Germany
72-602: 1942 1943 1944 The Tartu offensive operation (Russian: Тартуская наступательная операция ), also known as the Battle of Tartu ( Estonian : Tartu lahing ) and the Battle of Emajõgi ( Estonian : Emajõe lahingud , German: Schlacht am Embach ) was a campaign fought over southeastern Estonia in 1944. It took place on the Eastern Front during World War II between the Soviet 3rd Baltic Front and parts of
144-720: A kombrig . In March 1936, Grechkin was appointed head of the student military training department of the Kiev Military District and in September 1938 became assistant commander of the 13th Rifle Corps . In 1939, he graduated from the Courses of Improvement for Higher Officers (KUVNAS) at the Military Academy of the General Staff , and in September fought in the Soviet invasion of Poland . At
216-455: A broad classical education and knew Ancient Greek , Latin and French . Consider roim 'crime' versus English crime or taunima 'to condemn, disapprove' versus Finnish tuomita 'to condemn, to judge' (these Aavikisms appear in Aavik's 1921 dictionary). These words might be better regarded as a peculiar manifestation of morpho-phonemic adaptation of a foreign lexical item. Article 1 of
288-684: A large number of instruments for the observatories of astronomy and geophysics were destroyed by shrapnel or looted. Bombing destroyed Raadi Manor , the main building of the Estonian National Museum . The 2nd Shock Army crossed Lake Peipus in 5–11 September and acquired command over the Emajõgi front. In the Riga offensive operation on 14–16 September, the 3rd Baltic Front attacked the German XXVIII Army Corps and
360-452: A large part of the deportees and political prisoners were allowed to return to Estonia. Political arrests and numerous other crimes against humanity were committed all through the occupation period until the late 1980s. After all, the attempt to integrate Estonian society into the Soviet system failed. Although the armed resistance was defeated, the population remained anti-Soviet. This helped
432-748: A teacher. In 1914, after the beginning of World War I, Grechkin was drafted into the Imperial Russian Army, serving in the reserve battalion of the Lifeguard Izmaylovsky Regiment . At the end of May 1915, he entered the 3rd Petrograd School of Praporshchiks , graduating in August. Grechkin was promoted to praporshchik and sent to the Western Front , where he served with the 57th Infantry Division 's 228th Zadonsk Infantry Regiment , involved in heavy fighting in
504-737: Is a bilingual German-Estonian translation of the Lutheran catechism by S. Wanradt and J. Koell dating to 1535, during the Protestant Reformation period. An Estonian grammar book to be used by priests was printed in German in 1637. The New Testament was translated into the variety of South Estonian called Võro in 1686 (northern Estonian, 1715). The two languages were united based on Northern Estonian by Anton thor Helle . Writings in Estonian became more significant in
576-734: Is based on central dialects, it has no vowel harmony either. In the standard language, the front vowels occur exclusively on the first or stressed syllable, although vowel harmony is still apparent in older texts. Typologically, Estonian represents a transitional form from an agglutinating language to a fusional language . The canonical word order is SVO (subject–verb–object), although often debated among linguists. In Estonian, nouns and pronouns do not have grammatical gender , but nouns and adjectives decline in fourteen cases: nominative , genitive , partitive , illative , inessive , elative , allative , adessive , ablative , translative , terminative , essive , abessive , and comitative , with
648-457: Is extensive, and this has made its inflectional morphology markedly more fusional , especially with respect to noun and adjective inflection. The transitional form from an agglutinating to a fusional language is a common feature of Estonian typologically over the course of history with the development of a rich morphological system. Word order is considerably more flexible than in English, but
720-758: Is pronounced [æ], as in English mat . The vowels Ä, Ö and Ü are clearly separate phonemes and inherent in Estonian, although the letter shapes come from German. The letter õ denotes /ɤ/ , unrounded /o/ , or a close-mid back unrounded vowel . It is almost identical to the Bulgarian ъ /ɤ̞/ and the Vietnamese ơ , and is also used to transcribe the Russian ы . Additionally C , Q , W , X , and Y are used in writing foreign proper names . They do not occur in Estonian words , and are not officially part of
