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In the final years of World War II, the main problem for the centres of resistance in the Baltic region was maintaining contact with foreign centres and creating contacts with western countries. Latvia and Lithuania began radio contact with Sweden at the end of 1943, and Estonia in May 1944, whereby the chief wireless operator for the Finnish Headquarters espionage unit "Haukka", Ustav Toom, started work as chief operator. This radio channel was also used by the Estonian National Committee that was formed in March 1944 and that handed over power a few days before the fall of Tallinn to the recently-formed Government of the Republic, led by Uluots-Tief. Professor Uluots managed to escape to Sweden just before the capture of Tallinn, but almost all the remaining government members were arrested by Smersh or the NKVD. After many searches, Toom was arrested in December 1944, and radio contact between Sweden and the Estonian resistance movement was severed. Thereafter, the Soviet counter-espionage service began a radio game with Toom, who was being held in the Pagari internal prison. The primary goal of this game was to give the West the impression that the Estonian resistance centre was continuing its activity. Toom, who was under serious psychic and physical pressure, became ill with tuberculosis and died in May 1946 in the Patarei prison hospital. The Soviet counter-espionage service now at- tempted to continue the radio game on its own but all such attempts in 1946-47 ended in failure. There were also attempts on the Swedish side to restore the severed radio contact by Jaan Ots, Ants Piip, jun. and Endel Peedo. A number of boats were sent to Estonia, including both freedom fighters and sailors, who also wanted to bring to Sweden their family members who were still in Estonia. The first trip was carried out in June 1946 by boatmen Päärson and Vahtras, accompanied by young journalist Elvi Ormus. By this time, Soviet border guards had already enclosed the Estonian coast in an iron guard-ring, so it was decided to go no closer to the mainland than Hiiumaa, and to leave on Hiimaa the radio quartz, codes and ciphers that they had brought with them. The sea trip, however, ended half-way. A Soviet border guard launch noticed them in international waters and took them back to the Papisaare border guard post on Saaremaa. They were later sentenced to 10 years in a prison camp by a military court. On 1 November 1946, R. Saago and local fisher- man A. Sagur landed on Liiküla beach on Saaremaa, planning to restore contact with the Estonian resistance movement. R. Saago did indeed succeed in meeting the required people and to leave in Tallinn the radio transmitter, which they had brought along, but the departure of a large refugee group from the Saaremaa coast did not succeed. Because of one local traitor, all the refugees and their helpers (a total of 26 people) were arrested and later sent to prison camps. One other attempt to send a boat to Estonia was made in December 1946, but the 6-member team barely managed to land on Saaremaa, and their radio transmitter was lost at sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
