Estonian Liberation War
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Estonian Liberation War, also called Estonian War of Independence, in 1917-1920 was Estonia's struggle for independent state in the aftermath of WW I and the Russian Revolution.
During World War I, Russian-controlled Estonia proclaimed its independence on November 28, 1917, and immediately Bolshevik troops advanced to retake the country. However, Germans occupied Estonia in December 1917, which, under German defense, again declared it independence on February 24, 1918. By the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Germany forced Soviet Russia to give up the Baltic states, but after Germany's defeat in November 11, 1918, and renunciation of the treaty, Soviet forces again invaded Estonia. They encountered fierce resistance by the Estonians, who were helped by a British flotilla in the Baltic as well as some Finnish volunteers, and were expelled in January 1919. An anti-Bolshevik army, assembled and led by Nikolai N. Yudenich marched across the Estonian-Russian border in an attempt to seize Petrograd (Leningrad) in October 1919. The Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky, however, gathered an army of workers and soldiers, which was able to repulse Yudenich's troops and force their retreat back into Estonia. Estonia's independence was officially recognized by the Soviet government by the Treaty of Tartu on February 2, 1920.