Miscellaneous

Estonia and Estonians in the Strategic Confrontation of the Cold War – Part II

In the previous part, we briefly explored the role of Estonia and the Baltic States in the confrontation of intelligence organisations in the first years of the Cold War. We realised that the Baltic States were an important region for Western countries, since here contact with the Soviet Union was more immediate than in most other areas. The Iron Curtain was porous, the Baltic Sea was not only a barrier but also a connection route, which was cunningly used by Estonian and Latvian refugees, but also by expatriates cooperating with Western intelligence organisations. In the 1950s, trips across the sea petered out and probably stopped, and human intelligence was replaced with radio intelligence, aerial observations and, from the 1960s, satellite intelligence.

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