| abstract | - The Soviet partisans in Estonia were Communist partisans who attempted to wage guerrilla warfare against the German armed forces during the German occupation of Estonia. Partisan activity was singularly unsuccessful in Estonia due to the general resistance of the population to the Soviet regime that the partisans represented. The majority of partisans sent in by the Soviets were quickly picked up by the local Estonian militias. The war between Germany and the Soviet Union broke out after one year of Soviet occupation in Estonia. From July to December 1941, Estonia was cleared of Soviet armed forces by Germans who were assisted by Estonian national partisans. The Germans refrained from looting and excessive murders as practiced by the Red Army in Estonia. Soviet partisans often robbed wealthier peasants and provoked German reprisals. The Baltic lands remained free of partisans throughout most of the war, by 1944 only 234 partisans were fighting in Estonia and none were native volunteers, all being either NKVD or Red Army personnel. The partisans found it impossible to establish permanent bases in Estonia, one reporting "it is dangerous to visit a village where even one Estonian lives". In effect, those groups were rather small in Estonia, often consisting of Soviet paratroopers brought from the USSR proper, and never even reaching the degree of pro-Soviet guerilla warfare in Lithuania (which, in turn, was minor compared with Soviet resistance activities in neighbouring Belarus).
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