by Jaan Einasto
At the end of the 1st Millennium there were no states in the present Estonia, Finland, and Latvia. There were two levels of community organisations: smaller units were called “kihelkond” (like present-day parish), larger units were called “maakond” (provincia or counties), ruled by seniors. As all these territories were pagan, thus a christianisation started, both from the East and the West.
The christianisation of the Kievan Rus took place in the 9th century. In 1862 the Millennium of Russia was celebrated, to mark the arrival of Vikings Ruler Rurik to Novgorod. One of the next Grand Princes was Vladimir the Great. He was vice-regent of Novgorod and later Grand Prince of Kiev. In 1030 he founded Yuryev — present day Tartu — and forced the surrounding Estonian province to pay annual tribute. During the next 150 years Estonia was attacked many times by Russian principalities.
The christianisation of the Baltic region from the West was part of the Northern Crusades. Actually the colonisation of Northern Estonia by Danes already took place at the end of the 12th century and was rather peaceful. The starting point for the Northern Crusades was Pope Celestine III’s call in 1193. The crusade against the Baltic countries was declared of the same rank as a crusade to the Holy Land. The first crusaders landed in the mouth of the Daugava in 1198. Usually they arrived to fight during the spring and returned in the autumn. To ensure a permanent military presence, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword were founded in 1202. In 1237 the Livonian Order was assimilated by the Teutonic Order, which exercised political control over large territories in the Baltic region. The campaign against Livonians and other Latvian tribes was from 1198 to 1290. The war against Estonians was from 1208 to 1224, against Saaremaa island until 1227.
In 1346 the Danes sold their territory to the Teutonic Order, and Estonia remained under the rule of the Baltic knights until the Order’s dissolution in 1561. In the 16th century Estonia was attacked several times by Russia, which devastated the country. From 1561 until 1721 Estonia was a dominion of the Swedish Empire. For a relatively short period (1561–1621) South Estonia was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Russian tsar, Peter I (the Great), was finally able to achieve the dream of his predecessors to conquer the Baltic provinces in the Great Northern War (1700–1721).
Trade was controlled by the Hanseatic League, which was an alliance of trading cities and their merchant guilds that dominated trade along the coast of Northern Europe. The League continued the merchant traditions of Vikings. Tallinn, Tartu, Narva and several other Estonian cities became members of the Hanseatic League. Many buildings in Tallinn and Riga have the style of their Hanseatic days. Estonian and Latvian cities reaped huge profits from the Hanseatic trade.
The artisans in the cities were organized by guilds. Guilds helped to raise social values for work, secured education for artisans, and ensured product quality. However, most guilds excluded non-German artisans. This was accomplished by limiting the membership in a guild to citizens of the city, and the Estonian and Russian minorities were excluded from citizenship. This guild system functioned until World War I. Local power in Estonian cities was until the beginning of the 20th century still in hands of Germans. At the turn of the 19th and the 20th centuries the level of education and the economic standing of Estonians had improved. Only in 1904 were elections for the town government of Tallinn won by an Estonian-Russian bloc.
In the 16th century Lutheran reformation reached Estonia. Lutherans promoted the publication of sacred texts in local languages. So the first catechism in Estonian was published in 1535, the whole Bible in 1739. The translation of the Bible into the North-Estonian language strengthened its position to become the common written language in Estonia. During the Swedish period of Estonian history elementary schools were opened all over the country. At the end of the 19th century all Estonians become literate.
Baltic Germans, especially Baltic nobility, played an important role in the Russian Empire. They became high-ranking officials in the Russian bureaucracy, military leaders (Barclay de Tolly — minister of war and field marshal during the Napoleon campaign in 1812), scientists (Karl Ernst von Baer — biologist and a founding father of embryology), and explorers (Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen — admiral and naval explorer, discoverer of Antarctica). For Barclay and Baer very beautiful statues have been erected in Tartu.