792-492: Is pronounced) and in the use of 'i' and 'j'. Where it is very impractical or impossible to type š and ž , they are replaced by sh and zh in some written texts, although this is considered incorrect. Otherwise, the h in sh represents a voiceless glottal fricative , as in Pasha ( pas-ha ); this also applies to some foreign names. Modern Estonian orthography is based on the "Newer orthography" created by Eduard Ahrens in
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#1732791195645864-531: Is typically subclassified as a Southern Finnic language, and it is the second-most-spoken language among all the Finnic languages. Alongside Finnish, Hungarian , and Maltese , Estonian is one of the four official languages of the European Union that are not Indo-European languages . In terms of linguistic morphology , Estonian is a predominantly agglutinative language . The loss of word-final sounds
936-757: The idamurre or eastern dialect on the northwestern shore of Lake Peipus . One of the pronunciation features of the Saaremaa dialect is the lack of the 'õ' vowel. A five-metre monument erected in 2020, marking the "border" between the vowels 'õ' and 'ö', humorously makes reference to this fact. South Estonian consists of the Tartu, Mulgi, Võro and Seto varieties. These are sometimes considered either variants of South Estonian or separate languages altogether. Also, Seto and Võro distinguish themselves from each other less by language and more by their culture and their respective Christian confession. Estonian employs
1008-497: The Livonian Chronicle of Henry contains Estonian place names, words and fragments of sentences. The earliest extant samples of connected (north) Estonian are the so-called Kullamaa prayers dating from 1524 and 1528. In 1525 the first book published in Estonian was printed. The book was a Lutheran manuscript, which never reached the reader and was destroyed immediately after publication. The first extant Estonian book
1080-604: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Estonian and English: Aleksei Aleksandrovich Grechkin [REDACTED] Soviet Union Aleksei Aleksandrovich Grechkin ( Russian : Алексе́й Алекса́ндрович Гре́чкин , 26 March 1893 – 30 August 1964) was a Soviet army commander. After serving in World War I as an Imperial Russian Army officer, Grechkin joined the Red Army in 1918 and fought in
1152-665: The 128th Rifle Division and 191st Rifle Division . On 16 August, Grechkin's force landed at Mehikoorma and established a bridgehead as part of the Tartu Offensive . He subsequently participated in the Riga Offensive . In October, the front was disbanded and Grechkin was placed at the disposal of the Main Personnel Directorate of the People's Commissariat of Defense . In April he was placed at
1224-696: The 13th Rifle Division 's 37th Rifle Regiment, in the same district. In July 1923, Grechkin took command of the Rostov Separate Guard Battalion. He became assistant commander and acting commander of the 22nd Rifle Division 's 64th Rifle Regiment in June 1924. After graduating from the Vystrel commander improvement courses in 1926, he was sent to the Central Asian Military District and appointed commander of
1296-543: The 318th Rifle Division in August 1942. In December, Grechkin became commander of the 16th Rifle Corps , then the landing troops of the 18th Army . During February 1943, he led the 18th Army operational group tasked with organizing and training amphibious assault troops south of Novorossiysk . In June, Grechkin was appointed commander of the 9th Army , which he led during the Novorossiysk-Taman Operation in September and October. In October, he
1368-608: The 3rd Turkestan Rifle Division 's 9th Turkestan Rifle Regiment. Between April and July 1931, he led the regiment in battles with Ibrahim Bek , the leader of the Muslim Basmachi insurgent movement. In January 1932, he was transferred to become assistant commander of the 15th Rifle Division and in July 1935 became acting division commander. On 26 November, when the Red Army reintroduced regular military ranks, Grechkin became
1440-722: The Army Group North to the west of Lake Peipus resulting in a series of operations around Narva . The German Command considered it important to maintain control over the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland , which eased the situation in Finland and kept the Soviet Baltic Fleet in its eastern bay. From a military economy viewpoint, the preservation of the oil shale reserves and oil shale industry in Ida-Viru
