After having found his brother Artur and sharing a secret bunker with him and others near his family’s home at Velise, Saaliste traveled throughout Estonia making contact with widely dispersed groups of the anti-Soviet Forest Brothers. Richard became the recognized authority within the unorganized movement.
He was unable to locate hardly any members of the National Committee or Western intelligence agents who had been unsuccessful in escaping in the fall of 1944. He had been tasked in Sweden with helping them and fundamentalist church leaders to flee to the West. Practically all of them had been either arrested, killed or had disappeared without trace.
He had been able to replace the lost radio with equipment left behind by a former Estonian reconnaissance-diversion team. Communications between Estonia and Sweden were renewed with the first transmission in June of 1947. Soviet security, closely monitoring wave-lengths and possible radio contacts were able to intercept it and reacted with formidable vigour. (Full article here: Estonian Life No. 1 2019)
Laas Leivat, Toronto
