Red Terror, Repressions of the Soviet Occupation Authorities in Estonia

This is a concise and well-written account of the wave of communist terror that was launched in Estonia after 1940. The author discusses the mass arrests that started to take place immediately after the annexation, as well as the activities of the Russian Intelligence in Estonia already before the country was officially united with the U.S.S.R. The book also includes descriptions of the 1941. deportation; the evolution of red terror from judicial murders into mass repressions by the summer of 1941 is vivified by individual histories and photographs. The second half of the book is dedicated to the terror that was unleashed in Estonia after September 1944. The author believes that similarly to the Nazi crimes, the crimes committed by the Soviet occupation do not expire with time these are crimes against humanity that must not be forgotten. PAPERBACK

Mart Laar was born in Viljandi. He studied history at the University of Tartu and graduated in 1983, he received his Master's degree in Philosophy from the same university in 1995 and his Doctorate in 2005. Laar worked as a history teacher in Tallinn, and was the past presidents of Council of Historians of the Foundation of the Estonia Inheritance, the Society for the Preservation of Estonia History and the Estonian Students' Society. As a professional historian Laar has written many books on Estonian and Soviet history, among them his book War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival, 1944 1956 a work about the Forest Brothers anti-Soviet resistance movement. He is a former Prime Minister and Defense Minister of Estonia.