The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic (widely used abbreviation Estonian SSR; Eesti Nõukogude Sotsialistlik Vabariik, Eesti NSV; Эстонская Советская Социалистическая Республика, Эстонская ССР) was an ethnically based administrative subdivision of the former Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, USSR) covering the territory of Estonia in 1940–1941 and 1944–1991.
- Estonian Soviet Socialist RepublicThe three Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are held to have continued as legal entities under international law while under Soviet rule and German occupation from 1940 to 1991.
- State continuity of the Baltic statesMost countries did not recognize the incorporation of Estonia into the Soviet Union de jure and only recognized its Soviet administration de facto or not at all.
- Estonian Soviet Socialist RepublicDemocratic throughout most of the interwar period, Estonia declared neutrality at the outbreak of World War II, but the country was repeatedly contested, invaded and occupied, first by Stalinist Soviet Union in 1940, then by Nazi Germany in 1941, and ultimately reoccupied in 1944 by, and annexed into, the USSR as an administrative subunit (Estonian SSR).
- EstoniaAfter the loss of its de facto independence to the Soviet Union, Estonia's de jure state continuity was preserved by diplomatic representatives and the government-in-exile.
- EstoniaMost of the countries in the Western Bloc refused to recognise the incorporation of the Baltic states de jure and only recognised the Soviet governments of Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR and Lithuanian SSR de facto or not at all.
- State continuity of the Baltic states1 related topic with Alpha
Occupation of the Baltic states
0 links
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were invaded and occupied in June 1940 by the Soviet Union, under the leadership of Stalin and auspices of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact that had been signed between Nazi Germany and the USSR immediately before the outbreak of World War II.
This policy of non-recognition has given rise to the principle of legal continuity of the Baltic states, which holds that de jure, or as a matter of law, the Baltic states had remained independent states under illegal occupation throughout the period from 1940 to 1991.
However, the Soviet Union never formally acknowledged its presence in the Baltics as an occupation or that it annexed these states and considered the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republics as three of its constituent republics.