During the first century of the Russian period after the Great Northern War the conditions of peasants hit its lowest point. All land belonged to Baltic Barons, and Estonian peasants were transformed to slaves. Barons had the right to sell and buy peasants, and punish them in a rather cruel manner. A hundred years later, under Tsar Alexander I, the peasants of Livonia and Estonia were given the right of private property and inheritance. Other agrarian laws followed: establishing the peasant’s right of free movement, abolishing the landowners right to flog, and the corve.
Until the 19th century the ruling elite had remained predominantly German in language and culture. This changed in the middle of the century. The Estonians became more ambitious in their political demands. Also Estonians started to buy their farms from barons. This movement started in Sakala, culturally and economically the most advanced region in Estonia. Significant accomplishments were the publication of the national epic, “Kalevipoeg”, in 1862, and the organisation of the first national song festival in 1869. Also Estonian newspapers were founded by Johann Voldemar Jannsen (“Postimees”) and Carl Robert Jakobson (“Sakala”), followed at the end of the century by many others.
At the end of the 19th century a period of Russification started. However, in response Estonian nationalism took on more political tones, calling for greater autonomy. This goal was achieved after the February Revolution of 1917, when all Estonian lands were united into one administrative unit — earlier it was divided between Estonia (the former Danish colony), and Livonia, which included South Estonia and North Latvia.
In October 1917 Bolsheviks took power in Petrograd, and also in Estonia. Russian soldiers were tired from the World War and open to Bolshevik propaganda. Russia started peace negotiations with Germany which ended with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Before the treaty was signed, the German army occupied Baltic countries and Ukraine. There was a short time-slot after the retreat of the Red Army and the arrival of German troops. This was used by Estonians to declare independence on February 24, 1918.
When the World War ended in November 1918, the German army was withdrawn, and Soviet Red Army attacked Estonia and Latvia. Soon most of the Latvia and about two thirds of Estonia were occupied. Estonia had initially almost no army. Rapidly volunteers were recruited, the most effective one being a commando type unit, led by Lt. Julius Kuperjanov (a classmate of my father in the Tartu Teachers Seminar). Due to a flow of young but highly motivated volunteers, Kuperjanov’s unit became an independent battalion known for its high morale and daring tactics. The battalion played a crucial role in liberating Southern Estonia.
A Royal Navy squadron arrived off Tallinn on the 31st of December, 1918, delivering ammunition, rifles and machine guns. The squadron captured two Russian destroyers and turned those over to Estonia. On 2 January 1919, a Finnish volunteer unit with 2000 men arrived in Estonia. Armored trains were built in Tallinn. These measures helped to start a conter-offensive on January 7, 1919. Within a month the Soviet Army was thrown away from Estonian territory. Estonia had become the first country to repel the Soviet westward offensive. However, heavy fighting continued both in the Eastern front near Narva, and in Northern Latvia.
In summer 1919 a German force was formed in Latvia, consisting of the Baltische Landeswehr of Baltic Germans and the Iron Division of volunteers from Germany. The goal was to form a pro-Germany state in Latvia and Estonia. The Germans captured Riga and continued to move towards Estonia, capturing Cesis, a small city close to Estonian border. On June 23 the Estonians counterattacked recapturing Cesis, and advanced towards Riga. The anniversary of the Battle of Cesis is celebrated in Estonia as Victory Day.
The Soviet Ar
my continued attacks in the Narva front, but without success. The peace talks in Tartu were successful, and on January 3rd, 1920 an armistice took effect. The peace treaty was signed on February 2, the Peace of Tartu.
The most urgent task of the Estonian government was to perform a Land Reform. Large estate holdings belonging to the Baltic nobility were redistributed among the peasants and especially among volunteers in the Estonian War of Independence.
