War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944-1956

by Mart Laar

This is the story of the Forest Brothers, who failed to stop the Soviet invaders during WW II, but their spirit ignited the flames of patriotism that led to the "Singing Revolution" of 1988.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1992

About the author

Mart Laar on ajaloolane ja kogenud õpikuautor, kes on ka mitmel korral valitud riigikogu liikmeks ning nimetatud kahel korral peaministriks. Tema peamised uurimisvaldkonnad on olnud Eesti 19. sajandi rahvuslik liikumine ja Teine maailmasõda.

Mart Laar is an Estonian politician and historian. He served as the Prime Minister of Estonia from 1992 to 1994 and from 1999 to 2002. Laar is credited with having helped bring about Estonia's rapid economic development during the 1990s.

Reviews

[Paul Miller]

Estonia is one of the Baltic states that lived under Soviet domination after WW II. This is the story of the "Forest Brothers", the resistance movement that as you might guess, stayed alive by hiding in the forests of this small northern European country. If you are of Estonian ancestry, read this and be proud. As an American, you'll be a bit ashamed - these folks believed in America which along with Great Britain in the Atlantic Charter agreed that the countries of post-war Europe would be free, self-determined stated. FDR even directly proclaimed that Russia shouldn't be allowed to control the Baltics. So they expected the Allies to go to war against Stalin to restore freedom for Eastern Europe. Oops. The Forest Brothers ultimately realize this isn't going to happen. It wasn't until Ronald Reagan that Estonia was freed from Soviet tyrrany.

This is a translation of an Estonian book - so it reads a bit awkward at times. The material is also a bit tough to take as well. A noble effort by a brave few against an overpowering, truly evil empire. Paints a very stark picture of life under Communism - will make you ever more appreciate the freedoms we absolutely take for granted.

Not recommending NOT because it's not a worthy read - but because of its fairly niche subject matter.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a difficult one to get through but not because the material was boring. Rather it was the horror of the history that often caused me to put the book aside for awhile and come back to it weeks later. Fascinated by history, particularly Russian history, I wanted to read about the resistance that took place in Estonian when the Soviet Union took over in 1944. The stories are fascinating, people living in underground bunkers in the forest of Estonian to avoid capture and offer resistance to the Red army. At first the resistance waited and hoped for assistance from the West. This assistance, obviously, never came.

One of the most horrible accounts was the mass deportation that occurred in the spring of 1949. They rounded up over 20,000 people in a systematic way over just a few days. With just an hours notice, these so called "enemies of the state" (a majority being women and children) were loaded into sleds and taken to the trains and carried off to Siberia.

Just a warning on the writing style: It is written like many non-fiction books with the purpose of documenting facts and not to be creative or entertaining.

A main theme of this book would be: Communism is bad :)