The wartime summer of 1941 is probably one of the most thoroughly researched stages of Estonian history. The coordinated collection of documents and memoirs began on both sides of the front line at more or less the same time – in the first half of 1942. In the current article, the memoirs-testimonies gathered in the Red Army Estonian national military units in the Soviet rear area are considered. Interviews were conducted in the rear area with about 350 individuals who in Soviet jargon were among the ‘Party and Soviet activists’ in the wartime summer of 1941 and who formed the main force in the ranks of the destruction battalions in fighting against the local Estonian armed resistance. Additionally, these activists were also connected to many other actions of the Soviet regime: the confiscation of radio sets; political propaganda; the mobilisation of horses and motor vehicles; supporting the mobilisation of reservists and young men eligible to be conscripted; the destruction of means of communication, foodstuffs and other reserves of supplies; the organisation of defence works, carrying out evacuation, and much more.
The gathering of material in the rear area was guided not only by (future) propaganda value but also by some practical considerations. Since the documents of the Soviet regime had largely been destroyed or lost during the retreat and evacuation, one objective was also the gathering of information on what actually happened in Estonia under the conditions of the collapse of the front line in 1941, and on where the thousands of Party and Soviet activists had disappeared to. The denunciation aspect was also not absent because one of the important points was not only to report on ‘anti-Soviet individuals’. A great deal of attention was also paid to the reciprocal testimonies of local communists regarding one another’s actions in the wartime summer.
Testimonies were primarily employed after the Second World War for propagandistic objectives. The material that had been gathered was nevertheless not meant to be disclosed in its authentic form. Many testimonies were admittedly published, but only after they had been reworked beyond recognition by ideology operatives. The problem was evidently not so much in naturalistic descriptions of carrying out ‘scorched earth tactics’, but rather the disclosure of these testimonies would quickly have disproven two primary propaganda messages, because broadly speaking, there were no ‘heroic defensive battles’, nor did the ‘Estonian people’s age-old hatred of the German predatory invaders’ emerge from anywhere in particular.
If we now ask what the historical value of the above-mentioned testimonies is nowadays, then first of all these eyewitness accounts of the struggle against the forest brothers (Estonian patriotic partisans) are essentially the only surviving sources from the Soviet side. Secondly, the fight against the forest brothers was only one of the tasks of Party and Soviet activists, and not even the primary task. Hence, these testimonies also have to be considered in the context of how many sources concerning the wartime summer of 1941 investigators had at their disposal at all. There are numerous directives, decisions and instructions issued by the authorities that can be used, but at the same time there is rather little information on how these orders were carried out. These testimonies should be assessed from precisely this aspect. This is admittedly not documentation that was generated in real time, yet at the same time these testimonies are at times also the only sources on numerous topics that are very directly connected to the civilian population in particular in the rear area immediately behind the Red Army’s front line.