Estonian Liberation War

Latvia /ˈlætviə/ , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the... north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus , and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden. With 2,067,887 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. The capital of Latvia is Riga. The official language is Latvian and the currency is called Lats . The country has a temperate seasonal climate. The Latvians are a Baltic people, culturally related to the Lithuanians. Together with the Finno-Ugric Livs , the Latvians are the indigenous people of Latvia. Latvian is an Indo-European language and along with Lithuanian the only two surviving members of the Baltic branch. Indigenous minority languages are Latgalian and the nearly extinct Finno-Ugric Livonian language.
more

The Ingrians are ethnic Finns whose ancestors moved to an area of what is now Russia on the southeast shore of the Gulf of Finland since the 17th... century. Historical Ingria is the geographical area, located along the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland bordered by Lake Ladoga on the Karelian Isthmus in the north and the River Narva on the border with Estonia in the west. Ingria became a province of Sweden in the Treaty of Stolbovo in 1617 that ended the Ingrian War, fought between Sweden and Russia. In 1710, Ingria was designated as the Province of St. Petersburg and in 1927 as Leningrad Province. In the Treaty of Nystad, Ingria was formally transferred back to Russia. Its russification was nearly complete by the 1930s, and today, it is the northwestern anchor of Russia, its "window" on the Baltic Sea, with Saint Petersburg as its center. The Orthodox Izhorians, along with the Votes, are the indigenous people of historical Ingria .
more

Battle of Laagna took place in Laagna, Estonia during the Estonian War of Independence between Estonian mariners and Finnish volunteers against Red... Army. In the morning the Estonians and Finns took Laagna village with a surprise attack and pushed the Red Army out. Against the Estonian mariners and Finnish volunteers were two regiments of Red Army infantry, 2 armored trains and some cavalry. The Russians repeatedly attacked the Estonian and Finnish positions with armored trains but were unable to capture Laagna and they were driven back with heavy losses. The Estonian Mariners and Finns lost 4 men killed, 21 wounded, and three captured soldiers.
more

The Soviet westward offensive of 1918–1919 was part of the general move of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic into the areas... abandoned by the Ober Ost garrisons, that were being withdrawn to Germany following that country's defeat in the World War I. The Soviet Western Front offensive against the Republic of Estonia ended in stagnation on the borders of the state. The offensive in the Vistula river direction by the newly created Western Army had the aim of establishing Soviet governments in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland and to drive as far west as possible and possibly join up with the German Revolution. The campaign eventually led to the Estonian Pskov Offensive, the White Russian Petrograd Offensives, and the Polish-Soviet War. The best known comprehensive historical analysis of the campaign against Poland was performed by Norman Davies in his book White Eagle, Red Star . Davies mentioned the codename for this offensive: Target Vistula; however, it is not commonly used in historiography. After signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Bolshevik Russia lost the European lands it annexed in the 18th century and 19th century.
more

The Battle of Paju was fought in Paju, near Valga, Estonia, on 31 January 1919 during the Estonian War of Independence. After heavy fighting, the... Tartu–Valga group of the Estonian Army pushed the Red Latvian Riflemen out of the Paju Manor. It was the fiercest battle in the early period of war. The Estonian commander Julius Kuperjanov fell in the fighting. In early January 1919, Estonian forces had started a full scale counterattack against invading Soviets. Their main objective was liberating north Estonia including Narva, which was achieved by 17 January. They then started to advance into south Estonia. On 14 January, the Tartumaa Partisan Battalion, organised and led by Lieutenant Julius Kuperjanov, and armoured trains liberated Tartu. At that time the only working railway connection to Riga, which the Red Army had captured on 3 January, passed through Valga, so defending it had strategic importance for Soviet Russia. Among other units, a large part of the elite Latvian Riflemen were sent to stop the Estonians.
more

The British Campaign in the Baltic 1918-19 was a part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. The intervention played a key role in... enabling the establishment of the independent states of Estonia and Latvia but failed to secure the control of Petrograd by Russian White forces, one of the main goals of the campaign. The purposes of Operation Red Trek in the wake of the Russian collapse and revolution of 1917 were to stop the rise of Bolshevism, protect Britain's interests and to extend the freedom of the seas. The situation in the Baltic states in the aftermath of World War I was chaotic. The Russian empire had collapsed and Bolshevik Red Army, pro-independence, and pro-German forces were fighting across the region. Riga had been occupied by the German army in 1917 and German Freikorps and Baltic-German Landeswehr units were active in the area. Estonia had established a national army with the support of Finnish volunteers and were defending against the 7th Red Army's attack. The Russian Baltic Fleet was the key naval force available to the Bolsheviks and essential to the protection of Petrograd.
more