These are some of the thousands of images from the The National Archives of Estonia, which holds one of the most comprehensive collections of European life under communist rule.
Estonia became a socialist republic in 1940 after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany struck a secret deal to carve up parts of Europe into fascist and communist “spheres of influence.” Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were occupied by Soviet troops. Afterward, a new political party of left-wing radicals took power in rigged elections. The first demand of Estonia’s puppet government was for it to join the Soviet Union.
https://www.rferl.org/a/stalin...