Fact Sheet August 2006 Estonia Today THE MOLOTOV-RIBBENTROP PACT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES On 23 August 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany signed a treaty of non-aggression that would become infamous. Known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact after its signatories, the foreign ministers Vyacheslav Molotov and Joachim von Ribbentrop, it is the secret protocols that have drawn the most attention, as they divided Central and Eastern Europe into spheres of influence in disregard of international law, paving the way for the Soviet Union to occupy the Baltic States. Now near-universally condemned, the MRP continues to resurface from time to time as a divisive issue. Clause 1 of the "Secret Additional Protocol” states: significantly restricting Estonian sovereignty, doing “In the event of a territorial and political away with its neutrality and transforming Estonia into rearrangement in areas belonging to the Baltic a protectorate of the Soviet Union. Analogous States (Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), the treaties were signed with Latvia and Lithuania. northern boundary of Lithuania shall represent the boundary of the spheres of influence of Germany In mid-summer 1940, as the whole world was and the U.S.S.R.”. watching the collapse of France before the German war machine, the Soviet Union occupied the three With “rearrangement” thus built in to the document, Baltic republics. On 16 June, Soviet foreign minister the MRP and the secret protocols changed the Molotov issued an ultimatum to Estonia (as it did to entire international situation and promoted the Latvia and Lithuania) accusing the Baltic States of outbreak of World War II. violating the pact of mutual assistance and of forming a military alliance that the Soviets claimed On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, was threatening its security. The Baltics were called launching the war, while the Soviet Union attacked on to form new, Soviet-minded governments and to Poland on 17 September. Poland was razed in 27 permit the unimpeded entry of the Red Army into the days, after which the country served as the setting country. With no hope of outside assistance, the for a joint victory parade by Nazi Germany and the Estonian government acceded to the ultimatum and USSR. After the Polish state was destroyed, Stalin, on 17 June the Red Army units—nearly 100,000 with Germany's blessing, began gradually men—entered Estonia and, together with the troops implementing his aggressive designs on the Baltic stationed on the bases, occupied the entire country. States. The outcome of the Winter War of 1939- “People’s governments” were formed in the 1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union and the occupied Baltic States from 17-21 June 1940. On 3 annexation of Poland opened the way for the August, Lithuania was annexed by the Soviet Union, occupation of the Baltic States, as stipulated in the followed by Latvia on 5 August and Estonia on 6 MRP. August. Already in autumn 1939, Soviets forced military Soviet troops had not yet reached Estonia when bases on Estonia and Latvia, and then on Lithuania. NKVD directive no. 0001223 was prepared on By mid-September, a 160,000-strong division of the deportation of inhabitants of the three Baltic States. Red Army massed on Estonia’s borders, Estonia's political leadership, officer corps and outnumbering the Estonian armed forces (16,500 intelligentsia were slated for systematic destruction. men) by a factor of ten. On 28 September, a pact of Leading economic figures, senior officials and mutual assistance was signed between the Soviet homestead owners also featured on the list. They Union and the Republic of Estonia, stranded with its were to be arrested, their property confiscated, and intimidating Eastern neighbor by the world, resulting sent to camps for 5-8 years followed by 20 years of in the deployment of 25,000 Red Army troops in exile. The families of arrestees were to be waiting for western Estonia. Although the implementation of this them in the resettlement areas. pact was not supposed to interfere with the Toward the end of German occupation, in March sovereign rights of either party, it was an 1944, the Estonian National Committee was formed, asymmetrical treaty, and had the effect of which made preparations to reinstate Estonian Press and Information Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Islandi väljak 1, Tallinn, 15049, Estonia. Tel. +372 637 7600, Fax +372 637 7617, E-mail: [email protected] http://www.vm.ee. Fact Sheet August 2006 independence with Western assistance and based force and annexed by the Soviet Union. The entire on the Atlantic Charter. Jüri Uluots, in the capacity of process was completely null and void from the President of the