The second important task was to advance cultural development. Tartu University was founded by Swedish king Gustav Adolf in 1632, and continued its activity until the Great Northern War. In 1802 the University was reopened, and it became one of the most important links between German and Russian universities. The teaching was in German, and many world-class scientists worked as professors, among them astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve and biologist Karl Ernst von Baer. During the Russification period teaching was allowed only in Russian. In 1918 almost all previous professors left the University. In 1919 the University was reopened as an Estonian-language institution. One of the actual tasks was the formation of scientific terms in Estonian, and to start lecturing in Estonian.
One of the notable cultural acts of the independence period was a guarantee of cultural autonomy to minority groups comprising at least 3,000 persons, including Jews, Germans and Swedes.
On August 23,1939, Molotov and Ribbentrop signed a Pact of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union. The Pact included a secret protocol dividing East Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. This opened the door for German and Soviet forces to invade Poland — World War II had started. Next the Soviet Union forced Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to host Soviet military bases; next year all three countries were occupied and thereafter annexed as new Soviet Republics. The Soviet Union tried to annex Finland too, and the Winter War between Finland and Soviet Union started. Finnish defences surprisingly held out for over three months. Finally Finland ceded Southern Karelia, about 10% of Finnish territory, but preserved its independence.
One of the main conditions posed by Hitler to Stalin in August 1939 was the transfer of all ethnic Germans living in Estonia and Latvia to Germany. So in 1939–1941 some 20 thousand Baltic Germans were resettled from Estonia, and about 60 thousand from Latvia, mainly to Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. At the end of WW II they were resettled from Poland to Germany. The evacuation was delayed until the last moment, so many died on the way. For seven centuries the Baltic Germans formed about 5% of the total population of Estonia and Latvia. But this minority was actually the political, economical and spiritual elite of our countries. Now it is gone, spread over Germany, Canada and many other countries.
World War II had a large impact on Estonian history. We had 3 occupations, the first Soviet occupation 1940–1941, the German occupation 1941–1944, and the second Soviet occupation/annexation 1944–1991. During the first Soviet occupation on June 14, 1941 a mass deportation took place: about 10 thousand people were deported. Additionally nearly 40 thousand Estonian citizens were executed or mobilized into the Red Army, and at least 10 thousand mobilized men died in concentration camps due to starvation before they were sent to front. In September 1944 about 70 thousand people fled abroad for Germany and Sweden to avoid Soviet repressions.
The German occupation was also hard. Over 3 thousand civilians (mostly Estonians) were executed in one concentration camp near Tartu. The Nazi regime established smaller concentration camps on occupied Estonian territory, especially for foreign Jews. The presence of these camps was not known to people except the camp in Tartu. Germany made in 1943–1944 a total mobilisation, and almost 70 thousand young men were forced to join the Waffen SS or other units. Quite often Estonians in the Soviet and German armies had to fight agains each other. This was our tragedy.
Many Estonian boys preferred to fight against the Soviet Union in the ranks of the Finnish army. This appeared a reasonable alternative for those who wished to fight for the freedom of Estonia and against the Red Army, but who for ideological reasons were unwilling to do it in German uniform. The boys crossed the Gulf of Finland in early spring 1943. It was a dangerous journey, as the gulf was ravaged by storms, and the German authorities did not allow Estonians to cross over to Finland. From these boys, called “Soomepoisid” (Finnish Boys) a Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 was formed. The motto of the Regiment was: “For the freedom of Finland and the honour of Estonia”. When in September 1944 Finland made peace with Soviet Union, a large fraction of these boys returned to Estonia to fight against the Soviets, who had managed a breakthrough at the Tartu front. Those who survived formed in post-war Estonia our elite — they became scientists, writers etc. I have many friends and colleagues who were in war-time Finnish Boys.
In August 1944 Soviet forces attacked from the South, and were stopped at the river Emajõgi, crossing Tartu. A further advance to take over the whole country was in sight. As Alar Toomre tells in the same interview to ‘Horisont’, his father had a choice “between evil and deep see. He chose deep see. It was a dangerous journey, Soviet submarines and planes attacked ships, and several ships ended up in deep see. Our family survived”. In November 1944 the last piece of Estonia, our largest island Saaremaa, was “liberated”.
