Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Governorate of Livonia
Military • Historical Archive • 🇪🇪 Estonia • 0 views

Johan Laidoner 🇪🇪

Johan Laidoner (Known as "General Laidoner")
Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian Armed Forces (1918–1920, 1924–1925, 1934–1940)
Born Feb 12, 1884 🇪🇪 Viiratsi, Viljandi County, Estonia
Passed Away Mar 13, 1953 Vladimir Central Prison, Vladimir, USSR, Estonia
Lifespan 69 years old
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"An army that fights for its own soil and the freedom of its children can never be conquered by foreign legions."

Archival Overview

Master military commander who led the newly formed Estonian Armed Forces to victory in the 1918–1920 War of Independence, defeating both the Soviet Red Army and the Baltic-German Landeswehr.

Biographical Record

Johan Laidoner was born in Viiratsi on February 12, 1884. Graduating from the Imperial Nicholas General Staff Academy in Saint Petersburg with highest honors, Laidoner served as a lieutenant colonel in the Russian army during World War I.

Appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Estonian forces in December 1918, Laidoner stopped the Bolshevik advance on Tallinn with armored trains and volunteer ski units, expelling foreign forces from Estonian territory in six weeks. Defeating the Landeswehr at Cēsis in 1919, he secured the 1920 Tartu Peace Treaty. Deported to Russia in 1940, he died in Vladimir Central Prison in 1953.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Metsakalmistu Memorial Cenotaph
Tallinn, Estonia
GPS: 59.4710, 24.8690
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