The Second World War and the Baltic States

This volume places the history of the Second World War and the Baltic states into a multidisciplinary and international perspective. It includes contributions from the fields of diplomacy, strategy, military operations, intelligence and propaganda. It presents not only a multi-layered interpretation of a region affected by total war, but also reveals a great deal about the nature of that conflict. It discusses the attitudes of the great powers towards small states, the nature of military operations around the advent of mechanization and close air support, and techniques of population control and of steering opinion in the era of ideological regimes. Contributions on these topics add to our understanding of the Second World War as a pivotal event in the history of Europe in the 20 century.

James S. Corum, Lt. Col. USAR ret., is Dean of the Baltic Defence College in Tartu (Estonia). He studied at Oxford University and holds a PhD in History from Queen-s University in Kingston (Canada). Olaf Mertelsmann is Associate Professor in Contemporary History at the University of Tartu. He holds a PhD from the University of Hamburg and has taught in Hamburg, Novosibirsk and Tartu. Kaarel Piirimäe is Professor of Military History at the Estonian National Defence College and Research Fellow at the University of Tartu. He gained his PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Contents: James S. Corum/Olaf Mertelsmann/Kaarel Piirimäe: Introduction - Louis Clerc: Mediation and Intervention in the Back of Beyond: Small States in the Eastern Baltic and France-s Strategic Calculations, 1936-1940 - Thierry Grosbois: Belgian Diplomacy in Exile and the Baltic states 1940-45 - Pauli Heikkilä: Minister T.M. Kivimäki in the Center of Europe - for the Periphery of Europe - Tina Tamman: Wartime Diplomacy in London: How Britain Came to Partially Recognize the Soviet Annexation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - Mika Raudvassar: Needs and Realities in Estonian Air Defense: The Interwar Years - David M. Glantz: The Baltic Region in the Soviet-German War, 1941-1945 - James S. Corum: First Air Fleet Operations in the Baltic Region, June-December 1941 - Valdis Kuzmins: The 15th Division of the Latvian Legion in the Fight on the Velikaya River (1 March-14 April 1944): A Case Study in Maintaining Fighting Power - Ardi Siilaberg: County Level Operational Groups as Part of the Soviet Strategy to Reoccupy Estonia during the Second World War - Lars Ericson Wolke: Exodus and Intelligence Operations: the Swedish Military and Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, 1943-45 - Kristo Nurmis: Between Aspiration and Adaptation: German War Propaganda in Occupied Estonia from 1941 till 1942 - Kari Alenius: The Reception of German War Propaganda in Estonia, 1941-1944 - Toomas Hiio: The Relationship of the Military and Civilian Authorities in Estonia during the German Occupation of 1941-1944 - Kaarel Piirimäe: Second Front in the West: Estonia, the Baltic Question and the Struggle for British Public Opinion, 1941-44.