1512-712: The Germanic languages have very different origins and the vocabulary is considered quite different from that of the Indo-European family, one can identify many similar words in Estonian and English, for example. This is primarily because Estonian has borrowed nearly one-third of its vocabulary from Germanic languages, mainly from Low Saxon ( Middle Low German ) during the period of German rule , and High German (including standard German ). The percentage of Low Saxon and High German loanwords can be estimated at 22–25 percent, with Low Saxon making up about 15 percent. Prior to
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#17327911956451584-581: The Latin script as the basis for its alphabet . The script adds the letters ä , ö , ü , and õ , plus the later additions š and ž . The letters c , q , w , x and y are limited to proper names of foreign origin, and f , z , š , and ž appear in loanwords and foreign names only. Ö and Ü are pronounced similarly to their equivalents in Swedish and German. Unlike in standard German but like Swedish (when followed by 'r') and Finnish, Ä
1656-757: The Osowiec Fortress area. He was later transferred with the regiment to the Romanian Front and then the Southwestern Front , where Grechkin participated in fighting in the area of the Stokhid River . He became a company commander, was elected battalion commander, and promoted to staff captain . After the Russian Revolution Grechkin became a member of the regimental committee but returned to teaching after
1728-536: The Proto-Finnic language , elision has occurred; thus, the actual case marker may be absent, but the stem is changed, cf. maja – majja and the Ostrobothnia dialect of Finnish maja – majahan . The verbal system has no distinct future tense (the present tense serves here) and features special forms to express an action performed by an undetermined subject (the "impersonal"). Although Estonian and
1800-762: The Russian Civil War . He rose through the ranks in the interwar period and commanded a division in the Winter War . After the Operation Barbarossa , the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Grechkin temporarily commanded the North Caucasus Military District , and as commander of the 56th Army operational group, led troops in the Battle of Rostov . He commanded the 9th Army and the 28th Army in 1943 and
1872-403: The purchasing power of US$ 90 million in 2008). The university lost fifteen buildings permanently. The damage done to the roofs, interiors, doors, windows, heating systems, study cabinets and laboratories was three times the damage to the ruined buildings. The Museum of Zoology lost all of its wet preparations. The interiors of the laboratories of chemistry, physics, pathology and dairy, and
1944-549: The 100 kilometres long marshy floodplains of the river, it was of high strategic importance. After sappers failed to destroy the bridge, Sturmbannführer Leon Degrelle improvised a defence line of the 5th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Wallonien , avoiding a Soviet breakthrough to Tartu. As a result, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves . A heavy German tank assault had been planned to attack behind
2016-485: The 1870s to the 1890s) tried to use formation ex nihilo ( Urschöpfung ); i.e. they created new words out of nothing. The most well-known reformer of Estonian, Johannes Aavik (1880–1973), used creations ex nihilo (cf. 'free constructions', Tauli 1977), along with other sources of lexical enrichment such as derivations, compositions and loanwords (often from Finnish; cf. Saareste and Raun 1965: 76). In Aavik's dictionary (1921) lists approximately 4000 words. About 40 of
2088-553: The 18th and 19th centuries based on the dialects of northern Estonia. During the Medieval and Early Modern periods, Estonian accepted many loanwords from Germanic languages , mainly from Middle Low German (Middle Saxon) and, after the 16th-century Protestant Reformation , from the Standard German language. Estonia's oldest written records of the Finnic languages date from the 13th century. The "Originates Livoniae" in
2160-926: The 1930s. There are 9 vowels and 36 diphthongs , 28 of which are native to Estonian. All nine vowels can appear as the first component of a diphthong, but only /ɑ e i o u/ occur as the second component. A vowel characteristic of Estonian is the unrounded back vowel /ɤ/, which may be close-mid back , close back , or close-mid central . Word-initial b, d, g occur only in loanwords and some old loanwords are spelled with p, t, k instead of etymological b, d, g : pank 'bank'. Word-medially and word-finally, b, d, g represent short plosives /p, t, k/ (may be pronounced as partially voiced consonants), p, t, k represent half-long plosives /pː, tː, kː/, and pp, tt, kk represent overlong plosives /pːː, tːː, kːː/; for example: kabi /kɑpi/ 'hoof' — kapi /kɑpːi/ 'wardrobe [ gen sg ] — kappi /kɑpːːi/ 'wardrobe [ ptv sg ]'. Before and after b, p, d, t, g, k, s, h, f, š, z, ž ,
