Mass deportations from Estonia

14th June 1941: The war allowed Stalin to envelop the Baltic states - but his paranoia extends to the people of previously independent nations

Mass deportations in Estonia. A drawing made by Hilda Orn, who was a teenager when she was deported with her family. Her father, an engineer, died that winter. She, her sister and her mother were not allowed to leave the ‘settlement’ until 1956.

Soon after Poland was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939, the Soviets extended their reach to the other Baltic states. Only Finland was in a position to resist militarily. For Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians, the Soviet system meant a murderous dictatorship.

The 14th June 1941¹ is remembered in Estonia as the day that Stalin began the mass arrest of thousands of ‘suspect’ individuals and their families:

It was half past eight on a fine sunny morning on the 14th of June 1941. I remember having spent a restful night in bed. Somehow the fear of the N.K.V.D. had not weighed on me as heavily as usual. Both, my wife and I, felt refreshed. We went downstairs for breakfast. The dining room was unusually deserted. The food on the table was untouched. My parents-in-law were mysteriously nowhere in the house. This was unusual indeed at this hour. We thought of even going to look for them in the garden.

We had not gone far when we came across the maid. She looked very pale and startled, with feverish eyes.

“The Professor and the Mrs. have gone out,” she said.

“There was a telephone message.”

“What telephone message?” asked my wife.

“From the country…from your uncle’s farm.”

Her voice was unsteady.

“It was not your uncle who telephoned…it was a relative. Something terrible has happened. They have all been arrested, all of them…your uncle, aunt, cousin and the cousin’s wife together with their little son and Vilma. The N.K.V.D. came for them.”