(Karl-Heikki Jõks/JBANC) – 2024 marks the 80th anniversary of the tragic Great Flight (Mass Flight), being commemorated by Estonians this year. The circumstances affected not only Estonians but also Latvians and Lithuanians. In 1944, with the return of Soviet occupation to the Baltic states, hundreds of thousands of Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians fled west for their lives and freedom. Sadly, the expected liberation of their countries turned from months into years, years into decades. During this time tens of thousands moved to the United States, settled down, and established communities that aimed to preserve their identity and push for the restoration of Independence for their homelands. Through these efforts, the souls of the three nations aboard were maintained until 1990 and 1991 when the three Republics were restored.
The Soviets who illegally occupied Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania soon after the start of the Second World War, destroyed state institutions and terrorized the peoples of the three countries. By the fall of 1941, in Latvia alone, 23,094 citizens were deported – essentially kidnapped – by the occupying Soviets, and nearly half perished. During the occupation, parts of both Estonia and Latvia were illegally annexed directly into the Russian SSR. Even after the guns had fallen silent in Berlin in 1945, the Soviets continued to terrorize people as nearly 100,000 ordinary Estonians, Latvians, and Lithuanians were deported to Siberia in March 1949.
The Soviets also used their occupation to try to russify the countries. In Estonia small towns such as Kohtla-Järve ballooned from just five thousand residents to 77 thousand, acting as part of a large Russian colonial presence to overwhelm and assimilate the native population. In Latvia, the most colonized of the three countries, 850,000 Russians moved in during the occupation as part of the colonization effect. Latvia’s population in 1940 was about two million. The Soviet regime also banned requirements to learn Latvian, and gave preferential treatment to Russians, as the new masters. This resulted in a foreign, Russian-language monopoly on government, economics, and public life.
The tragic exile of Balts from their homelands was risky and dangerous, as the Soviets killed thousands of refugees who were trying to flee. Ships carrying those trying to flee were sunk, causing six thousand refugee deaths. The Moero, a hospital ship that left Tallinn with thousands of Estonian refugees was sunk by Soviet planes, killing possibly up to 2700 people. The Nordstern, another ship carrying many refugees from Estonia was sunk by a Soviet submarine, with about 500 civilian lives lost.
Escaping the genocidal actions by the Soviets against the three Baltic states, the hundreds of thousands of refugees created their institutions in their newly adopted lands, to keep the three nations alive until independence was restored. To preserve their identities, the three peoples created language schools, churches, organizations, and camps in the United States. In places such as Lakewood New Jersey, Estonians built community centers that enabled 90 percent of the area’s young Estonian American population to be educated in their native language and cultural identity. The Lithuanians in America continued their preoccupation cultural institutions by restoring organizations such as Lithuanian Scouts and Youth Lithuanian Catholic League.
The communities in exile didn’t just exist culturally but also politically, as, for example, Estonian state institutions, including diplomatic services, and a National Committee survived aboard. Surviving elements of the 1944 Estonian government under Otto Tief and Jüri Uluots rallied and maintained a government in exile throughout the Cold War, ending when it returned to the country in 1992. Lithuanians who hoped for the restoration of their independence had created in 1943 the Supreme Committee for the Liberation of Lithuania, with refugees who had moved to the United States pushing for the continuation of U.S. non-recognition of the Soviet occupation and the restoration of their state. All three states’ diplomatic services continued to function, with established diplomats such as Ernst Jaakson working from 1929, through the entire Soviet occupation until after Estonian independence was restored. The Lithuanian Embassy in Washington, DC continued to operate from its original pre-war building during the Soviet occupation and continues to represent the Lithuanian state.
Today, echoes of the past are sounding again, with the Russian invasion of Ukraine causing 6.5 million Ukrainians to flee their homeland. This mass exodus has been caused by the same actions taken by Russia during the 20th century; its denial of the existence of neighboring countries, terror tactics, and ethnic cleansing. Ukrainians, akin to the case of Latvian and Estonia, are seeing their land illegally claimed as annexed into Russia. Russians then and now conduct mass deportations including large numbers of children. The installation of officials from Russia and the forced russification of occupied Ukraine is happening now as it happened in all three Baltic countries during the Soviet era. The hopes of the Baltic refugees of then and the Ukrainians of now are the same: the full restoration of their free homeland.
The tragic history of those who fled their homelands in 1944, and the legacy created cannot be forgotten. Nor shall the suffering that was generated by the Soviets be understated. It led to the mass exodus of people from their homes and homelands. The parallels between the past and today for Ukraine demonstrate to us the importance and tragedy of those attacked for simply wanting to exist freely.
Image: Saaremaa Muuseum (9/22-23/1944). “Põgenikud purjelaeva Viru pardal 22-23 septembril 1944”. Saaremaa Muuseum. https://www.vm.ee/uudised/75-aastat-suurest-pogenemisest-laande
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