August Traksmaa

August Traksmaa

August Traksmaa (27 August 1893 Põlula, Estonia – 16 July 1942, Sevurallag Gulag, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, Soviet Union) was an Estonian officer and diplomat.

August Traksmaa was born as August Traksmann in Põlula, Kreis Wierland (now in Vinni Parish), in the Governorate of Estonia of the former Russian Empire. He joined the Imperial Russian Army in 1915 and fought in World War I. Following the Russian Revolution in 1917, he joined the newly formed Estonian armed units and participated as an officer with the rank of captain in the Estonian War of Independence (1918–1920). From 1926, he served at the general staff of Estonia and late became a divisional commander.

August Traksmann Estonianized his surname to Traksmaa in 1935.

Between 1936 and 1937 he served as the Envoy of Estonia to the Soviet Union. He was promoted to the rank of major-general in 1939 and for a brief period served as deputy minister of war.

Soon after the June 1940 Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia, Traksmaa was arrested by the Soviet NKVD. He was subsequently deported from Estonia in 1941, and imprisoned in Russian Gulag camps. After a short trial, the Stalinist authorities sentenced him to death on 15 July 1942. According to some official Soviet records, Traksmaa died the next day, on 16 July 1942, in the Sevurallag gulag, in the Sverdlovsk Oblast, then Soviet Russia.^[1][2][3]

References

1. "August Traksmaa". Estonian War Museum. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
2. "Traksmaa, August". generals.dk. Steen Ammentorp. Retrieved 17 March 2017.
3. "THE FATE OF THE ESTONIAN GENERALS (IN ACTIVE SERVICE IN 1940)" (PDF). mnemosyne.ee. Estonian Institute of Historical Memory. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 March 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2017.