4. The history of Estonia
4.3. Soviet occupation
At the beginning of World War II the fate of Estonia was directly decided by the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, which contained secret clauses for the division of the Baltic States and Poland into spheres of influence.55 Step by step the Soviet Union took over Estonia. So it came as no surprise when, on the 21st and on the 22nd of July 1940 the new, not freely elected56, Parliament declared Estonia to be a Soviet Socialist Republic and asked the country to be accepted as a member of the Soviet Union.57 The acceptance took place on the 6th of August 1940.58
Even before these events had taken their course the notorious Soviet political police had begun their activities in Estonia. The nationalization of industry and commerce was also carried out rapidly. A reign of terror accompanied these harsh measures.59 With during the first night of Soviet occupation already 10 000 Estonians deported to Siberia as a result.60 The German forces, which had attacked the Soviet Union on the 21st of June 194161, reached the Estonian border on the 7th of July, but they were unable to capture Tallinn until the 28th of August.62 Although the German occupation proved to be far more humane, the Estonian nationalist movement had to go underground because of the hostility of the occupation regime and the numerous arrests.63 But in mid-September
55 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 105.
Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 34.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p.15.
Georg Von Rauch, 1970, pp. 208-209.
56 Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 34.
57 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, pp. 45-46 and p. 112.
Andres Kasekamp, 2000, p. 133.
Georg Von Rauch, 1970 , p. 226.
58 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 114.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 28.
59 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, pp. 114-115.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 29-44.
Georg Von Rauch, 1970, pp. 227-228.
60 Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 35.
61 Georg Von Rauch, 1970 , p. 228.
62 Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 47.
63 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, pp. 119-120.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 47-68.
1944 the Germans decided to withdraw their forces from Estonia64 and on the 22nd of September 1944 Tallinn fell to the Russians.65
By the end of November, the Soviet Union had conquered the whole of Estonia and a Communist Government was once again active in the country.66 Just as during the previous occupation of 1940-41, this Government was subservient to the Central Government of the Soviet Union and merely carried out orders from Moscow.67 At the end of 1949 a purge began of the Estonian Communist leaders themselves and lasted a whole year. They were accused of bourgeois nationalism and were mostly replaced by Russian Estonians.68 So began the immigration in Estonia of many Russians who took up leading posts, so creating conditions of strong antipathy between Estonians and Russians.69
The most significant turning point during post World War II Soviet rule undoubtedly came with the death of Stalin in March 1953. Politically and economically, his absence began to be felt almost immediately. Nevertheless, it took both the Moscow and the Tallinn leadership several years to assess the situation and decide on a new course of action. Thus, there was a time lag in moving away from Stalinism, and this was particularly the case regarding cultural affairs.70
One of the darkest sides of Stalinism was its impact on cultural output. Although official guidelines were not yet categorical in the early postwar years, the range of cultural expression narrowed dramatically in the late Stalinist era. Not only did those in the Estonian creative intelligentsia have to eschew “formalism” and strive for ideological purity, but as members of a non-Russian nationality they also had to avoid the sins of
64 Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 35.
65 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 124.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 68.
66 Georg Von Rauch, 1970, p. 231.
67 Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 74.
68 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, p. 114.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 78-79.
69 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, p. 114.
John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 126.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 107-109.
70 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, p. 117.
Eevald Uustalo, 1961, p. 65.
“bourgeois nationalism”. The bleakest period in Estonian culture under Stalin came in 1948-1953, and as said before, the thaw did not begin until the mid-1950s.71
Industrially Estonia became fully integrated into the highly centralized Stalinist economic system, and its major role in the Soviet Union’s fourth five-year Plan was to develop its vast oil-shale resources into a major supplier of the energy needs of the northwestern USSR. Primarily because of these large-scale capital investments in the oil-shale industry, Estonia achieved high industrial growth rates in the first postwar decade.72 The Stalinist era in Estonian agriculture was dominated by first the specter and then the reality of collectivization. As in other spheres of activity, Stalin’s rural policies in his later years could offer nothing more than a repetition of the wrenching Soviet experience of the 1930s. However, it is noteworthy that mass collectivization was not begun until some four and a half years after the reestablishment of Soviet rule in Estonia. The new regime moved circumspectly for several reasons. Most important, Estonia and the other newly acquired western regions had not been thoroughly Sovietized before they were lost to the USSR in 1941. Thus, a certain period of stabilization, especially after three years of Nazi rule, was necessary. Furthermore, the Soviets lacked both cadres and grassroots support in the rural areas, and for all the sociopolitical benefits of collectivization from the regime’s point of view, the likely economic consequences could not be taken lightly.73
At the time of Stalin’s death in 1953, the Estonian future looked extremely bleak. The elite of the independence era had been physically removed from the scene, primarily through Stalinist repression and wartime emigration. Overall, the ethnic Estonian population declined by a startling one-third in 1939-1955. At the same time, large numbers of non-Estonians, mainly Russians, were immigrating to Estonia. Native Estonians had also been removed from the Estonian Communist Party (ECP) leadership.74 Russified Estonians, who had spent most of their lives in the Soviet Union,
71 Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 118-120.
