Defence Forces Cemetery

Defence Forces Cemetery on Tehnika Street, Tallinn is part of the Estonian War Museum.
The database of those buried in the Defense Forces Cemetery can be found in the Haudi cemetery register.

The military cemetery was established in 1887. Initially, the cemetery only covered the western part of the current cemetery. The cemetery was intended for the burial of soldiers from the 23rd Infantry Division of the Russian Imperial Army stationed in Tallinn.

At the end of World War I, during the German occupation from February to November 1918, 70 German soldiers were buried here. The cemetery was expanded to the east.

During the Estonian War of Independence, 440 Estonian soldiers, 130 Russian soldiers who fought against the Red Army, and 150 Red Army prisoners of war who died of disease were buried in the cemetery. Two US lieutenants who had been sent to Estonia by the International Red Cross and died of typhus in a military hospital were also buried here.

After the end of the War of Independence, the cemetery was converted into the Estonian Defense Forces Cemetery, where Estonian soldiers and defense officials were buried.

World War II began in 1939. In June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Estonia. In the summer of 1941, Germany occupied Estonia. During the German occupation, victims of the Red Terror and Estonian soldiers who had fallen in the ranks of the German army, as well as German soldiers, were buried here.

From 1918 to September 1944, 1,365 people were buried in the cemetery.

In the autumn of 1944, the Red Army recaptured Estonia and the government of the Republic of Estonia, which had been appointed after the departure of the Germans, was removed from power. The Soviet occupation continued. From 1944 to 1992, the cemetery was the burial place for Soviet military personnel. Approximately 1,200 Soviet military personnel and their family members were buried here, and another 1,200 memorial plaques were installed for Soviet military personnel buried elsewhere.

In 1949–1950, Soviet military personnel and their family members were also begun to be buried on top of the graves of Estonian Republic Defense Forces and German soldiers. In 1950, most of the memorials from the Estonian Republic era were destroyed.

After Estonia regained its independence in 1991, most of the memorials destroyed during the Soviet occupation and some of the grave markers were restored between 1995 and 2010 (architect Tiina Linna).

In April 2007, a monument erected in Tõnismäe in 1947 to Red Army soldiers who died during the capture of Tallinn in September 1944 was moved to the Defense Forces Cemetery. In the summer of 2007, Soviet soldiers who fell in Tallinn and its surroundings in September 1944 were reburied here from Tõnismäe.

Defence Forces cemetery is under heritage protection.

Defence Forces Cemetery Map

Legend:

1. Chapel
2. British sailors’ burial ground
3. War of Independence memorial
4. German military memorial
5. Memorial and burial ground of the Estonian army leaders in the War of Independence
6. Estonian Defense Forces pilots’ burial site
7. Memorial and burial site for victims of the Männiku explosion
8. Cemetery gate
9. Memorial and burial site for recipients of the Cross of Liberty
10. Memorial and burial site for Red Army soldiers
11. Well