Preamble

     In 1939, Estonia could justifiably feel quite contented with the results of twenty years of independence. The economic depression was far in the past, the agricultural sector had concrete domestic and foreign markets, the industrial sector was developing.

      In the political sector, there was good reason to assume that the authoritarian Päts regime would start to slowly shift towards parliamentary democracy. Political prisoners had been amnestied, and the nation did not have any internal enemies to fear. Even the 100 - 150 Communists did not pose a serious threat.

      But in the foreign policy sector, things were rather shaky. Estonia lacked the strength to protect its independence, and the international collective security system was quite ineffective. When Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Nazi Germany approached each other, the result was the signing of the mutual non-aggression treaty of 23 August 1939, the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Its secret clauses divided Europe up into spheres of influence. Estonia fell into the USSR's sphere, thus becoming a potential victim of aggression.

      The Second World War started when Germany attacked Poland on 1 September 1939. The Soviet Union concentrated 160,000 men and 600 tanks on Estonia's border (Estonia had a potentially mobilizable army of 100,000 men and 30 tanks), and on September 24 demanded that the Red Army be allowed to establish bases in Estonia. The Estonian government gave in. On the basis of a treaty signed on September 28, 25,000 Soviet soldiers were permitted to enter Estonia. With this, Estonia practically lost its independence, and began the so-called Period of the Bases. On October 18, the first Red Army units entered Estonian. On the same day, the first ship full of Baltic-Germans, who Hitler had invited to return to the fatherland, left Estonia. The Russian military authorities behaved very self-confidently, constantly building and expanding their bases. But at first, the Soviets did not interfere in Estonia's internal politics, nor did they publicly promote Estonia's Communists.