ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Soviet military occupation of Estonia was complete by 18 June 1940 and in many ways continued even after re-achievement of independence in 1991, but it was at its severest from 1945 to 1980, the period I. Reinforced by virulent anti-Western propaganda in the Soviet press, this belief not only sustained passive and guerrilla resistance but also discouraged would-be collaborators from jumping too early on a bandwagon that already had been derailed once in 1941. But from 1945 to 1980, the Soviet empire was firmly in control of the lands it occupied during World War II, Estonia included. The occupation authorities restructured city life but only gradually extended effective control into the countryside, where pro-independence guerrillas continued to hold on. Demobilization and disbanding of the Estonian corps of the Soviet army released many native Estonian Communist Party (CPE) members into civilian life, but even after that the CPE was heavily colonial in character.
