On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the operation, a new historical section entitled “Liberated Tallinn Drowned in Flowers” appeared on the department’s website. It contains declassified documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Military Department.
These documents include directives from the Supreme High Command Headquarters, information on enemy actions, intelligence reports, award documents for the heroes who liberated the Estonian capital, and eyewitness accounts of the atrocities committed by the occupiers.
For example, the documents describe in great detail how Soviet troops, primarily the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps, liberated their lands from the German Nazis and their collaborators from Omakaitse. Information is provided about how the 8th Corps, commanded by Lieutenant General Lembit Pärn, was one of the first to enter Tallinn and thwarted German plans to put out to sea ships with captured civilians who were supposed to be sent to Germany for forced labor, RIA Novosti writes.
It also tells how the soldiers of this corps, Lieutenant Johannes Lumiste and Corporal Elmar Nagelman, raised the Red Flag on the Long Hermann Tower in Tallinn on 22 September 1944. The townspeople then greeted the liberating soldiers with flowers.
Let us recall that Tallinn was liberated from German occupation during an offensive operation by the troops of the Leningrad Front under the command of Marshal Leonid Govorov. They were supported by the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet and the 13th Air Army.
