June 23, 1919 – Estonian War of Independence: Estonian forces recapture Cēsis from the Baltische Landeswehr and German Freikorps
On June 23, 1919, The Estonian Third Division, aided by Latvian forces, wrested control of Cēsis from the retreating Baltische Landeswehr and German forces. The Estonians and Latvians then continued in pursuit in the direction of the Latvian capital Riga.
The Estonian War of Independence (November 1918-February 1920) broke out at the end of World War I when the newly declared Estonian state came into armed conflict with the Soviet Red Army that invaded to re-establish Russian control over the territory. With the support of Latvia (which was also concurrently engaged in its own independence war, as well as Britain and other Western nations), the fledging Estonian Army also battled against the Baltische Landeswehr (militias of the Baltic German nobility) and the Freikorps (German Army volunteers/mercenaries).
Background The two revolutions in Russia in 1917 as well as ongoing events in World War I catalyzed ethnic minorities across the Russia Empire, resulting in the various regional nationalist movements pushing forward their objective of seceding from Russia and forming new independent nation-states. In the western and northern regions of the empire, the subject territories of Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland moved toward independence.
Key battle sites during the Estonian War of Independence.On March 30, 1917, one month after the first (February 1917)revolution, Russia’sProvisional Government granted political autonomy to Estoniaafter merging the Governorate (province) of Estonia and the ethnic Estoniannorthern portion of the Governorate of Livonia into the political andadministrative entity known as the “Autonomous Governorate of Estonia”. An interim body, the Estonian ProvincialAssembly (Estonian: Maapäev), was elected with the task of administering thenew governorate. Furthermore, theBolsheviks, on coming to power through the October Revolution, issued the“Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia” (on November 15, 1917),which granted all non-Russian peoples of the former Russian Empire the right tosecede from Russia and establish their own separate states. Eventually, theBolsheviks would renege on this edict and suppress secession from the Russianstate (now known as Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic,or RSFSR).
The Provisional Assembly of the Estonian Governorate,determined to implement a democratic form of government, declared itself as thesupreme authority in Estonia,which effectively was an act of secession. However, on November 5, 1917, local Estonian Bolsheviks led by JaanAnvelt seized power in a coup in Tallinn, Estonia’scapital, forcing the Estonian nationalists to disperse and operateclandestinely. Meanwhile in SovietRussia, the Bolsheviks, whose revolution had succeeded partly on their promisesto a war-weary citizenry and military to disengage from World War I, declaredits pacifist intentions to the Central Powers. A ceasefire agreement was signed on December 15, 1917 and peace talksbegan a few days later in Brest-Litovsk (present-day Brest,in Belarus).
The Provisional Assembly of the Estonian Governorate, determinedto implement a democratic form of government, declared itself as the supremeauthority in Estonia,which effectively was an act of secession. However, on November 5, 1917, local Estonian Bolsheviks led by JaanAnvelt seized power in a coup in Tallinn, Estonia’scapital, forcing the Estonian nationalists to disperse and operateclandestinely. Meanwhile in SovietRussia, the Bolsheviks, whose revolution had succeeded partly on their promisesto a war-weary citizenry and military to disengage from World War I, declaredits pacifist intentions to the Central Powers. A ceasefire agreement was signed on December 15, 1917 and peace talksbegan a few days later in Brest-Litovsk (present-day Brest,in Belarus).
However, the Central Powers imposed territorial demands thatthe Russian government deemed excessive. On February 17, 1918, the Central Powers repudiated the ceasefireagreement, and the following day, Germanyand Austria-Hungaryrestarted hostilities against Russia,launching a massive offensive with one million troops in 53 divisions alongthree fronts that swept through western Russiaand captured Ukraine Belarus, Lithuania,Latvia, and Estonia. German forces also entered Finland, aiding the non-socialistparamilitary group known as the “White Guards” in defeating the socialistmilitia known as “Red Guards” in the Finnish Civil War. Eleven days into the offensive, the northernfront of the German advance was some 85 miles from the Russian capital ofPetrograd (on March 12, 1918, the Russian government transferred its capital toMoscow).
