![]() The 49th Red Latvian Rifle Regiment took the Valga railway junction on 18 December and the city of Tartu on Christmas Eve. This contrasts with the Baltische Landeswehr in Latvia. Estonia's Baltic German minority provided a sizable troop of volunteer militia for the Battalion, which was one of the first fighting units of the Estonian Army, and maintained staunch loyalty to the authority of the Republic. The end of November 1918 saw the formation of the Baltic Battalion, primarily a mounted machine-gun company plus infantry. The Soviet 2nd Novgorod Division opened a second front south of Lake Peipus, with 7,000 infantry, 12 field guns, 50 machine guns, two armored trains, and three armored vehicles.Įstonian military forces at the time consisted of 2,000 men with light weapons and about 14,500 poorly armed men in the Estonian Defence League. The Reds captured Narva on 29 November and the Infanterie-Regiment Nr. The town was defended by men of the Estonian Defence League (Home Guard) (consisting partly of secondary school students) and Infanterie-Regiment Nr. The 6th Red Rifle Division attacked with 7,000 infantry, 22 field guns, 111 machine guns, an armored train, two armored vehicles, two airplanes, and the Bogatyr class cruiser Oleg supported by two destroyers. On 28 November 1918, the 6th Red Rifle Division struck the border town of Narva, which marked the beginning of the Estonian War of Independence. In late November 1918, Soviet forces moved against Estonia. "Brothers, Hurry to Join the Nation's Army!" Estonian Army Recruiting poster in 1918 The German authorities recognized neither the provisional government nor its claim for Estonia's independence, counting them as a self-styled group usurping sovereign rights of the Baltic nobility. This first period of independence was extremely short-lived, as the German troops entered Tallinn the following day. A few months later, using the interval between the Red Army's retreat and the arrival of the Imperial German Army, the Salvation Committee of the Estonian National Council Maapäev issued the Estonian Declaration of Independence in Tallinn on 24 February 1918 and formed the Estonian Provisional Government. Soon thereafter, the Bolsheviks dissolved the Estonian Provincial Assembly and temporarily forced the pro-independence Estonians underground in the capital Tallinn. In November 1917, upon the disintegration of the Russian Empire, a diet of the Autonomous Governorate of Estonia, the Estonian Provincial Assembly, which had been elected in the spring of that year, proclaimed itself the highest authority in Estonia. 2.6 Final battles and peace negotiations. ![]() 2.3 Estonian elections and formation of foreign units.
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