Eesti Rahvusraamatukogu digitaalarhiiv DIGAR (S)
P. Kaasik
counties and mobilisation was carried out only in some of the parishes of the Tartu, Viljandi, Pärnu and Lääne counties. According to the decree issued by the deputy of the Peoples’ Commissar for Defence of the Soviet Union on 10 July 1941, the men mobilised from Estonia were to be sent to the labour units of the Red Army Rear as an untrustworthy “element”. Since September 1941 Estonians were designated to the GULAG (i.e. prison camp) system of the NKVD. However, a small portion of these men were also used elsewhere: e.g. in the destruction battalions, in the fortified areas of the Estonian islands, some were used as on-site labour units, some were sent to supplement the Hanko military base in Finland. In 1941 ca 45,000 men showed up at the mobilisation stations. Of them ca 35,000 were located to Russia. As ca 3,000 perished on their way there, it can be estimated that 32,000 men reached the Soviet rear. The evacuation of labour hands and material goods from Estonia to Russia was related to the scorched earth policy proclaimed by Joseph Stalin. In addition to labourers also the “party and soviet activists” and the so-called “specialists” brought to Estonia in 1940–1941 left, bringing the total number of evacuees to 25,000. Material goods, which could not be taken along, were destroyed. Considering the fact that Estonia was an annexed territory, which itself is against international law, the military authorities committed additional crimes contradicting with the international law of war. Estonia lost ca 60,000 of her citizens, plus the removal or destruction of material goods.
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