Omakaitse

The Omakaitse ('home guard') was a militia organisation in Estonia. It was founded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. On the eve of the occupation of Estonia by the German Empire, the Omakaitse units took over major towns in the country allowing the Salvation Committee of the Estonian Provincial Assembly to proclaim the independence of Estonia. After the German Occupation the Omakaitse became outlawed. The Estonian Defence League was dissolved in 1940 after the Soviet occupation of Estonia. The Omakaitse was reestablished during the German Operation Barbarossa in 1941 by the Forest brothers who took control of the country before the German troops arrived allowing Jüri Uluots establish a co-ordinating council in Tartu to proclaim the provisional government of Estonia. The Germans disbanded the provisional government but allowed the armed units in the Omakaitse after Estonia became a part of the German-occupied Reichskommissariat Ostland. During World War II Omakaitse existed from 3 July 1941 – 17 September 1944 at the Eastern Front (World War II). The Omakaitse was a unique organisation in the context of the Eastern Front, as in Latvia, which otherwise shared a common fate with Estonia, there was no organisation of this kind. The Estonian Defence League did not completely cease to exist after being closed down during the Soviet occupation in summer 1940. Its members hid some of the weapons but it was done on their own initiative and only in a few locations. They maintained communication, common listening to foreign radio stations was organised as well as discussions of world affairs and future prospects. After the June deportation in 1941 and the breakout of war between Germany and the Soviet Union, the former members of the Defence League and other civilians formed partisan groups in the woods called forest brothers. As clashes with the retreating Soviet 8th Army, destruction battalions and NKVD escalated into the Summer War, the partisan groups formed themselves into Omakaitse of rural municipalities and regions.