PERSECUTION OF THE PEOPLE

During the summer of 1940, political surveillance and repressions were carried out by an Operative Group of the People's Commissariat for Interior Affairs (the NKVD), although nominally speaking, the actions were initiated by the structures of the Republic of Estonia that had been taken over by the USSR – that is to say the Political Police and the office of the Chief of Internal Security. The first to be arrested were ranking politicians (above all both the serving and earlier Ministers of the Interior, who were accused of having fought the communists), national and local leaders of the Home Guard, and some state officials. Members of Russian White Guard organizations and persons accused of spying on the USSR in the interests of third countries came under special scrutiny. The Chief of Internal Security Harald Haberman issued orders to have the previous heads of the Political Police arrested, as well as some lower-ranking officials. On June 23, 1940, the Assistant to the Minister of the Interior August Tuulse and his wife committed suicide. On July 21, 1940, the Attorney-at-Law Theodor Rõuk, who had been the Ministry of the Interior in 1924, killed himself before being arrested.

The offices of the Chief of Internal Security were employed in the case of lesser “crimes” directed against the occupation forces. Most of the individuals thus targeted were accused of using offensive language in reference to the Soviet Union, Soviet power or Soviet troops. For example: on July 2, criminal charges were brought against Andres Raska “for having distributed blue, black and white ribbons to pin on lapels (NB! even though at that point, on July 2, the tricolor was still formally in the status of the Estonian flag of state).

Once the Constitution of the ESSR was adopted on August 25, 1940, the puppet government of Johannes Vares was dissolved, and the administrative hierarchy in Estonia was reorganized to bring it into alignment with the state structure of the USSR. In a move paralleling the way that functions were distributed in the USSR, the Security Administration of the People's Commissariat for Interior Affairs assumed the role of a political police structure, and as such, it was the primary agency that carried out political repressions. During March and April of 1941, the state security apparat was made an independent People’s Commissariat headed by Boris Kumm. Arrests were authorized by Kumm and sanctioned by the Prosecutor of the ESSR. The Prosecutor also chose the agency that would hear the charges against the accused. The target group of arrestees began to grow. Attention was focused on a large cross-section of persons who – by virtue of their social background, job descriptions, membership in social organizations or their previous activities – could be assumed to have a hostile attitude towards bolshevism and the Soviet Union. Once war broke out between Germany and the USSR, the represssion of military personnel, draft evaders and parties suspected of espionage increased.

Until the end of June 1940, the Tribunal of the Leningrad Military District decided the cases of arrestees. Subsequently, other tribunals passed verdicts, including those of the forces of the Baltic District of the NKVD. Most of the time, the proceedings took place behind closed doors, with neither the prosecutor nor a defender present.

After the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR, the nature of political repressions began to change. Initially, the People’s Commissariat for State Security of the ESSR continued to arrest people and carry out investigations, but it was the tribunals of Red Army and Red Banner Baltic Fleet units stationed in Estonia that now began to be tasked with rendering verdicts.

Of the civil courts, only the court at the highest level – the Supreme Court of the ESSR – was permitted to reach verdicts regarding political crimes, but this was the exception rather than the rule. In the case of prisoners evacuated from Estonia to the USSR, Criminal Colleagueships of Oblast Courts were responsible for reaching verdicts.

At least 300 persons were sentenced to death during 1940–1941 by special tribunals operating in Estonia – approximately half of them before the beginning of the war. Most of the shootings took place in Tallinn or nearby. For example, on June 23, 1941, people were executed in Tallinn. Groups of three or more prisoners sentenced to death were taken from General Prison Nr. 1 (the “Patarei” prison) to the internal compound of the Pagari Street prison as ordered in writing by Boris Kumm, the People’s Commissar for Security or one of his two deputies. The prisoners were handed over to the Chief Warden and Commandant of the Internal Prison and a detail of guards. The heads of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Sections of the People’s Commissariat for State Security of the ESSR were present at the executions. The firing squad was commanded by the Commandant of the Internal Prison A. Brenner and Sergei Kingisepp, the Director of the 3rd Section of the People’s Commissariat for State Security.

