Estonian SSR

The Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic, short: Estonian SSR (in Estonian: Eesti Nõukogude Sotsialistlik Vabariik, short: Eesti NSV) was the name given on July 21, 1940 to the satellite state created during World War II in the territory of the previously independent Republic of Estonia after it had been occupied by the Soviet army on June 17, 1940. The Estonian SSR was formally annexed into the Soviet Union (USSR) on August 6, 1940, when it nominally became the 16th constituent republic of the USSR. Its territory was subsequently conquered by Germany in 1941, before being reconquered and re-annexed by the Soviets in 1944.

The United States, United Kingdom, and other western powers considered the annexation of Estonia by USSR illegal. They retained diplomatic relations with the representatives of the independent Republic of Estonia, never recognized the existence of the Estonian SSR de jure, and never recognized Estonia as a legal constituent part of the Soviet Union.

The leadership of the 'Estonian SSR' renamed the state the 'Republic of Estonia' again on May 8, 1990. All legal ties of sovereignty were cut with the Soviet Union on August 20, 1991, when Estonia officially declared the regaining of its independence, full international recognition of which followed over the next couple of weeks.

In addition to the human and material losses suffered due to war, thousands of civilians were killed and tens of thousands of people deported from Estonia by the Soviet authorities until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953. The Soviet rule significantly slowed Estonia's economic growth, resulting in a wide "wealth gap" in comparison with its neighboring democratic countries (e.g., Finland, Sweden). In comparison with other parts of the USSR its economy fared better and today Estonia remains the wealthiest of the formerly Soviet-controlled states.

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