Soviet deportations from Estonia
Overview of Soviet deportations from Estonia in 1941 and 1945–1951 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Soviet deportations from Estonia were a series of mass deportations in 1941 and 1945–1951 carried out by the Stalinist regime of the former USSR from then Soviet-occupied Estonia.[1] The two largest waves of deportations occurred in June 1941 and March 1949 simultaneously in all three occupied Baltic countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The deportations targeted primarily women, children and the elderly, calling them 'anti-Soviet elements'. In addition, there were Soviet deportations from Estonia based on the victims' ethnicity (Germans in 1945 and Ingrian Finns in 1947–1950) and religion (Jehovah's Witnesses in 1951).[1] Ethnic Estonians who had been residing in Soviet Russia (mostly in the Leningrad Oblast) had already been subjected to deportation since 1935.[2][3]
People were deported to remote areas of the Soviet Union, predominantly to Siberia and northern Kazakhstan,[4] by means of railroad cattle cars. Entire families, including children and the elderly, were deported without trial or prior announcement. Of March 1949 deportees, over 70% of people were women and children under the age of 16.[5]
About 7,550 families, or 20,600 to 20,700 people, were deported from Estonia.[6]
The Estonian Internal Security Service has brought to justice several organizers of these events.[7] The deportations have been repeatedly declared to constitute a crime against humanity by the Parliament of Estonia[8] and acknowledged as such by the European Court of Human Rights.[9][10]