{"id":60415,"date":"2025-08-02T20:06:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T18:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60415"},"modified":"2026-08-02T00:26:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T22:26:58","slug":"metsavendade-laul-the-anti-communist-anthem-of-the-estonian-forest-brothers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/08\/02\/metsavendade-laul-the-anti-communist-anthem-of-the-estonian-forest-brothers\/","title":{"rendered":"'Metsavendade laul', the anti-communist anthem of the Estonian Forest Brothers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Estonia, like Lithuania and Latvia, was invaded by the Soviet Union in 1940. After the German invasion (1941-1944), the Red Army returned.<\/p>\n

'Nie chcemy komuny': an inspiring Polish anti-communist song from the 1980s<\/a><\/rel>
\n'Bij bolszewika!': An anti-communist song sung by the Polish resistance after WWII<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

Following the Soviet occupation in 1944, an anti-communist guerrilla group known generically as the \"Forest Brothers\" was formed in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. I already told you about them here<\/a>. The largest anti-communist guerrilla group of the three was the Lithuanian one. In Estonia, the Forest Brothers (\"Metsavennad\" in Estonian) began to form in 1941<\/strong>, in response to the mass deportations carried out by the Soviet invaders.<\/p>\n

The Estonian Forest Brothers once numbered around 10,000 fighters<\/b>, although some sources speak of between 15,000 and 16,000. In July 1941, they played a very important role, leading the Tartu Uprising on July 10 against Soviet forces fleeing from the Germans. Several hundred Forest Brothers managed to defeat the Soviet forces in that area<\/strong>, liberating southern Estonia and part of northern Latvia (for a short time, as the German invaders soon arrived).<\/p>\n

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Two Forest Brothers of Estonia (Photo: Entsyklopeedia.ee<\/a>).<\/div>\n

The Estonian anti-communist guerrilla movement reappeared in 1944 in response to Stalinist repression<\/strong> after the new Soviet occupation. This guerrilla movement was made up of various resistance organizations. The main one was the Relvastatud V\u00f5itluse Liit (RVL, Alliance of Armed Struggle), loyal to the Estonian Government in Exile<\/strong>, created in the spring of 1946, led by Endel Redlich \"Robber\" and destroyed by the Soviets in 1948. The military activity of the Estonian Forest Brothers continued until 1955<\/strong>, managing to eliminate hundreds of Soviet soldiers and members of Stalin's fearsome secret police, the NKVD. <\/p>\n

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Members of the Estonian anti-communist resistance, equipped with Soviet weapons (Photo: Kultuur.elu.ee<\/a>).<\/div>\n

At the end of 1944, the Forest Brothers group operating near Valga in southern Estonia composed a song<\/strong> that became very popular among the anti-communist guerrillas. The song is known today as \"Metsavendade laul\" (Song of the Forest Brothers)<\/strong>. The lyrics are varied. Here you can listen to the version recorded by the Estonian traditional music group Untsakad<\/strong> in 1998, as the 14th track on their album \"Metsa l\u00e4ksid sa\"<\/a>:<\/p>\n