Estonian War of Independence

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Estonian War of Independence
Part of Wars of Independence
Date 1918 - 1920 Location Northern Europe Result Estonian victory
Combatants
Estonia, Finnish and Scandinavian volunteers, White Russians	Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic
Commanders
Johan Laidoner	Jukums Vācietis Sergei Kamenev
Strength
74,500 (Estonian Army), ca 3000 Finnish volunteers, White Russians, about 200-400 Scandinavians	??
Casualties
5,600 killed 15,000 wounded 667 captured	? killed  ? wounded 10,000 captured

The Estonian War of Independence (Estonian: Vabadussõda, literally "freedom war"), which occurred in 1918-1920, was Estonia's struggle for an independent state in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

[edit] Timeline

In November 1917, upon the disintegration of the Russian Empire, a Diet (Maapäev), which had been elected in the spring of that year, proclaimed itself the highest authority in Estonia. Soon thereafter, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Maapäev and temporarily forced the pro-independence Estonians underground. A few months later, using a moment between the Russian Red Army's retreat and the arrival of advancing German troops, the Committee of Elders of the underground Maapäev issued a proclamation of the independent Republic of Estonia on February 24, 1918 and formed a provisional government. This first period of independence was extremely short-lived, as German troops entered Tallinn on the following day. The German authorities recognized neither the provisional government, nor its claim for Estonia's independence, counting them as a self-styled group usurping sovereign rights of Baltic chivalries.

After Germany's defeat in World War I (November 1918), an Estonian provisional government was able to once again take office. A new military invasion by the Russian SFSR followed a few days later, marking the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence. The first Russian attacks at Narva on November 22nd were met by both German forces and Estonian defenders, but the Germans thereafter withdrew westwards. On November 28, the Red Army conducted an assault to capture the city with artillery support and, on November 29th, the Red Army captured Narva and Narva-Jõesuu. Estonian bolsheviks declared a regional local government in Narva under the name of the Estonian Workers' Commune (Eesti Töörahva Kommuun) The small, poorly armed Estonian defense force was initially pushed back by the Red Army into the vicinity of Tallinn, the capital. A mere 34 kilometers separated Tallinn and the front line. Partly due to the timely arrival of a shipment of arms brought by a British naval squadron (under Admiral Alexander-Sinclair, succeeded by Admiral Walter Cowan) the Bolsheviks were stopped. In January 1919, the Estonians launched a counteroffensive under Commander-in-Chief Johan Laidoner. The Estonian Army was supported by the Royal Navy as well as Finnish, Swedish and Danish volunteers. By the end of February 1919, the Red Army had been expelled from all of the territory of Estonia.

Estonian troops also advanced into northern Latvia. The Latvians had declared independence like Estonia, but the pro-British government of Kārlis Ulmanis was toppled by the German general Rüdiger von der Goltz, who installed a pro-German puppet government of Andrievs Niedra in Riga in May 1919. This was possible because under the terms of their armistice with the Western Allies, the Germans had been obliged to maintain their armies in the East to counter the Bolshevik threat. The Baltic German Landeswehr military formation, together with the "Iron Division" of the regular German army, started to advance northwards and demanded that the Estonian army end the occupation of parts of northern Latvia. It was widely believed that the real intent of the Landeswehr was to annex Estonia into a German-dominated state like the United Baltic Duchy that had existed in 1918. In the fighting that ensued, the Baltic-German Landeswehr was defeated by the advancing Estonian Army in northern Latvia near the city of Cēsis in June 1919. (June 23, the anniversary of the Battle of Wenden ([[Võnnu]] in Estonian) is celebrated in Estonia as a national holiday "Victory Day.")

Although Estonian forces had attained control over the territory of Estonia, the Bolsheviks were still active and the Estonian High Command decided to push their defense lines across the border into Russia. The offensive began on May 13th. By then, Estonian land, naval and air forces comprised 74,500 men, including a 3,000-strong White Russian Northern Corps. This had its origins back in the autumn of 1918, when a small White Russian force constituted with German consent in the Pskov area retreated from the Bolsheviks and joined up with Estonian national forces. The Estonian May offensive was extremely successful and the Northern Corps mobilized members of the local population on the Russian territory under their control. On June 19, 1919, the Estonian Commander-in-Chief General Laidoner removed the White Russians from his command and they were renamed the North-Western Army. Shortly afterwards General Nikolai N. Yudenich took command of these troops.

The Bolsheviks began a counter-offensive in July 1919, which regained much ground lost during the Estonian offensive, but the Northwestern Army survived. With arms provided by Britain and France and supported by the Estonian army, Estonian warships and the British Royal Navy, the Northwestern Army began an offensive on September 28, 1919, with the aim of capturing Petrograd. White Russian forces approached as close as ten miles from Petrograd, but the Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky gathered "an army of workers and soldiers", which was able to repulse Yudenich's troops and force their retreat back into Estonia where the Estonians, fearing the danger presented by a potential armed mob, disarmed and interned them. The Bolsheviks continued to make determined assaults on fortified positions at the Estonian border, but exhausted themselves. A ceasefire came into effect on January 3, 1920.

On February 2, 1920, the Peace Treaty of Tartu was signed by the Republic of Estonia and Bolshevist Russia. The terms of the treaty stated that Russia renounced in perpetuity all rights to the territory of Estonia. The agreed frontier corresponded roughly with the position of the front line at the cessation of hostilities. In particular, Estonia retained a strategic strip to the east of the Narva river (Narvataguse) and Setumaa in the southeast, areas which were lost in early 1945 - shortly after Soviet troops had taken control of Estonia, when Moscow transferred land East of the Narva River and most of Estonia's Pechory county (Setumaa) to the RSFSR.

Substantial British involvement in the struggle in the Baltic region in 1918-19 as part of the Allied Intervention in the Russian Civil War took several forms:

• British naval forces in December 1918, after lobbying in London by Estonian politicians, brought needed military equipment, training and also artillery support from Royal Navy ships;
• British protection of the Estonian left flank by naval action in the Gulf of Finland brought about the first combined air/sea assault in history, when British aircraft in conjunction with motor torpedo boats attacked and destroyed the Bolshevik fleet in Kronstadt. British officer Augustus Agar won a Victoria Cross for sinking a Soviet cruiser and then a DSO for leading a second attack that sank two major warships;
• Equipment supplied by the British to the White Russian Northwestern Army included six tanks together with their crews, who were the only British troops to fight alongside the Northwestern Army. British tank crews are said to have got closer to Petrograd (formerly Saint Petersburg) in the autumn of 1919 than German Panzer crews did in World War II.

[edit] See also

• History of Estonia

[edit] External links

• Estonica:Emergence of Estonian independence