Poland was restored as an independent state in the autumn of 1918. Estonian independence was proclaimed in February of 1918, but the Estonian government was only able to start functioning in November after the revolution in Germany and the withdrawal of German occupation forces.

Estonia and Poland were natural allies because of the confrontation with Soviet Russia. Both had been parts of Imperial Russia – though a big part of Polish lands had belonged to Austria-Hungary and Germany as well – and Soviet Russia tried to take back the former lands of the Russian Empire. At first this was done under the slogan of worldwide revolution with a far broader perspective. Estonia fought its War of Independence against Soviet Russia in 1918–1920, Poland during 1919–1921.

Estonian and Latvian politicians saw Poland as an important ally against Soviet Russia and to a lesser extent against Germany as well. In the case of Lithuania, the situation was the opposite because irreconcilable conflict over the Vilnius region poisoned Polish-Lithuanian bilateral relations almost until the end of the interwar period. This circumstance was in turn one of the biggest obstacles to cooperation between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – an important ally of Estonia and Latvia was the biggest enemy of Lithuania. On the other hand, Lithuania had no common border with Soviet Russia and the Soviet threat was seen as being weaker in Lithuania than in Latvia and Estonia.

Estonia had no disputed issues with Poland and the Poles and therefore, relations between the countries were very friendly from the beginning. This fact was reflected in the contacts between the Polish and Estonian armies and military officers, too. The first visits took place even before Poland’s de facto recognition of Estonia and close personal relations were maintained until 1939, including meetings between the Commanders-in-Chief Józef Piłsudski and Johan Laidoner, and after the death of the former in 1935 with Marshal Edward Rydz-Śmigły. Military cooperation took place in various fields, beginning with the exchange of confidential or secret information between the respective departments of the General Staffs and ending with vacation trips of Estonian officers to Polish military medical institutions and sanatoriums and vice versa. A major part of military cooperation took place in the field of training. Estonian officers served as trainees in Polish military units, particularly in the cavalry; some Poles served in Estonia, too. The Polish nobility was numerous and the Polish cavalry had a centuries-long tradition of glory. Estonians had been a peasant nation with less of an equestrian culture. After the Great War, the importance of the cavalry had been quickly declining due to the development of motorised military vehicles, yet it maintained its role mainly in reconnaissance until the end of World War II. Estonia had one full-sized cavalry regiment.

Estonian officers studied at Polish military technical schools and training centres, but also at the Warsaw Polytechnic.

Bilateral arms deals comprised a major portion of military cooperation, but this is beyond the scope of the current article.

Military attachés are usually officers with higher military education, foreign language skills, and abilities for diplomatic communication. This also applied to Estonia’s military representatives in Poland, the lieutenant colonels Jaan Junkur, Ludvig Jakobsen, Johannes Raud, Herbert Raidna, and Rein Tombak. Ludvig Jakobsen spent six years in Warsaw and was the doyen of military attachés to Poland for some years. Estonian military attachés in Warsaw simultaneously covered Romania and Czechoslovakia as well. Military attachés of some countries based in Warsaw were accredited to Estonia as well. Warsaw was one of the most important points of contact for Estonian military international relations. Poland was defeated by Germany and the Soviet Union in the autumn of 1939 and Estonia had to surrender to the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940. Most Estonian senior and higher-ranking military officers were executed or perished in the Soviet GULAG. Colonels Raud, Raidna, and Tombak were executed in the Norilsk GULAG camp on the same day in the summer of 1942. Junkur perished in another camp in January of 1942. Colonel Jakobsen was the military attaché to Germany in 1940 and did not return to Estonia after the Soviet occupation.