, and occupied the country until 1944. Estonia had gained independence in 1918 from the then-warring German and Russian Empires. However, in the wake of the August 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact, the Soviet Union had invaded and occupied Estonia in June 1940, and the country was formally annexed into the USSR in August 1940.

In the summer of 1941, the German invaders were at first seen by most Estonians as liberators from Soviet terror, since the Germans arrived only a week after the mass deportation of tens of thousands of people from Estonia and other territories occupied by the USSR in 1939–1941: eastern Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Despite high hopes for Estonian independence, the people there soon realized that the Germans were just a different occupying power.

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👉 Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany in the context of Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic

The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (abbreviated Estonian SSR, Soviet Estonia, or simply Estonia [ˈeˑstʲi] ) was an administrative subunit (union republic) of the former Soviet Union (USSR), covering the occupied and annexed territory of Estonia in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991. The Estonian SSR was nominally established to replace the until then independent Republic of Estonia on 21 July 1940, a month after the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet military invasion and occupation of the country during World War II. After the installation of a Stalinist government which, backed by the occupying Soviet Red Army, declared Estonia a Soviet constituency, the Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union as a union republic on 6 August 1940. Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, and administered as a part of Reichskommissariat Ostland until it was reconquered by the USSR in 1944.

The majority of the world's countries did not recognise the incorporation of Estonia into the Soviet Union de jure and only recognised its Soviet administration de facto or not at all. A number of countries continued to recognise Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in the name of their former government. This policy of non-recognition gave rise to the principle of legal continuity, which held that de jure, Estonia remained an independent state under occupation throughout the period 1940–1991.

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Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany in the context of Soviet occupation of Estonia

The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (Estonian SSR, ESSR), also known as Soviet Estonia, was an administrative subunit (union republic) of the former Soviet Union, covering the occupied and annexed territory of Estonia in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991.

It was nominally established to replace the until then independent Republic of Estonia on 21 July 1940, a month after the 16–17 June 1940 Soviet military invasion and occupation of the country during World War II. After the installation of a Stalinist government which, backed by the occupying Soviet Red Army, declared Estonia a Soviet constituency, the Estonian SSR was subsequently incorporated into the Soviet Union as a union republic on 6 August 1940. Estonia was occupied by Nazi Germany in 1941, and administered as a part of Reichskommissariat Ostland until it was reconquered by the USSR in 1944.

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Occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany in the context of The Holocaust in Estonia

By late January 1942, virtually all of the 950 to 1,000 Estonian Jews unable to escape Estonia before its occupation by Nazi Germany (25% of the total prewar Jewish population) were killed in the Holocaust by German units such as Einsatzgruppe A and/or local collaborators. The Romani people in Estonia were also killed or enslaved by Nazi occupiers and their collaborators.

The occupation authorities also killed around 6,000 ethnic Estonians and 1,000 ethnic Russians in Estonia, often claiming that they were Communists or Communist sympathizers, a categorization that also included relatives of alleged Communists. In addition around 15,000 Soviet prisoners-of-war and Jews from other parts of Europe were killed in Estonia during the German occupation.

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LINKED FROM (PARENTS)
← Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic ← Estonian SSR ← Soviet occupation of Estonia ← The Holocaust in Estonia
LINKS TO (CHILDREN)
Operation Barbarossa → Nazi Germany → Estonian War of Independence → German Empire → Russian Empire → Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact → Soviet Union → Occupation of the Baltic states → June deportation → Soviet occupation of the Baltic states (1940) → Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union → Soviet deportations from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina →