The Ministry of Defense has released documents for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Tallinn from the Nazi invaders
Unique previously classified documents were revealed for the 80th anniversary of the operation to liberate Tallinn from the fascist invaders. Copies from the archives were published by the Russian Defense Ministry in a new historical section, “Liberated Tallinn Drowned in Flowers.”
The list of documents included directives from the Supreme Command Headquarters, reports on enemy actions, intelligence reports, award documents for the heroic liberators of the Estonian capital, and evidence of crimes committed by the occupiers that had not previously been widely publicized.
Tallinn was liberated from German occupation on September 22, 1944 by troops of the Leningrad Front under the command of Marshal Leonid Govorov; the offensive was supported by the Red Banner Bali Fleet and the 13th Air Army.
German troops evacuated from Estonia as the Soviet army approached
According to the archives, when Soviet troops were approaching Tallinn, Adolf Hitler realized that the fight for Estonia had no prospects and ordered the evacuation and retreat of German troops as part of Operation Aster.
Also, during the study of declassified archives, it became known about the feat of Captain Fyodor Yakovlev, who defused 140 tons of explosives that the Nazis had planted while retreating.
Captain 1st rank Fyodor Yakovlev, having received the appointment to the post of commandant of Tallinn on September 23, 1944, ensured the complete elimination of the mine threat in the city. He personally participated in the demining of a number of houses and enterprises
Yakovlev also ensured the confiscation of weapons from local residents (more than three train cars) and worked to eradicate banditry and desertion in the city.
During the liberation of Tallinn, the troops of the Leningrad Front shot down 11 enemy aircraft on September 20, 1944 alone. That day, 47 German tanks were destroyed on all fronts.
During September 21, in the Tallinn direction, the troops of the Leningrad Front, developing the offensive, captured the city and the junction railway station of Rakvere, and also occupied more than 300 other settlements, including large settlements, through fighting.
In the port of Tallinn from September 16 to 20, “five transports with a total displacement of up to 32 thousand tons were destroyed, four transports with a total displacement of up to 20 thousand tons and two TSh were damaged. Five FV-190s were shot down in air battles,” follows from the report of the 11th Assault Aviation Division.
According to the documents, the residents of Tallinn greeted the liberating soldiers with flowers. The first to break into the city were soldiers of the 7th Estonian Rifle Division.
Groups of citizens standing on the sidewalks threw flowers to the Estonian soldiers and shouted greetings in their native language. On the very first day after our troops entered Tallinn, groups of people could be seen on its streets animatedly conversing with our soldiers and officers.
In these conversations, the city’s residents spoke hostilely about the Germans and the hardships that the population of Tallinn suffered at their hands.
Crimes of Estonian fascists made public
The main repressive work in Estonia was carried out by the Omakaite units (auxiliary police), into whose ranks Estonian fascists were accepted. They took the lives of the elderly and children, tortured and abused the civilian population.
Declassified documents are evidence of this. Thus, in a special message from the NKVD of the Estonian SSR to the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrentiy Beria, information was transmitted about the reprisals of Estonians against Jews in the local forests.
On the spot, the Jews were forced to lie face down in tight rows on a four- to five-meter square of firewood and were shot in this position. A second layer of firewood was placed on top of the corpses, onto which a second group of Jews brought from the barracks were similarly laid and shot. The two pyramids of executed people and firewood created in this way were doused with kerosene and set on fire.
The Ministry of Defense also revealed that during the occupation, ethnic Estonians worked in German concentration camps together with the German invaders. The most terrible place in the Baltics from 1943 to 1944 was considered the Klooga concentration camp, located 30 kilometers south of Tallinn. About two thousand Jews were held there.
As a result of the inspection of the camp and questioning of the people who remained on its territory, it was established that on the morning of September 19, a special SS or Gestapo team of 60 Germans arrived at the camp and shot more than 1,600 people during the day.
According to information from the archives, no more than 80 people were saved from the same fate by chance that day.
Estonians were intimidated by the arrival of the Red Army
During the Great Patriotic War, the German occupiers spent several years conducting propaganda on the territory of Estonia, intimidating citizens with the arrival of Red Army soldiers, according to declassified documents.
“The Germans convinced many that the Red Army would take revenge on the Estonians, would shoot them all, and would deport the survivors to Siberia,” local resident A. Dilson is quoted as saying in a report from the political department of the Leningrad Front.
In addition, those who worked for the Germans or whose relatives served in the German army feared revenge from Soviet soldiers.
Related materials:
At the same time, the Ministry of Defense pointed out that there were many patriots in Estonia who fought on the side of the Red Army as part of Estonian formations and partisan detachments.
#Secret #documents #liberation #Tallinn #Red #Army #revealed #crimes #occupiers #exploits #Soviet #soldiers