In addition to those executed by the order of tribunals and Special Councils, a number of people were simply executed without court decisions. The names of 2,199 persons who were executed during the period of June to October 1941 (after the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR) have been ascertained to date. Those executed without the decision of a military tribunal or a Special Assembly can be divided into two large groups:
1) arrestees who were killed in places of detention by Soviet State Security agents or prison personnel. In cases where the Soviet forces were preparing to withdraw from Estonia and they were not prepared to evacuate prisoners, it is possible that a writ of execution might have been issued or that a simple order was given to kill prisoners. On the night of June 8–9, 192 persons were shot in Tartu Prison – 172 men and 20 women. The victims were shot in the head with pistols, mostly in the face. 90 persons – 87 men and 3 women – were shot in September 1941, in a medieval castle that was being used as a prison in Kuressaare on the island of Saaremaa. 10 men and a 14-year old boy were shot in a pit that had been dug in the courtyard of the Viljandi Prison. One of them was not mortally wounded, and succeeded in climbing out of the pit and escaping.
2) Civilians who were murdered by Red Army and NKVD/NKGB Destroyer Battalion troops. A score of resistance fighters who engaged in combat against the Red Army and the Destroyer Battalions have apparently been included in this category. Since details remain sketchy, they have been statistically grouped together with the civilians who were killed.
1,000 persons were imprisoned in Estonia in 1940 and a further 6,000 persons were incarcerated in 1941. The majority of them were pronounced guilty and sent to the prison camps of the USSR, where most of them perished or were executed.
According to available records, at least 250 of the persons arrested in 1940 were executed and nearly 500 died during their imprisonment. More than 1,600 of those arrested in 1941 were executed, and almost 4,000 died while in confinement.

In the Soviet Union in 1940 the “Law on the Judicial System in the Republics and Autonomous Regions of the USSR” was enacted, which established a uniform and equal case management basis for all citizens, and based on the Constitution, declared the independence of the courts and their subordination exclusively to the law. Regarding the organization of the courts, the collectivity (participation of public assessors), openness (public nature of the court proceedings), and principle of court appeal was specified. But the clause “except in cases specified by the law” was added to every paragraph.

In the case of state political repressions, this additional clause provided a legal basis for waiving compliance with democratic judicial principles, but at that same time, to giving a judicial form to political repressions with lower level legislation. In the Soviet judicial system, special courts also operated: military tribunals, railroad circuit courts, and waterway circuit courts, which were not subordinated to the supreme court of the republic, but reported directly to the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. According to the court code, the war tribunals deliberated “[...] military crimes as well as other crimes coming under their jurisdiction [...]”.
At first, military courts did not have a signifycant role to play in deliberating political crimes. But in the middle of the 1930’s, the war council of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union, the military tribunals and the tribunals of the NKVD forces, formed in 1934, became the main means of administrating justice.

The code of the judicial system emphasizes that the courts determine justice. Even so, Special Councils that were outside of the court system also decided cases of a criminal nature. In their work, the Special Councils implemented punishment specified by the criminal code, but operated on an administrative basis (court proceedings as such did not take place, the members of the Special Councils made their decisions based on written material without having seen or heard the accusers or the defenders). The activities of the Special Councils were formally based on laws and governmental decrees, but their activities were in conflict with the elementary principles of justice: the right of everyone to be heard by the court, the right to defend oneself against accusations, the right to appeal the decision of the court. The Special Councils that operated in this manner can be called state-organized quasi-judicial organs.

The implementation of extra-judicial institutions was justified by the reasoning that it was necessary to implement repressions against anti-Soviet elements, even without the possession of concrete evidentiary material.
With the 1935 directive of the Soviet Prosecutor, all political cases that lacked sufficient evidence to try them in ordinary courts were transferred to the Special Councils.

The 1936 Soviet Constitution specified the composition and assignments of the Prosecutor’s Office. The supreme supervision of the Soviet People’s Commissariats and its subordinate institutions, as well as of the loyalty of officials and citizens, was assigned to the Soviet Prosecutor.

According to the Soviet Constitution, the accused were guaranteed the right to a defense. In the case of political accusations, this had no practical meaning.

On August 17, 1940, after the incorporation of the Baltic States into the USSR, the People’s Commissar for Defense Semyon Timoshenko ordered that the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian armed forces be reformed into Territorial Rifle Corps. It was directed that each Corps was to have an authorized strength of 15,142 men. They were to consist of two divisions, each consisting of 6,000 troops, and other units. These Corps were to exist for one year, during which period they were to be purged of “disloyal elements”, and the men had to learn Russian and the regulations of the Red Army. Thereafter these Corps were to be reorganized once again, on a non-territorial basis.

