Victory Day, or võidupüha, commemorates Estonia’s triumph at a watershed battle for the entire region, fought through June 1919, that ultimately led to the end of approximately 600 years of German-led hegemony in the region.
The battle took place in and around Cesis, a scenic Latvian town which crucially also sits on a railway line.
Cesis was the site of a 13th-century Livonian crusades-era battle, but the 20th-century clash, part of the Estonian and Latvian wars of independence, was far more significant.
The background
The opponents of June 1919 were not “Red” Russian forces, the main enemy in the independence war, but troops fighting to keep the old Baltic German aristocracy in place; just as the crusaders had been. The “auld enemy” in other words.
While the Reds aimed for a radical and forced redistribution of land in these primarily agrarian countries, the opposing side at Cesis was fighting for a centuries-old status quo.
Estonia and Latvia simply wanted to manage their own lands, in every sense…
So, far from being a sideshow, the battle’s outcome practically midwifed the independence of not one but two modern-day democracies, both once part of Livonia.
The German-speaking landowner class had ruled the region for hundreds of years in agreement with the Russians. World War One was the conflict that transformed everything: Russia capitulated through the course of 1917 – the Bolsheviks seized power in November of that year, sparking a horrendous civil war.
In a sign of things to come, the 1918 Treaty of Brest Litovsk, which carved up the Russian Empire, placed Estonia, without asking them, in a “sphere of influence,” in this case, a German one.
Later that same year Germany signed a largely French-authored armistice with the Western powers, ending the war on the numerologically neat and tidy 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.
But while the armistice on the western front laid things to rest, in the east, things were far less clear cut.
For the fledgling Baltic states, one pressing matter in addition to the Reds was what to do with a large, armed and organized German force ranging around their backyard…
The aims
The lynchpin of these German troops was the Baltische Landeswehr, centered on the VI Reserve Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Rüdiger von der Goltz.
Von der Goltz was of noble stock and had led a division that in 1918 had “intervened” in Finland’s civil war, also fought between Reds and Whites.
VI Corps in the Baltic states were bolstered by troops from the (in)famous Freikorps, disaffected World War One German veterans.
The victorious western entente powers – the United States, France, and Great Britain – used VI Corps as a hedge against Bolshevik/Red incursions into the region; a requirement arose at the ongoing Paris Peace process that the German troops actually remain in the area.
Their intended use may have reached as far as helping to install a pro-western White Russian force in Petrograd; certainly von der Goltz’s memoirs, and many former Landeswehr members’ actions in late 1919, back this possibility up.
Estonian and Latvian aims were far more straightforward: Take advantage of the collapse of Russia and the emergence of smaller, independent democracies – the spread of Wilsonianism across the central and eastern European region.
Red Russian forces certainly needed expelling, but the German troops too presented a threat to the integrity of Baltic sovereignty – having already occupied Riga and Tallinn through much of 1918.
So these two sides were on a collision course. Estonian forces moved into northwestern Latvia in early 1919 (see map above), while von der Goltz’s VI Corps detoured from chasing the Reds in the east to meeting with the Estonians – who they did not regard as allies – in the north.
The sides
Thanks to efforts made by Estonian commander-in-chief, Gen. Johan Laidoner, Estonia’s military had grown six-fold to around 13,000 people in the year between independence and early 1919.
While today’s Estonian Defense Forces has one division, by summer 1919, Laidoner had three at his disposal.
The 3rd Estonian Division, commander Maj. Gen. Ernst Põdder, was joined at Cesis by the 2nd Latvian regiment under Col. Krišjānis Berkis.
This brought around 6,000 Baltic states’ infantry to the field, plus around 100 cavalry, over 200 machine guns, and artillery at Cesis.
Estonia also had three Tallinn-built armored trains to hand, commanded by (despite being a navy man) Rear Admiral Johan Pitka, and control of the rail line running north to the Estonian border.
Pro-German forces’ numbers at Cesis were similar, though they enjoyed superiority in artillery and cavalry.
Estonia’s breakthrough, June 23, 1919
Ignoring an ultimatum from Gen. Laidoner to pull back, initial, fierce clashes started in early June, with a brief pause during an armistice called by the Entente.
The Germans then broke through on the summer solstice, splitting Estonian and Latvian forces and rendering the situation critical for the 3rd Division. (The gallery here gives us some idea of uniforms and equipment at the battle.)
Thanks in no small part to Pitka’s armored trains, this German advance was stemmed, however, and a counter-attack by the reinforced Estonians led to a general retreat to the southwest, toward Riga by the Germans, meaning the day, on June 23, was won.
Gen. Põdder gave his command of the day as follows: “The victories won over our stagnant and surrendered enemy, in cities and in the countryside, flags and armed units in the local garrisons were set up.”
The aftermath
Casualties at Cesis were in the hundreds, on all sides.
There was an immediate expiry date on Estonia’s triumph; the 3rd division was ordered to refrain from taking Riga despite nearly doing so.
The Baltische Landeswehr was temporarily placed under British authority, while the pro-entente Kārlis Ulmanis government was reinstalled in Riga, replacing a German puppet.
Many German soldiers joined up with Prince Pavel Bermondt-Avalov’s West Russian Volunteer Army, to fight the Reds; the Estonian troops in Latvia helped repel a bid by this force to take Riga too.
Back in Estonia, the Land Reform Act confiscated and redistributed the large Baltic German estates that had covered more than half of the territory of the country for generations.
By late 1919, Jaan Tõnisson’s government was pursuing a negotiating-while-fighting approach, and the 3rd division, the heroes of Cesis, was instrumental in pressing to exhaustion the Red forces attacking Narva.
A ceasefire came into effect on January 3, 1920, and the famous Treaty of Tartu was signed on February 2. Latvia’s equivalent treaty was signed in August.
The legacy
The Battle of Cesis represented a decisive victory for Estonia and Latvia alike, and finally spelled the end of the German-led hegemony in the region.
For comparison, while the Soviet occupation of Estonia lasted less than a human lifespan – someone in their teens when it started would have been a retiree when it ended – the Baltic German aristocracy in Estonia continued, under different nominal rulers, for around six centuries.
First marked in 1934 and reinstated in 1992 after the restoration of independence, Victory Day parades are organized by the Defense League, in a different town each year, and presided over by the head of state. This year’s parade is in Narva. Not only do the armed forces of Estonia and Latvia take part, but those of many NATO allies do also.
That the battle has its own name in Estonian: Võnnu – the Estonian name for Cesis – is significant too.
The complicated story behind the lead-up to the battle also gives the lie to the rather pat apothegm “my enemy’s enemy is my friend.” Not always, but sometimes…
Estonia and Latvia had proved they were able to defend their home turf against all comers, and that they wanted to rule themselves, rather than be ruled over by foreign powers, be they German, Russian, or anyone else.
Ultimately, the Estonians had managed to ditch a sometimes repressive, certainly not democratic, aristocratic rule, yet without replacing it with totalitarian Bolshevik rule. No small feat…
More information on the battle is here and here, and this video covers the Estonian War of Independence more broadly. More information about the first Victory Day celebrations in 1934 (link in Estonian) is here.
Editor’s note: This article was first published in June 2024.
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