Editing History of Estonia (section)

=== Stalinism ===
{{See also|Stalinism}}
In [[World War II]] Estonia had suffered huge losses. Ports had been destroyed, and 45% of industry and 40% of the railways had become damaged. Estonia's population had decreased by one-fifth, about 200,000 people.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Hiio |first1=Toomas |title=The Red Army invasion of Estonia in 1944 |url=http://www.estonica.org/en/History/1939-1945_Estonia_and_World_War_II/The_Red_Army_invasion_of_Estonia_in_1944/ |website=Estonica Encyclopedia About Estonia |publisher=Eesti Instituut |access-date=3 December 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191022141918/http://www.estonica.org/en/History/1939-1945_Estonia_and_World_War_II/The_Red_Army_invasion_of_Estonia_in_1944/ |archive-date=22 October 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Some 10% of the population (over 80,000 people) had fled to the West between 1940 and 1944, first to countries such as Sweden and Finland and then to other western countries, often by refugee ships such as the {{SS|Walnut}}. More than 30,000 soldiers had been killed in action. In 1944 Russian [[airstrike|air raids]] had [[Bombing of Narva in World War II|destroyed]] [[Narva]] and [[Bombing of Tallinn in World War II|one-third]] of the residential area in [[Tallinn]]. By the late autumn of 1944, Soviet forces had ushered in a second phase of Soviet rule on the heels of the German troops withdrawing from Estonia, and followed it up by a new wave of arrests and executions of people considered disloyal to the Soviets.{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}

[[File:SovietPrisonDoorsTallinn.JPG|thumb|Soviet prison doors on display in the Museum of Occupations, Tallinn]]
An anti-Soviet [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] movement known as the [[Forest Brothers|''Metsavennad'' ("Forest Brothers")]] developed in the countryside, reaching its zenith in 1946–48. It is hard to tell how many people were in the ranks of the ''Metsavennad''; however, it is estimated that at different times there could have been about 30,000–35,000 people. Probably [[August Sabbe|the last Forest Brother]] was caught in September 1978, and killed himself during his apprehension.

In March 1949, 20,722 people (2.5% of the population) were deported to Siberia. By the beginning of the 1950s, the occupying regime had suppressed the resistance movement.

After the war the Communist Party of the [[Estonian SSR|Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic]] (ECP) became the pre-eminent organization in the republic. The ethnic Estonian share in the total ECP membership decreased from 90% in 1941 to 48% in 1952.

[[File:Flag of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic.svg|thumb|[[Flag of the Estonian SSR]]]]
[[File:A. H. Tammsaare monumendi avamine 78 (16) Johannes Käbin.jpg|thumb|Estonian Soviet politician [[Johannes Käbin]] led the [[Estonian Communist Party]] from 1950 to 1978]]