Three boxes of KGB files have arrived at the National Archives of Estonia, containing surveillance and interrogation records on President Konstantin Päts, the first president of independent Estonia, Commander-in-Chief Gen. Johan Laidoner and their close associates.

The documents, mostly from 1940 to 1952, reveal what Päts, Laidoner and their families had to endure after the Soviet takeover of Estonia beginning in 1940. The collection includes both detailed interrogation protocols and extensive surveillance files.

 "In the late 1980s, these materials were stored in thousands of files at the Estonian SSR's Committee for State Security (KGB)," said historian Küllo Arjakas.

At the time, they were used, in the period's phrasing, for the "rehabilitation of victims of Stalinist mass repressions."

It was long thought that Vladimir Pool, former deputy chair of the Estonian SSR KGB and author of books on Päts and Laidoner, only used copies and extracts of the files.

In reality, he kept some original documents for himself, sending copies back to Russia, and in 1993, Pool retrieved Laidoner's personal file from Russia's Vladimir Central Prison.

Among the newly arrived files, Arjakas highlighted a cipher and brief notes Laidoner recorded each day while imprisoned in 1952.

Only two files are missing from the National Archives' collection. They were sent from the Estonian SSR to Matty Päts — not the president's young grandson, Matti, but his son Viktor, whose nickname was Matty.

"They were encoded, but the Soviet NKVD officers in Ufa managed to decipher them," Arjakas said. He explained that the letters described life in the Estonian SSR.

Key Estonian leaders

Konstantin Päts (1874–1956), was a key statesman and five-time prime minister who led the country as Estonia's first president from 1938 until the Soviet occupation in 1940.

After being forced to resign, he was imprisoned and deported to the USSR, where he died in 1956.

Gen. Johan Laidoner (1884–1953) served as commander‑in‑chief of the Estonian Armed Forces during the War of Independence and was a major figure in interwar Estonian politics. He was reappointed commander-in-chief during the 1924 Communist coup attempt and again from 1934 to 1940.

Following the Soviet occupation, Laidoner was arrested and likewise deported to the USSR, where he died in prison in 1953.

The latest KGB files to arrive have been organized and will be digitally available to the public next year, the National Archives said.

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