The Estonian Armed Forces were formed into the 22nd Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps. Major General Gustav Jonson (who had previously been the Commander of the Armed Forces in the Soviet-imposed government of Johannes Vares) was appointed to be the Commander of the Corps. Major General Richard Tomberg was appointed Commander of the 180th Rifle Division, and Major General Jaan Kruus was appointed to command the 182nd Rifle Division. In June of 1941, the Corps was sent to the Värska Training Camp, where approximately 300 senior officers were arrested on June 13–14, with most of them being sent from there to the Norilsk Prison Camp. The top-ranking officers of the Corps had been sent to Russia before them, purportedly to receive refresher courses. There, most of them were also arrested. Major General Aleksander Ksenofontov was now appointed to be the Commander of the Corps, with Colonels (Polkovniks) I. Missan and J. Kuroshev each assuming command of one of the two divisions of the Corps. At the beginning of the war, conscripts from the Soviet Union were mobilized into the Corps, bringing it up to its full authorized strength of 29,000 men. The Corps was subordinated to the 11th Army of the Southeastern Front and fought in the Pskov and Staraya-Russa area from July 4 to August 22. There were about 5,500 Estonians in the Corps at that time. The Corps suffered heavy casualties during battles that took place in August. Most of the Estonians were taken prisoner or defected to the German side. At the end of 1941, they were sent back to Estonia from the prisoner of war camps they had been held in. Many of these men volunteered for service in the security battalions of the German Army. The remaining Estonians in the Red Army were pulled back from the front in the fall, since they were considered unreliable, and were transferred to labor battalions.
In June of 1941, the Soviet NKVD state security organization began forming so-called “destroyer battalions”. In principle, the task of the destroyer battalions was to fight saboteurs and parachutists, but more often they were actually sent into combat against resistance forces and also carried out the “scorched earth” tactics proclaimed by Joseph Stalin.
Members of the destroyer battalions are guilty of killing hundreds of civilians. Major General Rakutin – Commander of the NKVD Border Troops in the Baltic Special Military District – was responsible for forming the destroyer battalions. Captain Mikhail Pasternak was the Commander of the Operative Section of the Staff for these units, and the responsible Commissar was Fjodor Okk, the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist (bolshevik) Party.
The battalions were made up mostly of active members of the “spearheads” of the Party and the Soviets. Later, men who had been conscripted into the Soviet military were also forced to serve in the ranks of the destroyer battalions. A dozen or more destroyer battalions consisting of about 6,000 men were formed. Most of them were Estonians. In August 1941, two worker’s battalions were formed for the purpose of defending Tallinn, led by M. Pasternak and Karl Kanger, the Head of the Military Section of the Central Committee of the Estonian Communist (bolshevik) Party. These battalions were made up largely of members of destroyer battalions who had retreated to Tallinn. The combat readiness of the worker’s battalions was low, and they were quickly crushed by advancing German troops. A worker’s battalion was also constituted in Narva. Those members of the destroyer battalions who did not succeed in escaping from Estonia were arrested during the German occupation. Most of them were executed.
On July 2, 1941, men of military age in those parts of Estonia that were under the control of the Red Army began to be sent to Russia. A total of more than 30,000 men were taken to Russia. Although this action has been described as an ordinary mobilization in the past, doing so leaves a false impression. It would be more accurate to see this as just one more facet of “scorched earth tactics”. On July 10, 1941, Lev Mehlis – Head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army – ordered that the Estonians sent to Russia were to be assigned to labor battalions. In September 1941, the Estonian labor battalions were subordinated to the GULAG (The Main Directorate of Corrective Labor Camps) run by the NKVD. 10,000 of the men who had been sent to the labor battalions perished by spring of 1942.