2232-524: The 19th century during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840). The birth of native Estonian literature was during the period 1810–1820, when the patriotic and philosophical poems by Kristjan Jaak Peterson were published. Peterson, who was the first student to acknowledge his Estonian origin at the then German-language University of Dorpat , is commonly regarded as a herald of Estonian national literature and considered
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2304-493: The 1st Battalion of the Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 , recently returned to Estonia. As their largest operation, supported by Estonian Police Battalions No. 37, 38 and Mauritz Freiherr von Strachwitz 's tank squadron, they destroyed the bridgehead of two Soviet divisions and recaptured Kärevere Bridge by 30 August. The operation shifted the entire front back to the southern bank of the Emajõgi and encouraged
2376-490: The 200 words created by Johannes Aavik allegedly ex nihilo are in common use today. Examples are * ese 'object', * kolp 'skull', * liibuma 'to cling', * naasma 'to return, come back', * nõme 'stupid, dull'. Many of the coinages that have been considered (often by Aavik himself) as words concocted ex nihilo could well have been influenced by foreign lexical items; for example, words from Russian , German , French , Finnish , English and Swedish . Aavik had
2448-535: The 3rd Baltic Front from cutting off the retreat of the Army Detachment "Narwa" from Estonia, there was open ground towards Tartu, Estonia's second largest city. Army Group North created a Kampfgruppe (an ad-hoc combat formation), led by SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Wagner and manned by an army detachment, for the defence of the new line. The Soviet tank units forced a wedge between the Kampfgruppe and
2520-630: The Emajõgi. The Army Detachment "Narwa" and the XXVIII Army Corps, the northernmost elements of Army Group North, were at risk of being encircled and destroyed. The headquarters of the Army Group North ordered the II Army Corps to abandon the defence of the Emajõgi line and to move quickly around the northern tip of Lake Võrtsjärv to Latvia. The code name for the withdrawal of the Army Detachment "Narwa" from mainland Estonia
2592-519: The Estonians to organise a new resistance movement in the late 1980s, regain their independence in 1991, and then rapidly develop a modern society. Estonian language Estonian ( eesti keel [ˈeːsʲti ˈkeːl] ) is a Finnic language of the Uralic family . Estonian is the official language of Estonia . It is written in the Latin script and is the first language of
2664-546: The Estophile educated class admired the ancient culture of the Estonians and their era of freedom before the conquests by Danes and Germans in the 13th century. When the Republic of Estonia was established in 1918, Estonian became the official language of the newly independent country. Immediately after World War II , in 1945, over 97% of the then population of Estonia self-identified as native ethnic Estonians and spoke
2736-609: The German Army Group Centre . At the beginning of the Soviet Tartu Operation, the ratio of Soviet to German strength was 4.3:1 for troops, 14.8:1 for artillery and 4.1:1 for armour. The German forces were mostly battle groups from various formations and smaller units from different branches. A significant proportion of the German side was constituted of Omakaitse militia battalions with poor weaponry and little fighting ability. The main thrust of
2808-609: The German Army Group North . The Soviet tactical aim was to defeat the 18th Army and to capture the city of Tartu . The strategic goal was a quick occupation of Estonia. The Soviet command planned to reach the coast of the Gulf of Riga and trap the Army Detachment "Narwa" . The German side involved Estonian conscripts , which fought to defend their country against the looming Soviet annexation . The 3rd Baltic Front captured Tartu. The conquest caused
2880-558: The II Army Corps retreated south of Viljandi to form the 18th Army's rearguard. As they retreated, the Soviet 2nd Shock and 8th Armies advanced and took Tallinn on September 22. Soviet rule of Estonia was re-established by force, and sovietisation followed, which was mostly carried out in 1944–1950. The forced collectivisation of agriculture began in 1947, and was completed after the mass deportation of Estonians in March 1949 . All private farms were confiscated, and farmers were made to join
