Gustav Jonson

Gustav Jonson was born Gustav Joonson to Jüri and Mari Joonson (née Adamson) at Kudu farm, Päri Parish (now in present-day Viljandi Parish). In 1914 he graduated from Riga Polytechnical Institute. He participated in World War I. In 1917 he returned to Estonia, and he formed the 1st Cavalry Regiment. The regiment participated in the Estonian War of Independence. From 1918 to 1924 he was the commander of the 1st Cavalry Regiment. From 1927 to 1928 he was the head of Estonian Military Academy. From 1934 to 1939 he was the assistant officer (Estonian: käsundusohvitser) of the state elder Konstantin Päts.[1]

In 1939, the then 59-year-old Jonson resigned from active service with the rank of Major General due to exceeding the age limit. After the Stalinist Soviet invasion and occupation of Estonia on 16-17 June 1940, a few days later Jonson was reinstated to service and appointed Commander of the Estonian Army to replace the previous Commander-in-Chief Johan Laidoner who had been forced to resign by the Soviet authorities.[1]

Memorial to Jonson at Kudu farm in Viljandi County, Jonson's birthplace.

Jonson formally remained commander of the armed formation after it was renamed the "Soviet Estonian People's Army", and then also after it became part of the Soviet Red Army' (as the "22nd Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps"). In that capacity he was promoted in February 1941 to Lieutenant General of the Red Army.[1]

At the beginning of June 1941, the Stalinist regime released all Estonian generals from the command of the "Estonian Territorial Rifle Corps". On 13 June 1941, Jonson was sent to the General Staff Academy in Moscow, where the Soviet authorities arrested him on 19 July 1941. On 15 May 1942, Jonson was sentenced to death. Jonson was executed in Chelyabinsk, Soviet Russia on 15 November 1942.[2]