72 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, pp. 130-131.
Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, pp. 35-36.
73 Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 96-104.
74 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, p. 114.
John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, pp. 132-133.
were assimilated as Russians, and returned to Estonia to make careers only after the Soviet annexation replaced them.75 Finally Estonian culture appeared to be on the verge of extinction in the face of the heavy-handed application of the “elder brother” concept of the superiority of all things Russian.
Although the Soviet system was not fundamentally altered in the years after 1953, the post-Stalin era witnessed significant changes in Estonian life. Taken together, these developments constituted the major transformation of the post-World War II era. For the first time since before Stalinism, the Estonian Communist Party regained some decision-making power. After the disastrous first postwar decade, the standard of living improved considerably, especially in the rural areas.76 The feared security forces were downgraded in importance, and within a few years of Stalin’s death many of the surviving deportees returned from the camps and from exile. Gradually the Estonian intelligentsia began to reassert itself, and in the course of the 1960s nothing short of a renaissance was taking place in cultural life.77
The mid-1960s to the mid-1970s can be characterized as a period of consolidation of the gains made in the earlier post-Stalin years. Living standards continued to rise, as did the ethnic Estonian proportion in the ECP, at least until the start of the 1970s. There were significant new cultural achievements78, and the general mood, despite the impact of the invasion of Czechoslovakia, remained upbeat to the end of the 1960s. The centennial of the first all-Estonian song festival in 1969 proved to be a powerful national demonstration; about one in four Estonians in the ESSR attended the event.79 Contacts with Western culture also mushroomed through a growing influx of tourists and the availability of Finnish television in the northern third of Estonia.80
In the mid-1970s, however, the mood began to shift, and since that time there has been increasing cause for pessimism. Living standards no longer improved and may have declined. Non-Estonian immigration fell in the late 1970s but rose again in the early
Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 35.
75 Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 36.
76 Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 182.
77 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, p. 117.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, pp. 126-130 and 145-150.
78 Ibid. , pp. 150-155.
79 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, pp. 117-118.
80 Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 174.
1980s. These trends and others - including the growing role of Russian in education, administration, and everyday life; the increasing scarcity of printed matter in Estonian;
and restrictions on research in Estonian culture81 - led to unprecedented social unrest in 1980.82
After the death of Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 the crisis of the Soviet system could not be long delayed. Mikhail Gorbachev, who came to power in 1985, was the first Soviet leader to acknowledge the existence of such a crisis. Of all the nationalities the Baltic peoples and especially the Estonians were the most determined and the best placed to exploit the new conditions. In this sense Gorbachev’s reforms occasioned rather than caused the remarkable contemporary reawakening of the Estonian republic.83
Economic and ecological considerations were already radicalizing political life in Estonia during the 1980s. Major protests about the environment had been held in Tallinn in spring 1987.84 This successfully blocked the plans of the Soviet central authorities to begin phosphate mining in northeastern Estonia, already a major ecological disaster area.
Such small but significant steps towards organized protest encouraged key individuals within the government establishments in Estonia to contemplate reform more seriously as glasnost began to take root. As a result, by the end of 1988 the reform wing had gained the decisive positions in the state and Party leadership of Estonia.85
81 Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, pp. 37-38.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983 , pp. 202-204.
82 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 144.
Riina Kionka and Raivo Vetik, 1999, p. 38.
Romuald Misiunas and Rein Taagepera, 1983, p. 242.
83 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, pp. 118-122.
John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 147.
84 John Fitzmaurice, 1992, p. 121.
85 John Hiden and Patrick Salmon, 1991, p. 149.