2952-468: The II Army Corps to launch an operation attempting to recapture Tartu. The attack of 4–6 September reached the northern outskirts of the city but was repulsed by units of four Soviet rifle divisions. Relative calm settled on the front for the subsequent thirteen days. The property of the University of Tartu suffered heavy losses in the campaign, accounting for 40 million roubles of damage (equalling to
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3024-578: The North Caucasus Military District. Grechkin became commander of the 56th Army operational group in October, leading it in the defense of Rostov , which ended in a retreat from the city. In conjunction with the 9th Army and the rest of the 56th Army, the operational group was able to recapture the city during the subsequent Rostov Offensive . He became the deputy commander of the 24th Army in June 1942 and took command of
3096-513: The Omakaitse militia battalions in the front segment from the Valga railway junction to Lake Võrtsjärv. In fierce battles, the German and Estonian units held their positions. The Soviet Tallinn offensive of the 2nd Shock and 8th Armies commenced on the early morning of 17 September. The 2nd Shock Army forced its way through the II Army Corps divisional headquarters and artillery positions along
3168-518: The Soviet forces conquered the city and established a bridgehead on the north bank of the Emajõgi on 25 August. Due to "Wagner"'s inability to hold back the Soviet offensive, the headquarters of the Army Group North turned over command of the Emajõgi Front to the II Army Corps, commanded by Infantry General Wilhelm Hasse . At the end of August, the III. Battalion, 1st Estonian Regiment was formed from
3240-555: The Soviet operation was first aimed at the southern Petseri County . On 10 August, the Soviet 67th Army broke through the defence of the XXVIII Army Corps and captured the town of Võru on 13 August. The XXVIII Army Corps were forced to the banks of the Väike Emajõgi and Gauja Rivers in the west where they were supported by the Viljandi County Omakaitse militia battalion. While the defence prevented
3312-504: The XXVIIIth Army Corps; Wagner had insufficient troops ahead of the city. On 16 August, Lieutenant General Alexey Grechkin's group launched an amphibious assault over Lake Peipus behind the German left (east) flank, beating the Omakaitse defence and forming a bridgehead in the village of Mehikoorma. In fierce battles, a local border guard regiment stopped their advance. The 3rd Baltic Front launched an artillery barrage at
3384-410: The alphabet. Including all the foreign letters, the alphabet consists of the following 32 letters: Although the Estonian orthography is generally guided by phonemic principles, with each grapheme corresponding to one phoneme , there are some historical and morphological deviations from this: for example preservation of the morpheme in declension of the word (writing b, g, d in places where p, k, t
3456-676: The army's collapse. Grechkin joined the Red Army in August 1918 and was appointed assistant commissar of the staff of the Don Soviet Republic . He subsequently fought on the Southern Front of the Russian Civil War as a battalion commander, chief of defense of Morshansky Uyezd , and commander of the reserve regiment of the 9th Kuban Army . He fought in battles with the White Army 4th Don Cavalry Corps ,
3528-441: The basic order is subject–verb–object . The speakers of the two major historical languages spoken in Estonia, North and South Estonian , are thought by some linguists to have arrived in Estonia in at least two different migration waves over two millennia ago, both groups having spoken considerably different vernacular; South Estonian might be a Finnic language rather than a variety of Estonian. Modern standard Estonian evolved in
3600-403: The beginning of the Winter War , Grechkin was appointed commander of the newly formed 1st Division of the Finnish People's Army , the military of the Soviet puppet Finnish Democratic Republic . He led the division during the capture of Vyborg in the spring of 1940, just before the end of the war. On 4 June, the Red Army changed its rank system, and Grechkin became a major general . In July, he
3672-413: The case and number of the adjective always agreeing with that of the noun (except in the terminative, essive, abessive and comitative, where there is agreement only for the number, the adjective being in the genitive form). Thus the illative for kollane maja ("a yellow house") is kollasesse majja ("into a yellow house"), but the terminative is kollase majani ("as far as a yellow house"). With respect to
