History of Estonia (1920–39) prospect of Vaps movement achieving electoral victory, Konstantin Päts and Johan Laidoner conducted a military coup d’état on 12 March 1934, arresting hundreds of Vaps members. A six-month state of emergency was declared, postponing the elections and political meetings were banned. During the interwar period Estonia had pursued a policy of neutrality, but the fate of Estonia in World War II was decided by the German–Soviet Nonaggression Pact and its of August 1939. In the agreement, the two great powers agreed to divide up the countries situated between them (Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Finland) with Estonia falling in the
Estonia establish a larger alliance together with Finland, Poland, and Latvia failed, with only a mutual defence pact being signed with Latvia in 1923, and later was followed up with the Baltic Entente of 1934. In the 1930s, Estonia also engaged in secret military cooperation with Finland. Non-aggression pacts were signed with the Soviet Union in 1932, and with Germany in 1939. In 1938, Estonia declared neutrality, but this proved futile in World War II. On 23 August 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The pact's secret protocol divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence, with Estonia