page_title: Estonia in World War II
section_title: Attempt to restore independence
hierarchical_section_title: Estonia in World War II / Attempt to restore independence
caption_attribution_description: Riigi Teataja
context_page_description: Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Germany and the Soviet Union signed the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact, concerning the partition and disposition of sovereign states, including Estonia, and in particular its Secret Additional Protocol of August 1939.
  The Republic of Estonia declared neutrality in the war but fell under the Soviet sphere of influence due to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact and was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1940. Mass political arrests, deportations, and executions followed. In the Summer War during the German Operation Barbarossa in 1941, the pro-independence Forest Brothers captured South Estonia from the NKVD and the 8th Army before the arrival of the German 18th Army. At the same time, Soviet paramilitary destruction battalions carried out punitive operations, including looting and killing, based on the tactics of scorched earth proclaimed by Joseph Stalin. Estonia was occupied by Germany and incorporated into Reichskommissariat Ostland.
  In 1941, Estonians were conscripted into the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps and in 1941–1944 to the Nazi German forces.
context_section_description: As the Germans retreated, on September 18 Jüri Uluots formed a government led by the
  Deputy Prime Minister, Otto Tief. The Nazi German flag on Pikk Hermann was replaced with the flag of Estonia two days later. On September 21 the Estonian national government was proclaimed. Estonian forces seized the government buildings in Toompea and ordered the German forces to leave. The Red Army took Tallinn on September 22 and the Estonian flag on Pikk Hermann was replaced with the Red flag. After the evacuation of the German forces, the Estonian military units under the command of Rear Admiral Johan Pitka continued to resist the Red Army. The Estonian troops were defeated by the Soviet advance units in the battles held on September 23 west of Tallinn near Keila and Risti.
  The Estonian underground government, not officially recognized by either Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union, fled to Stockholm, Sweden and operated in exile until 1992, when Heinrich Mark, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia in duties of the President in exile, presented his credentials to the newly elected President of Estonia Lennart Meri. On February 23. 1989 the flag of the Estonian SSR was lowered on Pikk Hermann, and was replaced with the flag of Estonia on February 24, 1989.
caption: The September 18, 1944 proclamation of Government of Estonia in Riigi Teataja
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