Editing History of Estonia (section)

===Incorporation in the Soviet Union (1940)===
{{See also|Soviet deportations from Estonia|Occupation and annexation of the Baltic states by the Soviet Union (1940)}}

The Republic of Estonia was [[occupation of the Baltic states|occupied]] by the Soviet Union in June 1940.<ref>{{Cite book
| title = The World Book Encyclopedia
| year = 2003
| publisher = [[World Book]]
| location = Chicago, IL
| isbn = 0-7166-0103-6
}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book
| last = O'Connor
| first = Kevin J.
| title = The History of the Baltic States
| year = 2003
| publisher = [[Greenwood Press]]
| location = Westport, Conn.
| isbn = 0-313-32355-0
}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.vm.ee/est/kat_533/7728.html |title=Molotovi–Ribbentropi pakt ja selle tagajärjed |date=22 August 2006 |publisher=Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs |language=et |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707164549/http://www.vm.ee/est/kat_533/7728.html |archive-date=7 July 2007 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

On 12 June 1940, the order for a total military [[blockade]] of Estonia by the Soviet [[Baltic Fleet]] was given.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.mil.fi/laitokset/tiedotteet/1282.dsp| title=Kaleva-koneen tuhosta uutta tietoa| date=14 June 2005| work=www.mil.fi| publisher=Finnish Defence Forces| language=fi| access-date=2009-09-20| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090821221643/http://www.mil.fi/laitokset/tiedotteet/1282.dsp| archive-date=21 August 2009| url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.rusin.fi/publications/warinpetsamo/indexEN.html |title=documents published |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205065414/http://www.rusin.fi/publications/warinpetsamo/indexEN.html |archive-date=5 February 2008|language=ru}} from the State Archive of the Russian Navy</ref>

On 14 June 1940, while the world's attention was focused on the fall of Paris to [[Nazi Germany]] a day earlier, the Soviet military blockade of Estonia went into effect, and two Soviet bombers downed Finnish passenger airplane [[Kaleva (airplane)|''Kaleva'']] flying from Tallinn to [[Helsinki]] carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn, [[Riga]] and Helsinki. US Foreign Service employee [[Henry W. Antheil Jr.]] was killed in the crash.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://www.afsa.org/fsj/may07/lastflight.pdf| first1=Eric A.| last1=Johnson| first2=Anna| last2=Hermann| title=The Last Flight from Tallinn| year=2007| publisher=American Foreign Service Association| access-date=2009-09-20| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090325013623/http://www.afsa.org/fsj/may07/lastflight.pdf| archive-date=25 March 2009| df=dmy-all}}</ref>

On 16 June 1940, the Soviet Union invaded Estonia.<ref name="TM006241940">{{Cite magazine| date=24 June 1940| title=Five Years of Dates| magazine=Time| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764071-2,00.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930095701/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764071-2,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=30 September 2007| access-date=2009-09-20}}</ref> [[Vyacheslav Molotov|Molotov]] accused the Baltic states of conspiracy against the Soviet Union and delivered an ultimatum to Estonia for the establishment of a government approved of by the Soviets.

