"molotovribbentrop" - 1 õppematerjal

Estonian Independence Day

maintained its independence for 22 years. Initially a parliamentary democracy, the parliament was disnaded in 1934, following political unrest caused by the global economic crisis. Subsequently the country was ruled by decree by Konstatin Päts, who became President in 1938, the year parliamentary elections resumed. Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940, after Stalin gained Hitler's agreement to divide Eastern Europe into ,,spheres of special interest" according to the MolotovRibbentrop Pact and its secret protocol. Subsequently, the country was occupied by Nazi Germany from 1941 to 1944. Germans pillaged the country for the war effort and unleashed the Holocaust. Soviet forces reconquered Estonia in the autumn of 1944 after fierce battles in the northeast of the country on the Narva river and on the Tannenberg Line. Tens of thousands of people chose to eighter retreat together with the Germans or flee to Finland or Sweden, becoming war refugees and later, expatriates.