Soviet deportations from Estonia in 1940s
To commemorate the 60th anniversary since the "soviet" mass deportations of ethnic Estonians from their homeland to slave labor camps of Siberia in the late 1940s (the second such mass deportation), please check out the following Estonian foreign ministry's site.
The 23rd of August 2009 will mark 70 years since the signing of the infamous Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (MRP) between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. According to the secret protocols of the pact, Eastern Europe was divided into spheres of influence. The MRP paved the way for German-Soviet Union co-operation in World War II (1939 – 1941). In the aftermath of World War II, Estonia lost approximately 17.5% of its population. The Soviet occupation brought about an event that until then had only been read about in history books and which became the most horrible memory of the past centuries — mass deportations, which affected people of all nationalities living in Estonia. The two deportations that affected Estonia the most deeply, on 14 June 1941 and 25 March 1949, are observed as days of mourning. The largest of these deportations took place 60 years ago this year: on 25 March 1949 more than 20 000 people, mostly women and children, were deported from Estonia.
