When the USSR occupied and annexed Estonia in 1940, former civilians, soldiers, and real and perceived opponents to the Kremlin were threatened with arrest and repression.

Large battles between the Forest Brothers and KGB units ended in Estonia in 1953, although minor conflict continued until 1957.

The last Forest Brothers to be arrested were Hugo and Aksel Mõttus, who were captured in Võru County in the summer of 1967.

August Sabbe remained at large until 1978, when he was either killed in Võru County by the KGB or drowned attempting to escape them.

[4] The largest battles took place around Timmkanal, as well as Tartu, where the Forest Brothers repelled the Soviet forces on July 10, 1941.

By the autumn of that year, thousands of Estonian soldiers, former Wehrmacht officers, and members of the Omakaitse had taken refuge in the forest.

The Soviet command and the government of the Estonian SSR created forces to fight underground resistance movements.

The 5th Infantry Division of the Internal Troops of the NKVD, stationed in Latvia under the command of Major General Pyotr Leontiev, extended its operations to Estonia.

In 1945, NKVD troops and destruction battalions killed 432 Estonian freedom fighters and arrested 584 people, including 449 supporters of the partisans.

At the same time, 56 policemen, soldiers, and officers of the NKVD troops; 86 fighter squad members; and 141 pro-Soviet activists were killed.

Forest Brother Ants "The Terrible" Kaljurand served as the local leader[citation needed] of the RVL, a partisan organization founded by Endel Redlich.

The last Estonian partisan, August Sabbe, died on September 27, 1978, reportedly drowning in a river after being found by KGB officers while he was fishing.

[12] Since 1998, the Estonian Defence League has organized the Põrgupõhja expedition, an annual military sports event in the forests of Vana-Vigala and Eidapere, in honor of the partisans.

According to historians who studied the partisans, there were between 14,000 and 15,000 Forest Brothers in Estonia following the Second World War,[16] along with people simply hiding in the woods.