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1918-1940
On 28. November 1918, the Red Army attacked the newly proclaimed Republic of Estonia on orders from Soviet Russia's Leninist-Marxist regime. The resulting Estonian War of Independence claimed the lives of 6127 Estonians and 600 citizens of allied countries. Areas temporarily conquered by the Red Army were ruled by the Estonian Workers Commune, a Communist puppet government that murdered 689 people and had as much as 4000 deported to Russia. Eventually, Estonian forces prevailed and the war ended with the Tartu Peace Treaty of February 1920. The treaty, however, was soon violated by the Soviet regime. In December 1924, the Soviet terror network and local Communists launched an armed coup attempt to overthrow the elected Estonian government, but were defeated. Soviet authorities denied ethnic Estonians in the Soviet Union the right to return to their historic homeland and thousands were arrested or persecuted as kulaks. During the Great Terror of 1936-1938, thousands of Estonians living in Russia were arrested and executed on grounds of ethnicity.
Meanwhile, the Soviet Union's Communist leaders were determined to terminate Estonia's independence. The opportunity was provided by the outbreak of World War II. In August 1939, Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed a non-aggression pact and its secret protocol outlining the two totalitarian regimes' spheres of influence in Eastern Europe and paving way for the subsequent World War. As a result of the Hitler-Stalin pact and under threat of Soviet military aggression, Estonia on 24. September 1939 consented to a treaty of mutual assistance that led to the establishment of Soviet military bases in October 1939 and a full occupation on 17. June 1940.
