Ants Kaljurand (20 October 1917 – 13 March 1951)
– Metsavennad.esm.ee (in Estonian) popularly known as ''Terrifying Ants'', (), was an Estonian

Nazi collaborator In World War II, many governments, organizations and individuals Collaborationism, collaborated with the Axis powers, "out of conviction, desperation, or under coercion". Nationalists sometimes welcomed German or Italian troops they believed wou ...

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

, and forest brother during and after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Early life

Ants Kaljurand was born on 20 October 1917 in

Tallinn Tallinn is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Estonia, most populous city of Estonia. Situated on a Tallinn Bay, bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, it has a population of (as of 2025) and ...

. His mother Juula was born in 1887. There is no information about his father. Kaljurand grew up in the village of Teesu near Pidula Bay on the island of

Saaremaa Saaremaa (; ) is the largest and most populous island in Estonia. Measuring , its population is 31,435 (as of January 2020). The main island of the West Estonian archipelago (Moonsund archipelago), it is located in the Baltic Sea, south of Hi ...

. He graduated from Pidula Primary School. In 1935, he went to Koonga Parish (now

Lääneranna Parish Lääneranna Parish () is a rural municipality in Pärnu County. It includes the town of Lihula. Gallery Lihula.jpg, Lihula town Kõima mõisa peahoone.jpg, Kõima manor in Kõima village Virtsu lighthouse 1.jpg, Lighthouse in Virtsu Settl ...

) in

Pärnu County Pärnu County ( or ''Pärnumaa''; ) is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is situated in the south-western part of the country, on the coast of Gulf of Riga, and borders Lääne and Rapla counties to the north, Järva and Viljandi counties to ...

to work as a farm laborer on Sepa Farm. In 1938, he served in the

Estonian Defense Forces The Estonian Defence Forces () is the unified military force of the Republic of Estonia. The Estonian Defence Forces consists of the Estonian Land Forces, the Estonian Navy, the Estonian Air Force, and the paramilitary Estonian Defence League. The ...

and then continued on as a laborer on Sepa Farm.

Partisan life

Kaljurand joined the

Forest Brothers The guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an insurgency waged by Baltic states, Baltic (Latvian partisans, Latvian, Lithuanian partisans, Lithuanian and Estonian partisans, Estonian) partisans against the Soviet Union from 1944 to 1956. Known ...

and in the summer of 1941, attacked

Soviet forces The Armed Forces of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also known as the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union, the Red Army (1918–1946) and the Soviet Army (1946–1991), were the armed forces of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republi ...

in Lääne and Pärnu Counties. Between 1942 and 1944, during the occupation of Estonia by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

, he served in the

collaborationist Wartime collaboration is cooperation with the enemy against one's country of citizenship in wartime. As historian Gerhard Hirschfeld says, it "is as old as war and the occupation of foreign territory". The term ''collaborator'' dates to the 19th ...

paramilitary ''

Omakaitse The Omakaitse ('home guard') was a militia organisation in Estonia. It was founded in 1917 following the Russian Revolution. On the eve of the occupation of Estonia by the German Empire, the Omakaitse units took over major towns in the country ...

'' and later on the front as part of the

Waffen-SS The (; ) was the military branch, combat branch of the Nazi Party's paramilitary ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscr ...

.Mandel, p. 215 (in Estonian) After the retreat of the Germans in 1944, he remained a prisoner of war on Saaremaa, but escaped from the prison camp in December of the same year and continued his activities in the Forest Brothers. During Estonia's Soviet era, Kaljurand served as the local leader of the Armed Combat Union (''Relvastatud Võitluse Liit''), founded under the leadership of Endel Redlich, in Soontaga.

Capture and execution

It was not until

midsummer Midsummer is a celebration of the season of summer, taking place on or near the date of the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere; the longest Daytime, day of the year. The name "midsummer" mainly refers to summer solstice festivals of Eu ...

1949 that the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

arrested him. On 24 June 1949 Ants Kaljurand and two members of his squad were discovered sleeping in the woods near the village of Võitra. Forest Brother Aleksander Valter and Arved Pill were seriously wounded in an exchange of fire. Ants tried to escape, but was wounded with a bayonet and captured. Kaljurand, Pill and Juhan Metsaäär were sentenced to death, others to from ten to twenty-five years in a prison camp. They were executed on 13 March 1951.

Memorial

On 10 July 2011 a memorial stone commemorating Ants Kaljurand was unveiled at the Mihkli Church in

Koonga Parish Koonga was a municipality located in Pärnu County, one of the 15 counties of Estonia. In 2017, Koonga Parish, Hanila Parish, Lihula Parish, and Varbla Parish were merged to form Lääneranna Parish. It is one of the oldest known human settlem ...

, at the initiative of the

Estonian Defense League The Estonian Defence League (, 'Defence League') is a voluntary Paramilitary, paramilitary national defence organization of the Republic of Estonia, under management of the Ministry of Defence (Estonia), Ministry of Defence. Its aim is to guarant ...

References

External links

Varsti tulevad Truman ja Hirmus Ants!
–

Maaleht ''Maaleht'' is the biggest weekly newspaper published in Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic S ...

(in Estonian) * Raivo Raudkivi
Lapsepõlve lood: öine külaline ehk Hirmsa Antsuga söögilauas
(in Estonian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaljurand, Ants 1917 births 1951 deaths Estonian anti-communists Estonian independence activists Estonian Waffen-SS personnel Estonian people executed by the Soviet Union Executed Estonian collaborators with Nazi Germany Nazis executed by the Soviet Union by firearm People from Saaremaa Parish Forest Brothers