Republic, sought to restore the standpoint of international law. The Soviet legitimate state bodies and on 18 September leadership had for decades denied the very appointed a broad-based coalition government led existence of any secret protocols to the MRP. Yet by Otto Tief. The Tief government declared the they could not prevent the topic from growing more Republic of Estonia’s continuity, and neutrality in the salient. ongoing war, and tried to organize the defence of Tallinn. On 22 September, Red Army units reached On 24 December 1989, the Congress of People's Tallinn and by the end of November, all of Estonia Deputies of the Soviet Union, with a decision entitled was again under Soviet control. “Political and legal assessment of the 1939 Soviet- German non-aggression pact," declared the secret The occupied Baltic States were the only overrun protocols to the pact to be null and void. The countries whose independence was not restored at Congress stated that the demarcation of the Soviet the end of the war. They are also exceptional in that and German spheres of influence in the MRP and the Atlantic Charter’s points on territorial other secret protocols signed with Germany from adjustments and self-determination were not applied 1939-1941 legally contravened the sovereignty and to them, even though the Soviet Union, too, had independence of a number of other countries. acceded to the charter. The Baltics were the only “During this period, the Soviet Union’s relations with members of the League of Nations that did not take Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were governed by a seats in the new organization, the UN. The de jure system of treaties. Pursuant to the peace treaties of continuity of the Republic of Estonia was embodied 1920 and the non-aggression pacts signed from by an exile government for the subsequent period of 1926-1933, the parties to these agreements almost a half century. undertook to honor each other’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability under all The Baltic Appeal circumstances. The Soviet Union had similar obligations to Poland and Finland." With its decision, On 23 August 1979, 45 Estonian, Latvian and the Soviet legislature condemned the MRP and the Lithuanian citizens sent a public letter – the Baltic signing of other secret agreements with Germany. Appeal – to the general secretary of the UN as well The Congress declared the secret protocols to be as the Soviet Union, the Federal Republic of without legal basis and null and void as of the Germany, the GDR, and the governments of the moment of their signing. states that had signed the Atlantic Charter. The memorandum demanded the public disclosure of the In May 2005 in Washington, the security adviser to Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret protocols, US President George W. Bush, Stephen Hadley, the invalidation of the pact from the moment of its called on Russia to abrogate the Molotov- signing, and the restoration of the independence of Ribbentrop Pact signed in 1939 that had led to the the Baltic States. Mart Niklus, Endel Ratas, Enn occupation of the Baltic States. Hadley harked back Tarto, Erik Udam signed on behalf of Estonia. to the 1989 decision of the Congress of People’s The Baltic Appeal was published in the foreign press Deputies, and stressed: “Obviously it would be an and constituted the basis for the decision of appropriate thing for Russia, now having emerged European Parliament of 13 January 1983 in support out of the Soviet Union, to do the same thing”. of the demands of the memorandum. On 23 August 1987 a demonstration organized by MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE NAZI-SOVIET MRP-AEG (Estonian Group for the Public Disclosure PACT OF 1939: of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact – an organization active in 1987–1988) took place in Tallinn's Full text of the secret additional protocol Hirvepark demanding disclosure of the various secret protocols, and elimination of the MRP’s (Avalon Project at Yale Law School): consequences. On 23 August 1989, around two http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/nazsov/addsepr million individuals linked hands in the Baltic Chain o.htm that stretched from Tallinn through Riga to Vilnius. This demonstration again drew attention to the need to disclose the MRP and eliminate its consequences. Hope sprang in society that a renunciation by Germany and the Soviet Union of the secret deal would result in new opportunities for development and hopes of restoring the sovereignty lost so many years ago. Historians of various countries devoted efforts to studying the MRP. Increasingly thorough illumination of the topic demonstrated that the three Baltic States had indeed been coercively removed from their historical path of development, occupied by military .