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#17327911956453744-620: The collective farms. An armed resistance movement of ' Forest Brothers ' was active until the mass deportations. A total of 30,000 participated or supported the movement; 2,000 were killed. The Soviet authorities fighting the Forest Brothers suffered also hundreds of deaths. Among those killed on both sides were innocent civilians. Besides the armed resistance of the Forest Brothers, a number of underground nationalist schoolchildren groups were active. Most of their members were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. The punitive actions decreased rapidly after Joseph Stalin 's death in 1953; from 1956–58,
3816-418: The destruction of the Estonian National Museum and 40 million roubles worth of damage to the University of Tartu . Kampfgruppe " Wagner " stabilised the front at the Emajõgi River. The XXVIII Army Corps supported by Omakaitse militia stalled the front at the Väike Emajõgi and Gauja Rivers, preventing the 3rd Baltic Front from cutting off the "Narwa". Attacks of the Leningrad Front had pushed
3888-427: The disposal of the 1st Ukrainian Front 's military council, and at the end of the war Grechkin took command of the front's 48th Rifle Corps . After the end of the war, Grechkin continued to command the 48th Rifle Corps, which became part of the Lvov Military District . In May 1946 he took command of the 73rd Rifle Corps in the Carpathian Military District , but was relieved of command in July and from October 1946
3960-406: The elimination of Sergei Ulagay's landing force , and the suppression of partisans in the Kuban . After end of the war, in October 1920, Grechkin became assistant commander of the 37th Separate Rifle Brigade (later the 37th Rifle Division ) in the North Caucasus Military District . He later became commander of the 111th Rifle Regiment and in June 1922 transferred to become assistant commander of
4032-422: The end of the 20th century has brought the proportion of native Estonian-speakers in Estonia now back above 70%. Large parts of the first- and second-generation immigrants in Estonia have now adopted Estonian (over 50% as of the 2022 census). The Estonian dialects are divided into two groups – the northern and southern dialects, historically associated with the cities of Tallinn in the north and Tartu in
4104-535: The founder of modern Estonian poetry. His birthday, March 14, is celebrated in Estonia as Mother Tongue Day. A fragment from Peterson's poem "Kuu" expresses the claim reestablishing the birthright of the Estonian language: In English: In the period from 1525 to 1917, 14,503 titles were published in Estonian; by comparison, between 1918 and 1940, 23,868 titles were published. In modern times A. H. Tammsaare , Jaan Kross , and Andrus Kivirähk are Estonia 's best-known and most translated writers. Estonians lead
4176-403: The language. When Estonia was invaded and reoccupied by the Soviet army in 1944, the status of Estonian effectively changed to one of the two official languages (Russian being the other one). Many immigrants from Russia entered Estonia under Soviet encouragement. In the 1970s, the pressure of bilingualism for Estonians was intensified. Although teaching Estonian to non-Estonians in local schools
4248-418: The majority of the country's population; it is also an official language of the European Union . Estonian is spoken natively by about 1.1 million people: 922,000 people in Estonia and 160,000 elsewhere. Estonian belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family . Other Finnic languages include Finnish and some minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and in northwestern Russia. Estonian
4320-436: The positions of the 2nd Battalion, 45 Waffen SS Grenadier Regiment (1st Estonian) covering the German right flank in the village of Nõo southeast of Tartu on 23 August. The Soviet 282nd Rifle Division backed by the 16th Single Tank Brigade and two self-propelled artillery regiments bypassed the defence on the west side and captured the Kärevere Bridge across the Emajõgi River west of Tartu. Being one of only four bridges across
4392-492: The second half of the 19th century based on Finnish orthography. The "Older orthography" it replaced was created in the 17th century by Bengt Gottfried Forselius and Johann Hornung based on standard German orthography. Earlier writing in Estonian had, by and large, used an ad hoc orthography based on Latin and Middle Low German orthography. Some influences of the standard German orthography – for example, writing 'W'/'w' instead of 'V'/'v' – persisted well into
