The document summarizes the 1949 mass deportation of Estonians called "Operation Priboi" by Soviet authorities. Over 20,000 Estonians were forcibly removed from their homes and sent to remote areas of Siberia and Central Asia in what constituted a crime against humanity. Entire families, including children and elderly, were deported in harsh conditions without basic rights or means to return home. Tens of thousands perished during the exile's first years due to the inhospitable conditions, amounting to an act of genocide against the Estonian people by the Soviet regime.

1. Estonian group: Marilin, Alina, Robin and Jana
November 2012

2.  Estonia tries to declare neutrality in the war
 Molotov – Ribbentrop pact – a reason for
the Soviet Union to occupy Estonia in 1940
 Nazi Germany reaches Estonia in July
1941
 The Soviet forces reoccupy mainland
Estonia in September 1944 - Estonia
remains incorporated into the Soviet Union
even after the war
 Mass political arrests, executions, terror
and murders, deportations follow

4.  In January 1949, the Council of
Ministers of the USSR issued a top
secret decree to exile the people's
enemies from Estonia
 In the early morning of March 25, a
major operation "Priboi"(Coastal Surf),
called “March deportation” by Baltic
historians, began

5.  The code name for the Soviet mass
deportation from the Baltic states on March
25–28, 1949
 Many Estonians, labeled as enemies of the
people, were deported to inhospitable
areas of the Soviet Union
 Portrayed as "dekulakisation", the
operation was intended to:
force the collectivisation of rural households
eliminate the support base for the insurgency by
the Forest Brothers against Soviet occupation

6.  Almost 21,000 Estonians were sent to
inhospitable areas of Siberia
 The deported included disabled people,
pregnant women, newborns and
children separated from their parents,
men of working age
the youngest deportee – 1-day-old girl
the oldest – 95-year-old woman

7. Number %
Men 25 708 27.1
Women 41 987 44.3
Children 27 084 28.6
Total 94 779 100.0

8.  Nine trains of people were directed to
Novosibirsk Oblast
 six to Krasnoyarsk Krai
 two to Omsk Oblast
 two to Irkutsk Oblast
 Amur Oblast
 Tomsk Oblast

9. Estonian SSR Number of families Absolute number of
people
“Picked up” 7 743 20 134
“Loaded” - 19 827
Trains used 15 -

10.  Deportees were required to sign a document
upon their arrival, officially designating them
with the status of "special settlers"
 No right to return to their homes
 The penalty of twenty years' hard labour for
attempted escapes
 Deportees were not permitted to leave their
designated area
 Were required to report to the local MVD
commandant once a month, failure of which
was a punishable offense

11.  Many of the deportees perished, most have
never returned home
 Due to the high death rate of deportees
during the first few years of their Siberian
exile, some sources consider these
deportations an act of genocide
 Based on the Martens Clause and the
principles of the Nuremberg Charter, the
European Court of Human Rights has held
that the “Priboi” deportation constituted a
crime against humanity

12. Thank you for your attention!