On November 7, 1942, the 8th Estonian Tallinn Rifle Corps was put on active status and integrated into the regular structure of the Red Army. On December 10, 1942, the roster of the Corps consisted of 32,463 men, including the 19th Guards Division, and the 85th Artillery Batallion, both of which had been subordinated to the Corps. Neither of these latter units had Estonians in their ranks. The Corps was brought under the command of the Kalinin Front and was sent into combat at Velikije Luki. The Commander of the Corps was Major General Lembit Pärn, with Colonel (Polkovnik) August Vassil in command of the 7th Division, and Colonel (Polkovnik) Artur Saueselg in command of the 249th Division.
The Estonian Rifle Corps fought in the battles of Velikiye Luki from December 9, 1942 until January 16, 1943. The Corps suffered heavy casualties. According to the reports it filed, 2,247 men were killed, 6,220 were wounded, and 2,020 were missing and unaccounted for. Most of the missing men had defected to the German side. They were sent to the Viljandi Prisoner-of-War Camp in Estonia via the Polotsk Prisoner-of-War Camp. In Viljandi they were released and given a month off, on the condition that they would thereafter serve in the German military. After the battles of Velikiye Luki, both division commanders were dismissed from their positions (they had both previously been officers in the Estonian military), to be replaced by Estonians from Russia. Karl Allikas assumed command of the 7th Division, and Johan Lombak was put in charge of the 249th Division.
Until October of 1943, the Division was held in reserve at the Kalinin Front, and was then subordinated after that to the 2nd Baltic Front. Even then, the Corps was still not sent to the front lines, with the exception of its artillery component, which was sent into combat in the Novosokolnik region near Pskov, and later on the Narva front.
In 1944, the Corps was assigned to the Leningrad Front, where it carried out defensive tasks to the rear of the 2nd Shock Army. During the period of 5–14 September, 1944, the Corps was transported over Lämmi Lake into the Võnnu area in Estonia, and it took part in the assault that culminated in the crossing of the Emajõgi River. After that, the divisions of the Corps participated in the conquest of the Estonian mainland and the islands of Muhu and Saaremaa. Forward elements of the 354th Rifle Battalion reached the Estonian capital of Tallinn on September 22, only to find that it had been abandoned by the Germans. Vassili Võrk was the commandant of Tallinn for three days. On September 22, the Corps was put under the command of the 8th Army of the Leningrad Front.
During the September 17–23 period, the Corps suffered 201 casualties on the Estonian mainland. 763 men were wounded, and 17 were reported missing in action. Losses were also borne during the fighting for control over Saaremaa, particularly in the Tehumardi battle and the Vintri landing, where 215 men of the 300th Rifle Batallion were taken prisoner.
From March until May 1945, the Estonian Rifle Corps was engaged in combat in the Courland area of Latvia, where it fought against the German “Nord” Army Group. On June 28, the Corps was renamed and began to be referred to as the 41st Guards Estonian Tallinn Rifle Corps. The 7th Division was renamed the 118th Guards Rifle Division and the 249th Division the 112th Guards Rifle Division.
On May 6 1946, the 41st Tallinn Guards Rifle Corps was disbanded. So-called “national units” continued to remain in Estonia until 1956. These were manned by conscripts. From 1946 to 1951, the men who were called up served in the 22nd Guards Estonian Unattached Rifle Brigade, and from 1951–1956 in the 118th Guards Estonian Rifle Division. From 1945–1951, Lembit Pärn was the Minister of Armed Forces and the Military Commissar of the Estonian SSR.

The return of the Soviet occupation in Estonia in the fall of 1944 did not bring peace. Instead, it was accompanied – as had been anticipated – by a number of new waves of repressions. Before the beginning of this new Soviet occupation, approximately 70,000 persons fled to other countries in anticipation of the worst, because of what they had experienced in 1941. Their fears were realized. 10,000 persons were imprisoned in 1944 and 1945, half of whom died within two years. Very large numbers of people were sent to prisons and forced labor camps in post-war Estonia. Imprisonment was a major form of repression of individuals, second only to new deportations. New forms of charges were leveled: treason, providing aid to the Germans, performance of service in the German Armed Forces or in the actions arranged by the civil administration, attempts to flee the “homeland”, etc. During the years to come, the family members of most of those who had been arrested were deported.

