Bolsheviks take Narva

At half past five on the morning of 28 November 1918 the artillery of the Red Army opened fire on Narva and on the suburb of Jaanilinn (Ivangorod) on the other bank of the river. The 6th Rifle Division of the Soviet Seventh Army advanced on the town, and with it regiments of Estonian Red Riflemen, formed in Russia from Estonians who had fled from the Germans. On the same day, or according to some studies the next day, the Reds occupied the town. The Estonians count the start of their War of Independence from that day.

The Germans had held Narva since March, but after the armistice they were preparing to leave. They repulsed the first Red attack, on 22 November, still mainly by themselves: according to Estonian studies about 80 Estonian Red Riflemen were killed in the fighting at Kulgu. On 27 November the Estonian revolutionary committee demanded in an ultimatum that the German soldiers’ council and the inhabitants let its troops into the town without a fight and not blow up the bridges. Meanwhile the Estonians were taking over the defence. From 21 November Colonel Aleksander Seiman had been forming the 4th Infantry Regiment of the People’s Army in Narva, helped by members of the Defence League, among them pupils of the local schools. According to Estonian estimates about a thousand Estonians with a few machine guns and no artillery stood on the river, together with roughly the same number of Germans or slightly more. The attackers had a clear superiority: English-language studies state that the division numbered about 7,000 infantry, more than 20 guns, an armoured train and two aircraft.

On the eastern bank, on the Keldrimäe hill in front of Jaanilinn, the Germans and Estonians held off the attack until the afternoon. It was harder on the western bank. During the night the Estonian communist 2nd Rifle Regiment from Viljandi crossed the river, went round the town from the south-west and at about nine in the morning struck a German battery on the Joala field from the rear. A counter-attack by Estonians and Germans and canister fire from the guns turned round drove it back with heavy losses. Estonian sources speak of 94 Reds killed, among them the chairman of the council of Estonian Red Riflemen, Jaan Sihver.

The decisive blow came from the sea. The cruiser Oleg and the destroyers accompanying her landed at Narva-Jõesuu, at the mouth of the river, a force numbering, according to different sources, from 500 to almost 600 men, which threatened to encircle the defenders. The Germans were ordered to retreat and at about 3.30 p.m. blew up the bridges over the Narva. Behind them, fearing encirclement, the Estonians of General Aleksander Tõnisson also withdrew.

On 29 November the Estonian Bolsheviks proclaimed the Commune of the Working People of Estonia at Narva, headed by Jaan Anvelt. On the same day the Estonian government in Tallinn declared martial law and compulsory mobilisation. The Reds pushed on west and within a month came within a few dozen kilometres of Tallinn. Only in January 1919 did the Estonians, supported by Finnish volunteers and the British fleet, go over to the counter-offensive and retake Narva.