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#17327911956454464-419: The sounds [p], [t], [k] are written as p, t, k , with some exceptions due to morphology or etymology. Representation of palatalised consonants is inconsistent, and they are not always indicated. ŋ is an allophone of /n/ before /k/. While peripheral Estonian dialects are characterized by various degrees of vowel harmony , central dialects have almost completely lost the feature. Since the standard language
4536-405: The south, in addition to a distinct kirderanniku dialect, Northeastern coastal Estonian . The northern group consists of the keskmurre or central dialect that is also the basis for the standard language, the läänemurre or western dialect, roughly corresponding to Lääne County and Pärnu County , the saarte murre (islands' dialect) of Saaremaa , Hiiumaa , Muhu and Kihnu , and
4608-514: The wave of new loanwords from English in the 20th and 21st centuries, historically, Swedish and Russian were also sources of borrowings but to a much lesser extent. In borrowings, often 'b' and 'p' are interchangeable, for example 'baggage' becomes 'pagas', 'lob' (to throw) becomes 'loopima'. The initial letter 's' before another consonant is often dropped, for example 'skool' becomes 'kool', 'stool' becomes 'tool'. Estonian language planners such as Ado Grenzstein (a journalist active in Estonia from
4680-406: The western flank of the Soviet lines in Elva on 24 August. On the night before the attack, the designated commander of the operation Generalmajor Hyazinth von Strachwitz had a serious car accident. The Soviet tank squadrons repulsed the German attack on the following day. Four Soviet rifle divisions launched an attack at Tartu with the support of armour and artillery. After fierce street battles,
4752-416: The world in book ownership, owning on average 218 books per house, and 35% of Estonians owning 350 books or more (as of 2018). Writings in Estonian became significant only in the 19th century with the spread of the ideas of the Age of Enlightenment , during the Estophile Enlightenment Period (1750–1840). Although Baltic Germans at large regarded the future of Estonians as being a fusion with themselves,
4824-456: Was Operation "Aster". Beginning on 17 September 1944, a naval force under Vice-Admiral Theodor Burchardi evacuated elements of the Army Detachment and Estonian civilians. Within six days, around 50,000 troops, 20,000 civilians and 1,000 prisoners were evacuated. The remaining elements of the Army Detachment were ordered to withdraw into Latvia by way of Pärnu and Viljandi . The III SS (Germanic) Panzer Corps reached Pärnu by September 20, while
4896-408: Was also important. From a purely military and tactical point of view, the German forces holding the Estonian region as well as the surrounding areas was becoming increasingly exposed by Soviet movements and attacks to the south. This became quite apparent when, after initial successes, Soviet forces advanced towards the Baltic seacoast at the end of their Operation Bagration of June–August 1944 against
4968-399: Was appointed assistant commander of the North Caucasus Military District for higher educational institutions. During the first months after Operation Barbarossa , the 22 June 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, Grechkin was tasked with organizing the construction of the Mius defensive line, which protected Rostov-on-Don . From 3 August to 4 September, he was the acting commander of
5040-460: Was deputy commander of the 3rd Baltic Front in the summer of 1943. After the war, Grechkin successively commanded two rifle corps and the Vystrel commander improvement courses before his 1954 retirement. Grechkin was born on 26 March 1893 in the village of Karpenka , Novouzensky Uyezd in Samara Governorate (now Krasnokutsky District , Saratov Oblast ). In 1910, he graduated from a teacher's school in Dyakovka , after which Grechkin worked as
5112-477: Was formally compulsory, in practice, the teaching and learning of Estonian by Russian-speakers was often considered unnecessary by the Soviet authorities. In 1991, with the restoration of Estonia's independence , Estonian went back to being the only official language in Estonia. Since 2004, when Estonia joined the European Union, Estonian is also one of the (now 24) official languages of the EU . The return of former Soviet immigrants to their countries of origin at
5184-631: Was promoted to lieutenant general and a month later transferred to command the 28th Army , which Grechkin commanded in the Nikopol–Krivoi Rog Offensive and the Bereznegovatoye–Snigirevka Offensive . In May 1944, he was appointed deputy commander of the 3rd Baltic Front , and in this position served in the Pskov-Ostrov Offensive . In August 1944, Grechkin was given command of a force consisting of
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