The Estonian government decided, given the overwhelming Soviet force both on the borders and inside the country, not to resist, to avoid bloodshed and open war.<ref>{{harvnb|Smith|Pabriks|Purs|Lane|2002|p=19}}</ref> Estonia accepted the ultimatum, and the statehood of Estonia de facto ceased to exist as the Red Army exited from their military bases in Estonia on 17 June. The following day, some 90,000 additional troops entered the country. The [[military occupation]] of the Republic of Estonia was rendered official by a communist coup d'état supported by the Soviet troops,<ref>{{harvnb|Subrenat|2004|p=}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> followed by parliamentary elections where all but pro-Communist candidates were outlawed. The newly elected parliament proclaimed Estonia a Socialist Republic on 21 July 1940 and unanimously requested Estonia to be accepted into the [[Soviet Union]]. Those who had fallen short of the "political duty" of voting Estonia into the USSR, who had failed to have their passports stamped for so voting, were allowed to be shot in the back of the head by Soviet tribunals.<ref name="TM191940">{{Cite magazine| date=19 August 1940| title=Russia: Justice in the Baltic| magazine=Time| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764407,00.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930031407/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,764407,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=30 September 2007| access-date=2009-09-20}}</ref> Estonia was formally annexed into the Soviet Union on 6 August and renamed the [[Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic]].<ref>{{Cite book
| last = Ilmjärv
| first = Magnus
| title = Hääletu alistumine: Eesti, Läti ja Leedu välispoliitilise orientatsiooni kujunemine ja iseseisvuse kaotus. 1920. aastate keskpaigast anneksioonini
| year = 2004
| publisher = Argo
| location = Tallinn
| isbn = 9949-415-04-7
| language = et
}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref> In 1979, the [[European Parliament]] would condemn "the fact that the occupation of these formerly independent and neutral States by the Soviet Union occurred in 1940 following the Molotov/Ribbentrop pact, and continues," and sought to help restore Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian independence through political means.<ref>{{Cite journal| publisher=European Parliament | title=Resolution on the situation in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania | journal=Official Journal of the European Communities | volume=42/78| series=C | date=13 January 1983 | url=http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Europarliament13011983.jpg }}</ref>

The Soviet authorities, having gained control over Estonia, immediately imposed a regime of terror. During the first year of Soviet occupation (1940–1941) over 8,000 people, including most of the country's leading politicians and military officers, were arrested. About 2,200 of the arrested were executed in Estonia, while most of the others were moved to [[Gulag]] prison camps in Russia, from where very few were later able to return alive. On 14 June 1941, when mass [[deportation]]s took place simultaneously in all three Baltic countries, about 10,000 Estonian civilians were deported to [[Siberia]] and other remote areas of the Soviet Union, where nearly half of them later perished. Of the 32,100 Estonian men who were forcibly relocated to Russia under the pretext of mobilisation into the Soviet army after the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, nearly 40 percent died within the next year in the so-called "[[labour battalion]]s" of hunger, cold and overworking. During the first Soviet occupation of 1940–41 about 500 Jews were deported to [[Siberia]].

Estonian graveyards and monuments were destroyed. Among others, the [[Tallinn Military Cemetery]] had the majority of gravestones from 1918 to 1944 destroyed by the Soviet authorities, and this graveyard became reused by the [[Red Army]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1046181016323&a=KArticle&aid=1119525615664 |title=Linda Soomre Memorial Plaque |date=30 May 2005 |publisher=British Embassy in Tallinn |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080118063339/http://www.britishembassy.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket%2FXcelerate%2FShowPage&c=Page&cid=1046181016323&a=KArticle&aid=1119525615664 |archive-date=18 January 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all }}</ref> Other cemeteries destroyed by the authorities during the Soviet era in Estonia include [[Baltic German]] cemeteries established in 1774 ([[Kopli cemetery]], [[Mõigu cemetery]]) and the oldest cemetery in Tallinn, from the 16th century, [[Kalamaja cemetery]].

Many countries including the United States did not recognize the seizure of Estonia by the USSR. Such countries recognized Estonian diplomats and consuls who still functioned in many countries in the name of their former governments. These aging diplomats persisted in this anomalous situation until the ultimate restoration of Baltic independence.

[[Ernst Jaakson]], the longest-serving foreign diplomatic representative to the United States, served as vice-consul from 1934, and as [[consul general]] in charge of the Estonian legation in the United States from 1965 until reestablishment of Estonia's independence. On 25 November 1991, he presented credentials as Estonian ambassador to the United States.<ref>{{Cite book
| last1 = McHugh
| first1 = James Frank
| last2 = Pacy
| first2 = James S.
| title = Diplomats without a country: Baltic diplomacy, international law, and the Cold War
| year = 2001
| publisher = Greenwood Press
| location = Westport, Connecticut
| isbn = 0-313-31878-6
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wRbdAwtxVIAC&pg=PA
}}{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}</ref>