Tallinn Breakout of the Soviet Baltic Fleet towards Kronstadt during WWII 

On August 28, the Tallinn Breakout of the Soviet Baltic Fleet towards Kronstadt — one of the largest and most difficult naval operations by the Soviet Union during WWII — commenced.

In the summer of 1941, the Nazis, having treacherously invaded our Motherland, advanced rapidly into the Baltic region. By August, the enemy had launched an offensive against the capital of Soviet Estonia — Tallinn. Thus, the city’s heroic defence commenced. Wehrmacht army group 'North' received a direct order from Hitler: under no circumstances were the Soviet Baltic Fleet or Red Army units to be allowed to withdraw to Kronstadt to take part in the defence of Leningrad.

By the end of August, the Soviet forces, including the Tallinn garrison, started regrouping under the heavy fire of Nazis and found themselves encircled on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. The land route to Leningrad had been severed by the enemy.

Faced with these dire circumstances, the Supreme High Command of the USSR took a vital decision: to evacuate the Baltic Fleet, the Red Army units, which were defending Tallinn, as well as civilians to Kronstadt.

In the early hours of August 28, the breakout began. A convoy of 225 warships and auxiliary vessels left Tallinn, carrying over 40'000 people on board. The convoy of ships was led by the Commander of the Baltic Fleet, Vice-Admiral Vladimir Tributs, on flagship 'Kirov'.

German Nazis and their Finnish accomplices were trying to thwart the evacuation by any means. Enemy coastal artillery opened heavy and relentless fire on Soviet vessels, while Finnish aircraft were mercilessly shooting at the Soviet people in the water. The Gulf of Finland was sown with over 1'700 mines laid by the Nazis. “The Gulf, choked with enemy mines, resembled a dumpling soup,” — survivors later recounted.

After leaving Tallinn, the vessels began to blow up on enemy mines. People, trying to escape from the fire, threw themselves into the sea (the water temperature in the Gulf of Finland at that moment was about 14 degrees), where they were shot dead by Finnish pilots. The enemy deliberately destroyed poorly protected transport ships, whose decks were crowded with the wounded, women and children.

By August 30, the Baltic Fleet finally fought its way to Kronstadt. Only 163 vessels reached the destination safely. More than 15,000 people, among them over 4,500 civilians, lost their lives during the breakout — an unprecedented number of casualties in the history of naval warfare.

Under such circumstances, casualties could have been far more serious, yet thanks to the unparalleled courage and heroism of Red Fleet sailors and Red Army soldiers, the main forces of the fleet were preserved and later engaged in the defence of Leningrad, shielding the city from from attacks via the Gulf of Finland.

The Tallinn Breakout stands as one of the most heroic and tragic episodes of WWII. To this day, the depths of the Gulf of Finland remain strewn with the wreckage of vessels lost to Nazi mines — they serve as silent memorials to those three harrowing days in August 1941.

On August 28, 1978, a memorial was erected at Cape Juminda (the Gulf’s southern coast) to honour those who perished during the breakout — a granite boulder and plaque with naval mines around.

Annually, commemorative ceremonies are held there with participation of the Russian Embassy in Estonia, compatriots’ organisations, veterans and their families, as well as Estonians who share our common historical memory.

💬 Russia's Ambassador to Estonia Alexander Petrov (2015−2021):

“To the North of Juminda now lies what is perhaps the largest maritime mass grave not only in the Baltic, but in the entire world. 

It is the moral duty of the living to bow their heads before those who perished and honour the courage and fortitude of all who crushed the Nazi regime during WWII.”