Balrog:
i believe the country mussolini helped was latvia, i know he recieved the "order of the latvian bear slayer" decoration, he was one of less than a dozen people to ever receive this award.
Mussolini has the Estonian Cross of freedom as well III/1. Not for the military help but because of Italian diplomatic support to Estonia to join the League of Nations.
Docent P:
After their unsuccessful raid on Petrograd their returned to Estonia where the grateful Estonians put them into prison camps with conditions not rather better than in the later Stalin's GULAG.
Reigo:
There were no prison camps, but quarantine zones since the NW Army had massive typhus epidemy. Otherwise the epidemy would have spreaded all over the land. That the full army didn't eventually die in typhus is the result that the Estonian Army's medical service finally took the treatment over (most of the NW Armys medical corps died or were sick).
One point the Russian historians have seen as GULAGish is been the obligation to those not sick to work in the wood. The point here is that this was not something exclusively for Northwestern Army but because of the afterwar catastrophic situation with heating materials there was temporarily introduced such an obligation to the capable residents not involved in other more important activities. The Russian soldiers were not an exeption.
Balrog:
was the arrrested estonia president kept under house arrest in russia or was he left to die in a gulag?
Reigo:
He was kept under house arrest.
To be exact, not quite "house arrest". He's been taken to Russia and later kept in a house for mentally disabled. Of course better than prison, he survived longer than other leaders, but still ...
Balrog:
reading over the web links, it seems the soviets murdered almost the entire estonian government, officer corps, and viirtually anyone of any importance at all.
Well many survived, but true - many were murdered. The Soviet s didn't murder the entire officer corps - only the "bad" element there. Almost the entire general corps was murdered.
"Bad" element in the Soviet sense means potentially anyone who is been remarkably active in any other army than the Soviet one (as well as other party than Communist etc.). The principle was to destruct any potential alternative leadership. Only sometimes active collaboration with the Soviets could former civilian, NGO or military leaders avoid to be repressed. By the outrooking of the "not our" elements the Soviets started from the head, so higher staff first. That reason the share "bad" element discovered in the 1940/41 was so high by the higher officers while much less in lower ranks.
Balrog:
what became of the german land holders after the end of the war in the early 1920's?
Reigo:
Their land was mostly taken away with the landreform. So they had to conform with the new circumstances...
Could be a necessary addition, that a compensation was paid.
by Reigo on 11 Aug 2003 13:56 