In March 1949 the second large Soviet deportation followed. About 20 thousand people, mostly peasants, women and children, were sent to Siberia. Almost all military and governmental elite was murdered, similarly to the murder of Polish officers in Katyn. The “Katyn” movie by Andrzej Wajda is one of the best documentaries to show the tragedy of East European nations who happened to be located between the two totalitarian empires (Wajda’s father was murdered in the Katyn massacre).
The total losses of the Estonian people during and after the WW II were about 25% of the whole pre-war population. Two other Baltic countries, Poland and Belorussia, suffered similar losses, the countries most influenced by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. To avoid repressions, after the war a large number of people hid themselves in forests: they were called “forest brothers”. Some forest brothers fought agains the new rulers as partisans. NKVD chased them ruthlessly, and many were killed or imprisoned. Since for us the war did not end in 1945, Estonia had no babyboom, as happened in most other countries, including Germany and Russia. For Estonians WW II actually ended only in 1994, when the last Soviet troops left Estonia.
The fate of Estonia as well as all East European countries (except Finland) was determined not only by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, but also by treaties between the Soviet Union and Western Allies in Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam. In these treaties the Western Allies actually ‘bought’ freedom for Western countries by ‘selling’ East Europe to the Soviet Sphere of interest. Western countries understood this too late, when the “Iron curtain” had already descended to divide East and West. A good description of the fate of nations between the two totalitarian countries is given by Laurence Rees in his book “World War II; Behind Closed Doors; Stalin, The Nazis and The West”, BBC Books, 2009.
Similarly to Nazi Germany, the Soviet regime tried to eliminate the cultural and spiritual elite of the nation. A lot of leading people in culture — scientists, writers, teachers — were sent to Gulag, and many died there. The last wave of persecutions was in 1950, the campaign against “bourgeois nationalists”. Prominent scientists had to declare openly that in their previous scientific work they had been guided by wrong non-marxist principles, and a number of scientist were arrested. Just one example. My father’s colleague from the Tartu Teachers Seminar, the history professor, previous Rector of the Tartu University, and the first post-war President of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Hans Kruus, was arrested and brutally tortured in the Ljubljanka prison in Moscow. He survived and was released after Stalin’s death, but his health was ruined.
Our situation was worse than in so-called “Socialist” countries, since we had not only communist rule and military presence, but also the presence of a “civil garrison”. During the Soviet perio
d almost half a million immigrants from other Soviet republics arrived. This made the survival of our own culture and identity difficult. The integration of immigrants was difficult since immigrants felt that they were in the Soviet Union, and so are the masters to dictate the rules of everyday life. There were even plans to change our latin script to cyrillic, but fortunately these plans were abandoned. The official language in the Estonian government was Russian. However, the teaching in schools and University was still in Estonian, except in Russian schools. So it was possible to continue the development of the Estonian science language.
But we had to have our everyday life, and to adapt to the new system. For a small nation the most important aspect is to preserve its identity and to develop the national culture. The Soviet propaganda was so stupid that it had little impact on the people’s way of thinking. But to develop the culture, in particular education and science, some cooperation with the new order was needed.
The Soviet system promoted education and science, and this helped to keep education at a rather high level. In science a very rapid development occurred in such sciences as physics, mathematics, chemistry, astronomy, and technical sciences. One reason for this was the fact that in these sciences the political pressure was not so great as in humanities.
Many of our political leaders tried to protect the interests of the Estonian nation and culture as much as possible. Thus, when the Soviet economical system practically collapsed in the mid 1980’s, and Gorbachev tried to reform the system by introducing glasnost and perestroika, Estonian leaders understood how to use this in our interests. Our final goal was to break away from the Soviet Union. But this goal was not declared openly; steps towards independence were made slowly and were carefully planned to avoid open conflict with Moscow authorities. These efforts culminated in the late 1980’s, and after the unsuccessful August Coup in 1991 Estonia regained its independence peacefully.