The first wave of post-war ethnic cleansing involved the deportation of Germans on August 15, 1945. There were 261 citizens of German origin among the 407 deportees, while the remaining 146 persons belonged to other ethnic groups. Most of these were Estonians who voluntarily accompanied those family members, who were being sent away. In most cases, the deportees were Germans who had repatriated to Germany during 1939 and 1940. Having returned to Estonia during the German occupation, they had not succeeded in departing Estonia before the advance of the Red Army.
In 1946, after the end of the war, there was a brief pause in the cycle of deportations being carried out in the Soviet Union, but it did not take long before a new wave began. During 1947, a population transfer involving thousands of Germans, Ukrainians and Finns (who had been involuntarily repatriated) was carried out. A campaign against “enemies of the people” and their family members was then initiated, with Lithuania being the first of the Baltic countries where a deportation was carried out on this basis. 1948 was a year of never-ending deportations for Lithuania. These transfers of population were carried out in increments and in a number of regions. 1949 was a particularly infamous year. In accordance with a decree issued by the Council of Ministers of the USSR on January 29, “kulaks and their families, families of bandits, nationalists in hiding, bandits who have served their sentences and have been given legal status but continue their activities, and their family members, as well as families who provide assistance to bandits” were to be permanently deported from the territory of the Estonian SSR. Most of those deported had a hard time in comprehending what it was they were supposedly guilty of. The employment of ideological phrases like “kulak”, “nationalist”, “bandit” and “counterrevolutionary” served to obfuscate the real reasons this was being done. After Estonia was reoccupied by the Soviet Union in 1944, Petseri County as well as Estonian territory on the eastern bank of the Narva River was annexed to the Russian SSR. Russia’s Pskov Oblast also grew in the area to the southeast of Estonia at the expense of the territory of the Republic of Latvia. The deportations carried out in these areas in May of 1950, involving the removal of 1,563 Estonians and Latvians (425 families) served the purpose of cleansing the area of non-Russians.
The last mass deportations from Estonia took place during 1951, when members of prohibited in the USSR religious groups from the Baltic countries, Moldavia, the Western Ukraine and Byelorussia were banished on the basis of an edict adopted by a Special Council of the Soviet Ministry of Security. This came to be called “the deportation of the Jehovah’s Witnesses”. 281 persons were seized and taken away from Estonia. The total number of deportees was 2,619 persons. Many of those were women and children.
A number of lesser campaigns took place between the major deportations. During October of 1945, 18 families were forcibly removed to Tjumen Oblast (51 persons), 37 families in November (87 persons), and 37 families in December (91 persons). Since these were family members of “traitors of the homeland”, they were to be sent away for a period of five years on the basis of a decision of a Special Council. During 1948–1950, a number of Ingrian Finns were also deported. This ethnic group, which had suffered repressions at the hands of the Soviets during and after the war, had made an attempt to take up residence in Estonia.
After the war (up until the death of Stalin), 30,000 persons were arrested in Estonia. About a third of them perished, which was a somewhat lower figure – proportionately speaking – than those who had received the same treatment before the war. Of the 23,000 persons deported after the war, approximately 3,000 perished. About 2,000 resistance fighters died in Estonia in combat with the occupation forces. After the death of Stalin, direct resistance to the Soviet authorities subsided, to be replaced by new forms of resistance. The Soviet regime itself ceased to engage in repressions on a large collective scale. Political arrests would continue, however, but at an incrementally lesser level. During the 1953–1988 period, some 500 persons were arrested in Estonia on political grounds.

The end of the war in 1945 brought new repressions instead of peace and stability. The victims included everyone who had shown a readiness to cooperate in any manner with the German authorities in the areas that had been occupied by Germany. Mass deportations continued until the middle of the 1950’s, encompassing a total of 6 million Soviet residents. This does not include war prisoners, or those who had been taken to work in the Third Reich, about 3.2 million people, and who were repatriated during the first months after the war and sent into exile directly from the filtration camps.
For most people, a deportee is an exiled person. Officially, the deportees were divided into different categories, and the majority of deportations were carried out in four different ways. In Russian these means of deportation were named as follows: ???????, ??????, ??????????? ?????????, ?????? ?? ?????????, which are quite complicated to translate without some additional explanation. In the case of the first two, we are dealing mainly with principal or secondary punishments that were implemented by the courts or Special Councils against guilty parties, respectively for 5 years (???????) or 3 to 10 years (??????). Therefore, we can call these exiles with a set term or exiles.

The third means of deportation – special deportation (??????????? ?????????) was implemented for those who, by governmental decree, were sent to locations controlled by security organs, either forever or for a specific period. Most of the deportees from Estonia belonged to this category, although with some exceptions: Those convicted and deported in 1940–41 belonged to the group without a term, while those deported in 1949 and thereafter were among those who were exiled forever. Also included in the category of people sent into exile forever were Germans (also those who returned to the Soviet Union during the course of repatriation), foreigners, and stateless people, the Kalmyks, Chechens, the Ingush, Turks exiled from Georgia, Kurds, the Crimean Tartars exiled from Crimea, Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, partisans exiled from Ukraine (1944), along with their helpers and family members. The list would become too drawn out if we were to mention all those who belonged to this category.
The fourth most popular means of punishment, being sent into forced exile (?????? ?? ?????????), was implemented starting in February of 1948, against those who were freed after serving their terms in special camps and prisons, but also against spies, saboteurs, terrorists, opponents of the Communist Party (Trotskyites, right-wingers, Menshevites, Social-revolutionaries, anarchists, nationalists, White Guards, etc.) and against people that were considered to be dangerous due to their anti-Soviet connections and activities, but whose date of liberation fell into the war period.