On February 23, 1918, or five days into the offensive, peacetalks were restarted at Brest-Litovsk, with the Central Powers demanding fromRussia even greater territorial and military concessions than in the December1917 negotiations. After heated debatesamong members of the Council of People’s Commissars (the highest Russiangovernmental body) who were undecided whether to continue or end the war, atthe urging of its Chairman, Vladimir Lenin, the Russian government acquiescedto the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. On March3, 1918, Russian and Central Powers representatives signed the treaty, whosemajor stipulations included the following: peace was restored between Russiaand the Central Powers; Russia relinquished possession of Finland (which wasengaged in a civil war), Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic territories ofEstonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – Germany and Austria-Hungary were to determinethe future of these territories; and Russia also agreed on some territorialconcessions to the Ottoman Empire.
In the midst of the German offensive, on February 24, 1918,Russian forces withdrew from Estoniaand the local Estonian Bolshevik government collapsed. That same day, the Estonian ProvincialAssembly emerged from hiding and reconvened; through its newly formed executivebody, the Salvation Committee, it declared Estonia’sindependence in Tallinnand then formed a provisional government. However, the next day, February 24, German forces entered Tallinn, bringing Estoniaunder German military occupation, and forcing Estonia’s provisional government toreturn underground. Estonia’s one day-old status was anindependent state thus ended.
German forces occupied Estonia,Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus,Ukraine, and Poland,establishing semi-autonomous governments in these territories that weresubordinate to the authority of the German monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm II. The German occupation allowed the realizationof the Germanic vision of “Mitteleuropa”, an expansionist ambition that soughtunification of Germanic and non-Germanic peoples of Central Europe into a greatly enlarged and powerful German Empire. In support of Mitteleuropa, in the Balticregion, the Baltic German nobility proposed to set up the United Baltic Duchy,a semi-autonomous political entity consisting of (present-day) Estonia and Latvia that would be voluntarilyintegrated into the German Empire. Theproposal was not implemented, but German military authorities set up localcivil governments under the authority of the Baltic German nobility or ethnicGermans.
Although the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918 ended Russia’sparticipation in World War I, the war was still ongoing in other fronts – mostnotably on the Western Front, where for four years, German forces were boggeddown in inconclusive warfare against the British, French and other AlliedArmies. After transferring substantialnumbers of now freed troops from the Russian front to the Western Front, inMarch 1918, Germany launchedthe Spring Offensive, a major offensive into Franceand Belgiumin an effort to bring the war to an end. After four months of fighting, by July 1918, despite achieving someterritorial gains, the German offensive had ground to a halt.
The Allied Powers then counterattacked with newly developedbattle tactics and weapons and gradually pushed back the now spent anddemoralized German Army all across the line into German territory. The entry of the United States into the war on the Allied side was decisive, asincreasing numbers of arriving American troops with the backing of the U.S.weapons-producing industrial power contrasted sharply with the greatly depletedwar resources of both the Entente and Central Powers. The imminent collapse of the German Army wasgreatly exacerbated by the outbreak of political and social unrest at the homefront (the German Revolution of 1918-1919), leading to the sudden end of theGerman monarchy with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II on November 9, 1918and the establishment of an interim government (under moderate socialistFriedrich Ebert), which quickly signed an armistice with the Allied Powers onNovember 11, 1918 that ended the combat phase of World War I.
As the armistice agreement required that Germany demobilizethe bulk of its armed forces as well as withdraw the same to the confines ofthe German borders within 30 days, the German government ordered its forces toabandon the occupied territories that had been won in the Eastern Front. Consequently, in Estonia, German authorities turnedover governmental powers to the Estonian provisional government; the latterrestarted organizing a national armed forces (which had begun in April 1917 butwas aborted by the German invasion), now urgently needed because of the buildupof Soviet forces at the Estonian border.
After Germany’scapitulation in November 1918, Russiarepudiated the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and made plans to seize the Europeanterritories it previously had lost to the Central Powers. An even far more reaching objective was for theBolshevik government to spread the communist revolution to Europe, first bylinking up with German communists who were at the forefront of the unrest thatcurrently was gripping Germany. Russian military planners intended theoffensive to merely follow in the heels of the German withdrawal from Eastern Europe (i.e. to not directly engage the Germansin combat) and then seize as much territory before the various ethnicnationalist groups in these territories could establish and consolidate acivilian government.
Starting on November 28, 1918, in the action known as the Soviet westward offensive of 1918-1919, Soviet forces consisting of hundreds of thousands of troops advanced in a multi-pronged offensive toward the Baltic region, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine (Excerpts taken from Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 4).