In Estonia, 19 troop trains were formed to transport the deportees. Of these nine troop trains were directed to Novosibirsk oblast, six troop trains to Karsnoyarsk krai, two to Omsk oblast, and two to Irkutsk oblast. About 21,000 people in total were deported from Estonia, of whom the most numerous were 7 year olds. A little over 10% were men of working age. About 15% were older then 60, including some over 90. The deported included invalids, pregnant women and children exiled without their parents.

During 1940–41, the first year of Soviet occupation, the new authority did not get around to collectivizing the farms in Estonia. A few collective farms were organized in the Russian villages in the border areas of Estonia. After the re-occupation of Estonian territory in 1944, collectivization was not hurried, because the authority the Communist Party (CP) representatives assigned to positions in the countryside was still weak and the implementation of the collectivization system, which was unpopular with Estonians, would have weakened it further. In order to win the support of certain segments of society, the land reform, which had not been completed in 1940, was completed. The reform was an attempt to show the farmers that the new authority was interested in the preservation of private farms, even the creation of new small farms, and it did not plan to create collective farms. At the same time, however, a progressive tax system was implemented, that decreed higher taxes for farms with more arable land. It was hoped that this tax system would be the main means of coercion for creating collective farms. The mandatory state purchase prices for the sales quotas were kept low by the central authorities. In this way, an artificial system was created, whereby the production capability of the farms was not sufficient to pay the taxes. The farms developed debts and tax debts incurred criminal liability. The farmers that ran into difficulties had no alternative but to relinquish their farms and animals. This entire farce was undertaken by the CP in order to make it seem that the creation of the collective farms was voluntarily. In order to understand this today, one must know that it was very important for the ruling regime in the Soviet Union to demonstrate that everything happening in the country occurred naturally and according to the will of the people, and at the same time, to conceal its true malevolence that actually aimed to control the entire society.

During the “open door” period, a number of unsuitable people ended up in the Party, and already in November-December of 1940, a purge of the ranks took place in the course of issuing new Party membership cards. 500–600 people were left behind the Party’s doors. As of January 1, 1941, the ECP had 1,169 members, and 867 candidates, for a total of 2,036 Communists, of whom 75% were Estonian, 23% Russian, and 2% of other nationalities. By June 1, 1941, 3,732 Party members were registered in Estonia, of them 2,576 enrolled by the ECP (including those coming from the Soviet Union and joining the Party in Estonia) and 1,156 Communists that had arrived from the Soviet Union.
The German-USSR war scattered the ECP organization. Of the 3,751 Communists registered on July 1, 1941, the fate of 3,172 is known: 1,459 were evacuated to the Soviet Union; 595 were mobilized in the first months of the war or joined partisan units; 382 fell in battle in Estonia during 1941; 729 remained behind the German lines on their own and 114 of them survived. After the war, three-quarters of them were expelled from the party due to inactivity. During the war, in one way or another, 40–50% of the pre-war membership of the ECP was out of action.
After the re-occupation of Estonia the Party immediately started to assemble its ranks. As of November 1, 1944, there were 1,949 Communists registered in 120 local ECP organizations. At that time, a relatively larger number of local Party organizations (39) operated in the SaRK (People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs) and RJK (State Security Committe) systems, the remainder in the ESSR Party and Soviets apparatus, and only four operated elsewhere. By January 1, 1945, there was already a total of 2,409 Communists. To expand their influence among workers, Party members working in central organizations were assigned to work in larger enterprises, where they were supposed to deal with Communist educational work. In July of 1947, to increase the influence of the Party in the countryside, the ECP Central Committee decided to create municipal Party Committees. By November of 1948, however, there were municipal committees in only 108 municipales out of 236.
By the end of 1948 there were 16,650 Communists registered in the ECP, of these 7,289 (44%) were Estonian, of whom only 2,368 had been enrolled into the Party in Estonia. Looking at the nationality composition of the ECP Central Committee and its apparatus, we see that the majority (about 2/3) was Estonian, but this also included “Russian Estonians” who came from the Soviet Union. At this time, the Party could not create a base of support for itself among the local residents, and in reality it could only rely on the new civil service that accompanied Soviet authority. 70% of the members were officials of either Party or Soviet institutions or in the management of enterprises. 15% of Party members were workers, 3.5% were peasants.
During the first post-war years of 1944–48, the main source of growth for the membership (80%) was demobilized soldiers and Communists arriving from the Soviet Union. Of these, the majority who joined the Party in Estonia were Estonians returning from the Soviet Union or at least those who had spent the war in the Soviet rear. The reason was mutual reluctance: the Party did not trust those who had lived in Estonia during the German occupation, and the people were not yet convinced of the irresistible force of the Party.
A significant change took place in 1949, and the connection to the March deportation is clear. On the one hand, a “cleansing” had been carried out among the people, and it wasn’t necessary to start repressing fresh Party members, and among those remaining it was easier to start finding people suitable for the Party. On the other hand, the “terror and charity” of the Party had been amply demonstrated to the people. At that time, to the majority, the supremacy of the occupation power seemed irrefutable, and this fear forced the people closer to authority. Numerically this break was still not as total as when the peasants were forced into collective farms. Rather, it was primarily a change in attitude: the Party was ready to accept local Estonians and increasingly more of them turned toward cooperation with the Communists. The number of Estonians in the Party started to rise significantly in 1951–1953, by which time the number was over 9,000.
The Party made an unexpected turn in 1952–1953. In 1952, the increase in membership was halved. The reason is not apparent from Party statistics. It is possible that more people from Estonia returned to the Soviet Union than arrived from there. In 1953, the Party membership has a unique decline, not taking into account the final struggles of the Party at the beginning of the 1990’s.
In that year, the number of members decreases by about 1,100, of which only 100 were Estonians. By considering the number of Party members, by category, along with the change in power in the Soviet Union (Stalin’s death and Beria’s temporary ascendancy, along with his new national policy, and then his disappearance), it seems likely that the decline in Party members in Estonia took place primarily on account of Russian internal affairs and security workers.
The short-term decline is followed by a rapid increase. If 1949 had brought the first break, then the shock of Hungary in 1956 is vividly reflected in the Party statistics: the number of Estonians joining the Party increases significantly and more than doubled – from only a few hundred new members per year to 1,000–1,500. These are still people who, as teenagers or in their youth, had experienced the loss of statehood, war and terror.
Increases of Estonians at this level continue until the end of the 1980’s. The active enrollment of Estonians in the Party results in the fact that by 1961, Estonians are the largest nationality group in the ECP. By this time, the number of Communists has risen to 37,848, of which 18,604 (49%) are Estonian. By the end of 1962, the proportion of Estonians is already more than half (50.5%), which will continue until 1988.
The beginning of the 1960’s is noteworthy for other reasons as well. In the subsequent period, the Party starts to accept those whom it had formerly repressed. The Party had the power to elevate those it had humiliated. Many limits for the formerly politically repressed were eased (they were able to acquire higher education).
An arbitrary boundary can be drawn in the middle of the 1970’s. Now “Stalin’s children” are ready to join the Party, people who have not seen war, for whom the worst terror was back in their childhood, and whose youth coincides with the “Thaw of the 60’s”. For them, joining the party is not motivated by fear, but it is a natural step on their career ladder. By 1976, ECP membership had grown to 84,250, of these 43,742 (52%) are Estonians. A symbolic milestone for the Party is 1981/1982 when the membership reaches 100,000.
The ECP membership achieved its peak in 1988, with 112,925 members, including 56,654 (50.1%) Estonians. The enrollment of Estonians declined markedly beginning in 1987, when the 1,000-member increase of the previous year was reduced to only 400. In the fermenting political boiler, people perhaps did not dare to decide what action to take.
1988, however, becomes the year for the beginning of the Party’s quick demise. In that year, about 800 Estonians leave the ranks of the Communist Party, but Russians also start to depart, so Estonians remain the largest group in the Party. In 1989 already 2,865 Estonians leave the Party. In 1990, the Party membership disappears; 41,541 Estonians leave and numerical predominance is left to the Russians, whose departure is markedly more reserved. On January 1, 1991, 11,452 Estonians remain on the Party’s membership rolls.

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